---
title: "Dōngjiānghú chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/dongjianghu-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Dōngjiānghú chá (东江湖茶)

*Dōngjiānghú chá* (东江湖茶) is “tea of Lake Dongjianghu”, a green tea of Zixing county-level city (资兴市) of Chenzhou prefecture-level city in the south of Hunan Province. The name comes from the Dongjianghu Reservoir: the 2017 specification requires gardens to be laid out no farther than 30 km from its water surface. The protection requirements name the product directly — “东江湖绿茶”, “Dongjianghu green tea” — and reduce its quality to three words: 色绿、味厚、香雅 — green color, full-bodied taste, elegant aroma. Since 2017 the name has been protected as an agricultural product geographical indication, and since 2025 as a geographical indication product.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*). The class is named in the protection requirements themselves (“东江湖绿茶”); the technology is green: fixation, rolling, drying, without sweltering or oxidation.
* **Category:** Hunan rolled green tea from a bud with one or two leaves; geographical indication product.
* **Origin:** China, Hunan Province (湖南, *Húnán*), Chenzhou prefecture-level city (郴州, *Chēnzhōu*), Zixing county-level city (资兴, *Zīxīng*).
* **Protection zone:** Ten towns and townships of Zixing: Bailang (白廊镇), Chukou (滁口镇), Huangcao (黄草镇), Xingning (兴宁镇), Qingjiang (清江镇), Tangxi (汤溪镇), Zhoumensi (州门司镇), Sandu (三都镇) and two Yao ethnic townships — Huilongshan (回龙山瑶族乡) and Bamianshan (八面山瑶族乡). The protected area under the 2017 specification is 7000 ha, the annual volume 3000 t.
* **Geographic coordinates:** About 25°34′–26°18′ N and 113°08′–113°44′ E under the 2017 specification; the 2025 list gives 25°33′45″–26°17′12″ N and 113°13′52″–113°44′19″ E.
* **Scale:** According to the local press, in 2016 Zixing produced 2450 t of dry tea worth 130 million yuan; there is no independent verification of these figures.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Early history.** Dated information on the ancient tea of Zixing — tribute to the court, old names, chronicles — is not found in the sources consulted.
    * **Modern technology.** The 2017 specification itself reports that today's *Dōngjiānghú chá* was developed by specialists of the Tea Research Institute of Hunan Agricultural University (湖南农业大学茶叶研究所): they collected historical materials on tea production in Zixing and built the technology anew. The specification calls it a semi-handmade, semi-mechanical (半手工半机械) famous tea.
    * **2017.** By Ministry of Agriculture announcement No. 2578 of 1 September 2017, *Dōngjiānghú chá* was registered as an agricultural product geographical indication. The holder is the Zixing Tea Association (资兴市茶叶协会). The attached quality control specification itself states that after the announcement it becomes a mandatory national technical regulation.
    * **2025.** The China National Intellectual Property Administration, by announcement No. 640, recognized *Dōngjiānghú chá* as a geographical indication product in a combined list of 1409 names; the applicant is the same tea association.
* **Name:** Dongjianghu (东江湖) is an artificial reservoir in Zixing; *chá* (茶) means tea. According to the 2017 specification, its water-surface area is 16,000 ha, its volume 8.12 billion m³, the water meets the national standard for first-class drinking water, and the lake itself is nicknamed the “Dongting of Southern Hunan” (湘南洞庭).
* **Cultural significance:** The zone includes two townships of the Yao people. Other information on the place of tea in local culture is not found in the sources consulted.

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

* **Varieties / Cultivars:** The 2017 specification recommends the small-leaf varieties 白毫早 (*báiháozǎo*), 碧香早 (*bìxiāngzǎo*) and [乌牛早](https://thetea.app/article/wuniu-zao) (*wūniúzǎo*) and the medium-leaf 福鼎大白 (*fúdǐng dàbái*), 槠叶齐 (*zhūyèqí*; in the text — 楮叶齐) and 黄金茶1号 (*huángjīnchá 1*). The 2025 requirements name 白毫早, 碧香早, 福鼎大白 and 槠叶齐 “and others”. The local press names the clonal 白毫早, 碧香早 and 福鼎大白 as the main ones in the gardens and gives the area of Zixing's gardens — 5400 ha.
* **Local populations:** Data on old local bushes and their share in the raw material are not found in the sources consulted.
* **Harvest standard:** Harvest in spring, summer and autumn on the principle 嫩、匀、净、鲜 — tender, even, clean, fresh.
    * **First grade:** a spring bud with one leaf, the shoot whole and even; the petiole is left long enough that the leaf does not come off. Not allowed are shoots with a stopped bud (驻芽叶), “paired” leaves without a bud (对夹叶), shoots with an opened top (开心叶) and purple leaves.
    * **Second grade:** a spring bud with two leaves or a summer-autumn bud with one leaf; the requirements are the same, but there is no ban on purple leaves.
    * **Picking techniques:** pick with an upward movement of the hand (提手采) or by snapping (折采); grabbing by the handful (抓采), stripping (捋采) and nipping off with the fingernails (掐采) are not permitted by the specification.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** South of Hunan, the southern end of the Luoxiao Mountains (罗霄山脉). The terrain is mostly mountainous, the east higher than the west; according to the specification, the county has more than two hundred peaks above 800 m, and forest cover is 71%.
* **Growing altitude:** **220–800 m** — slopes and gentle areas in the middle of the slope; gradient up to 25°, no farther than 30 km from the reservoir water.
* **Climate:** According to the specification — mean annual temperature 17.7 °C, frost-free period 347.9 days, precipitation 1487.6 mm, sunshine 1461.1 h a year. Morning fogs on up to 118 days a year, the daily temperature range is 8–10 °C.
* **Soils:** Red and yellow soils on weathered clay shales and sandstones, loose, with a high humus content; the rooting layer is at least 80 cm deep, groundwater deeper than 1 m. The specification's figures: pH 4.5–6.5, organic matter 10.5–60.6 g/kg, total nitrogen 1.05–2.83 g/kg, available phosphorus 10.5–225 mg/kg, available potassium 30–328 mg/kg.

