All things Chinese tea, food and culture.
An authentic magazine about all things tea, food and Chinese culture.
Qingming Festival (清明节) is one of the most important traditional Chinese festivals, also known as the Tomb-Sweeping Day. “Qingming” literally means “clear and bright” in Chinese, which is a very suitable name, given its history and meaning. History & Origin This holiday has a history of more than […]
Drinking tea is a part of the daily life in China. It is the etiquette for the host to serve tea for the visitors. Whether you are receiving guests or just relaxing at home, it is important to use the right tea wares. Not only is it polite, but also making the […]
This is a really fun video that explains the history of tea in a nutshell. It covers the full history starting from how Shen Nong discovered tea, how Japanese monks brought the tea to Japan, and how Robert Fortune smuggled tea seeds to India for cultivation.
The video offers a very good summary of tea history with a focus on tea trade and how the rest of the world discovered tea. However, it does leave out some important parts of history, especially when it comes to the history of tea in China itself, such as the Ancient Tea Horse Route and how tea culture flourished during the Tang Dynasty.
Horses have a very high status in traditional Chinese culture. The traditional Chinese character of the word horse (馬, mǎ) looks exactly like a standing horse. In ancient China, there were six main kinds of domestic animals: horse, cattle, sheep, chicken, dog and pig. The […]
Gushu literally means “Ancient Tree” in Chinese. Nowadays, a tea tree over 100 years old is often considered gushu. In the stricter sense, gushu must be more than 300 years old and is growing in the unfrequented mountain forest. Now the question is, apart from […]
Starting a new tea business is always exciting, but how do you come up with a cool name that really represents you. And how do you name your teas with a creative touch? This read article and you’re ready to brainstorm for the best tea shop, brand or tea names.
You’re starting tea business and that’s a lot of reason for excitement. A good start would be to come up with an exciting name as well. Let’s go!
Tea shops and tea rooms are often very personal business that reflect the character of its founders. ‘David’s Tea’ is probably the best example in the tea industry. Also other industries such as jewellery (Tiffany’s), malls (Harrod’s) or fast food (Wendy’s) use personal names as their business name.
So a very simple but perhaps good idea would be to consider your own name. See some examples below:
Other way to come up with a name would be to use the name of your province/state, city or local neighbourhood’s name. This can help you to more visible in search engines and maps. Local consumers can also directly see that you’re relevant for them. There’s nothing better than being able to visit a local store and see/try the teas first, before you buy!
Some examples:
The downside of this approach is that customers who’re geographically far away, might not order from you. So a local name could be more relevant for a local tea shop without eCommerce operations. In contrast, if you plan to ship nation or even worldwide, using local names might not be a good idea.
More and more tea business are launched in recent years, how do you differentiate yourself? Will you focus on premium tea bags with a signature shape or artisan loose leaf tea? Are you going to sell accessories as well? And do you serve tea in a special way? Will you specialise in tea from a specific country? Will you go organic only? Let your unique traits shine through in your business name! Below are some tea shop name ideas:
The fact that a you’re planning to start a tea business, must be because you’re really passionate about it? What are the events that let to this? What’s your tea story? How do you see tea? What’s your tea philosophy? Tea lovers are great listeners, and if they buy tea from you, they are also curious about your tea history. The founder’s of Teavana, for example regarded as drinking tea as to be in ‘heaven’. They therefore combined the words ‘tea’ and ‘havana’ into one word ‘Teavana’.
If you’re excited about the diversity of tea, what could be synonyms of ‘diversity’ that you can use in your tea shop name?
If you’re fascinated by tea fields and the ‘story’ behind farmers how can you use this to your advantage? Maybe ‘The Story of the Leaf’ or ‘The Tea Plantage’ are good names?
If your business is about ‘freshness’, what about call your business ‘The Fresh Tea Leaf’ or ‘Seasonal Tea Treats’? These are al just random brainstorm ideas. I’m sure you can come up with even better names!
Starting a tea shop or tea room isn’t the only way to enter the tea industry. Another way would be to build your own brand and distribute your products through tea retailers and other businesses such as cafe’s, restaurants and hotels.
If you want to both start a tea shop and have your own brand, keep in mind that they don’t have to be the same name. Let’s say your shop is called ‘Tiffany’s Tea’ than you can still give your brand a different name. The benefit of this is that you’ll still be able to find other retailers to also carry your brand. They won’t do that if the tea brand is equal to the name of a direct competitor!
Besides the name for your store or brand, you might also want to name your individual teas. This could make sense. Your consumers might not have a feeling for traditional names of teas, which are often phonetic pronunciations of their name in the origin country’s language. Coming up with funny, fancy, cute or most importantly relevant names can help you sell more of each tea and match them with the right customer.
When picking a good name for a tea, make sure to consider the following:
You may use some fancy colour related words for your tea. Take for example:
It’s really relevant for consumers if the name can tell them something about what they can expect when drinking:
Each country have specific production methods, and each tea region have unique soil that affects a tea’s flavour:
Or in which season is a specific tea the most suitable to drink? Use this as an inspiration for your tea name ideas.
