Origins

The history of Ten Fu’s Tea is intrinsically linked to Lee Rie-Ho, a Taiwanese tea entrepreneur born in 1935 into a tea-farming family in Nantou, Taiwan. Lee began selling tea at a young age, and in 1953, his family established Ming-Fong Tea Co. in Gangshan, Kaohsiung, which later became the foundation of Ten Ren Tea.[1]

In 1961, Lee opened the first Ten Ren tea shop in Tainan. This business evolved into Ten Ren Tea Co., Ltd., formally incorporated in 1975, and grew to become one of Taiwan’s most prominent tea companies with international operations.[1]

As economic reforms in China created new opportunities for Taiwanese enterprises, Lee established the Ten Fu Group in mainland China in 1993. This new venture was designed to develop the Chinese tea market through an integrated approach encompassing cultivation, manufacturing, retailing, franchising, and cultural promotion.[1]

Development in mainland China

Ten Fu’s expansion strategy focused heavily on establishing retail stores centred around traditional Chinese tea culture. These outlets typically combine tea retailing with an immersive environment intended to introduce consumers to Chinese tea preparation, accessories, and related products.

The company subsequently developed manufacturing and sourcing facilities across several key Chinese tea-producing regions. Its production network includes facilities in Fujian, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guizhou, covering diverse categories of Chinese tea.[1]

Ten Fu also established specialised facilities for specific tea categories, including Longjing, Pu’er, jasmine tea, and oolong tea. This vertically integrated model enables the company to participate in multiple stages of the supply chain, from sourcing and processing to packaging and retail distribution.[1]

Ten Fu’s Tea has grown into one of the major organised tea retailers in mainland China. Company materials indicate that it had more than 1,200 franchised stores in China by 2017, with later reports citing over 1,300 retail and franchise locations globally.[1]

Beyond conventional tea retail, the wider Ten Fu organisation has diversified into tea manufacturing, tea gardens, food products, tea utensils, cultural and educational facilities, and tourism-related developments.

Notable cultural projects include the Tenfu Tea Museum in Zhangzhou, Fujian. The group has also engaged in tea education through Tenfu Tea College, which commenced academic enrolment in 2007 and was subsequently affiliated with Zhangzhou College of Science and Technology.[1]

Ten Fu’s Tea is best understood within the context of the Ten Ren Group. While both businesses trace their origins to Lee Rie-Ho, they are distinct entities operating in different markets.

Ten Ren Tea originated in Taiwan in 1953, whereas Ten Fu Group was established in mainland China in 1993. Ten Ren’s corporate history describes Ten Fu as the company’s first major tea enterprise established in mainland China.[1]

Ten Ren Tea continues to operate as a separate publicly traded Taiwanese company, while Ten Fu developed its own large-scale retail and manufacturing operation in mainland China.[1]

Ten Fu’s Tea offers a broad portfolio of traditional Chinese tea products, with a reported range of approximately 1,800 tea-related items.[1] Major product categories include:

• Oolong tea
• Green tea
• Black tea
• Pu’er tea
• White tea
• Dark tea
• Flower and scented teas
• Tea snacks and tea-based foods
• Tea utensils and accessories

The company’s product strategy integrates packaged tea with items associated with the broader Chinese tea-drinking experience. Consequently, Ten Fu stores function not merely as tea shops but also as retailers of teaware, gifts, snacks, and other cultural products.[1]

Ten Fu’s Tea pursues a vertically integrated model, maintaining relationships with tea gardens, processing facilities, testing laboratories, and retail outlets. The company operates or collaborates with specialised facilities in major tea-producing regions for oolong, Longjing, Pu’er, and jasmine tea, among others.[1]

Additionally, the company operates the Tiankang Testing Center, a professional laboratory equipped with more than 20 pieces of testing equipment for inspecting tea and food products. This emphasis on manufacturing and testing reflects an effort to combine traditional tea production with modern industrial quality-control systems.[1]

The stated brand philosophy of Ten Fu’s Tea centres on three concepts: Natural — Healthy — Human. The company presents tea as both a natural agricultural product and an integral element of Chinese social and cultural life, aiming to preserve traditional practices while making tea accessible through modern commercial channels.[1]

This approach aligns with the broader Ten Ren management philosophy of “Old Business, New Management”, which emphasises modernisation and innovation alongside the preservation of traditional tea culture.[1]

A distinctive feature of the Ten Fu’s Tea business model is its use of traditional Chinese-style tea shops. These stores serve as both retail environments and cultural spaces where customers can purchase loose-leaf tea, packaged tea, gifts, snacks, teapots, cups, and accessories.

