Tea Can Be Brewed into Alcohol Too? Songyang Tea Master Pan Zhangjun Tells You

"This is the newly successfully developed 'tea liquor,' made by fermenting tea leaves. It has the mellow richness of alcohol while retaining the fresh fragrance of tea." Walking into the factory of Zhejiang Biyuntian Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. on Xiping Street in Songyang County, a mellow aroma that seems like alcohol yet not alcohol, like tea yet not tea, greets the nose. General Manager Pan Zhangjun told reporters that "tea liquor" is the first of its kind in the country and is currently applying for a national patent.

Developing "tea liquor" was just Pan Zhangjun's latest attempt. Fourteen years ago, the tea brand "Biyuntian," which he founded, had already become well-known domestically, and its product series won many honors. In 2005, "Biyuntian Tea" won the Gold Award at the Famous Tea Evaluation of the 3rd China Jinan International Tea Expo and the Special Prize at the 6th "China Cup"; in 2007, "Bailong Tea" won the Special Prize at the 8th "China Cup" National Famous and Premium Tea Evaluation; "Yinhou White Tea" was designated by the Administrative Department of the General Office of the State Council as the designated tea for State Council meetings and foreign affairs receptions...

As a "Songyang tea master," Pan Zhangjun is now a tea expert of some renown in Songyang County. But few people know that he is an entrepreneur who "entered the trade midway."

Pan Zhangjun left school and entered society at the age of 19, initially working as an ordinary electrical technician. Because he often helped tea farmers repair electrical facilities in emergencies, he gradually began to realize the broad prospects of Songyang's tea industry. In 2002, Pan Zhangjun made up his mind to change careers, founding a tea processing factory in his hometown of Zhangxi Township, contracting tea hills, and building his first tea base. "Entrepreneurship is like running a grueling marathon. You must persevere toward your goal and never give up halfway no matter how hard it gets," Pan Zhangjun said.

Building the first tea base was not smooth sailing. With no experience in tea cultivation, he faced a dual test of technology and climate. A severe drought caused all the tea trees in the garden to wither: "At that time, I urgently invested 200,000 yuan and irrigated continuously for a week before I managed to save this batch of tea trees."

After learning from experience, Pan Zhangjun decided to start learning from scratch. He actively participated in various skills training and traveled to tea-specialized villages in various places to learn from masters. The following year, he once again contracted a piece of high-mountain land in Zhuyuan Township and built his second tea base on the entrepreneurial path.

"That was a barren mountain with no road, no electricity, and no water. There was only a shabby little wooden hut. Quite a few people had planted tea there before, and all of them ended up failing." Pan Zhangjun's friends all advised him to give up at the time, but he believed this was the best training ground to test his "practical skills" - to solve the transportation problem, he set up a cableway about 3 kilometers long suspended in the air, connecting the mountaintop and the foot of the mountain; to solve the problem of no electricity, he, with his background as an electrician, fully leveraged his expertise, erected utility poles, and installed 3.6 kilometers of lines, finally supplying electricity to the mountaintop.

"At that time, in order to manage the tea garden well, I ate and lived on the mountain every day. Although the conditions were very harsh, it was all worth it for the career I loved." Pan Zhangjun said. Wholehearted dedication brought continuous expansion of the business. In 2012, Pan Zhangjun developed 5 production demonstration bases in townships and streets including Yuyan, Yecun, and Xiangxi, with a total area of over 2,000 mu.

"My positioning is very clear: build bases and build a brand. All tea under the 'Biyuntian' brand is managed according to pollution-free standards." Pan Zhangjun said that one year during the tea-picking season, the more than 400 mu organic tea base in Zhuyuan suddenly became infested with insects. Standing at the edge of the tea garden, he could hear the rustling sound of insects gnawing on tea leaves. "Should I spray pesticide or not? If I didn't, I might lose the entire harvest; if I did, the brand would be ruined." After much deliberation, Pan Zhangjun resolved to maintain tea quality at all costs, relying on manual pruning to cut off all tea branches and using the "dumbest" method to eradicate the pest problem at its root.

Steady, solid persistence brought abundant returns. In 2005, "Biyuntian" advanced to become one of the first batch of enterprises in the country to obtain QS certification, and successively received honors such as "Zhejiang Province Model Tea Factory," "Zhejiang Province Agricultural Science and Technology Enterprise," "Zhejiang Province Agricultural Product Processing Demonstration Enterprise," "Zhejiang Province Key Agricultural Leading Enterprise," "Top 100 in China's Tea Industry," "Zhejiang Province Famous Brand Product," and "Zhejiang Province Famous Trademark."

In 2008, "Biyuntian" tea began to develop toward mass-market appeal, meeting the needs of different groups. "Although green tea is a healthy beverage, people with poor digestion may feel discomfort if they drink too much, while black tea has no such problem at all." Although this idea was very much in line with market changes, due to lack of experience, Pan Zhangjun, trying to make black tea for the first time, stumbled once again.

"The black tea process places the greatest emphasis on precise control of timing. If fermentation goes on too long, an entire batch of tea leaves has to be scrapped." Pan Zhangjun, who had tasted failure for the first time, this time turned misfortune into a blessing because of a clever idea: "At the time I discovered that over-fermented black tea had a faint alcoholic smell. Could this mean that tea leaves can also be fermented to make alcohol?"

With this idea, Pan Zhangjun immediately invited Chen Huiping, a senior brewer at a distillery in another county, to serve as technical director, and the two worked together to develop "tea liquor."

Chen Huiping, who has more than 40 years of brewing experience, admitted that it was also his first time hearing the idea of "tea liquor," and he did not know where to start. "At first we could only use finished tea, semi-finished tea, and fresh leaves as raw materials for repeated experiments. The most important thing in making 'tea liquor' is temperature and humidity control. It relies not only on experience, but on science. A single oversight in the data and all previous efforts would be wasted."

Pan Zhangjun, who had no brewing experience at all, observed the fermentation process throughout: "'Tea liquor' fermentation takes about 3 months. The first week is the hardest to control. At low temperatures it won't ferment, and if the temperature is slightly too high it will ruin all the tea leaves. At that time I set an alarm every day, and even in the middle of the night I insisted on going to the brewing room every half hour to check on the brewing progress."

It was through such cautious, meticulous, step-by-step progress that Pan Zhangjun finally succeeded in brewing a purely natural "tea liquor" completely different from the common "tea-infused alcohol" on the market.

"For everything you do, you must be willing to spend time, thought, and energy." Today's Biyuntian company is like a sightseeing resort. The processes of tea planting, processing, and packaging, as well as the brewing, production, and packaging of the liquor, can all be visited by tourists for free. "When tea is integrated into culture, what keeps people there is the tea." Pan Zhangjun, who is currently committed to founding a tea skills training school, most hopes to pass on his tea experience to tea farmers, "so that everyone can avoid detours and get rich together."