Dàyáoshān tiánchá

Dàyáoshān tiánchá (大瑶山甜茶) is “the sweet tea of the Dayao Mountains”, a product of Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County (金秀瑶族自治县), Laibin prefecture-level city, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is not the leaf of the tea bush Camellia sinensis but the leaves of a shrub with a sweet taste; the Yao of the county, according to descriptions, have used it for several hundred years as a natural sweetener and food product, and the inhabitants themselves call it “thorny tea” (刺儿茶, cì’er chá). The product is protected as a geographical indication product: in July 2024 the China National Intellectual Property Administration authorized an enterprise of the county to use the special mark. Documents on the plant itself, the zone and the technology were not found in the sources consulted, so the article is shorter than usual.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Not tea in the botanical sense and none of the six classes of Chinese tea. Descriptions call the product “天然的甜味料与食品” — a natural sweetener and food product.
Category: An infusion not from the tea plant; a geographical indication product.
Origin: China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (广西, Guǎngxī), Laibin prefecture-level city (来宾, Láibīn), Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County (金秀, Jīnxiù); the Dayao Mountains (大瑶山, Dàyáoshān) are the territory of the county itself.
Protection zone: A list of townships and coordinates was not found in the sources consulted. The zone of another protected product of the same county, the red tea Jinxiu Hongcha, cannot be carried over to tiánchá.
Protection status: Confirmed by announcement No. 593 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration of 18 July 2024 on authorizing enterprises to use the special mark. The number and date of the original decision on protection have not been established in the sources consulted.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Yao tradition. According to a China Daily publication and a blog on Sina, the Yao have used sweet tea as a natural sweetener and food product “for several hundred years”. Written evidence and dates were not found in the sources consulted.
- Scientific study. The Guangxi Institute of Botany and the 181st Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army studied wild sweet tea from Jinxiu; a reference description dates the work to 1978–1981. The result cited is a content of the sweet substance “甜茶素” of 6–7%.
- 1980. According to the blog on Sina, in this year Japanese specialists in sweet substances came to Guangxi to study sweet tea.
- 2024. The China National Intellectual Property Administration, by announcement No. 593 (18 July 2024), authorized 54 enterprises for 27 products to use the special mark of a geographical indication product, including one enterprise of Jinxiu County for “大瑶山甜茶”.
Name: “Dàyáoshān” (大瑶山) means “the great Yao mountains”, the name of the mountain massif and of the county; “tiánchá” (甜茶) means “sweet tea”. The local name “thorny tea” (刺儿茶) is given by China Daily.
Cultural significance: The sources describe sweet tea above all as a natural sweetener and food of the mountain Yao. The blog on Sina writes that tiánchá has become known in Japan, Europe, the USA and the Middle East; it does not name the source of this claim.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Plant: No official or scientific source found gives a Latin species name for Dàyáoshān tiánchá. The page of a seller from Jinxiu links the product with “甜茶叶悬钩子” of the rose family, that is, with a shrub of the raspberry genus (Rubus). A Chinese botanical database names the plant “甜茶” — Rubus chingii var. suavissimus (former name Rubus suavissimus). The features from the descriptions below do not contradict this, but the identification is not confirmed by a document.
Appearance according to descriptions: It grows as a shrub, with a narrow crown and many straight shoots (commercial description). According to a reference description, it flowers mainly in March–April, and the fruits ripen in June; they are orange-red or red and sweet.
Annual cycle: New buds appear in February–March, when the temperature is steadily above 13°C. In July upward growth stops, the leaves are formed, and the period of accumulation of nutrients and conversion of sugars begins. In November overwintering buds are set; according to the reference description, the leaves turn yellow and fall, and the plant goes dormant.
Renewal from the root: According to the reference description, the above-ground shoots live 2–3 years, and the plant renews itself from a perennial root, so a planting yields a crop on its own for many years.
Harvest time: July is “the best time for picking”, according to the blog on Sina: the leaves are formed and accumulate sugars.
Varieties: None in the tea sense; no named selected forms were found in the sources consulted.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The Dayao Mountains in central Guangxi, Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County.
Growing altitude: Above 800 m — according to the description in the blog on Sina.
Conditions: The same source writes of clean air far from industry and of cultivation only with organic manure, without mineral fertilizers or pesticides. These are the words of an advertising text, not the result of a check.
Climate and soils: No data found in the sources consulted.

