---
title: "Bǐjià chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/bijia-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-08
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Bǐjià chá (笔架茶)

**Bi Jia Cha** (*Bǐjià chá*, 笔架茶; in district and municipal texts also 笔架山茶, "tea of Mount Bijia") is a local tea of Mount Bijia (笔架山) in Taihe Township (太和镇), Qingxin District (清新区), Qingyuan City (清远市), Guangdong Province. By processing method it is a green tea that is then aged. The traditional craft, as the district describes it, involves fixation by roasting in an iron wok, hand rolling, smoking over an open pinewood fire, and final drying on charcoal in a bamboo basket; the finished tea is then stored. The craft of its production, "笔架茶制作工艺", was entered in the Guangdong provincial intangible cultural heritage list in 2018, and 笔架茶 itself was entered in the provincial list of regional brands in 2017. In documents the craft is recorded under an oolong item, and the municipal plan calls the tea a "post-fermented tea", but the descriptions of the processing method do not support those labels.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*) with aging. The class is determined by processing method, as required by the national tea classification standard GB/T 30766-2014: it divides tea primarily by processing method. The standard defines green tea as a product made from fresh leaves that has undergone fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*), rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*), and drying. This is how the craft is described in district publications, the text of the district cultural organ, and by one producer: the first heating step is fixation, followed by rolling and drying. There is no 做青 (*zuòqīng*) stage, without which there is no oolong, and no wet piling [渥堆](https://thetea.app/article/wodui) (*wòduī*), without which there is no dark tea, in any description found. By drying method the traditional tea is closer to 烘青 (*hōngqīng*), which GB/T 30766-2014 defines as green teas dried mainly by heat (烘) rather than by roasting in a wok or drum. The corporate standard of the cooperative from Mount Bijia, according to the card of a standards aggregator, is called "绿茶（笔架茶）", "green tea (Bi Jia Cha)"; in its list of stages, fixation is preceded by withering (萎凋, *wěidiāo*), and 做青 is absent. In the food production license of one producer, according to a fragment of an official search index, 笔架茶 is recorded under the green tea section.
* **Why other classes appear in documents:** The sources differ in labels, not in the description of the processing method. In the provincial heritage list, the craft is entered as an extension of the general item "乌龙茶制作技艺", "oolong making techniques". The municipal tea industry development plan of 2013, according to a fragment of an official search index (the document itself was not opened), calls 笔架山茶 together with Pukeng Cha "[后发酵](https://thetea.app/article/houfajiao)茶", "post-fermented teas". The encyclopedia 360百科 retells the opinion of an unnamed specialist who visited the mountain in the early 1960s, that 笔架茶 belongs to 青茶, that is, to oolongs, and writes that the method is "somewhat similar" to the making of the red tea xiaozhong (小种红茶). None of these sources describes 做青, 渥堆, or oxidation of the leaf, and the processing method as retold by 360百科 itself begins with fixation in an iron wok. Why the craft was attached specifically to an oolong item is not explained by the sources. It is not explained by the absence of a green tea craft item in the list: according to the provincial local chronicles portal, the green tea craft 玉湖炒茶制作技艺 was entered in the provincial list as early as 2012. Whether a general item "绿茶制作技艺" already existed in the list by 2018 has not been established.
* **Category:** A local "mountain tea" of the district, not a cultivar and not a single producer's brand. One of the "eight mountain teas" of Qingxin (八大山茶, *bā dà shānchá*), alongside Pukeng Cha (蒲坑茶). The full list of eight is given by the Guangdong publication "Nanfang+" (南方+, 2022): 笔架茶、蒲坑茶、骆坑茶、石坎木古营茶、鱼坝风云茶、秦皇山茶、禾云飞鹅茶、石马大坑茶.
* **Origin:** China, Guangdong Province (广东, *Guǎngdōng*), Qingyuan City (清远, *Qīngyuǎn*), Qingxin District (清新, *Qīngxīn*), Taihe Township (太和, *Tàihé*), Mount Bijia (笔架山, *Bǐjià shān*).
* **Main production area:** According to the district text on the entry of the craft into the heritage list (2018), the main production area (主要产地) is six village committees of the Bijia Mountain Forest Farm (笔架林场, *Bǐjià línchǎng*): Kenkou (坑口), Kenwei (坑尾), Zhongshan (中山), Genzhuyuan (根竹园), Sankengtan (三坑滩), and Tianbian (田边). The source says main, not sole, production area; no officially approved production zone is found in the sources found. How the forest farm relates administratively to Taihe Township is not explained by the sources.
