Tea and Coffee Expo in Shanghai

The recent tea and coffee expo for buyers and sellers was held at the Shanghai Mart Expo Center from October 24-27, 2014. Over 50 exhibitors from the tea and coffee suppliers of China, Taiwan, South Korea and Sri Lanka were there.

Though it was called tea and coffee expo, 98 percent of the exhibitors were representatives from tea producers from China. The exhibitors and attendees were Chinese speakers. It was catered to buyers looking to sample a variety of tea from Yunnan, Fujian, Guangdong and Sri Lanka either for their own consumption or for retail business.

If you were like me, you would feel overwhelmed just looking at the variety of teas represented on the two floors of the exhibition halls. Tea comes in all colors, different packaging materials, different sizes and prices.

Now I look at tea drinking differently. I’ve been educated! Drinking tea is like drinking wine. Tea drinking ceremony requires different tools and furniture. Look at some of these found at the expo:

I discovered and now like two tea types. The orange Pu Erh Tea from Guangzhou Shi Ji Ming Tea Company and tea from the FengqingHong black tea from the wild tea trees of Yunnan mountains.

The Orange Pu Erh Tea that I tried was aged for three years, then wrapped inside a whole mandarin orange peel for another three years. The tea had a combination of Pu Erh tea fragrance and citrus fragrance from the mandarin orange peel. When the tea master brewed the tea, he used the tealeaves and bits of the orange peel together giving it a citrusy tasting tea.

We bought four in a specially packaged tin can for 124 Yuan, a 10 percent discount from the original price. You can purchase the tea on Amazon.com (Note: This is an affiliate link. I've not tried or bought any tea from this tea company online. Do your own research before purchasing.)

In my opinion the ladies from the FengqingHong Yunnan were the best representation of Chinese tea. They were not pushy, hospitable and taught me how to say ‘thank you’ in a teahouse. Tap my index finger and middle finger on the table twice to signify my gratitude and appreciation for the tea. They invited me to the tea plantation for next spring's tea harvest in Yunnan.

FengqingHong is from the Lincang Prefecture in Yunnan province. The plantation is eight hours from Kunming, the biggest city in Yunnan and close to the border of China and Myanmar. “Hong” means red. The Chinese refers to black tea as red tea, thus FengqingHong produces the famous dian hong tea – Yunnan ‘red’ tea. (black tea).

The tea plantations have tea trees over 1,200 years old. I tasted tea from a 1,000-year-old tree. Do I know the difference? To be honest, not at all.

All the coffee representatives were not from China except one local Shanghainese who represented Grower’s Cup. Lillian Zhang discovered Grower’s Cup in a Japan food fair in March this year. After she left her job, she went Japan in search of business ideas and inspiration. When she saw Grower’s Cup she knew she had to contact the owners in Denmark. Long story short, she is now the sole distributor of Grower’s Cup in China selling the coffee through Taobao and WeChat.

Each pouch was 28 Yuan and when I purchase two I received a free bamboo cup.  I thought I found my product! Alas too late, there is a huge representation in the US and on Amazon where you could get four for $13.99.

The other representatives were from Café Ropla of South Korea and Formosa Specialty Coffee /Coffee Dao of Taiwan. Café Ropla has an interesting concept where every café roast their coffee in-house through an innovative coffee roaster. They had 11 coffee varieties. You can choose either single roast or blended roast. Customers could choose 4 types of beans to make 7920 variations of blended coffee.

As a coffee drinker I really like this unique concept. I choose what I want and the barista will blend the coffee in front of me. This is real customized coffee. Unlike free tea in every booth, Cafe Ropla charged 10 Yuan to sample their coffee.

Tea is the preferred beverage in Shanghai. While coffee is viewed as fashionable, related to the western culture and now being embraced by the younger generation of Shanghai.

Note: The Grower's Cup and Orange Pu Erh are affiliate links which means if you purchase through the links I'll be compensated with a small commission. Thank you.