Chinese tea on the Russian market. From Hankou to Moscow.

During the Soviet era, consumers valued Indian and Ceylon tea the most, as it stood out for its quality against the backdrop of their own products and numerous “tea drinks”.

In modern Russia, most people associate tea with its place of production rather weakly. For the mass consumer, a familiar brand on a pack is sometimes more important than where the tea comes from.

Pre-revolutionary Russia also went through two stages of consumption. In the period from the beginning of the triumphant march of tea across European Russia in the 17th century to the 1870s, the only "correct" tea was Chinese tea.

From the 1870s to the 1890s, Indian and Ceylon teas began to enter the Russian market en masse. The situation changed. The new teas were worse in quality than Chinese ones, but significantly cheaper. Surprising? Not at all. Especially if you consider the desire of even poor people at the end of the 19th century to drink tea 2-3 times a day.

The emerging proletariat in Russia also appreciated the simplicity of brewing new teas. After all, coarse black (red - in the Chinese classification) tea could simply be poured with boiling water, which did not spoil the taste of the tea even with prolonged infusion. Indian and Ceylon tea could be brewed with traditionally "hard" Russian water, which was detrimental to the tastes of high-quality "Chinese" teas.

The "Golden Age" of Chinese Tea: 1760 - 1860.

The "golden age" of Chinese tea in Russia was the period from the second half of the 18th to the first half of the 19th century. Up until 1861/1862, almost 100% of tea on the Russian market was Chinese tea. This period also became the era of the formation of multi-million capital and the flourishing of the Russian tea trade.

This was greatly facilitated by the delivery of tea directly from China – this allowed not only to bypass the hands of intermediary traders in Europe, but also to develop the transport infrastructure of the eastern lands of the Russian Empire.
Only after the restrictions on import of teas along the western borders of the Russian Empire were lifted did access to the market of tea from the then new regions of production become possible: India, Java, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). And Japanese tea, which came to Russia in the 19th century in small quantities, has been trying to gain a foothold on the Russian table since the end of the century.

The quality of Chinese tea was not only due to the rich agricultural traditions of its cultivation, which at that time were at least 2,000 years old. After China's defeat in the Second Opium War (1856-1860), capitalist relations penetrated into the interior of the Celestial Empire. Before that, tea was not just a product of agriculture and a way to generate income.

Tea harvesting and processing in China have long been inextricably linked with rituals and religious life. Tea was part of ancient cults, an element that connected the Earthly and the Heavenly. Making good tea, considered a gift from Heaven, was an important spiritual need for many Chinese.

Tea was used to give thanks to the gods, and tea was used as a sacrifice (not only commoners, but also some of the Chinese emperors brought offerings to their ancestors in the form of the best tea of the Celestial Empire).
In China, there are still ideas about the life force "Qi". Good tea was one of those substances that can replenish the deficiency of "Qi" in the human body and/or awaken its dormant "Qi".

Lost.

The "commercialization" of tea, its transformation into a commodity, in China itself in the second half of the 19th century dealt a blow to the entire culture of tea growing. In the pursuit of lower prices and increased volumes, centuries-old traditions were lost.

A number of Chinese factories had their own secrets concerning tea fermentation technologies, selection and preparation of tea raw materials.

There were, for example, special technologies for preparing tea, in which the leaf was brought to a certain degree of fermentation, after which it was placed in special clay vessels, where specific processes took place.

"Must" tea has already been written about earlier. Unlike modern technologies of wet stacking and fermentation of tea in stone barns, when making "must" tea, oxygen access was limited - only what was contained in the tea leaf itself, the space inside the container and what the porous structure of the walls of the closed vessel itself could pass through.

More widespread were technologies in China that used different types of heating, roasting, and even treating tea leaves with boiling water.

Various Chinese farms had their own methods of alternating processes, which allowed many teas to be made special in their final taste qualities.

Sometimes the tea was calcined on metal sheets or stone slabs of varying thickness and degree of heating, and sometimes it was calcined in special tin cylinders.