* **Not Yingde tea:** No source found places Bi Jia Cha under Yingde (英德), another county-level city of the same prefecture. "Nanfang+" (2022) divides Qingyuan Prefecture into three tea zones: a red tea zone centered on Yingde, a high-mountain green tea zone in the north, and a zone of teas with aged aroma (陈香, *chénxiāng*) from medium- and small-leaf cultivars, mainly in Qingxin District.
* **Geographic coordinates:** Not given in the sources found.
* **Standards:** A search in the national base of local standards for 笔架茶 and 笔架山 yielded no records. According to cards of standards aggregators, there is a group standard T/QYZL 9-2020 "清新笔架茶生产技术规程", "Technical regulations for production of Qingxin Bi Jia Cha", published on 12 August 2020. It covers site selection, planting, soil and fertilization, bush shaping, pest, disease, and weed control, and plucking, but does not regulate processing; the aggregators differ on the name of the issuing organization. According to an aggregator card, the cooperative 清远市清新区笔架山农业专业合作社 issued the corporate standard Q/BJS 0002 S-2021 "绿茶（笔架茶）" on 1 August 2021 and implemented it on 1 September; the same aggregator gives 18 October 2026 as the date of cancellation. The texts of both standards have been read only in the aggregators' retelling. "Nanfang+" (2022) writes that for 笔架茶 and Pukeng Cha "technical processing regulations have gradually taken shape", but gives no document name.
* **Heritage:** By Guangdong provincial government decision 粤府函〔2018〕116号 of 12 May 2018, "笔架茶制作工艺" was entered in the provincial intangible cultural heritage list, in the extension list announced together with the 7th batch, as an addition to item Ⅷ－74 "乌龙茶制作技艺"; the applicant is Qingxin District. The district itself calls this inclusion in the seventh provincial batch. The status applies to the craft, not to a cultivar or product.
* **Regional brand:** By a decision of 15 November 2017, 笔架茶 was entered in the second provincial list of "famous, special, quality, and new" agricultural products of Guangdong (广东省第二届名特优新农产品目录) as a regional public brand of Qingyuan Prefecture, position 283. A brand list is not a standard and not a geographical indication.
* **Geographical indication:** Not established: the register of trademarks and geographical indications was not checked.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Tang legend.** A district organ publication (2025) and the press repeat a legend that as early as the Tang dynasty (唐, *Táng*), tea from Mount Bijia went overseas. There is no documentary confirmation in the sources found: this is a legend, not a chronicle.
    * **Ming and Qing.** A local-history essay on the website of Qingcheng District of the same prefecture writes that "since Ming and Qing times" 笔架茶, together with other special products of Qingyuan, became famous through the trading streets Shangguo and Xiaguo (上下廓街). The essay does not indicate where this information comes from.
    * **2017.** Regional brand in the provincial list, position 283.
    * **2018.** The craft entered the provincial intangible cultural heritage list.
    * **2020–2021.** According to aggregator cards, a group standard on cultivation and plucking (2020) and a corporate standard "绿茶（笔架茶）" of one cooperative (2021).
    * **2025.** District companies showed 笔架茶 together with Pukeng Cha at the "Qingxin mountain tea" stand of the spring and autumn China (Guangzhou) International Tea Expo. In August, according to a report by the district "spiritual civilization" office (文明办), a holder of the craft at an evening school session explained the "seven steps" of the traditional technology, the signature "smoke taste" (烟火味, *yānhuǒwèi*), and aging (陈化, *chénhuà*); the seven steps themselves are not listed in the report.
* **Name:** 笔架 (*bǐjià*) is a "brush rest", 山 (*shān*) is a mountain, 茶 (*chá*) is tea. 笔架茶 is the tea of Mount Bijia, the "brush-rest mountain"; why the mountain is so named is not stated in the sources checked. In district and municipal texts the fuller form 笔架山茶 also occurs. The craft in heritage lists is called "笔架茶制作工艺", with "笔架茶制作技艺" and "笔架茶制茶工艺" also found. In the sources found, the tea's name in Latin script occurs only in the English titles of academic articles, as Bijia Tea and BiJia Tea, without tones; the tone reading *Bǐjià chá* is from dictionaries.
* **Cultural significance:** Bi Jia Cha is one of the "eight mountain teas" of the district, which the district supply and marketing cooperative presented together in 2025 at the provincial tea culture season. In Kenkou Village (坑口村) of Taihe Township, according to "Nanfang+" (2022), 笔架茶 is developed under the "one village, one product" (一村一品, *yī cūn yī pǐn*) program, led by a local tea company. The district considers aging a value: about the "eight mountain teas" as a whole it writes that the longer the tea is stored, the higher its drinking value.

