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GABA can inhibit excessive neural excitement, shorten sleep onset time, and increase deep sleep duration. Zhongcha Longguan Company’s ‘Sleepy Tea’ increases the GABA content in tea by more than 10 times through special processes, focusing on its function of calming and aiding sleep. When insomnia becomes a problem for urban residents, a cup of sleep aid tea is becoming the most powerful entry point for tea companies to enter the health market. Figure source: Zhongcha Longguan. 2. Stress reduction and anxiety relief, driving the emotional consumption market. Studies show that GABA can indirectly affect cortisol levels by relieving stress and regulate brain electrical activity to promote nerve relaxation. Wanjia launched a sugar-free tea with added GABA last year, targeting high-pressure scenarios such as gatherings, interviews, and reports, emphasizing ‘stabilizing emotions and calmly enjoying’. Coca-Cola also once launched a sugar-free tea with GABA called ‘Body Refresh Tea W’ in Japan, claiming to have a calming and energizing effect during work or rest. Body Refresh Tea W Figure source: Coca-Cola Japan website. 3. Assisting in blood pressure regulation and cardiovascular protection. GABA acts on the vascular regulatory center, promoting vasodilation and assisting in lowering blood pressure. Japan was the first to develop GABA tea, with the initial purpose of creating a daily beverage for people with hypertension. Currently, there are many products in the Japanese market that claim to have blood pressure-lowering effects, with relatively mature technology. Figure source: Japan Food Industry News. 4. Other functions. Some studies have confirmed that GABA has other physiological functions such as reducing blood ammonia, anti-convulsant, improving brain function, and promoting growth hormone secretion, but there are few products on the market with these functions. II. How is GABA tea made? In 1987, Japanese researchers Tsujita Fujijiro and others increased the GABA content from 0.3 mg/g to 2.0 mg/g after 6 hours of anaerobic treatment with nitrogen gas, and named this tea ‘Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Tea’. The core process of GABA tea is ‘anaerobic enrichment’. Fresh leaf picking: select fresh tea leaves with one bud and two or three leaves. Anaerobic treatment: place fresh leaves in a vacuum or nitrogen environment for several to ten hours of ‘anaerobic respiration’. During this process, glutamic acid in the tea leaves is converted into GABA in large quantities under the catalysis of glutamate decarboxylase, increasing the content by tens of times. The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Tea Research Institute has successfully developed a vacuum anaerobic processing technology for fresh tea leaves, which can make the GABA content in fresh tea leaves reach more than 2 mg/g. This technology is simpler, more cost-effective, and more effective compared to Japan’s nitrogen anaerobic treatment technology. Conventional tea making: After anaerobic treatment, the fresh tea leaves are unsealed and undergo traditional processes such as steaming (green tea), rolling, fermentation (black tea), or drying according to the target category. Currently, mature processing technologies have been developed for GABA green tea, black tea, oolong tea, and white tea. III. Future Development: From Single Function to ‘Super Component’ Advancement. Compared to the more mature functional food market in Japan, China’s GABA tea industry is still in its early stages and is facing an unprecedented development window. (1) Opportunity level. Data shows that more than 300 million people in China suffer from sleep problems, and the sleep economy market has doubled in nine years. Combined with the outbreak of Z-generation’s demand for emotional healing, it provides dual driving forces for GABA tea. In addition, the functional tea market is expanding at an annual compound growth rate of over 20%, and GABA tea, as a sub-category with health benefits, is expected to occupy a place in the market. At the same time, the entry of brands such as Wanjia and Mengniu has accelerated the public awareness of GABA tea. Plus the release of the ‘Safety Evaluation of Food Use of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid’ (T/CADZ 0043—2025) last year, which lays a certain foundation for its widespread application. (2) Challenge level. Although some research has been done on the physiological effects of GABA tea, they are still not comprehensive enough. In terms of process, nitrogen treatment is costly, and infrared and microwave technologies have energy consumption and safety shortcomings. Anaerobic treatment tends to produce a ‘green odor’, thus affecting the flavor of the finished tea. There are still bottlenecks from laboratory to industrial mass production. In addition, most current products have highly homogenized functional positioning, focusing mainly on ‘sleep aid’ and ‘stress relief’, lacking in-depth segmentation of scenarios and populations. With the increasing number of participants, whether GABA tea can break out of the homogenization competition will determine whether it will continue to be popular or become a fleeting trend. (3) Outlook. The future development of GABA tea in the Chinese market depends on three aspects: First, whether more high-quality clinical studies (especially further verification of the gut-brain axis mechanism) can provide more solid evidence for the efficacy of oral GABA. Second, in the market, whether it can convert consumers’ functional demands for GABA into sustainable product consumption through scenario-based marketing and real cases. Third, in the industry, whether it can overcome process bottlenecks and establish a standardized quality system to achieve the transition from ’niche functional drink’ to ‘mainstream health choice’. As people pay more attention to health, and the physiological functions of GABA tea gradually become known to the public, it is believed that GABA tea will surely have its moment of glory in the Chinese market. 2026 ‘China Tea’ magazine continues to accept subscriptions ~ 2026 China Tea Regional Public Brand Value Assessment Report released Intercropping this plant can both eliminate weeds and enhance efficiency! White tea stored for ten years, what changes in flavor? This study gives an answer. 2026 spring and summer tea tree fertilization guidance released It is said that green tea should be drunk ’new’, but can aged green tea still be drunk? The ‘beauty trap’ of green tea: the greener the tea is not necessarily better.

