CNNP 'colour' marks?

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Sep 25th, '09, 22:59
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CNNP 'colour' marks?

by entropyembrace » Sep 25th, '09, 22:59

Okay I've been wondering for a long time about this...A lot of puerh has these marks displayed prominently that I'm under the impression are from CNNP

Image

You can see what I mean there...

Anyway the symbol stays the same but the colours can change...most of the recent puerh productions seem to have a green mark or a yellow mark and older ones seem to be yellow...or the famous red mark that all the puerh heads get excited about...but I'm kinda left scratching my head and wondering...

What does the mark mean? And what do the different colours mean? :?

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Sep 26th, '09, 04:49
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Re: CNNP 'colour' marks?

by wyardley » Sep 26th, '09, 04:49

The "mark" -- the character in the center -- (茶) means tea.

The logo is called the 8-zhong logo because the "茶" is surrounded by 8 中(zhong) characters. 中 roughly means 'middle'; in this case, it refers to China (it's the first character of the word for the country of China). So it's originally the logo of the Zhongcha brand, i.e., the tea brand of CNNP.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the color means anything in particular (other than possibly one color being more auspicious than another); it's just a way to differentiate products or groups of products.

Chan Kam Pong suggests this as the reason that there are 8 zhong:
These "Zhong (中) characters are arranged according to the eight different directions having the meaning that Chinese tea will be sold and spread to all directions to the rest of the world. The trademark was invented and registered in 1951".
(A Glossary of Chinese Puerh Tea p 138)

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Sep 26th, '09, 11:39
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Re: CNNP 'colour' marks?

by oldmanteapot » Sep 26th, '09, 11:39

wyardley wrote:The "mark" -- the character in the center -- (茶) means tea.

The logo is called the 8-zhong logo because the "茶" is surrounded by 8 中(zhong) characters. 中 roughly means 'middle'; in this case, it refers to China (it's the first character of the word for the country of China). So it's originally the logo of the Zhongcha brand, i.e., the tea brand of CNNP.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the color means anything in particular (other than possibly one color being more auspicious than another); it's just a way to differentiate products or groups of products.

Chan Kam Pong suggests this as the reason that there are 8 zhong:
These "Zhong (中) characters are arranged according to the eight different directions having the meaning that Chinese tea will be sold and spread to all directions to the rest of the world. The trademark was invented and registered in 1951".
(A Glossary of Chinese Puerh Tea p 138)
+1 :mrgreen:

To my understanding, there is no significant meaning to the colour of the
"茶" Mark. But rather to differentiate the different groups of products as mentioned by wyardley. Another words, it's just for branding sake. Before the privatisation of tea factories in China, everything was government regulated, even the design of the wrappers. So, MengHai Tea Factory has their "8 Zhong" design, XiaGuan had their own, while KunMing Tea Factory also had their specific design to follow e.g. the legendary Mark Series. But all tea produced from these factories were exported by a regulatory body called the China National Native Produce and Animal By-Products Import and Export Corporation or better known as CNNP.

Ever since the privatisation of Tea Factories, every factory had their own designs. That's why, we have such colourful wrapper designs these days. Back then before the privatisation, every Pu wrapper almost looks the same. Only the batch tickets which are found in the bamboo carton can identify for sure what the tea was.

Cheers!

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Sep 28th, '09, 17:01
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Re: CNNP 'colour' marks?

by entropyembrace » Sep 28th, '09, 17:01

Thanks for the information guys! That definitely clarifies the meaning for me :)

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Sep 29th, '09, 13:44
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Re: CNNP 'colour' marks?

by hop_goblin » Sep 29th, '09, 13:44

If memory serves me correctly, marks in terms of color were also created so that vendors who had state factories produce recipies could be able to differentiate among their stock.

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Sep 29th, '09, 19:55
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Re: CNNP 'colour' marks?

by heavydoom » Sep 29th, '09, 19:55

i have a wrapper with a blue mark on it, a cooked pu erh tea.

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