This spring, French tea consultant and World Tea News contributor Barbara DuFrene spent several weeks in China’s Yunnan province. In her second report from these travels, DuFrene recounts her visit to the legendary Dianhong Tea Company.

In 1939 Feng Shaoqiu, a visionary tea engineer, was traveling in the heart of former Shun Ning county (renamed Feng Qing county in 1963), in the Yunnan province of China. Impressed by the many wild and “big leaf” tea bushes scattered all over the hills, he immediately gave them a trial processing. The outcome was so good that he decided to settle down. What would become the State-owned Dianhong Tea Company was born.

You can learn this, as I did, from a tour of the company’s museum, which details the history of what is now known as the No. 1 producer of Chinese black tea.

The Dianhong Tea Company’s seat in Feng Qing town is a two-hour drive from Lincang airport. All the tea from its 84 tea gardens is high grown – at least 4,500 feet, and some more than 6,500 feet, above sea level – and all plants are “big leaf” varieties of the local species, which is closely related to the Camellia sinensis var assamica.

Historical literature distributed at the site states that the first tea trees in the world grew in these Yunnan Mountains, so one can find here several tea tree “ancestors,” estimated to be more than 2,000 years old.

The oldest of these trees has stood on Dianhong’s grounds for 3,200 years and is venerated during an annual ceremony where chiefs from the Wa and Miao minorities dance, sing and offer animal sacrifices. I was one of the rare foreigners invited to attend this ceremony – an honor indeed.

Most of the tea gardens have their own factory for processing orthodox leaf teas to produce puer, green and jasmine tea, as well as several types of Yunnan Gongfu Cha. Some of the latter are custom made through a special (and highly confidential!) withering and post-fermentation process.

Dianhong’s CTC black tea factory opened in 1992. It is the largest in China, and Lipton Shanghai buyer Deng Qi Wen said his company has been sourcing tea there for more than 15 years. Deng himself has been visiting the tea garden to check on crops once or twice a year since 1998.

Although an air of formality distinguishes Dianhong staff members, who wear grey suits to identify themselves, they greet the constant flow of guests and customers warmly. My own cohort – including the Unilever Shanghai purchasing team, wholesalers from Beijing Malian Dao tea market, distributors from Northern China and traders who export to Poland and Czechoslovakia – shared meals and enjoyed factory tours, complete with English translation by two executives from the Dianhong team.

Despite its dominance, Dianhong does have some competition. A few medium-sized tea factories in Feng Qin are thriving, keeping the well-established operation on its toes.

Editor's note: For part one of the series, click here.