1,000-year-old tea’s fame steadily brewing
Hidden to most people deep in the forests of Laos were many thousand-year-old tea trees, but not to the Lao Gold Champa Tea Company.
In 2003 the company sent an expert team from China and other nations to study the ancient tea trees that had been growing for a millennium in the nation’s north.
The researchers’ findings verified the high quality of tea growing there which prompted the firm to begin commercialising the project.
Without delay, thousands of tea saplings were derived from the ancient tea trees that were found growing in fertile soil without the use of chemicals.
Enthusiastic proponents of the tea claim some people drink it to help reduce the risk of heart attack, blood pressure and other ailments.
Meanwhile, dedicated tea drinkers like its special natural taste that has been a thousand years in the making but its popularity is growing much faster.
Chairman of Lao Gold Champa Tea Company in Vientiane, Dimg Gou Jiang, and company director Zhou Jin Fu began supporting people in the provinces of Xayaboury, Xieng Khuang, Huaphan, Bokeo and Luang Prabang to grow the tea and sell it back to the firm.
This year production has reached 6.4 tonnes from 189 families that have been cultivating some 300 hectares of tea without using any chemicals or insecticides.
Tea processing plants have been built in Xayaboury, Xieng Khuang and Bokeo over the last two years where the best high quality tea from the tender leaves of the trees is packaged.
Chinese experts are assisting farmers with growing techniques and selecting the young leaves in order to get the best quality brew.
About 90 per cent of Gold Champa tea is exported to China as tea drinkers there enjoy its taste and also believe it is good for their health.
The tea is also attracting interest in Vientiane, especially among Chinese traders at the San Jiang Market.
In a recent fillip for the company, their red and gold boxed teas were selected by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as special gifts for the heads of state and government visiting Laos for the 28th and 29th Asean summits and related meetings held earlier this month.
Gold Champa tea was also on sale at the China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) exhibition, held from September 11-14 in Nanning, Quangxi, China.
Exhibitors from 31 countries outside the China-Asean region applied for participation in the expo, of which 65 enterprises from 18 countries were approved, including Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, the United Arab Emirates and other countries along the Belt and Road routes.
This year the number of booths from Laos increased from 80 to 163, featuring food and beverages, tea, handicrafts, textiles and herbal medicines.
The Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Centre provided additional exhibition space of 30,000 sq m, equivalent to 1,200 booths, while the total number of booths increased to 5,800, used by 2,669 exhibiting companies.
Secretary of the Lao Gold Champa Tea Sole Company, Alivanh Vilayseng, told Vientiane Times that the red and black boxed teas sold at the CAEXPO were the same as those presented to heads of state and government visiting Laos for the Asean summits.
Even though it’s priced at $180 a box, there are many people willing to buy Gold Champa Red or Gold Champa Black tea as they are keen to sample this unique Lao product.
Li Jiao pointed out the tea was expensive because the production process was quite sophisticated and painstaking with the tea being of extremely high quality.
