{"id":83438,"date":"2026-09-09T08:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=83438"},"modified":"2026-09-09T08:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:42:09","slug":"chinese-matchas-rapid-rise-and-the-hong-kong-couple-stirring-up-the-uk-tea-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=83438","title":{"rendered":"Chinese matcha\u2019s rapid rise and the Hong Kong couple stirring up the UK tea scene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/09\/08\/e107531e-4b29-4f41-9dd4-116d5e40189e_329c4b6b.jpg?itok=i9GM7f9f&amp;v=1788844881\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A trip to Puer in China\u2019s Yunnan province changed the way Hongkongers Raphael Chow and his wife, Joyce Ding, thought about tea. Home of its namesake fermented brew, the city is widely regarded as the ancient birthplace of <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Camellia sinensis<\/em> \u2013 the plant from which most of the world\u2019s tea is made.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The London-based couple not only fell in love with the region\u2019s teas, but also with its communal tea-drinking culture. Upon returning to the UK capital, they founded their own fine loose leaf tea company, Brut Tea, in 2024.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Despite their long histories, many of Britain\u2019s most-established tea brands continue to frame tea through a colonial narrative, Chow says. He recalls visiting the Twinings flagship store in London\u2019s West End, where he felt the only obvious reference to China was a pair of sculptures of Chinese sailors employed by the British Empire that sat above the entrance, while Chinese tea itself received little attention.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cYou\u2019ll go in and see this very colonial display where they feature [India\u2019s] Assam and Darjeeling, which of course is where their [Twinings] plantations were,\u201d he says. \u201cThen there will be a very small footnote when you reach the end of the shop saying, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s this little thing called Puer tea and we have some of that in the corner over there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">By sourcing their teas directly from Yunnan\u2019s oldest tea-growing regions, Chow and Ding set out to show a new generation of British tea drinkers the history behind their usual \u201ccuppa\u201d.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">At a time when Gen Z is beginning to embrace aspects of Chinese culture \u2013 a movement that has manifested as \u201c<span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Chinamaxxing<\/span>\u201d on social media \u2013 they also hoped to spark curiosity about tea\u2019s Chinese origins and complex preparation rituals such as <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">gong fu<\/em> tea.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/food-drink\/article\/3366707\/chinese-matchas-rapid-rise-and-hong-kong-couple-stirring-uk-tea-scene?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trip to Puer in China\u2019s Yunnan province changed the way Hongkongers Raphael Chow and his wife, Joyce Ding, thought about tea. Home of its&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[107,1190,3569,5231,29719,27474,1569,1373,29720,549],"class_list":["post-83438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-chinese","tag-couple","tag-hong","tag-kong","tag-matchas","tag-rapid","tag-rise","tag-scene","tag-stirring","tag-tea","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}