Dàzhú báichá

Dàzhú báichá (大竹白茶) is a tea from a white-leaf variety of Dazhu County (大竹县), Dazhou prefecture-level city, in the east of Sichuan Province. The word báichá in the name does not prove that it belongs to the white class. The tea is made from the variety 白叶一号 (báiyè yīhào), brought from Anji County in Zhejiang — the same one that gives the green Anji Baicha; in spring the young shoots of this variety are almost white, hence the name. The class has not been established by documents. According to the county chronicle, the first bushes were planted in 2009; in 2020 the name received an agricultural product geographical indication, and in 2025 it was included in the list of geographical indication products of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA).

1. Classification and Origin

• Type: The class has not been established by documents. The county chronicle (a reference from the county local chronicles office, 2019) calls the leading brand “巴蜀玉叶” “a rarity among green teas”, and the variety 白叶一号 gives a green tea in Anji. But the class is decided by technology, and I have not seen the text of the county processing regulation, so the article is placed among the categories, like Chongyang Baicha. “白茶” in the name is the color of the spring leaf, not the technology of withering.
• Category: Tea from light-leaf varieties; agricultural product geographical indication (2020) and geographical indication product in the CNIPA list (2025).
• Origin: China, Sichuan Province (四川, Sìchuān), Dazhou prefecture-level city (达州, Dázhōu), Dazhu County (大竹, Dàzhú).
• Protection zone: 19 townships and towns of the county — Yuehua, Tuanba, Gaoxue, Qinghe, Yangjia, Qingshui, Miaoba, Tiancheng, Guanyin, Zhoujia, Wenxing, Shizi, Wumu, Oujia, Zhonghua, Mama, Chaoyang, Badu and Chuanzhu — and within them 192 administrative villages.
• Geographic coordinates: 106°59′54″–107°32′17″ E, 30°20′07″–31°00′06″ N.

2. History and Cultural Significance

• History:
  • Before the white variety. The chronicle traces the tea history of Dazhu back more than a thousand years, and the county tea industry center traces it back 1700 years; no one names the sources. In the 1960s–1970s two state tea farms and 132 rural ones operated here; later the gardens were abandoned.
  • 2009 — a variety from Anji. According to the chronicle, a retired serviceman from the county, noticing the similarity with Anji in latitude and in the abundance of bamboo, brought 1000 seedlings for a trial; the following year the experiment succeeded. The figures in publications differ: 2000 and “several hundred” (Dazhou portal, 2022), more than 3000 in Baicha village of Tuanba town (Sichuan Ribao, 2025); Sichuan Nongcun Ribao dates the beginning to 2010.
  • 2010–2011 — the first company. The chronicle dates its founding to July 2011, one of the Dazhou portal’s publications to 2010. The company handed out seedlings to farmers and bought up fresh leaf.
  • 2012–2017 — awards for the brand. Tea of the leading company under the brand “巴蜀玉叶” won gold at the “中绿杯” competition (2012, 2016) and special prizes at the “中茶杯” competition (2015, 2017).
  • 2020. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs included “大竹白茶” in the second batch of agricultural product geographical indications of 2020, number AGI03245.
  • 2022. In February the Dazhou standards on cultivation (DB5117/T 50-2022) and on processing (DB5117/T 51-2022) came into force; the second was repealed as of 31 August 2025.
  • 2025. CNIPA announcement No. 646 included “大竹白茶” in the list of geographical indication products.
• Name: Dàzhú (大竹) — “big bamboo”: the chronicle explains the county’s name by the abundance of large bamboo. Báichá (白茶) — “white tea”, after the color of the spring shoot.
• Cultural significance: Since 2017 the county has held the festival “喊山开茶” — “calling to the mountain and opening the harvest” — in the gardens every spring; in 2026 it took place for the tenth time. According to the county tea industry center, the festival has drawn more than 200,000 visitors in total.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Variety: 白叶一号 (báiyè yīhào) — a white-leaf variety from Anji County, Zhejiang Province; the seedlings for the first plantings were brought from there.
• Leaf color: In early spring the young shoots are jade-white; as it gets warmer and the light grows stronger, the leaf turns green. That is why, according to the chronicle, the best product of the “巴蜀玉叶” brand is made for only about a week a year.
• Harvest: Spring. According to the chronicle, buds in Dazhu break about ten days earlier than in Anji, and the harvest begins earlier.
• Harvest standard: Data were not found in the sources consulted; I have not seen the text of standard DB5117/T 50-2022.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Topography: A zone of parallel ridges and valleys on the edge of the Sichuan Basin — “three mountains and two troughs”.
• Climate: Subtropical humid monsoon. According to the chronicle: average annual temperature 16.6 °C, extremes over the years of observation from −4 to 41 °C, frost-free period 284 days, precipitation 1184 mm per year, sunshine 1440 hours per year.
• Growing altitude: 500–800 m.
• Soils: Yellow clayey sandy loams with pH 4.5–6.5, with a large amount of organic matter from leaf litter. The county writes of soils rich in selenium, potassium and zinc; I have not seen measurements.
• Plantings: According to the chronicle, the gardens alternate with forest (林茶相间).
• Scale: According to the county, 50,000 mu in 2019, more than 80,000 mu in 13 towns by 2022.

