Abstract: Based on the data from China Health and Nutrition Survey in 2011, the paper used double hurdle model to analyze the tea consumption between urban and rural residents, from the perspective of participation of tea consumption and how much to consumes. The results showed there were about 0.261 billion and 0.167 billion tea consumers in urban and rural regions, the corresponding quantities of tea consumed were 3.19 cup and 2.81 cup per day, 46.5% of urban residents and 33% of rural residents drink tea, income elastic of demand for urban and rural residents were 11.19% and 7.9% respectively. The participation of tea consumption of urban residents was influenced by age and income, while the rural residents were affected by income and family size on the participation of tea consumption, male in urban area consumed more cups of tea than female. Age, income, family size and education all showed positive and significant effect on the tea consumption. The corresponding policies to promote tea consumption in China included considering the applicability of policy, speeding up to increase the income of urban and rural residents, finding the niche market.

Key words: urban and rural, tea consumption, double-hurdle model