The company aims to create a welcoming atmosphere through its recognisable white-and-green branding and traditional store design. This strategy positions tea as a lifestyle and cultural product rather than solely an agricultural commodity, distinguishing Ten Fu from purely commodity-oriented sellers.[1]

Tea culture is a significant component of the Ten Fu Group’s activities. Beyond retail and manufacturing, the group invests in tea museums, tea gardens, education, tourism, utensils, cultural exhibitions, and research.[1]

The Tenfu Tea Museum in Zhangzhou, Fujian, is promoted as a major tea museum, while Tenfu Tea College supports formal tea education. These initiatives reflect a broader objective of connecting commercial tea consumption with the history, preparation, aesthetics, and social traditions of Chinese tea.[1]

Although mainland China remains the principal market, Ten Fu’s Tea has developed an international presence. Corporate materials report more than 1,300 stores worldwide, with the vast majority in mainland China.[1]

Products and stores have appeared outside mainland China, complementing the wider Ten Ren organisation’s international operations dating back to the late 1970s. Ten Ren’s history records its first overseas franchise in Los Angeles in 1979.[1]

Ten Fu products have been selected as official or commemorative gifts for several APEC meetings, associating the company with Chinese and Taiwanese tea culture on the international stage. Reported examples include:[1]

• 813 Oolong Tea — APEC Summit in Vancouver, 1997
• Prosperi Tea (Rose Green Tea) — APEC Summit in Shanghai, 2001
• Alishan Oolong Tea and Taiwanese pineapple cake — APEC Summit in Busan, 2005
• A specially designed Ten Fu gift set — APEC Summit in Singapore, 2009
• MY TEA series — APEC Summit in Beijing, 2014

Ten Fu Group became a publicly listed company in Hong Kong in 2011, describing itself as one of the leading companies in China’s tea industry. This public listing marked a further stage in the transformation of a traditional tea business into a large, vertically integrated consumer-products company.[1]

The Ten Fu’s Tea business model is characterised as vertically integrated tea retailing. Rather than focusing on a single stage of the industry, the group participates in the entire value chain:

Tea cultivation → sourcing → processing → quality testing → product development → packaging → retail → tea culture/education

This structure provides greater control over product consistency and branding while enabling a wide variety of offerings. The three major commercial product lines are tea leaves, tea snacks, and tea utensils.[1]

Ten Fu’s Tea is significant for its attempt to modernise the traditional Chinese tea shop. Historically, Chinese tea was sold through small specialist shops, merchants, markets, and regional producers. Ten Fu applied a chain-store and franchise model to this sector, creating a standardised retail identity reproducible across different cities.

The company represents an important example of the commercialisation and modernisation of traditional Chinese tea culture. Its development also illustrates the interconnected tea industries of Taiwan and mainland China, particularly through the career of Lee Rie-Ho and the parallel development of Ten Ren and Ten Fu.

Lee Rie-Ho is the central figure in the history of both Ten Ren and Ten Fu. Born in 1935 into a tea-producing family in Nantou, Taiwan, he entered the tea business at an early age. His early experience laid the foundation for what eventually became Ten Ren Tea.[1]

Through Ten Ren’s expansion and the subsequent creation of Ten Fu in mainland China, Lee built a tea business spanning Taiwan, mainland China, and international markets. His approach combined traditional knowledge of Chinese tea with modern manufacturing, retailing, branding, and organisational management.

Ten Fu’s Tea occupies a distinctive position in the modern Chinese tea industry as a tea manufacturer, retailer, franchisor, consumer brand, and promoter of tea culture. Its historical importance lies in transforming traditional tea retail into a large-scale branded chain while retaining recognisable elements of Chinese tea culture. The company has also contributed to tea education, museums, tourism, and modern product manufacturing.[1]

In broader terms, Ten Fu serves as the mainland-Chinese counterpart to the Taiwan-originated Ten Ren tea business; both emerged from Lee Rie-Ho’s original enterprise but developed under different markets and corporate structures.

Key facts

1. Brand Introduction – TenFu’s TEA