**5. Production Technology:**

The processing scheme is set by the 2017 specification:

1.  **Acceptance of fresh leaf by grade (鲜叶分级进厂).**
2.  **Withering (摊青, *tānqīng*):** 6–7 hours.
3.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*):** at 160–180 °C.
4.  **Fanning (清风, *qīngfēng*):** cooling with a flow of air.
5.  **First rolling (初揉, *chūróu*):** 6–8 minutes.
6.  **First drying (初烘, *chūhōng*):** at 110–120 °C.
7.  **Cooling (摊凉, *tānliáng*).**
8.  **Second rolling (复揉, *fùróu*):** 8–10 minutes.
9.  **Second drying (复烘, *fùhōng*):** at 100–110 °C.
10. **Cooling.**
11. **Shaping (做形, *zuòxíng*):** at 60–80 °C.
12. **Final drying (足干, *zúgān*):** about 100 °C.
13. **Sifting, packing and storage in a cold chamber.**

Under the specification, the product must meet the “green food” standard for tea NY/T 288. There is also a Hunan provincial standard DB43/T 2805-2023 “东江湖茶 [有机茶](https://thetea.app/article/youji-cha)生产技术规程” — rules for the production of organic Dongjianghu tea. According to the standards catalog, it was issued by the provincial market regulation administration on 9 November 2023, has been in force since 9 February 2024, and covers the boundaries of the area, the environment, the establishment and management of organic gardens, their conversion to organic, the harvesting, storage and transport of the leaf, and quality control. The full text could not be found.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

Description according to the protection requirements; it differs for the two grades.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** First grade — strands thin, tight, curled (条索紧细卷曲), white down showing (白毫显露), color emerald green (色泽翠绿). Second grade — strands tight, curled, with down, color green and lustrous (绿润).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No separate description in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** First grade — clean and lasting (清香持久); second — fairly high and long (香气尚高长).
* **Taste:** First grade — full, mellow and fresh (滋味醇厚鲜爽); second — thick and fairly fresh (浓厚尚爽), withstands many infusions.
* **Liquor color:** First grade — tender green and bright (嫩绿明亮); second — yellow-green and bright (黄绿明亮).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** First grade — tender green and bright (叶底嫩绿明亮); for the second there is no description.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

The specification's figures by grade:

| Indicator | First grade | Second grade |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Water-soluble substances | 38–47% | 36–45% |
| Tea polyphenols | 23–32% | 20–30% |
| Free amino acids | 2.6–4.0% | 2.0–3.5% |

These are norms for the protected product, not measurements of a particular batch.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea.

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice for green tea.

* **Water temperature:** 80–85 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 3 g per 150 ml.
* **Teaware:** A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
* **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 part of the liquor.
    5. Top up with water.
    6. Two or three further infusions.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors; best drunk within a year. The specification itself ends the processing with cold storage (进库冷藏).

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the geographical indication mark. Under the 2017 specification, the right to the agricultural indication mark is granted on application by the Zixing Tea Association; under the 2025 requirements, the special mark for the geographical indication product is obtained through the Zixing intellectual property office, after review by the provincial office and approval by the national administration.
    * Under the 2017 specification, the packaging must bear the product name, standard number, quality grade, weight, production date, producer with address, shelf life and storage conditions.
    * Check that the producer is from the protection zone in Zixing.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The 2017 specification links the climate to the reservoir: after it was filled, the frost-free period grew by 16 days, and foggy mornings became 10% more frequent.
* According to the same specification, the spring harvest in Zixing begins 6–10 days earlier than in neighboring counties and 15–20 days earlier than in the west and north of Hunan.
* The harvest runs over three seasons, but the first grade is made only from spring leaf.

**13. Comparison with Other Teas of Chenzhou Prefecture:**

* **Chenzhou Fucha ([郴州福茶](https://thetea.app/article/chenzhou-fucha)):** A prefecture-wide public brand covering several classes of tea; *Dōngjiānghú chá* is a county name for one class within the same prefecture.
* **Linglong Lü Cha ([玲珑绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/linglong-lucha)):** A green tea of Guidong County in the same prefecture, with a hook-shaped leaf.
* **Rucheng Bai Mao Cha ([汝城白毛茶](https://thetea.app/article/rucheng-baimaocha)):** A downy tea of Rucheng County from a local large-leaf resource — a different county of the same prefecture, different raw material.

**In Conclusion:**

*Dōngjiānghú chá* is a green tea of Zixing from gardens at 220–800 m around a mountain reservoir where, according to the specification, morning fogs occur on more than a hundred days a year. The 2017 specification describes it in detail: clonal varieties, thirteen processing steps with temperatures, and two grades — from thin curled strands with down and a tender green liquor to a stronger second grade. The sources are silent on its ancient history.