In an earlier post, we talked about how Dafo Longjing is more than just a knock-off of the more famous Xihu Longjing but a winner in its own right. This time, we will look at the county of Xinchang, home of Dafo Longjing.
Dafo Longjing is so named after Dafo Temple in Xinchang, a brand name that was only established in the 1980s. Prior to that, Xinchang had been a reputable tea producing region for a while, notably for its production of the commercial offering ‘Zhu Cha’ or better known abroad as ‘Gunpowder’.
Despite having its products exported globally, Xinchang had fallen on hard times with the failures of programs such as the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the Cultural Revolution. This was further compounded by natural disasters, logging and ensuing soil erosion. So much so that the average income of the more than 90% agricultural based population is a paltry 230 RMB in 1983.
With the economic reforms of the 80s, the farmers of Xinchang focused on 5 main crops namely tea, tobacco, mulberry, bamboo and fruit with the foremost being tea. By 1999, the average income per capita increased by 1600% to 3912 RMB, placing it in relative comfort.
How did it get there?
It all starts with a focus on quality.
From Commercial Grade to Quality Teas
3 local tea researchers- Cheng Zhaomin, Ling Guanghan and Shi Guanzhi were saddened by Xinchang’s predicament and surmised a revolution was needed. They broke away from the Gunpowder mold and understudied at a factory in WanghaiGang to see how quality tea was produced.
Turned out the researched and studies was the easy part. It took a lot of hard work to convince the local farmers to abandon their comfort zone. But this trio was relentless in their commitment, inviting out-of-town experts each year to teach the local farmers the finer points of producing this new type of tea while supplementing it with their formidable research.
It was by no means easy, instead of relying on the tried and tested baking methods, farmers had to learn wok-roasting, shaping and drying by hand, a 10 step process that truly tested the mettle of the producers.
While they had met plenty of resistance, they persevered and eventually the results were irrefutable. By 1990, the average value of these teas was 10 times that of Gunpowder, providing probably the strongest argument for making the paradigm shift.
The Turning Tide
With concrete evidence to back them up, things turned around. In the 90s, from research to tea competitions, it became clear that wok-roasted quality tea was the way Xinchang was moving forward.
In 1995 and 1997, Dafo Longjing was honored at 2 distinguished local competitions, establishing a brand name that was gaining national repute.
In 2000, production of quality teas such as Dafo Longjing, Xinchang Xueya and Wanghai Yunjian comprised more than twice the production of Gunpowder, a stark contrast from a mere 2 decades ago when it was virtually entirely Gunpowder.
So the next time you look at Dafo Longjing, don’t dismiss it as a mere Xihu Longjing pretender. You would be undermining the efforts and hard work of Cheng Zhaomin, Ling Guanghan and Shi Guanzhi.
Dafo Longjing is one of our featured teas from 14th May to 11th June 2013. You can read more about it and other featured teas here.
See Dafo Longjing in stores today.
Note:
Most of the information was obtained from 神州问茶 by 林治 published by人民文学出版社 in Nov 2002 which features intriguing narratives of over 20 tea producing counties all over China.