There were technologies for heating tea in cast iron boilers using specific types of firewood.

A huge number of different methods and techniques for processing tea leaves were subordinated to a single goal - to obtain various unique taste and aromatic properties of the finished product.

Aromatization.

Already in the 18th and 19th centuries, the use of a mass of aromatic substances was widespread in China, which were sprinkled on tea during the fermentation process. The use of various flavorings was indicated, in particular, by the Swiss Karl Meyer, who visited China at the end of the 18th century.

Among the most commonly used natural tea flavorings in China at that time were: amber, pineapple, cloves, galangal, cinnamon, ginger, bay leaf, nutmeg, rosemary, yalappa (a plant of the finch family) and a number of others.

Warm, cold, with milk or without.

It is curious that in 1665 the traveler Neuhof noted that in China some of the wealthiest Chinese added milk to their tea. For the overwhelming majority of Chinese, however, tea consumption was not accompanied by sugar. Milk consumption in China, until the end of the 20th century, was not a common occurrence.

It is interesting to note that Chinese peasants in the 19th century drank tea both warm and cold.

Hankou and Fuchang (Fuzhou).

Despite the significant decline in the culture of tea production in China in the second half of the 19th century, there were also some positive things there.

One of the most striking and positive trends involved Russian tea merchants. After the forced "opening" of China, not only Europeans but also Russian merchants gained access to its domestic market. The admission of Russian merchants was beneficial to the Chinese – it created a counterbalance to European and Japanese influence.

Europeans sought to buy tea cheaply and export it for sale.

Russian merchants realized the need for investment in China. One of the largest tea markets in China was the tea market in the city of Hankou (modern Wuhan). It was Hankou, opened to Europeans by the Treaty of Tientsin (1885), that became one of the centers of Russian investment in tea production in China.

Hankou had a favorable location, which made it possible to transport fabrics from Europe there by river (for sale in China).

Among the large Chinese firms in Hankou were "Hung-sin-wo", "Hi-tan-chan", "Yan-wo-chan". However, their main business was not connected with Russia - they bought tea for resale in Shanghai.

Russian contribution to the economy of Hankou.

For Russia, Hankou was the most important point for purchasing teas in the late 19th century. It was the center where tea was transported by river from a number of Chinese regions. Tea was transported here from the provinces of Hubei, Hunan, Jianxi and, partially, tea from the province of Anhui.

By the end of the 1890s, tea purchases in Hankou were made by more than 27 large firms. There were also many small players in the local tea market.

At the same time, by 1890, more than 700 Chinese tea factories were engaged in the production of tea for sale in Hankou! And these are only the factories of the four main supplier provinces (Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui), which supplied the bulk of the tea.

Hankou was also accessible to large-tonnage ships from the sea. By 1890, Hankou was far ahead of all other tea export markets in China in terms of tea trade turnover.

The value of tea exported from Hankou by the end of the 1880s accounted for about 40% of China's total tea exports.

Among the major Russian players in the Hankou tea market were the buyers “A. Gubkin’s Successor A. Kuznetsov & Co.”, “Pyatkov, Molchanov & Co.”, “Tokmakov, Molotkov & Co.”, “S.I. Speshilov & Co.”, “A.L. Rodinov & Co.”, “Brothers K. and S. Popov,” and a number of others.

Russian merchants owned the production of brick black and brick teas. These teas, unlike green brick teas, were produced only by Russian enterprises and the products were intended for Russia.
Black brick tea was exported to the Asian part of the Russian Empire and, in smaller quantities, to European Russia.

Green brick tea was produced by both Russian and Chinese companies and supplied to the Mongols and the peoples of Eastern Siberia. In Russia, large consumers of green brick tea were not only Eastern Siberia, but also Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the southern Volga region.

"Chocolate" bars of black tea from Hankou and Fuzhou.

