Journey of 12-year-old boy to tea master

Employees work at Zhaoliqiao Tea Factory in Chibi, Central China's Hubei province, on November 29, 2016. [Photo by Zhu Lingqing/chinadaily.com.cn]

He also has realized that traditional tea production techniques will meet new challenges as consumers' tastes on tea change with their lifestyles.

"It means we have to find a balance between adjusting the tea's flavor according to consumers' changing habits and avoid abandoning good traditional techniques," Gan said.

However, the balance is not easy to achieve. Gan said to reduce the fluorine content in tea, they changed the original harvest frequency of tea leaves from one time per year to three to four times per year to enhance tea tenderness, which resulted in changes in taste and thus lead to some old customers' complaints.

"I think asking customers to accept new flavors needs time," Gan said. "We are still exploring the best formula."