Liu Sanyun is an accomplished tea maker based in Suizhou City, Hubei Province. He is a double certified tea maker and has spent over 50 years in the tea industry, becoming highly influential in Hubei’s tea industry.
Born in 1956, Liu Sanyun grew up in and around tea farming families and at the age of 18, he started working on a small tea farm called Yunfeng Mountain Tea, whose tea is now distributed by Liu’s company, Shennong Tea Industry. He began here as a front-line tea farmer and, over many years, rose to lead the company as chairman.
The farm’s name remains Yunfeng Mountain Tea, and the company that came from it was named Shennong Tea Industry as a homage to Shennong, the divine farmer, whose hometown is Suizhou City. Shennong is one of the “three kings,” important figures in Chinese mythology, and credited with discovering tea. As the story goes, Shennong spent time finding which herbs and foods were safe for people, testing their effects on his own body. On one particular day, he was poisoned 72 times. As he lay dying from so much poison, a tea leaf fell into his mouth. He reflexively chewed it and discovered that it purified his afflicted body. This story has persisted in popular culture in China and tea is still regarded as a detoxifying drink.
Liu Sanyun, as chairman, has maintained organic farming techniques, using non-chemical pesticides like sticky paper and lights, natural fertilizers such as fermented rapeseed, and consistent weeding methods, using goats and people to pull weeds throughout the year. As chairman of Shennong Tea Industry, he has greatly expanded the company, taking it from a small local farm, to a nationally renowned tea producer. He drove the initiative to expand the farm, developing uncultivated lake-side land and developed new methods for reducing wasting tea fannings (small tea particles used almost exclusively in tea bags) and autumn and summer harvested tea leaves. The tea fannings that come out while making high quality green teas are sold to other companies for tea bags and have become one of their main export products.
Zhuping met Liu at a tea expo, one of the only ones he attended, and began buying tea from him in 2020. She says, although he is the boss of a large company, he has the heart and demeanor of a farmer; he is humble and enjoys the simple comforts of home. Although many people may look up to him for his accomplishments or feel envy for his success, he always maintains that he did not choose this life, something that should not be envied. Most tea makers of his generation share this sentiment, but through their paths have gained a deep respect and love for crafting tea.
