Cháozhōu dāncóng chá (潮州单丛茶) is the geographical indication certification mark No. 42507916 of Chaozhou prefecture-level city in the east of Guangdong Province, granted for dāncóng — the aromatic oolong of the Fenghuang Mountains and neighboring areas. The prefecture also has a geographical indication product with a similar name, “凤凰单丛（枞）茶”, protected since 2010; this is a different registration, with its own standard and its own zone. I have not seen the rules of the mark, so I describe the appearance and technology from the prefecture’s documents on dāncóng in general.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Oolong (乌龙茶, wūlóngchá), the dāncóng group. The mark itself does not name the class; the class is given according to the prefecture’s development plan. According to the plan, for red tea from dāncóng leaf (“潮州单丛红茶”) a provincial local production standard has been adopted; whether the mark covers it has not been established.
- Category: Guangdong oolong; certification mark, confirmed by the 2026 register.
- Origin: China, Guangdong Province (广东, Guǎngdōng), Chaozhou prefecture-level city (潮州, Cháozhōu). The main tea towns are Fenghuang (凤凰镇) of Chao’an District and Fubin (浮滨镇) of Raoping County.
- Mark zone: The register gives Chaozhou prefecture-level city — this is the affiliation of the holder, not the legal boundary of the zone. The zone of the geographical indication product 凤凰单丛（枞）茶 is 30 towns and tea areas in Chao’an, Xiangqiao and Raoping.
- Latitude: According to the prefecture’s plan, the Tropic of Cancer passes through Fenghuang Town.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Origins. The prefecture’s development plan (November 2022) links the discovery of local tea to the ancestors of the She people (畲族) and itself notes that when this happened cannot be established: the She had no writing. According to legend, at the end of the Southern Song, Emperor Bing (宋帝昺) praised the tea of the Fenghuang highlanders — hence the name “Song variety” (宋种).
- 1547. According to the plan, the Gazetteer of Chaozhou Prefecture (潮州府志) gives the annual tribute of Raoping County: 150 jin 2 liang of leaf tea and 180 jin 3 liang of bud tea.
- Late Qing. In the Tongzhi and Guangxu years, peasants began to select the best old bushes and make tea from each one separately — this, according to the plan, is how the name “dāncóng” appeared. The plan dates this to 1875–1908 and at the same time speaks of an almost two-hundred-year history of the name; these figures do not agree.
- 2010. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, by announcement No. 30, placed 凤凰单丛（枞）茶 under protection as a geographical indication product. In 2020 it entered the first list of the China–EU agreement on geographical indications. The prefecture issued its protection procedure in 2013; a new one has been in force since May 2025.
- 2022. The plan names four public tea brands of the prefecture: the geographical indication product 凤凰单丛（枞）茶, the agricultural product geographical indication 岭头单丛茶, the collective mark 凤凰单丛茶 and the certification mark 潮州单丛茶. I did not find the year of registration or the holder of the mark.
- 2025. Since 21 May, International Tea Day, the city “Regulations on Promoting High-Quality Development of the Tea Industry” (潮州市促进茶产业高质量发展条例) have been in force — the first such act in Guangdong. They encourage the use of the names 凤凰单丛（枞）茶, 岭头单丛茶, 凤凰单丛 and 潮州单丛茶.
- Name: 潮州 (Cháozhōu) is the name of the prefecture; 单丛 (dāncóng) means “single bush”, after the custom of making tea from each outstanding bush separately. Unlike “凤凰单丛”, the name of the mark does not contain the Fenghuang Mountains — only the prefecture.
- Cultural significance: The Chaozhou gongfu tea art (潮州工夫茶艺) has been on the national intangible heritage list since 2008, the technique of making dāncóng on the provincial list since 2013, and the tea culture system of Fenghuang dāncóng on the list of important agricultural heritage since 2014.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties: According to the plan, the basis of the prefecture’s gardens is formed by the local cultivars 凤凰单丛 and 岭头单丛 — 93.9% of the area; the rest is 凤凰水仙 (Fènghuáng shuǐxiān) and 石古坪乌龙 (Shígǔpíng wūlóng).
- Diversity: According to the plan, there are more than a thousand cultivar names that the peasants pass down by word of mouth; hence the saying “一树一香，树树不同” — “each tree has its own aroma”.
- Old bushes: In Fenghuang Town, according to the plan, there are more than 15,000 cultivated tea trees older than 100 years and more than 4600 older than 200 years.
- Seasons: Tea is made all year round; the plan considers spring, autumn and winter the best.
- Harvest standard: No data in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region and altitude: The mountains in the north of the prefecture; in Fenghuang Town, according to the plan, stands the peak Fengniaoji (凤鸟髻), 1498 m. A range of garden altitudes for the mark is not found in the sources consulted.