**3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:**

* **Cultivar:** No registered cultivar is named in the sources found; what bush underlies the tea has not been established by the verified texts. According to an aggregator's retelling, the cooperative's corporate standard covers leaves of local high-mountain tea from Mount Bijia (本土茶, *běntǔ chá*) or medium- and small-leaf bushes. A 2019 academic article compares obtaining 笔架茶 seedlings by tissue culture with ordinary seed sowing and cuttings.
* **Plucking:** According to a district television report (2017), early spring tea is picked before the Qingming festival (明前, *míngqián*), when the leaf is "half opened" (半开面, *bàn kāimiàn*). The sources do not name other plucking seasons.
* **Plucking standard:** One bud with two leaves, as written in a district television report (2017) and a newspaper (2022), citing a company director. One district producer allows one bud with one or two leaves: too tender a leaf, according to him, "does not give the taste of 笔架茶", while too coarse a leaf spoils the taste. The 2020 group standard includes plucking rules, but its text has not been read.
* **Raw material requirements:** No style requirements are found in the sources read. The practice of one company is known: according to its director (2022), the leaf is processed immediately, not left overnight, "from garden to cup no more than 24 hours", and from five jin (斤, *jīn*) of fresh leaf one jin of spring tea is usually obtained. This is the practice of one company in one season, not a requirement for Bi Jia Cha raw material.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** Mount Bijia in Taihe Township, Qingxin District. The district names it among the three municipal nature reserves (市级自然保护区) of Qingxin, and the provincial culture and tourism department names the Mount Bijia tourist zone among the township's resources.
* **Vegetation:** The district (2018) writes that the mountain is rich in vegetation and water, and the slopes are entirely covered with pines and bamboo (漫山松竹, *mànshān sōngzhú*). By this it explains that 笔架茶 has more of a "pine and bamboo" note in aroma than Pukeng Cha.
* **Growing elevation:** The sources do not give tea garden elevations. The main peak of the mountain is Huajian Peak (花尖峰), about 740 m above sea level, according to a district organ report (2025).
* **Climate:** No data in the sources found.
* **Soils:** No data in the sources found.

**5. Production Technology:**

No regional standard on processing has been found: the 2020 group standard regulates only cultivation and plucking. The traditional method is known from short descriptions by the district, one producer, and district television. Apart from a few figures from a tea master and a producer, the sources do not give parameters, and the order of individual operations differs between descriptions. A 2017 review that contains a section on processing has been read only in its abstract.

