Bābù chá (八步茶), “eight-step tea”, is a tea from purple-leaf tea trees of Wangmo County (望谟县), Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province. The name comes from Babu Village (八步村) in Jiaona Town, where most of the old trees grow. The name has no single class: the 2021 standards describe red and green tea, the 2025 series red and white. The name is registered as an agricultural product geographical indication.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: There is no single class: there are the standards “八步茶 红茶” and “八步茶 绿茶” (2021) and parts on red and white tea (2025). The catalog “全国名特优新农产品” describes a product with the features of red tea but does not name the class; the text of the registration could not be read.
- Category: Tea from purple-leaf raw material (紫茶, zǐchá); agricultural product geographical indication.
- Origin: China, Guizhou Province (贵州, Guìzhōu), Wangmo County (望谟, Wàngmó), mainly Jiaona Town (郊纳镇, Jiāonà zhèn).
- Production area according to the catalog: in Jiaona — the villages of Babu, Tielu (铁炉), Yalong, Rongyan, Guanzhai, Gaozhai, Jiaona and Youting; in Dayi Town — Erni Village; in Xintun Subdistrict — Pingxiang Village. This list could not be checked against the registration document.
- Geographic coordinates: Jiaona Town — about 25.4° N and 106.2° E.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Legends. The website of the Guizhou civil affairs department writes that at the beginning of Shu Han the purple tea of Babu was presented to the ruler Liu Bei (刘备) and was afterwards kept as tribute for a long time. According to a legend in another publication of the same department (2025), the Shu troops, pursuing a defeated “king of the barbarians”, reached the Babu mountains and took the purple tea they found there as tribute.
- Caravan route. According to material from the county publicity department (2025), Babu and Tielu were stations on the old “tea horse road” (茶马古道): here merchants exchanged salt from the coast for tea and iron, in Tielu horses were shod, and in Babu the “八步场” market bustled. The civil affairs department calls it the “salt and tea road” (盐茶古道).
- 2017. At the autumn provincial tea competition — the title “古树茶茶王” (“king of old-tree tea”).
- 2019. In May the county received the title “中国紫茶之乡” — “home of Chinese purple tea”.
- 2021. On 19 January the local Babu old tea association issued the series of group standards T/BBGC-2021; among them are standards on planting, on harvesting and processing, on red tea and on green tea. In April of the same year the name was entered in the first batch of agricultural product geographical indications of 2021. The certificate number is not given in the sources consulted.
- 2025. The China Tea Science Society issued the series T/CTSS 98-2025 “贵州省望谟八步茶” in six parts — on production, the garden, red tea and white tea; it came into force on 18 April.
- Name: Bābù (八步) means “eight steps”, the name of the village. A legend in the publication of the civil affairs department (2025) derives it from the self-important “figure-of-eight” gait (八字步) in which officials walked when sitting down to tea. This is not Babu District (八步区) of the city of Hezhou in Guangxi.
- Cultural significance: For its rarity the local press calls Bābù chá the “giant panda” of the tea world; the county has included purple tea among the main sectors of its economy.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Raw material: Purple-leaf tea trees. Descriptions of the coloring diverge: “purple buds, leaves and stems, red flowers” (紫芽、紫叶、紫茎、红花) in the catalog “全国名特优新农产品”; purple roots, stems, leaves, buds, flowers and fruits — in the publication of the civil affairs department (2025).
- Form: According to 2023 material, the local wild arboreal trees have been identified as the native purple tea “红花紫鹃” (hónghuā zǐjuān). The newspaper “乡村干部报” also calls the tea 紫鹃茶 and assigns it to the medium- and small-leaf forms.
- Varieties: Names of registered varieties are not found in the sources consulted.
- Old trees: The figures diverge. The Jiaona inventory, according to 2023 material, counts 86,262 trees, of which 1673 are older than 300 years, 116 are from 500 to 800 years old and older, and three are older than 1000 years. The Guizhou University survey, according to the catalog, counts more than 82,000 across the county, of which 1763 have a trunk diameter at ground level of more than 8 cm. The oldest tree, according to the civil affairs department and Xinhua (2025), is about 1700 years old.
- Harvest: According to the catalog, from mid-March to mid-April; the best quality is in April. The plucking standard is not disclosed in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Jiaona — the northeast of Wangmo County, 61 km from the county seat.
