Chìbì qīngzhuānchá

Chìbì qīngzhuānchá (赤壁青砖茶) is the “Chibi green brick”, a pressed dark tea of the county-level city of Chibi (赤壁, formerly Puqi, 蒲圻) in the south of Hubei Province. Despite the character 青 (“green, blue-green”) in the name, according to the reference of the Chibi agriculture bureau this is a dark tea (黑茶), a post-fermented tea: the coarse semi-finished lǎoqīngchá (老青茶) is aged in a wet pile, steamed and pressed. Its birthplace is said to be the town of Yangloudong (羊楼洞, Yánglóudòng), where the Great Tea Road to Mongolia and Russia began. The name has been a geographical indication certification mark since 2015; in 2020 it entered the second list of the China–EU agreement on geographical indications.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Dark tea (黑茶, hēichá), pressed (紧压茶, jǐnyāchá) — this is how the class is named in the bureau’s reference.
Category: Hubei brick tea; geographical indication certification mark.
Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Xianning prefecture-level city (咸宁, Xiánníng), Chibi county-level city; the historical center is the town of Yangloudong.
Zone: The bureau’s reference names Chibi county-level city as the protection zone. The raw material comes from a wider area than the city: according to the administration, lǎoqīngchá is also made in Tongshan, Chongyang, Tongcheng and Xian’an and brought to Chibi for pressing.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History (according to the Chibi administration’s reference, unless stated otherwise):
- Tang — Ming. Citing the Great Dictionary of Chinese Tea, the reference writes that the Tang “Ezhou tuanhuang” (鄂州团黄) was made mainly in Chibi and Chongyang. In the Chunxi years (1174–1189) the border trade in Puqi “cave tea” (洞茶) flourished; in the Yongle years (1403–1424) people began making “hat-box tea” (帽盒茶, màohéchá), the predecessor of the brick.
- Qing. In 1728 Shanxi merchants settled in Yangloudong; in the early 19th century the “hat” tea was remade into a brick with the “川” mark, and the administration dates the first machine-made brick to 1861.
- 20th century. In the 1930s, with the Japanese invasion, trade fell sharply. In July 1949 the tea trading houses were merged into the Yangloudong Brick Tea Factory; from 1949 to 1983 the tea was purchased and sold under the plan. In 1983 “川” was registered as the trademark of the qīngzhuān of the Zhaoliqiao (赵李桥) factory, and in 1993 it received the title of “China time-honored brand” (中华老字号).
- 2011. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine placed the geographical indication product “羊楼洞砖茶” — Yangloudong brick tea — under protection.
- 2014. The Yangloudong brick tea culture system was recognized as an important agricultural heritage of China, and the Zhaoliqiao technique as national intangible heritage.
- 2015. In March the city newspaper reported that the tea had passed the formal examination of the general administration for quality, and called it a protected product. A formal examination is only the first step, and the city’s reference names only “羊楼洞砖茶” as a geographical indication product along this line. In the same year, according to the reference, “赤壁青砖茶” was recognized as a certification mark.
- 2020. The name entered the second list of the China–EU agreement — 175 names from each side, whose protection the agreement promises within four years of its entry into force. Whether protection in the EU has taken effect is not stated in the sources.
- 2022. The Zhaoliqiao brick tea technique entered the UNESCO intangible heritage list as part of the element on traditional tea processing in China.
Name: 青砖 (qīngzhuān) means “green brick”; the raw material is called “old green tea” (老青茶), and the reference and the standard describe the color of the brick as bluish-brown (青褐).
The “川” mark. According to the reference, it was first used by the largest tea trading houses of Yangloudong, “Sanyuchuan” (三玉川) and “Jushengchuan” (巨盛川), which traded with the largest firm of Inner Mongolia, Dashengkui (大盛魁): the nomads could not read characters, but three strokes can be felt with three fingers. According to the popular version, these are the three springs of the town, flowing “like a river”.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Cultivar: According to the bureau’s reference, the best raw material comes from the local variety “Ènán dōngqīng” (鄂南冬青种, Ènán dōngqīng zhǒng); 鄂茶1号, 中茶108, 中茶302 and 槠叶齐 have been introduced into new gardens.
Harvest standard: Semi-lignified shoots of the current season; the sign of maturity is “green leaf, red stem” (绿叶红梗); according to a government account on the “Pengpai” platform (2021), usually a bud and five or six leaves. According to the reference, the leaf for the outer layers (面茶) is three fleshier leaves with a dormant bud, and for the filling (里茶) the fourth to sixth leaves; harvesting is done by cutting (割).

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The southern edge of the Jianghan Plain.
Climate: According to the reference — subtropical maritime monsoon, warm and humid. Precipitation is 1571 mm a year, 51.5 % of it in May–August; the mean annual temperature is 16.9 °C, and the frost-free period is 247–261 days.
Soils: Slightly acidic yellow-brown soils, a layer more than 100 cm thick, organic matter above 1.5 %, pH 4.5–6.5.
Area: According to the city — 165,000 mu of gardens in the whole county-level city (2022).

