China grows a taste for UK tea blends

Boxes of tea are transported down the production line.[Photo provided to China Daily]

As a result, British tea companies selling premium blends have seen their exports to China skyrocket.

In the first five months of 2016, British tea exports to Hong Kong nearly tripled in value compared with two years earlier. They doubled to the rest of the Chinese mainland, data from the UK HM Revenue & Customs show.

Shipments to China only make up 7 percent of total British tea exports, but the share is growing quickly.

Some of these deliveries come from Harrogate, a small town in northern England that is the home to Taylors of Harrogate. The fourth generation family-owned company has been selling tea to China for more than 10 years. In the past three years, sales have more than doubled every year, albeit from a low starting point.

"China produces nearly one half of the world's tea, so on the surface you would think that there is a limited opportunity for Taylors of Harrogate," says Matthew Davies, head of International Sales at Taylors of Harrogate.

Tea originates from China and has been a central part of the culture for thousands of years. In Britain, tea was not introduced until the 17th century, though it has since become a staple and adapted to local tastes.

Every day thousands of tea samples arrive in Harrogate for the tasters to evaluate.

The business essentially relies on their taste buds to find the right mix of leaves to maintain the signature flavors that the company bases its reputation on. Chinese customers mainly buy Taylor of Harrogate's Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea.

"Our approach was to invest time and resources to understand consumer behavior and we found that there are a number of Chinese consumers with a high level of discretionary income and demand for Taylors of Harrogate brands," says Davies.

The demand is growing mainly among China's wealthy middle class and is fueled by portrayals of British high society featured in TV shows, news stories of the British royal family and classical novels like Jane Austen's, analysts say.