5. Production Technology

How the raw material is processed is not described in the sources consulted: neither the stages, nor the drying regimes, nor the forms of the finished product. Only the picking time — July — is known, and the fact that dry leaf is sold: commercial descriptions give the composition of the “dry product”. The general scheme of a tea class cannot be applied to this plant, so it is not given here.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

There are no professional tasting descriptions in the sources consulted. All descriptions agree on one thing — sweetness.

Dry leaf appearance: No data found in the sources consulted.
Dry leaf aroma: No data found in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: No data found in the sources consulted.
Taste: Sweet. The blog on Sina writes of high sweetness with low calorie content (高甜度、低热值) and calls the taste “清甜爽口” — clean-sweet and refreshing.
Liquor color: No data found in the sources consulted.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): No data found in the sources consulted.

7. Chemical Composition

The main substance named by all the sources is the sweet glycoside “甜茶素” (in the blog — “甜茶糖甙”). According to the China Daily publication and the description of the research of the Guangxi Institute of Botany, the leaf contains 6–7% of it. A commercial page gives 5% and claims that the product contains no caffeine; its data on flavonoids, amino acids and trace elements have not been independently verified and are not repeated here.

8. Health Properties

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular product. Tourist and trade texts list a long series of medicinal effects — the encyclopedia does not confirm them.

9. Brewing

Class practice. Brewing regimes for Dàyáoshān tiánchá were not found in the sources consulted; below are the usual parameters for herbal infusions from dry leaf.

Water temperature: 90–100°C.
Amount: 2–3 g per 150–200 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler, a gaiwan or a porcelain teapot.
Process: Warm the teaware, pour water over the leaf, the first infusion — 3–5 minutes, then further infusions.

10. Storage

Class practice. Dry leaf — in tight packaging, in a dry, dark place, away from odors.

11. Price and Counterfeits

Prices were not found in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special mark of a geographical indication product. According to announcement No. 593, the right to it for “大瑶山甜茶” was obtained by the company 广西金秀瑶族自治县林海茶业有限公司.
- Check that the product is from Jinxiu County.
- Do not confuse it with other “sweet teas”. In China several different plants are called this; for example, the Hunan “sweet tea” Xupu Yaocha is made from the leaves of the evergreen tree 木姜叶柯 of the beech family, while the leaves of the Dayaoshan plant, according to descriptions, fall for the winter.
- Do not confuse it with Jinxiu Hongcha — a true red tea from the tea bush of the same county, which has its own protection zone.

12. Interesting Facts

One county has two protected “teas”: Jinxiu Hongcha from the tea bush and Dàyáoshān tiánchá, which is not a tea in the botanical sense.
Unlike the evergreen tea bush, the sweet tea plant, according to descriptions, sheds its leaves for the winter and bears sweet red fruits.
The best picking time is considered to be not spring, as with tea, but July, when sugars accumulate in the leaf.

13. Comparison with Other Infusions Not from the Tea Bush

Xupu Yaocha (溆浦瑶茶): Also a “sweet tea” and also a geographical indication product, but from the leaves of an evergreen tree of the beech family; it is processed by a scheme similar to that of green tea.
Laifeng Tengcha (来凤藤茶): A protected infusion from a vine of the grape family from Hubei; its sweetness comes as an aftertaste after a light bitterness.
Kuding (苦丁茶): An infusion from the leaves of evergreen plants — the bitter antipode of sweet tea.
Jinxiu Hongcha (金秀红茶): For contrast — a true red tea of the same county.

In Conclusion:

Dàyáoshān tiánchá is a sweet Yao infusion from the Dayao Mountains, protected as a geographical indication product and known more as a natural sweetener than as a drink for tasting. Little is reliably known about it: the sweetness, the July picking, a deciduous plant that renews itself from the root, and a sweet substance at 6–7% according to old research. The plant species, the protection zone and the technology await a primary source.