Tea Blog

The reports of tea’s death – if we may paraphrase one of Mark Twain’s best known witticisms – have been greatly exaggerated. They always are. Tea has been with us a very long time, is still said to be the number one hot beverage in the entire world and it isn’t likely to go anywhere soon.

Which doesn’t stop some commentators from getting themselves all excited from time to time about the threat to tea, most often from that other hot drink. Here’s an article from an Asian press source that does exactly that. The article notes that coffee production is on the upswing in none other than the fabled Puer region of Yunnan province, an area that is well known for its Puer and Yunnan black teas, among others.

According to one Chinese source, coffee consumption has increased in this tea-centric land by about 15 to 20 percent per annually in recent years. On the other hand, it’s important to note that in 2009 the Chinese still consumed about 200 thousand tons of tea, or about four times the amount of coffee that they drank. Average per capita coffee consumption in China is still only about 1 percent of that in more java loving Western countries.

Not that coffee drinking isn’t likely to increase in China. Starbucks, which is among the companies spurring tea production in the Puer region, intends to make China it’s second largest market in upcoming years.

For more on the theme of tea under siege – whether imagined or true – be sure to take a look at our previous article, Saving British Tea. For some thoughts from a tea lover who suggests that coffee and tea drinkers just need to get along, look here. Last up, tea lovers will surely rejoice at the hot beverage the coffee barista profiled in this article chooses whenever she’s not on duty.

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