Traditional method:

1.  **Picking and surface drying.** According to a tea master in a district television report (2017), the picked leaf is first dried of surface moisture (待水分晾干). There is no 做青 stage, the mechanical processing in which, according to GB/T 30766-2014, the leaf edges are damaged and partially oxidized, in any description.
2.  **Fixation in an iron wok (铁镬炒青, *tiěhuò chǎoqīng*).** The leaf is roasted in an iron wok to stop the action of its enzymes. The same tea master keeps the wok at "over three hundred degrees" (300多度); the report does not name the unit of measurement. A producer writes that after fixation the leaf is cooled and only then rolled.
3.  **Hand rolling (手工揉捻, *shǒugōng róuniǎn*).** According to the tea master, the leaf is rolled in one direction for about 15 minutes until it curls into tight strips (条索, *tiáosuǒ*).
4.  **Smoking over pinewood fire (松柴明火烟熏, *sōngchái mínghuǒ yānxūn*).** The leaf is held over an open pinewood fire so that it absorbs the smoke. Exactly when differs between sources: the district text on the craft (2018) places smoking after fixation and initial rolling, while district television places it during wok roasting, with rapid stirring of the leaf. A producer writes that during smoking over pine fire the leaf is turned every 10 minutes.
5.  **Drying on charcoal in a bamboo basket (竹箩炭火焙干, *zhúluó tànhuǒ bèigān*).** According to the tea master, about an hour, with stirring every 10 minutes, until the leaf becomes blue-black (乌黑, *wūhēi*). A producer describes the color of the finished primary tea as "gray-black with green" (灰黑色带青).
6.  **Storage ([藏茶](https://thetea.app/article/zangcha), *cángchá*).** The district shows storage among the stages of the craft, and in a 2025 report a holder of the craft speaks of aging (陈化). A producer writes that the primary tea (毛茶, *máochá*) is not drunk immediately and is kept in bags for two to three years; a tea master advises about three years; 360百科 names one to two years. The sources give no single period.

**Corporate standard.** According to an aggregator's retelling, standard Q/BJS 0002 S-2021 of the cooperative from Mount Bijia describes making "green tea (Bi Jia Cha)" through withering (萎凋), fixation, rolling, breaking up lumps (解块, *jiěkuài*), initial roasting dry (初次炒干, *chūcì chǎogān*), drying (烘干, *hōnggān*), and, if necessary, refining (精制, *jīngzhì*). The retelling gives no parameters, and there is no smoking or aging in the list of stages. This is the regulation of one cooperative, not a definition of the style.

**Why aging does not make the tea dark.** GB/T 30766-2014 defines dark tea through wet piling (渥堆), the holding of leaves in a pile at certain temperature and humidity, during which their composition slowly changes. In descriptions of Bi Jia Cha storage there are no piles and no moistening: the finished dry tea is kept in bags. Therefore aged Bi Jia Cha remains a green tea by technology, even though the 2013 municipal plan calls it a "post-fermented tea".

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

There is no standardized tasting in the sources found. Below is the traditional quality formula, which passes from text to text (the district text on the craft of 2018, a district organ report of 2025), and promotional descriptions. These are descriptions, not measurement results; whose assessment is indicated in each point.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** According to the district formula, tightly rolled strips (条索紧结, *tiáosuǒ jǐnjié*), dark, oily color with green (乌润带青, *wūrùn dài qīng*). A producer describes the primary tea's color as gray-black with green, a tea master as blue-black.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No separate descriptions. According to a tea master, fresh tea has a smoky smell that almost disappears after a few months.
* **Infusion aroma:** According to the district formula, clean, long, and persistent (香气清长持久, *xiāngqì qīngcháng chíjiǔ*). The district writes that 笔架茶 has more of a "pine and bamboo" note in aroma than Pukeng Cha. A 2025 report on a session with a craft holder calls the "smoke taste" (烟火味) a signature feature of the craft.
* **Taste:** According to the district formula, refreshing and smooth, with sweetness (滋味爽口而滑，带甜甘味); even after ten infusions the sweetness remains (冲泡上十次，甘味犹存). A director of one company (2023) calls the taste refreshing and smooth, and a district website report on a 2025 exhibition calls it thick, with sweet return (醇厚回甘, *chúnhòu huígān*).
* **Infusion color:** According to the district formula, brown-red, transparent, and bright (棕红透亮, *zōnghóng tòuliàng*); a company director says "brown-red, not cloudy". For most green teas such a color is atypical; whether it is connected with smoking and aging, the sources do not explain.
* **Wet leaf (infused leaf):** According to the district formula, even (叶底匀整, *yèdǐ yúnzhěng*). No other descriptions.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

