Twins Xue Liqun and Xue Tongyun's own family history is steeped in the ancient Chinese tradition of drinking tea. The siblings grew up in Fu'an city, famous for its jasmine tea since the Qing Dynasty, where their father founded a tea distribution company.

But success for this brother-sister team has meant overcoming several obstacles, including challenging some of the traditional attitudes to the time-honoured business of making tea in the Middle Kingdom.

Just like her brother, Tongyun dreamed of making her living among the fragrant leaves of her childhood memories. But, when it came time to hand over the reigns to the family business, the twin's father trusted his fortunes to Liqun alone. For centuries in their native Fu'an, women had been kept away from business. Tongyun's dream seemed little more than a fantasy.

"My father always took me on his business trips. At that moment, I knew my sister was ignored," 40-year-old Liqun said. "She was forced to stay at home with nothing to do. Although she was away from the tea she loved so much, Tongyun was still concerned for the tea business and often talked about how father taught her to recognise different teas when she was a child."

Some months later, the father's business ran short of capital and was forced to close its plants. Despite the hardship, it opened an avenue for Liqun and Tongyun to cooperate on a new venture. Together, they became a force, turning their minds to how they could make this company a success where others wilted.

Able to bring both male and female perspectives to the table, they pondered over how people chose their tea. Generally, women preferred flower tea, like rose and jasmine, while men favoured green tea or oolong tea. This spurred the pair to develop a new range of scented flower teas, designed to appeal universally. "I was wondering whether there was a tea that can draw the attention of both ladies and gentlemen," Liqun said.

They established the Linong company, and their range of flower-focused teas, developed with health in mind, was featured at this month's Maliandao International Tea Festival 2007.

Their breakthrough blends, which met with approval by visitors at the festival, marked the turnaround for the business partners, who started with a debt of 300,000 yuan (US$40,000). They spent many sleepless nights at the tea factory, tired but happy. After three years of hard work, the tea factory was finally winning contracts, and even turned a profit.

Over the years, Liqun and Tongyun have experimented with several different kinds of flowers, noting the growing popularity of sipping rose tea. But the first trial was not successful. The rose lost its shape and faded to a pale wettish colour when boiling water was added. Tongyun was not discouraged, instead sourcing all kinds of roses with different shapes to try again and again.

Some time later, they found the right blend for a pleasing tea, which created an immediate splash on the market with its beautiful colour and charm. But just when they were busy filling floods of orders, another hurdle occurred. A milky, white substance they had not previously noticed appeared in the tea sometime after hot water was added.

Finally, they encountered an elderly herbalist who solved the problem with just one glance. Since ancient times, many flowers with healing properties have been used together as medicine, but some react with each other. Liqun and Tongyun immediately adjusted the flower tea ingredients. Finding success at home, Linong, dubbed "the creative flower tea", has also attracted customers from overseas.

For Tongyun, the struggle for a winning flower tea has occurred against the backdrop of a labour intensive, seasonal business that has traditionally been considered best left to men. When she first came onboard, jasmine flowers were in bloom. There is an old saying in the tea industry: "the first three days of bloom are treasures, after that it's trash". To make nice jasmine tea, you can't miss that period. The workload was heavy.

"The special rake we use weighs nearly 4kg," Liqun said. "You have to rake the tea nearly a thousand times in one night. After that, you can't even straighten your back, and are covered in sweat. It even drips down from your eyebrows." Linong tea is now sold at Laoshe teahouse and Beijing Wuyutai tea store at Wangfujing.

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