5. Production Technology

The technology was described by the county regulation DB5117/T 51-2022 “大竹白茶加工技术规程”, now repealed; I have not seen its text. If the tea is made as a green tea, on the model of Anji Baicha, the general scheme is as follows: spring harvest of light shoots → wilting (摊放, tānfàng) → fixation (杀青, shāqīng), which stops oxidation → shaping (理条, lǐtiáo) → drying (烘干, hōnggān). This is a general scheme of the class, not a description of the technology of Dàzhú báichá; parameters were not found in the sources consulted.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The description below is given by the county chronicle (2019) and the county tea industry center (2022); I have not seen the text of the description in the indication document.

• Dry leaf appearance: Straight and graceful, goose-yellow with green showing through, with noticeable white down (外形挺直秀丽、鹅黄隐翠、白毫显露).
• Dry leaf aroma: Descriptions were not found in the sources consulted.
• Liquor aroma: Clean and lasting (香气清香持久).
• Taste: Fresh, brisk, sweet and mellow, makes the mouth water (滋味鲜爽甘醇生津).
• Liquor color: Tender green and bright (茶汤嫩绿明亮).
• Spent leaves (wet leaves): For the name as a whole there are no descriptions. For the “巴蜀玉叶” brand the chronicle describes them as follows: tender buds with leaves open into a flower, the leaf white with green veins, with a jade sheen (芽叶细嫩成朵，叶白脉翠).

7. Chemical Composition

The county chronicle gives an amino acid content of 8–12%, and for the “巴蜀玉叶” brand — 9.7% free amino acids, three to four times more than in ordinary green tea. Polyphenols, according to the same chronicle, are lower than in other green teas; no figure is given. The source does not state the method or the sample — this is a guide, not a norm of a standard.

8. Brewing

Class practice for tender green tea.

• Water temperature: 75–80 °C: light-leaf varieties are rich in amino acids, and hot water dulls their freshness.
• Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
• Teaware: Glass tumbler.
• Process:
  1. Warm the teaware.
  2. Add the tea and pour the water down the side.
  3. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
  4. Drink, leaving a third of the liquor.
  5. Top up with water.
  6. Two or three further infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Freshness and the light color go first, so the tea is best drunk within a year.

10. Price and Counterfeits

According to the county chronicle, in 2019 the average price of dry tea was 2000–3200 yuan per kilogram. In a 2023 publication of the Dazhou portal, a local tea grower gives a wholesale price for dry tea ranging from 400–500 to 2000 yuan per jin.

• How to avoid counterfeits:
  • Look for the geographical indication mark and registration AGI03245.
  • Check that the producer is from Dazhu County.
  • Remember that 白叶一号 grows in many provinces: the origin cannot be told from the look of the leaf, only documents confirm it.

11. Interesting Facts

• The county is named after bamboo, and the chronicle quotes the saying “竹多（白）茶更香” — “where there is more bamboo, the (white) tea is more fragrant”.
• In 2019 Dazhu white-leaf tea had seven registered brands, among them “巴蜀玉叶” and “川白茶”.
• In 2023 a drink made from Dazhu tea — freeze-dried coffee with white tea — was presented in Wuzhen, in Zhejiang. The Dazhou portal played on this as the variety’s return “home”.

12. Comparison with Other Light-Leaf Teas

• Anji Baicha (安吉白茶): The homeland of the variety and the benchmark for this type of tea; Dàzhú báichá is its Sichuan descendant with an earlier harvest.
• Zheng’an Baicha (正安白茶): A green tea of the same variety in Guizhou, also with a geographical indication.
• Jing’an Baicha (靖安白茶): A light-leaf green tea of Jiangxi Province.
• Guangyuan Huangcha (广元黄茶): A Sichuan “relative” from the yellow-leaf varieties 中黄1号 and 中黄2号 — the same name trap, only with “yellow”.

In Conclusion:

Dàzhú báichá is a young Sichuan tea with a deceptive name: it is called white after the color of the spring shoot. Over a decade and a half the Anji variety 白叶一号 took root in the bamboo county at 500–800 m and, according to county descriptions, gave a tea with a tender green liquor, a fresh sweet taste and a high amino acid content. The chronicle counts the leading brand among green teas, but without the text of the technology the class remains unconfirmed; the protection zone, meanwhile, is drawn down to the village.

Sources

Standards

• DB5117/T 50-2022
• DB5117/T 51-2022

Full list — on the Sources page