No physicochemical data on Bi Jia Cha, polyphenols, amino acids, caffeine, is found in the sources read. Three academic works are known, read only in abstracts:

* **Pigments (2010).** An article in the journal "食品研究与开发" extracts pigments from "Qingyuan Bijia tea" by heating and organic solvents, determines them, and studies their stability. No figures from this work are given here: the full text was not read.
* **Review (2017).** "清远笔架茶发展综述" in the journal "广东茶业" covers history, cultivation methods, processing, quality features, industry status, and research.
* **Propagation (2019).** An article in the journal of Qingyuan Polytechnic (清远职业技术学院学报) compares obtaining seedlings by tissue culture with ordinary sowing and cuttings.

As for most green teas, the main soluble substances usually named include catechins, amino acids, including L-theanine, and caffeine. How smoking and years of aging change them in Bi Jia Cha has not been measured in the sources found.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this specific tea: the academic works found concern pigments, bush propagation, and industry development, not the effects of the tea on the body. Local texts by tradition append folk notions of the tea's healing effect to the quality formula; these are formulaic descriptions, not established properties, and the encyclopedia does not repeat them. General notions of green tea's benefits have not been verified for aged smoked Bi Jia Cha and are not presented here.

**9. Brewing:**

No data on brewing Bi Jia Cha specifically are found in the sources; it is only known that, according to the traditional district formula, the sweetness remains even after ten infusions. Below is a practice as for most Chinese green teas. It has not been verified for aged smoked tea, and local brewing methods are unknown.

* **Water temperature:** 80–85 °C, as for most green teas.
* **Amount of tea:** About 3 g per 150 ml.
* **Vessel:** Gaiwan (盖碗, *gàiwǎn*) or glass.
* **Process:**
    1. Rinse the vessel with hot water.
    2. Add the tea.
    3. A rinse is usually unnecessary for fresh green teas; whether it is needed for aged Bi Jia Cha, the sources do not say.
    4. First infusion, 30–60 seconds.
    5. Pour off the infusion completely and pour into cups.
    6. Repeat infusions, gradually lengthening the steep; there are no verified data on how many the tea will withstand, only the district formula promising sweetness even after the tenth infusion.

