China's ancient brew given high-tech overhaul

Inside the Bama Tea sightseeing factory in Anxi, East China's Fujian province, the future of Chinese tea production unfolds behind pristine glass. Visitors walking along an elevated corridor watch as fresh Tieguanyin tea leaves tumble through automated production lines. From fixation and rolling to drying and packaging, the leaves move seamlessly across the smart facility without ever touching human hands or the factory floor.

Just a short walk away from the whisper of high-tech machinery, the rhythm changes. Visitors try their hand at the traditional shaking process, experiencing the intricacy behind the national intangible cultural heritage that is the production of Tieguanyin — a classic oolong tea native to Anxi county and known for its strong, lingering orchid fragrance.

Selected in January as one of Fujian's first cultural tourism destinations to experience local life, the facility combines a tea garden, a smart production line and tea-making workshops in a single immersive space. It offers a complete visitor journey, consisting of watching smart manufacturing, learning tea history, hands-on experience, tasting and souvenir shopping. Beyond its tourist appeal, the sightseeing factory offers a vivid window into how one of China's largest tea companies is transforming itself.

When Beijing issued its tea industry guidelines in February, the framework called for brand leadership, technological empowerment, business model integration and market expansion. Bama Tea is already putting these directives into practice.

"Industry competition has entered an era of ecological co-construction," Bama Tea's Chairman Wang Wenli said at the company's mid-year strategy conference in August, citing the guidelines as a catalyst for the shift.

"We will connect core production regions, research institutions, industry partners and consumers to move the tea industry from 'everyone goes their own way' to 'coexistence and co-prosperity'."

This strategy is yielding tangible financial momentum. Following its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2025, Bama Tea reported strong performance for the first half of this year. Revenue reached 1.4 billion yuan ($195 million), up 31.8 percent year-on-year, while net profit jumped 64.8 percent to 198 million yuan. Industry experts noted that these numbers suggest scale and unified branding can effectively translate into bottom-line growth.

Wang Qing, president of the China Tea Marketing Association, highlighted that this growth is particularly rare given the broader pressure on the national raw tea leaf market. He said that Bama has moved beyond traditional product and retail channel competition to build an intelligent, digital and international modern tea industry system, providing a clear blueprint for sector-wide upgrading. Today, Bama operates more than 3,840 offline stores across China.

The company's industrial expansion strategy has consistently targeted China's premier tea production hubs. Its sixth-generation factory in Anxi pioneered full automation for Tieguanyin processing, while its seventh-generation line in Wuyishan — a region famous for Wuyi rock tea — has continually elevated modern manufacturing capabilities.

In August, Bama signed an agreement to build its ninth-generation smart production line in Menghai, Southwest China's Yunnan province, a county widely recognized as "China's No 1 Pu'er tea county". The nine-hectare complex will house research and development, quality inspection and warehousing, with construction scheduled to begin by the end of 2026.

The Menghai project completes Bama's super-factory network across China's four major production regions for Tieguanyin, rock tea, black tea and Pu'er. The announcement came just days after the company unveiled its "Six Super Projects" strategy, covering tea gardens, manufacturing, R&D, products, retail stores and branding to signal a full industrial chain upgrade.

At the same time, Bama is executing a strategic pivot toward younger consumers by positioning itself further up the supply chain.

"Young consumers are discovering tea differently," Wang Wenli said. "They don't start with a pot of tea. They start with a cup from a tea shop or a bottle from a convenience store. We need to be where they are."

In May 2025, the company established Chayuan Technology, a subsidiary focused on bulk tea raw material trading, supplying customized tea bases to ready-to-drink bottle makers and freshly made tea beverage brands.

In January 2026, Bama signed a three-year framework agreement with Chayuan Technology, setting annual transaction caps at 27 million yuan for 2026, 55 million yuan for 2027, and 87 million yuan for 2028. Wang publicly identified expanding into raw materials for new tea beverages as one of the company's three primary growth drivers.

However, challenges remain. In its latest financial report, Bama noted that revenue growth from offline channels was primarily driven by increased wholesale purchases from franchisees, which does not necessarily mean those products have reached end consumers yet. Furthermore, the B2B ingredient supply channel has yet to become a significant profit contributor, leaving the traditional core tea business as the primary growth engine.

Wang remains focused on the broader vision. "To reach the top of the world, you must first lay a solid foundation. A towering building rises from a strong base, a global leader emerges from a full industrial chain," he said.