5. Production Technology

The bureau’s reference describes seven stages and 72 operations:

Harvest — by cutting, by the sign “green leaf, red stem”.
Primary processing. According to “Pengpai”: cooling (晾青), fixation (杀青, shāqīng), rolling, sun-drying, a second pan-firing, a second rolling and drying — the result is lǎoqīngchá.
Wet piling and aging (渥堆, wòduī). A batch of not less than 15,000 kg; depending on the maturity of the raw material, the leaf is sprinkled with water or fermented in its own juice; the pile temperature is not below 60 °C, and the pile is turned at least three times; the yellowed and browned leaf is gathered into a large pile and aged for not less than 180 days. According to “Pengpai”, the piling stage lasts from six months to two to five years.
Reprocessing (复制). Sifting, winnowing and cutting — “long into short, coarse into fine”.
Steaming (蒸制) of the leaf for the outer layers and the filling in a set proportion.
Pressing (压制) in a mold; the brick cools for about an hour.
Drying (烘制) with slow heating to a moisture content of not more than 12 %.

The brick is assembled from two outer layers and a filling.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

According to the national standard GB/T 9833.9-2013 “Pressed tea. Part 9: Qingzhuan”, which is common to all green brick, and the reference of the Chibi bureau:

Dry leaf appearance: A brick with a smooth surface and even corners, dense, bluish-brown (青褐), with a clear impression, without black, white or green mold.
Dry leaf aroma: According to the reference, when smelled dry — an aged aroma (陈香).
Liquor aroma: Clean (香气纯正).
Taste: Mellow (滋味醇和); the reference adds a sweet aftertaste.
Liquor color: Orange-red (橙红); the 2015 newspaper wrote “red-yellow”.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Dark brown (暗褐).

In an aged brick, according to the reference, the surface is reddish-brown, the liquor dark red, and the aroma has notes of aging, date and wood.

7. Chemical Composition

The standard GB/T 9833.9-2013 sets physicochemical indicators, but the table is illegible in the available text, so there are no figures here.

8. Health Properties

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea. The administration’s website gives a long list of health properties; clinical verification is not found in the sources consulted, and they are not repeated here.

9. Brewing

Class practice for pressed dark tea — following the recommendations of the Chibi bureau.

Teaware: A thick-walled clay teapot; the tea can also be boiled.
Water temperature: 100 °C.
Ratio: About 1 : 30 for high-grade brick and 1 : 20 for coarse brick; usually 8–10 g broken off in one piece.
Process:
1. The first infusion is a rinse; it is poured off.
2. Steep for 10–30 seconds.
3. About seven infusions.
Boiling: Rinse about 10 g and simmer in boiling water over low heat for about 10 minutes.

10. Storage

Class practice, supplemented by the bureau’s reference: dry, dark, ventilated, free of odors, at 22–26 °C and relative humidity below 70 %; not in polyethylene and apart from other teas.

11. Price and Counterfeits

Retail prices are not found in the sources consulted. Citing an industry valuation, the city puts the brand value at 4.364 billion yuan (2022) — this is a promotional valuation, not a price.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the certification mark “赤壁青砖茶” and a producer from Chibi.
- Remember that “川” is the trademark of one factory, not a mark of origin; qīngzhuān under the general standard is also made outside Chibi.
- According to the reference: the surface is even, without protruding stems, cracks, mold or foreign odors.

12. Interesting Facts

In 2014, according to the city newspaper, Chibi accounted for almost 35 % of brick tea sales in China.
The “川” mark can be read by touch — with three fingers.

13. Comparison with Other Dark Teas

Hubei Qing Zhuan (湖北青砖): The corpus overview of Hubei green brick — at the level of the province and Xianning prefecture.
Lao Qing Cha (老青茶): The semi-finished tea from which the brick is pressed.
Xian’an Zhuancha (咸安砖茶): Brick tea of a neighboring district of the same prefecture — a separate name with its own zone.
Linxiang Heicha (临湘黑茶): Dark tea of Linxiang in Hunan, whose raw material historically also went to Yangloudong.

In Conclusion:

Chìbì qīngzhuānchá is a green brick that is in fact a dark tea: coarse leaf with a red stem, a long wet pile, steam and press. History links it with Yangloudong and the Great Tea Road, while the legal side calls for care: the city names the Yangloudong brick as the geographical indication product, while the name “赤壁青砖茶” is protected as a certification mark and stands on the second list of the agreement with the European Union.

Sources

Standards

GB/T 9833.9-2013

Geographical indication

中欧协定附录V (中国注册)

Full list — on the Sources page