The 8th China International Tea Expo opened on May 21. Spanning five days, the expo continues the theme “Tea and the World: Shared Development,” and for the first time adopts a coordinated “One Exhibition, Two Venues” format—hosted simultaneously at the Hangzhou International Expo Center and the Longwu Exhibition Hall. The event attracted over 1,500 branded tea enterprises, more than 100,000 products covering the entire industrial chain, and industry representatives from over 30 countries and regions.

Comparative Analysis of Sensory Flavor Changes in Aged White Teas

With increasing popularity of white tea—often described as ‘one-year tea, three-year medicine, seven-year treasure’—scientific understanding of how storage influences sensory quality remains incomplete, particularly regarding key compounds driving these changes.

This study systematically investigates sensory quality evolution and associated chemical contributors across three age groups: white teas stored for less than 3 years, 3–9 years, and over 10 years. Samples include Baihao Yinzhen (BHYZ), Baimudan (BMD), and Shoumei (SM), all stored under stable, standardized conditions.

I. Leaders and Distinguished Guests Gather to Kick Off the Skills Competition

Zhou Liangyuan, Chief Expert of Tea in Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and Shen Lu, Deputy Mayor of Shengzhou City, introduced Shengzhou’s ‘Yue Xiang Longjing’ and sincerely invited people from all walks of life to Shengzhou to taste tea and enjoy the scenery. Deputy Mayor Shen Lu of Shengzhou City and Director Wang Meifang of Shengzhou City Agricultural and Rural Affairs Bureau delivered speeches. She stated that in recent years, Shengzhou has continuously made efforts in cultivating leading entities, innovating mechanisms, empowering with technology, and integrating tea and tourism, promoting high-quality development of the entire industry chain. Zhou Liangyuan, Deputy Director of Zhejiang Provincial Agricultural Technology Extension Center, announced the start of the competition.

With the wave of technological advancements, many tea-related institutions, research organizations, and companies have actively embraced change. They leverage technology to empower the entire tea industry’s value chain, continuously exploring innovations that infuse sustainable development into the tea industry. In a series of articles, we document the intelligentization explorations at various stages of tea cultivation in China.

The emergence of smart tea gardens has enabled precision and automation in tea garden management. By comprehensively sensing, managing, analyzing, and sharing data, these systems allow for the monitoring and management of tea plants throughout their entire growth cycle.

The Rise of a Visual Beverage Icon
Tiger Sugar (老虎堂), a Taiwanese beverage phenomenon, revolutionized the global drink scene in 2017 by introducing the world’s first “edible art” – the iconic black sugar tiger-striped cup. As the originator of this viral aesthetic, the brand quickly captivated Gen Z and young professionals with its Instagram-worthy drinks, positioning itself as a leader in the premium milk tea category.

Product Innovation: Beyond the Hype
Unlike generic bubble tea chains, Tiger Sugar leans into its Taiwanese roots with a “black-centric” menu divided into four distinct categories:

Spanning a 1.5 kilometer waterfront and encompassing 17,000 square meters of riverside space, the 2024 Shanghai International Coffee Culture Festival has kicked off with vigor as part of the “Double Five Shopping Festival” in the airy Xuhui riverside area. This year’s event, themed “Taste the World in Shanghai,” focuses on “internationalization” and “boosting consumption,” further polishing Shanghai’s new calling card of “coffee culture.”

Building on the success of the previous three editions, this year’s “Coffee Culture Week” has been elevated to a “Coffee Culture Festival,” becoming a highly influential urban festival IP. How does a simple cup of coffee meet the developmental stride of Shanghai city? Shanghai answers: Coffee is not just a drink; it is a medium that continuously enriches the coffee culture, innovates coffee consumption scenarios, and blends international perspectives with local innovations. Traditional culture and contemporary trends merge with commercial forms and cultural sentiment, making the aromatic fragrance of coffee a vibrant footnote to the city’s “open, innovative, and inclusive” character, adding a lively touch to the city’s soft power.

“Green color, mellow taste, rich aroma, and beautiful shape” is a textual summary of Longjing tea quality. However, this textual standard no longer meets the current needs. Developing a “visible” and “tangible” “National Standard Sample of Longjing Tea” has become a consensus among all parties.

On April 15, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs released the “Sensory Grading Standard Samples of Longjing Tea,” which is the first national standard sample of Longjing tea and currently the only effective national standard sample of tea in Zhejiang Province. Its creation ends the history of Longjing tea lacking a national standard sample and marks the establishment of a unified Longjing tea product control mechanism based on textual and physical standards.