Starbucks' second Teavana teahouse is located in Seattle. Americans also drink tea.

Song Junhong, head of Zhejiang Tianzhi Ecological Technology Co., Ltd., never thought that the American customers who asked him for a fixed amount of tea every year suddenly began to ask him for a lot of goods this year. It was not until these two days that Song Junhong saw the news that "Starbucks (Special Reading) (expanded location Information) opened the first tea bar in the United States" on the Internet, he suddenly realized that Americans fell in love with tea. The statistics of Hangzhou Customs also confirm this point: Zhejiang's tea exports to developed countries in Europe and the United States have increased significantly this year, and the United States, Spain and other countries have even more than doubled.

Starbucks opens a tea shop

"A sip of tea spans hundreds of kilometers and centuries." This is a sentence engraved on the TeavanaFineTeas+TeaBar table at Starbucks' first tea bar. Opening in Manhattan, New York, the aristocratic Upper East side described in American TV shows, means a lot to Starbucks. This is Starbucks' first coffee-free tea shop in the world. In the words of Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the spirit is commendable. Next, another Teavana tea bar in Seattle will open on the eve of Thanksgiving.

The tea bar is divided into three areas: tea, tea sets and tea drinks. The menu of tea is simply divided into hot drinks and cold drinks. Coffee shops that are different from Starbucks use glasses and dark teapots. In the tea sales area, Longjing tea from Zhejiang, China is placed. The tea sells for $14.98 for two ounces on Teavana's website.

The salesperson might sell this tea like this: it is the top 10 tea in China. It smells round and tastes like chestnuts. The hometown of this tea is in Hangzhou.

Starbucks' interest in tea has grown since it acquired the Tazo brand, a tea retailer, in 1999. At the end of last year, Starbucks bought Teavana, a tea retail brand that has opened more than 300 tea stores in the United States. Schultz says 1000 similar tea bars will be opened in the next five years.

Although Americans drink far more coffee than tea, their preference for tea is growing day by day. According to the American Tea Association (TeaAssociationUSA), the number of Americans interested in tea has increased by 16% in the past five years. In the 10 years from 2003 to 2013, American consumption of coffee grew by only 1.9%, while average consumption of tea increased by 22.5%.

Zhejiang opened a shop in Los Angeles to recommend tea.

When foreigners fall in love with tea, it must be those tea companies that are ready to snicker. Song Junhong said that the company's overall tea exports have increased by about 15% this year. Among them, the export of high-grade tea has increased significantly. "coupled with the orders currently received, the export of high-grade tea for the whole year has increased by about 35%. Organic tea alone has done business of more than 30 million yuan this year."

Song Junhong said that in recent years, Tianji has insisted on spending a lot of money to attend various food fairs in the United States, but the increase in exports has been relatively small, and the proportion of exports to the United States is very small. A gift from the United States, the volume of each of the past two years has been relatively stable, has been at more than 50 tons. Unexpectedly, as long as Tianzhi can come up with this product that meets the standard, American customers will want to change the normal situation this year. This year, Tianzi has a total surplus of only more than 60 tons of organic green tea for this grade, all of which have been acquired by American customers. Song Junhong later learned that the American customer was a tea supplier of Starbucks (Special Reading) (expand location information), and his increased demand was mainly due to the increase in Starbucks purchases.

In addition, large multinational companies such as Master Kang, Uni-President and Nestle are all God-given customers. Song Junhong said that unlike a large bag of low-grade tea exported to Asia, Africa and Latin America, their company mainly deals with medium-and high-grade customers such as multinational manufacturers, five-star hotels and airports, and the most expensive products are sold at a unit price of more than 450 US dollars per kilogram. The average price of export tea in large packages is only two or three dollars per kilogram.

Luo Liewan, head of the Tea Section of the Zhejiang Agricultural Department, said that in places such as Shaoxing and Jinhua in the province, more and more companies have begun to innovate in the fine and deep processing of tea, and some are also used for export. "our Zhejiang Provincial Fine Agriculture Exhibition Center in Los Angeles, USA has more than 300 high-quality agricultural products, with tea accounting for the majority, as well as many high value-added tea derivatives." Luo Liewan said.

Increased demand from Europe and the United States is good for Zhejiang tea export

Zhejiang is the main area of domestic tea export, and the tea export volume and export amount account for more than half of the national total. The increase in demand for tea in European and American markets has directly brought benefits to the tea exports of Zhejiang.

According to Hangzhou Customs statistics, from January to October this year, Zhejiang exported 138700 tons of tea, with a value of US $467 million, an increase of 7.31% and 16.8% respectively over the same period last year. The Asian market showed a decline, while the European and American markets increased significantly, driving the overall volume and price rise. Among them, exports to the United States and Spain increased by 1.8 times and 1.37 times respectively, while developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Belgium also experienced double-digit growth.

Us tea imports have soared, which also provides more opportunities for beverage companies to explore this market segment. As the world's largest tea brand by sales, Lipton is expanding its tea category and breaking through the tea market.

However, Luo Liewan also said that low-end tea accounts for a large proportion of Zhejiang's tea exports. If coffee is associated with Starbucks, then when it comes to Longjing tea, I am afraid there is no corresponding brand in the minds of foreigners. Luo Liewan said: "Zhejiang's export varieties are mainly plum tea and bamboo tea, and high-end tea exports are still in continuous operation. Zhejiang tea enterprises should not only make diversified tea products, intervene in the production of terminal products, but also make centralized recommendations together."