As part of Suntory Holdings career development program, each year a few Suntorians are given the opportunity to work at the overseas group company to develop their skills and gain experience. In this trainee report series, they will share with us some of their learnings and discoveries.

I am Kaho Kojima and I have been doing On-the-Job Training in the Marketing department of Suntory China Holding (SHC) as a trainee from Japan since this April. I have studied at Beijing University in the past, so I was so excited to be the first on the China trainee program and coming back to China. In the Marketing department, I am assigned to the Tea team and here I would like to introduce Chinese tea culture.

【Chinese Tea Culture】
There are six major types of tea in China: Green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, dark tea, white tea, and reprocessed tea. Distinguished mainly by different methods of production. I think it is interesting that folklore relates each type of tea to certain human characteristics. Thus, it is said that green tea, simple and light, stands for the scholasticism of south China; black tea, mild and reserved, is regarded as rather feminine; Oolong tea, warm and persistent, resembles the perseverance of philosophers; dark tea, with its lingering aftertaste, symbolizes the wisdom of the elderly, and so on and so forth.

【How to Enjoy Chinese Tea】
In the office Japanese people drink RTD while many Chinese people make tea using an “Electric Teapot.” Japanese make tea using a tea pot at home, but it is not automatic and electric. It seems this electric teapot is China’s secret weapon, there are only two steps to enjoy tea. The first is pouring water and tea leaves into the electric teapot, and the second is setting the water temperature and brewing time depending on the tenderness of tea leaves and then just switching on the teapot. We can have our own favorite tea even in the office with teapot.