- Climate: According to the plan — southern subtropical maritime, humid, with mists; the average annual temperature in 2016–2021 was 22.0–22.6 °C, precipitation from 1208 to 2775 mm a year.
- Season (according to the plan): Spring tea is rich and sweet, summer tea bitter and astringent, autumn and winter tea milder, with a high, long aroma.
- Soils: Yellow and red soils above 400 m, pH 4.5–6.5, organic matter 3.81–4.26%; lateritic red soils and paddy soils of the low mountains — pH 5.5–6.5.
- Area: According to prefecture data cited when the city regulations came into force, in 2024 — 280,900 mu of gardens and 36,200 t of tea for the prefecture’s entire industry.
5. Production Technology
Below is the scheme from the prefecture’s plan for dāncóng in general; it is a description of the industry, not a norm of the mark.
- Primary processing — 19 operations, about 24 hours: plucking → sun withering (晒青, shàiqīng) → cooling (凉青, liángqīng) → three cycles of “leaf knocking” (碰青, pèngqīng) and two cycles of shaking (摇青, yáoqīng), each with resting → fixation by pan-firing (炒青, chǎoqīng) → rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn) → breaking up clumps → first drying, cooling, final drying.
- Refining — 10 operations: picking out stems → making up the lot → baking over charcoal or electric heat (焙火, bèihuǒ) → cooling and resting → second baking → cooling → evening out the lot → packing. The two bakings together take about 40 hours.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The plan describes finished dāncóng with the formula “形美、色翠、味甘、香郁” — beautiful shape, emerald color, sweet taste, rich aroma — and the nickname “perfume among teas” (茶中香水).
- Dry leaf appearance: No detailed description; the plan speaks of a beautiful shape and does not specify what the “emerald color” refers to.
- Dry leaf aroma: No data in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Natural floral, high and soaring (自然花香、香气高扬), with a special “bush tone” (丛韵, cóngyùn).
- Taste: Sweet, with a rich, mellow sweet return (回甘醇厚); it withstands many infusions.
- Liquor color: No data in the sources consulted.
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): No data in the sources consulted.
7. Chemical Composition
No numerical data or physicochemical requirements of the mark are found in the sources consulted. The plan writes qualitatively: in spring the leaf contains more aromatic substances, amino acids and theanine, in summer more polyphenols, with fewer terpenes.
8. Brewing
Class practice for oolong.
- Water temperature: 95–100 °C.
- Tea amount: 6–8 g per 110–150 ml.
- Teaware: A gaiwan or a small clay teapot.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Add the tea.
- Quickly rinse it with hot water and pour off.
- First infusions — 10–20 seconds.
- Pour out completely.
- Further infusions with a small increase in time.
9. Storage
Class practice for oolong. In airtight packaging, in a cool, dark, dry place, away from foreign odors.
10. Price and Counterfeits
No retail prices in the sources consulted. The plan valued the 2016 output at 160 yuan per kilogram of dry tea — this is an accounting price for statistics, not a market price.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the certification mark “潮州单丛茶” (No. 42507916) and a producer from Chaozhou prefecture.
- Do not confuse it with “凤凰单丛（枞）茶”, “凤凰单丛茶” and “岭头单丛茶” — these are separate registrations.
- Remember that the word “dāncóng” does not guarantee origin: the plan acknowledges that Fenghuang dāncóng cultivars are also planted in other places.
11. Interesting Facts
- According to the plan, dāncóng with a jasmine aroma occupies less than 100 mu of gardens and yields less than 7000 kg of tea.
- The list of mutual recognition of indications with Thailand, which includes 凤凰单丛（枞）茶, is called “3+3” in one place of the plan and “3+5” in another.
12. Comparison with Other Dancong Teas
- Dan Cong (单丛): An overview of the whole group in the corpus.
- Fenghuang Dan Cong (凤凰单丛): A geographical indication product since 2010, with the standard DB4451/T1-2021; a separate registration.
- Lingtou Dan Cong (岭头单丛): A dāncóng of Raoping County; according to the plan, an agricultural product geographical indication.
- Xingning Dan Cong (兴宁单丛): A dāncóng of Meizhou prefecture — outside Chaozhou.
- Guangdong Dan Cong Hong Cha (广东单丛红茶): Red tea from dāncóng leaf — the same leaf, a different class.
In Conclusion:
Cháozhōu dāncóng chá is a prefecture-level mark covering the dāncóng that the plan calls the most representative tea of Guangdong. The documents say little about the mark itself: a number, a place among the prefecture’s four tea brands and a line in the 2025 city regulations. The prefecture’s plan says more about Chaozhou dāncóng: more than a thousand cultivar names, the old trees of Fenghuang, long processing. The main thing is not to confuse this mark with the geographical indication product 凤凰单丛（枞）茶.
Sources
Standards
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page