CNNP teas and State factory teas

[.m.]

What seems to be a vintage tin of Yingde black tea. Sprouting branding but from the Guangdong tea branch. As far as I am aware, this is the only actual category of tea created out of the laogai forced-labor tea farm system. Normally these laogai teas seem to just be made in whatever the local regional style of tea is... Yingde was meant sort of like Yunnan black tea to compete on the global market with British-style black teas. A lot of the loose Yingde black seems to have ended up in Poland, with the tea fannings meeting the original goal more effectively. I wish I knew more about this style of tea.

The Sprouting Brand has some nice packaging. I'm still waiting to see the advertisements for their Jasmine Tea.

[mbanu]

The Sprouting Brand has some nice packaging. I'm still waiting to see the advertisements for their Jasmine Tea.

Sprouting is a mystery to me -- used by multiple provinces for multiple types of tea in multiple forms. I'm sure there is a pattern hiding in there somewhere, though.

[mbanu]

Some Guangdong-pressed pu'er from a 1988 ad. Are Guangdong-pressed cakes allowed anymore? I heard that they changed the regulations around so that the Guangdong factory that had been making these couldn't anymore, but Guangdong-produced pu'er teabags are clearly still available... does anyone know more about this?

[mbanu]

Some Guangdong-pressed pu'er from a 1988 ad. Are Guangdong-pressed cakes allowed anymore? I heard that they changed the regulations around so that the Guangdong factory that had been making these couldn't anymore, but Guangdong-produced pu'er teabags are clearly still available... does anyone know more about this?

Modern Golden Sail suggests that they just remove any references to pu'er from the packaging, just calling it "Guang Yun Bing". However, they also sell pu'er labeled as pu'er -- is this Yunnan-pressed stuff that is then repackaged in Guangdong, or is something else going on?

[mbanu]

is something else going on?

I will admit, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding some of their branding choices...

[mbanu]

Sprouting is a mystery to me -- used by multiple provinces for multiple types of tea in multiple forms. I'm sure there is a pattern hiding in there somewhere, though.

In one case, the Sprouting packaging outlived the Sprouting brand, with this modern Golden Sail version of lichee teabags.

[mbanu]

is something else going on?

I will admit, I'm having a bit of trouble understanding some of their branding choices...

I thought maybe this was a Canadian export, but...

[mbanu]

Some Guangdong-pressed pu'er from a 1988 ad. Are Guangdong-pressed cakes allowed anymore? I heard that they changed the regulations around so that the Guangdong factory that had been making these couldn't anymore, but Guangdong-produced pu'er teabags are clearly still available... does anyone know more about this?

Modern Golden Sail suggests that they just remove any references to pu'er from the packaging, just calling it "Guang Yun Bing". However, they also sell pu'er labeled as pu'er -- is this Yunnan-pressed stuff that is then repackaged in Guangdong, or is something else going on?

The labeling also extends to the bulk packaging, as seen from this glimpse inside a Golden Sail warehouse. (I'm not quite sure which pu'er tea GL 21 is, though.)

[.m.]

Some Guangdong-pressed pu'er from a 1988 ad. Are Guangdong-pressed cakes allowed anymore? I heard that they changed the regulations around so that the Guangdong factory that had been making these couldn't anymore, but Guangdong-produced pu'er teabags are clearly still available... does anyone know more about this?

Modern Golden Sail suggests that they just remove any references to pu'er from the packaging, just calling it "Guang Yun Bing". However, they also sell pu'er labeled as pu'er -- is this Yunnan-pressed stuff that is then repackaged in Guangdong, or is something else going on?

Not sure about the legislation surrounding puerh pressing, but if it's labeled pu'er at least the raw material needs to come from Yunnan. The Guang Yun Bing is likely a Guangdong material: puerh-type tea that is not allowed to be labeled as "puerh". From what i heard, originally it was a mix of Yunnan and Guangdong material, thus "Guang Yun" (reportedly named as such by Deng Shi Hai in his 90's book on puerh), but sometimes in the early 70's switched to fully Guangdong material.

[mbanu]

In one case, at least, it was indeed from a less popular State factory! The doubletriple-camels is actually a brand of the Hunan Tea Branch for their green teas. (Monkey King being their brand for jasmine teas and some black teas, and Hundred Dragons seeming to be originally a black tea brand but now used for a few different things.) If Zhejiang developed the Camel brand in 1990, when did Hunan develop the "Safinet e' Sahraa" brand?

I'm not sure if they released it in the past, but even Golden Sail in Guangdong does chunmee! Not sure if my French is right, but this looks like it must be a repro of an older type of packaging, as I think I see an "animal by-products"... I wonder, is this tea local to Guangdong or a repackage?