- Growing altitude: In the town — from 650 m (Youting Village) to 1634 m (Gaozhai Village), according to the civil affairs department. Another publication of the same department (2025) gives from 480 m in the valleys to more than 1700 m on the peaks. The catalog gives an average garden altitude of about 1100 m.
- Climate: The civil affairs department describes the environment as follows: low latitudes, high altitude, much cloud and mist, little sun, no pollution. Temperatures and precipitation are not found in the sources consulted.
- Soils: No data in the sources consulted.
- Areas: According to the publication of the civil affairs department (2025) — 15,000 mu of gardens laid out to standard (规范化茶园) and 18 nurseries.
5. Production Technology
No detailed description of the processing is found in the sources consulted. The requirements are set down in the association’s 2021 standards (“harvesting and processing”, “red tea”, “green tea”) and in those of the China Tea Science Society of 2025 (technology of red and white tea), but their texts could not be read.
For the catalog product with the features of red tea, the usual sequence for the class is as follows:
- Withering (萎凋, wěidiāo): The leaf loses part of its moisture.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): The juice comes out onto the surface of the leaf.
- Oxidation (发酵, fājiào): The leaf darkens.
- Drying (干燥, gānzào).
This is the general scheme for red tea, not a description of the technology of Bābù chá.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description in the catalog “全国名特优新农产品”:
- Dry leaf appearance: Thin, tight strands, naturally curved, bluish-black with an oily sheen, with conspicuous golden tips, whole and even (条索紧细、自然弯曲，色泽乌黑油润，金毫显露).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Floral and sweet, high and lasting (花香甜香、香高持久).
- Taste: Fresh and mellow, with a sweet aftertaste (鲜醇回甘).
- Liquor color: Orange-red, bright (橙红明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Red, bright, tender and even (红亮嫩匀).
The publication of the civil affairs department (2025) describes it differently: the liquor is “purple with a red tinge”, clear, the taste mild, without bitterness or astringency — apparently a different product from the same raw material.
7. Chemical Composition
Indicators from the catalog “全国名特优新农产品”:
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Water-soluble extractives | 35.2% |
| Tea polyphenols | 17.3% |
| Total free amino acids | 4.7% |
| Theanine | 12.6 g/kg |
| Total catechins | 3.91% |
According to 2023 material, a 2017 analysis at “中国茶叶科学研究所” (name as in the source) showed that the local purple tea contains 30–50 times more anthocyanins than ordinary green tea. The primary test report is not found in the sources consulted.
8. Brewing
Class practice — the parameters depend on which tea under this name is in hand.
- Red: 90–95 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion about a minute, a gaiwan or a porcelain teapot.
- Green: 80–85 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion 40–60 seconds, a glass tumbler or a gaiwan.
- White: 85–90 °C, 3–4 g per 150 ml, first infusion about a minute, a gaiwan.
9. Storage
Class practice. Red and white tea — in a dry, dark place at room temperature, in tight packaging, away from odors. Green tea — in airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, to be drunk within a year. For its product the catalog advises storage at room temperature in a dry, cool, ventilated place.
10. Price and Counterfeits
Retail prices are not found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the agricultural product geographical indication mark and for Wangmo County as the place of production.
- Do not confuse it with the purple-leaf tea of Hezhou prefecture-level city in Guangxi, which includes Babu District (八步区): the place name is the same, the province is different.
- Do not confuse it with “八宝茶” (bābǎo chá) — a similar-sounding mixed drink with additives.
11. Interesting Facts
- Standards for three classes are recorded under one name: red and green (2021), red and white (2025).
- The place name Babu exists in two provinces: in Guizhou it is a village, in Guangxi a district of Hezhou prefecture-level city, where purple-leaf tea is also made.
12. Comparison with Other Purple-Leaf Teas
- Hezhou Zi Cha (贺州紫茶): Purple-leaf tea of Hezhou prefecture-level city in Guangxi, which includes Babu District; it is linked with the Guizhou village only by the similar sound of the place names.
- Zijuan Hongcha (紫鹃红茶): Red tea from the Yunnan purple-leaf variety Zijuan; Bābù chá is described as a local arboreal form.
In Conclusion:
Bābù chá is the name of the purple raw material of Wangmo County, not of a single tea: standards for red, green and white tea are recorded under it, and the state catalog describes a product with golden tips and an orange-red liquor. The pillars of the name are the tens of thousands of old trees of Jiaona, the 2021 geographical indication and the 2025 series of standards. The class according to the registration and the primary data on anthocyanins remain open in the sources consulted.
Sources
Standards
Full list — on the Sources page