Once you have a good name, make sure to google the tea shop name idea to make sure it’s not already used by someone else.
Whatever name you’re going to pick for you tea business, make sure that the domain name is still available for registration. If you can get the .com domain of your brand or shop name, that would be great. If not, it’s not a disaster. A few years ago, getting the .com domain was a must, but nowadays many businesses register domain extensions such as .net, .org, .us, .io etc. These are also completely fine.
Check also trade mark databases to make sure the name isn’t already registered by someone else. This can help you avoid future legal risks. If nobody is using it, register your own brand name!
Once you’ve registered your domain and trademark, you’re set. A good tea shop or brand name is still nothing, when you don’t have a logo. Find yourself a good logo designer!
I’ve lucky to have received samples of Issaku tea from Kei at JapaneseGlobalTeaIn.com. This is an award-winning Japanese tea that has won last years Global Tea Championship (Steamed tea category)! The leaves appeared dark green, as expected from a Japanese green, and are finely broken. […]
I’m not sure if everyone noticed it, but cheese tea has been a hit among the young generation over the past few years. Here in China, if there’s a long queue on the street or in a mall, it’s most likely in front of a […]
Yunnan Taetea (Dayi) Group is one of the most well-known pu erh tea manufacturers in the world. The group owns several companies including the famous Menghai Tea Factory.
Located in Xishuangbanna in the Southwest Yunnan the factory has been providing quality tea for over 70 years. It has especially become famous for ripe pu erh, and later on also raw pu erh.
Menghai Tea Factory today produces their products mainly under the Taetea (Dayi, 大益) brand, which is without a doubt a brand that every pu erh tea lover is familiar with. The infographic below provides in a nutshell the history of Menghai Tea Factory.
1940 China Tea Company‘s Fohai Experimental Tea Factory (the earliest name of today’s Menghai Tea Factory) was established. Mr. Fan Hejun, a well respected tea expert in the industry became the first director. The factory produced the first batch of Dian Hong, a Yunnan black tea, in the Spring of 1941.
The timing of its foundation wasn’t great. In 1942 all staff of Fohai Tea Factory retreated to Kunming due to the Second World War. The factory ceased production. In 1944, the factory reopened, but immediately closed again.
In 1950 the political situation calmed down. The China Tea Company founded its Yunnan Branch. In 1952, the factory once again resumed production.
However, due to post war consolidation of the tea factories in Yunnan. The products of Fohai Tea Factory now carried the Zhongcha (Chinatea) brand. The red print of Zhongcha was used in the beginning, and was changed to the green print towards the end of the 50s. This brand was related to the Kunming Tea Factory.
In 1954, the Fohai Tea Factory changed its name to Xishuangbanna Tea Factory and started processing compressed tea and green tea.
In 1956, the factory was renamed as the Menghai Tea Factory.
1959 Menghai Tea Factory developed new products including a square pu erh tea bricks and tuochas. 1964 China Tea Company Yunnan Branch renamed as China Tea Import and Export Company Yunnan Branch.
In 1973, the Fohai Tea Factory became one of two factories to produce the first ripe pu erh tea. This type of pu erh was made by applying an innovative wet-piling technique.
1976 China Tea Company Yunnan Branch requested its 3 major tea factories – Kunming, Menghai and Xiaguan to increase the production of ripe pu erh tea. In this year, pu erh tea code system launched. The products of Menghai Tea Factory at that time began with 74 or 75 and ended with 2.
1976-1979 Menghai Tea Factory mainly exported tea in bulk during this period. Only two kinds of compressed tea were exported: 7452 and 7572. 1979 The factory started to export more compressed tea such as 7542, 7532 and 7582.
1981 Menghai Tea Factory began add raw pu erh tea cakes to its collections. The 7572 raw pu erh tea cake was introduced in that year, followed by the 8582 raw pu erh tea cake in 1985. In 1989, it successfully registered the “Taetea” trademark. In 1994, the factory began the production of pu erh tea cakes under this new brand.
1996 Menghai Tea Factory reformed and established as Xishuangbanna Menghai Tea Industry Co., Ltd.
2005 In order to honor and commemorate the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, the company launched the “Caravan to Tibet” cultural event. The large horse caravan of 99 horses with tea packed on their backs, set off from Menghai and traveled along the Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Road. The whole journey completed with success 8 months later.
2007 Yunnan Taetea Group officially registered. The Menghai Tea Factory operated under this newly registered company. In the following year, the Taetea Production Technology was included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection List by the Chinese State Council.
In 2010, the the Academy of Certified Chinese Tea Masters (ACCTM) was established by Taetea Group. It was China’s first professional tea ceremony research institution.
In 2011, the Taetea brand was officially identified as China’s Time-honored Brand by China’s Ministry of Commerce. In the same year, the trademark Taetea was announced as China’s Famous Trademark by Chinese Trade and Industry Administration Trademark Office.
Brewed wet tea leaves (Yedi, 叶底) contains a lot of information about the tea that you’re drinking. Too often they’re simply ignored and discarded. Take a careful look at those wet leaves, and it can tell you more about its quality and how it was […]
