Recently, a popular Australian video blogger Amy visited the home of one of China’s most famous teas, Tieguanyin. Amy’s video was shot on-site in the tea fields and manufacturing plant of Bama Tea Co., Ltd. (known as ‘Bama’ or ‘Bama Tea’) in Anxi County, Fujian Province. In the video, Bama Tea has showcased how modern technology is revolutionizing the thousand-year-old tradition of tea making. The video so far has attracted tens of thousands of viewers seeking to understand the Chinese tea industry and modern smart garden management methodologies.
Throughout the video, modern technology is used at every stage of tea growing and manufacturing in Bama’s fields and factory to ensure consistent product output quality and efficiency.
Amy was shown by Bama Tea’s field manager about some of the automation involved in the fields and the production, including high-powered cameras that could monitor the state of the tea fields from a distance, as well as a weather station that could measure rainfall, sunlight, air quality, ground temperature, and humidity. Amy also noticed small solar panels strewn about the fields that charge energy during the day and emit blue light at night to keep pests at bay.
In addition to the high degree of monitoring and pest prevention in the fields, automation is a major component of tea processing. For impurity removal, the Bama Tea factory employs a fully automatic infrared quality sorting system with roller electrostatic impurity removal equipment and metal detector to help efficiently remove trace impurities in the raw tea and produce a higher quality product.
A large number of intelligent robots are used in the packaging and transportation of tea to save manpower and time while also reducing contact between human hands and tea.
Talking about the use of technology, Amy remarked, “I just find it so fascinating because tea as a concept has existed in China for over 1000 years without much change here or there. But, over the past few decades, with new technologies and advances in science, things are definitely changing for the better.”
Viewers in the comments section also revealed their surprise at the level of automation, with one commenting “So informative and eye opening to see how high tech China tea factories are and robots are commonly used in the production line”, and another noting “It is good to see how China managed to apply technology to improve lives.”
Bama Tea is one of the most recognized brands associated with Tieguanyin tea and was founded by the legendary Wang Wenli, a 13th-generation Tieguanyin tea inheritor. As a leading Chinese tea chain brand, Bama already has over 2,600 stores in China as of 31st December 2021, with Anxi Tieguanyin, one of Bama’s flagship products, topping sales across the country for 13 consecutive years.