**10. Storage:**

Aging is part of the tradition (see section 5): the primary tea, according to a producer, is kept in bags for two to three years, according to other sources from one to three years. The aging conditions, temperature, humidity, containers other than bags, are not described by the sources. The usual advice for fresh green teas, airtight packaging and refrigeration at 0–5 °C, is meant to preserve freshness and does not transfer directly to tea that is aged deliberately. How to store already aged tea is not stated by the sources; like any tea, it should be protected from moisture, light, and foreign odors.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No prices are found in the sources. The sources do not describe ways to recognize a counterfeit; below is what can be checked against known facts.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Check the origin: Mount Bijia, Taihe Township, Qingxin District, Qingyuan Prefecture, Guangdong Province. There are mountains of the same name 笔架山 in other provinces, for example in Luoyuan County, Fujian Province, and they have no relation to Bi Jia Cha.
    * Do not confuse with Yingde teas: that is another county-level city of the same prefecture, and Bi Jia Cha is not placed under it.
    * Do not treat the regional brand as a guarantee: position 283 of the provincial list is not a standard and not a geographical indication, and no geographical indication status for 笔架茶 has been established.
    * Ask about the method: traditional tea is smoked over pinewood and aged, while the list of stages of the corporate standard, as retold by an aggregator, contains neither smoking nor aging. The name is the same, the methods are different.
    * Be cautious about claimed age: the sources do not name any method available to a buyer to verify the aging period.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* A craft that is green tea by technology was entered in the provincial heritage list under the general item "oolong making techniques"; why, the sources do not explain.
* The district explains the pine-bamboo note in aroma by the fact that the slopes of Mount Bijia are entirely covered with pines and bamboo.
* Fresh tea, according to a tea master, has a smoky smell that almost disappears after a few months, and the primary tea, according to a producer, is not drunk immediately at all.
* In the sources found, the Latin script Bijia, without tones, occurs only in the English titles of academic articles about the tea; the tone reading of the name is from dictionaries.
* The "brush-rest mountain", 笔架山, is not a unique toponym: there are mountains of the same name in other provinces of China.

**13. Comparison with Similar Teas:**

* **Pukeng Cha (蒲坑茶):** A neighboring "mountain tea" of the same district from another township, Shitan (石潭); the two teas have separate positions in heritage lists and in the brand list. In the encyclopedia Pukeng Cha is described as a dark tea: a 2026 academic article gives it steam fixation and wet piling, while Bi Jia Cha has no piling in any description. But descriptions of Pukeng Cha differ, and some of them have wok fixation and drying over pinewood, like Bi Jia Cha, so how much the technologies actually differ is not shown unambiguously by the sources. Common features are pine smoke and aging; the district writes that Bi Jia Cha has more "pine and bamboo" aroma.
* **Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong ([正山小种](https://thetea.app/article/zheng-shan-xiao-zhong)):** A red tea dried over pinewood smoke. 360百科 writes that the method of 笔架茶 is "somewhat similar" to the making of xiaozhong, but red tea is oxidized, while Bi Jia Cha's first heating step is fixation.
* **Oolong (乌龙):** The craft was entered in the provincial heritage list under the general item "oolong making techniques", but the 做青 stage by which the standard defines oolong is absent from descriptions of Bi Jia Cha.
* **Hei Cha (黑茶):** The 2013 municipal plan calls 笔架山茶 a "post-fermented tea", but the wet piling by which the standard defines dark tea is not described for Bi Jia Cha.
* **Kejia Chao Lü (客家炒绿) and Xinyi He Luo Lü Cha ([信宜合箩绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/xinyi-he-luo-lucha)):** Other Guangdong green teas that, according to encyclopedia articles about them, are also aged. This is a similarity of practice, not kinship.
* **Ying De Hong Cha ([英德红茶](https://thetea.app/article/yingde-hongcha)) and Yingde Lü Cha ([英德绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/yingde-lucha)):** Red and green tea of the county-level city of Yingde in the same Qingyuan Prefecture.

**In conclusion:**

Bi Jia Cha is a local tea of Mount Bijia in Qingxin District, whose craft has been in the Guangdong provincial heritage list since 2018, and whose name was entered in the provincial regional brand list in 2017. By technology it is a green tea: in the traditional method the leaf is fixed in an iron wok, rolled by hand, smoked over pinewood fire, dried on charcoal in a bamboo basket, and aged for years. The labels "oolong" and "post-fermented tea" exist in documents, but they are not supported by descriptions of the processing method.

For someone who knows green tea through fresh spring pickings, Bi Jia Cha is an unusual combination: pine smoke, years of storage, and a sweetness that the local formula promises even after the tenth infusion. Much remains open: the full text of the 2017 review, the "seven steps" of the craft, the texts of the standards, the bush from which the tea is made, and the taste according to a standardized tasting rather than a traditional formula.