The production of black brick and tile tea took place at Russian factories in Hankou and Fuzhou (the Russians called it "Fuchang"). These were the main centers for the production of such products. In small quantities, the production of black brick and tile tea was also carried out at the Russian-controlled production facility in the Chinese port city of Qiuqiang.

In Hankou, Russian factories also produced regular brick green tea. Attempts by Russian entrepreneurs to develop the production of green brick teas in Fuzhou (in the seasons of 1880, 1881 and 1882) ended in failure: the green brick tea produced there turned out to be of poor quality and more expensive than that already produced in Russian factories in Hankou.

Chinese green brick tea production facilities were scattered throughout Hubei Province.

Russian entrepreneurs not only organized production in Hankou and Fuzhou. The Russian contribution was the use of hydraulic presses in factories. High-pressure presses allowed excess moisture to be removed from the tiles during pressing, which had a positive effect on the shelf life of black tea tiles and their resistance to environmental influences.

The pressure of the factory hydraulic press on a 1/4 pound tea tile (tile = ~102.5 grams) reached 3,600 poods (pressure = ~59,688 kilograms). Under such colossal pressure, the cell mass inside the tile was crushed, releasing the substances contained in the tea leaf. Due to the high pressure, even those substances (including alkaloids) that remained in the tea leaf when brewing tea in the classical way were released.

An additional feature of hydraulic presses was the ability to squeeze out tiles of the desired shape and even place various images and inscriptions on them. One of the most popular forms of pressing tea in Hankou and Fuzhou was a form that contemporaries colloquially called a "chocolate bar" - the slab was divided into segments that allowed small pieces to be broken off for boiling in a cauldron or subsequent cutting with a knife. In addition, the ability to divide a large slab into almost equal parts was beneficial to small traders in the retail sale of tea.

Brick tea quickly became popular among poor Russians even in European Russia – it was made from the seedings of high-quality tea, and pressing with a hydraulic press kept the tea from spoiling during delivery to Russia.

9 Russian factories in Hankou.

In modern Wuhan, they remember that the industry of their city was created largely thanks to Russian entrepreneurs.

At the same time, a number of Chinese publications indicate that there were 3 or 4 factories in Hankou. In reality, as of the late 1890s, there were 9 (nine) tea factories owned by Russian entrepreneurs operating in Hankou alone. And this does not include factories owned by Russian merchants that operated in Fuzhou and the port of Qiuqiang.

The production volumes of Russian tile and brick factories amazed even contemporaries. Hankou produced about 100,000 boxes (!) of products.

Fuzhou and Qiuqiang together produced another 70,000 cases of tea stoves and bricks.

Regular deliveries of tea from Russian factories to Hankou began in 1880.

By 1890, the production volumes of brick and tile tea at Russian factories in Hankou, Fuzhou and Qiuqiang had reached a combined total of 177,000 – 190,000 boxes of tea!

Another figure is even more striking. The total number of tea tiles (or "boards" as they were sometimes called) delivered to Russia in 1890 was more than 1,000,000 pieces (!). The reason for such a colossal figure was not surprising: a box of tea tiles usually contained 64, 56 or 72 tea tiles.

Delivery of brick and tile teas from Hankou to Russia.

Traditionally, the delivery of green brick tea from Hankou and Fuzhou passed through Mongolia. Green brick tea tolerated the dry local climate with high temperature fluctuations well, moreover, this contributed to its proper maturation. Pressed bricks of green tea from Hankou had slightly increased humidity, which disappeared during transportation through Mongolia.

When Russian explorers discovered the possibility of using the Amur River for shipping, an attempt was made to ship brick tea along it. The result was negative. Green brick tea did not tolerate the humid shipping along the Amur well, did not ripen properly, and became moldy.

In the 21st century, tea factories are beginning to be restored in Hankou. Local Chinese authorities are restoring the history of tea production. Who knows, perhaps the day is not far off when Russian consumers will be able to see the famous Hubei tea tiles in European Russia.

Author: Sokolov Ivan