*Edit: It seems like they offer it with both "animal by-products" and without, unless Guangdong chunmee is getting counterfeits now. Or maybe they made the switch later? I see the catalog photo says "Best before December 31, 2008"... Also, the "G9371" on the side is the grade -- 9371 is the grade below 41022 on the chunmee scale, while GT01 is the catalog number. (Does anyone have any idea what "Produce for FADCO" might mean?)

[mbanu]

A 1988 ad for lu'an gua pian green tea from Anhui, and a modern version from... Golden Sail? I think that the pattern emerging is that while with many of the tea branches you could expect that the tea it packed was from the region it was in, that this changed over time. I suspect that the Guangdong tea branch was probably an early leader in this, being so close to the export hub in Hong Kong.

The former Anhui Tea Branch seems to sell this tea under their "Greeting Pine" brand.

(Also, has anyone seen that teapot style before?)

[mbanu]

A modern tin of Keemun tea from "Shanghai Tiantan International Trading" which is the name the Shanghai Tea Branch started using after de-nationalization, I think. Interesting in that it does not seem to use any local brands, just a Zhongcha on the top. I still haven't figured out the pattern for who uses which brand when... In the 1957 ad it looks like they were still using square tins for Keemun, when did they switch to cylindrical ones, I wonder?

A red-label Keemun tea in a cylindrical tin with Tea Branch branding. If my guess from a previous post is correct, this would be a different grade of Keemun than the yellow-label.

The former Anhui Tea Branch seems to sell this tea under their "Greeting Pine" brand.

Greeting Pine seems like it was originally invented in 1983 for their Keemun brand. An ad from 1988 with an old-style Keemun tin in the back and no Greeting Pine branding in sight, and then a few more that I think were made at the same time as each other, with Greeting Pine logos. I wish I could get a date on the other ads, as it looks like that's around the time the tin design started changing from the old double-lid version to the Lapsang Souchong plug lid type tin.

Interestingly, at that time the Anhui Tea Branch also used the Sprouting brand -- it really was used everywhere.

Also pictured is what I think is the modern packaging, on an organic Keemun.

[mbanu]

In two cases! This is the Lucky Bird brand, which was developed in 1997 for the Anhui Tea Branch to use for exporting green teas. (They privatized in 2001, which is why the mark on the top is the weird look-a-like Zhongcha.)

Also a glimpse inside a packing facility circa 2008, filling cigarette-pack sized Lucky Birds (most likely for export to West Africa).

[mbanu]

Is there such a thing as counterfeit gunpowder green tea? It really does seem hard to believe, given how much gunpowder the state factories seem to produce, but then there are these odd look-a-like brands... Maybe from a less popular State factory?

Green tea section. Interestingly there is no Sprouting brand gunpowder -- was this discontinued before 2020, or is trying to reach the gunpowder market with Fujian tea a new thing? Also, no mention of the big players like Camel or Temple of Heaven, although that two-camels-and-a-palm mark looks suspiciously like a copycat...

In one case, at least, it was indeed from a less popular State factory! The doubletriple-camels is actually a brand of the Hunan Tea Branch for their green teas. (Monkey King being their brand for jasmine teas and some black teas, and Hundred Dragons seeming to be originally a black tea brand but now used for a few different things.) If Zhejiang developed the Camel brand in 1990, when did Hunan develop the "Safinet e' Sahraa" brand?

An update! It looks like Safinet e' Sahraa brand started in 2000. Also, a packet along with an Algerian knock-off brand, "Triple Camel". I was tempted to post this in the West African green tea culture thread, but figured it is best to keep the State factory tea-facts together.

[mbanu]

Maybe it is only me asking, but I think I've found an answer to the question, "With so much privatization of former State tea factories, which ones are still a part of ChinaTea?" This was from a financial report, and seems to be the list of 12 factories connected to ChinaTea that have Shengchan codes, meaning these are where the tea would be processed.

List seems to be:

Fujian

1. Fuxing Tea Factory
2. Jianou Tea Factory
3. Songxi Tea Factory
4. Quanzhou Tea Factory
9. Xiamen Tea Factory
11. Jianou Luyuan Tea Factory

Hunan

5. Hunan Tea Factory
6. Anhua Tea Factory

Yunnan

7. Menghai Tea Factory (This being ChinaTea Menghai, not Taetea)
12. Fengqing Tea Factory

Guangxi

8. Wuzhou Tea Factory

Guangdong

10. Shantou Tea Factory

So I guess that Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui are no longer part of ChinaTea?