Agencies
When American Jesse Appell drank his first cup of Chinese tea brewed from loose leaves in Beijing’s Maliandao market 13 years ago he was astonished to find there were 1,000 vendors to choose from.
Appell, from Boston, was a Fulbright scholar studying Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University at the time.
Now 34, he liked Chinese tea so much that he eventually found a way to sell it to fellow non-Chinese Americans, a group that normally does not drink it, racking up more than 30,000 orders in the process.
He did it by first selling Americans on Chinese culture – his chief mission – and then the tea followed.
Three years ago, Appell began challenging the usual American preferences for tea bags, tea powder or just coffee by producing Instagram and TikTok skits featuring the Chinese comedic performing art of crosstalk.
His appeal to American consumers has helped create business for the Chinese tea growers, packers and shippers who run the world’s largest tea-producing sector.
Appell said one of his suppliers in southwest China’s Yunnan province has earned more than US$200,000 from wholesale tea that eventually went to American consumers.“When I go back there every year, they’re super nice to me,” he said.
Despite the efforts of people like Appell, shipments of Chinese tea to the United States fell last year, mirroring a decline in global exports.
China shipped 9,949 tonnes of tea to the US last year, down 33.4 per cent year on year, while the value of China’s worldwide tea exports dropped by 16.3 per cent to US$1.74 billion, marking a second straight annual decline, Chinese customs data shows.
Appell lived in China, mostly Beijing, from 2010 until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, largely to learn crosstalk from a professional performer in Beijing.
He launched his company, Jesse’s Teahouse, three years ago and now lives in Los Angeles.
The company’s website, where orders can be placed, racks up 2,000 visitors a day. About half his 1 million social media followers tune in via TikTok. The others are spread across the likes of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Appell sometimes posts videos of himself preparing tea leaves, pouring water or sipping from a sparkling white teacup. Some skits run on jokes.
Tea and related paraphernalia such as bamboo trays from China reach Jesse’s Teahouse through a logistics hub in the US state of New Jersey before delivery to customers.
