Brewing Up a Storm

Herbal tea products are displayed at a shop in a Chinese medicinal herb trading center in Bozhou City, east China's Anhui Province, Sept. 8, 2023. ( tasteallchina /Zhao Jinzheng) HEFEI, Nov. 3 ( tasteallchina ) -- Its late autumn, and a herbal tea company in the city of Bozhou, Anhui Province, east China, is brewing up a storm. In a 20,000-square-meter facility, eight production lines are churning out nearly 20,000 boxes of herbal tea per day to meet market demand, with most sold across the country via e-commerce platforms. "Autumn and winter are peak seasons for us as demand for hot herbal tea increases during this period," said Teng Guangyou, owner of Anhui Shengshi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Teng is among many locals to benefit from Bozhou's booming herbal tea industry. Dubbed the capital of the Chinese medicinal herb industry, Bozhou is home to the country's biggest medicinal herbs market and distribution center, putting it in a unique position to develop the herbal tea industry. Official data shows that Bozhou's annual production value of herbal tea has reached nearly 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for about 70 percent of China's herbal tea industry. "Since ancient times, Bozhou…