Dūdū cuìmíng

Dūdū cuìmíng (都督翠茗) is a flat green tea from Mount Dudu (都督山) on the southern shore of Lake Chaohu: Ba Town (坝镇) of Chaohu county-level city, the city of Hefei, Anhui Province. Descriptively — “the emerald tea of Mount Dudu”. The leaf is shaped “like a bamboo shoot” and dried so as to fix its jade color — these two techniques are what the specification names as the tea’s main distinctive feature. According to reference descriptions, the tea was created in 1998; since 2018 it has been protected as an agricultural product geographical indication, and since 2025 as a CNIPA geographical indication product.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá). The Ministry of Agriculture specification ties it to the standard GB/T 14456.3 for green tea from small- and medium-leaf varieties, and for safety — to GB 2762 (contaminants) and GB 2763 (pesticide residues).
Category: Flat green tea with a geographical indication.
Origin: China, Anhui Province (安徽, Ānhuī), the city of Hefei (合肥, Héféi), Chaohu county-level city (巢湖, Cháohú), Ba Town.
Protection zone: The hills and low mountains of eight committees of the town: Xiadian (夏店), Shitang (石塘), Lianhe (联河), Quanshui (泉水), Qingshan (青山), Laoshan (姥山), Hudong (湖东) and the street community. The list is the same in the Ministry of Agriculture and CNIPA documents; in the description of the zone both documents write the town as “督坝镇”, elsewhere as “坝镇”. The applicant is the Mount Dudu tea industry association.
Geographic coordinates: 117°32′–117°39′ E, 31°17′–31°20′ N.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Legends. According to legend, the troops of Xiang Yu, Cao Cao and Zhou Yu camped on Mount Dudu, and tea was planted to rid the soldiers of epidemics. Documents confirming this are not found in the sources consulted.
- Old name. According to reference descriptions, before 1949 and in the first years of the PRC, tea from the mountain under the name “小兰花” (xiǎo lánhuā) went through the tea houses of Wuhu to Shandong and Inner Mongolia and was exported to Russia. From the 1970s, especially after the reforms, the old gardens were renewed and high-yielding varieties were brought in; a “green” tea base of about 10,000 mu arose, working on the “company + farm households” model.
- 1998. According to the reference description of the brand, Dūdū cuìmíng was created in this year; the same description says that it was developed by the tea department of Anhui Agricultural University to the then standard GB/T 14456-93, and that the tea testing center of the Ministry of Agriculture counted more than 95% of “bud with one barely opened leaf” raw material in the product.
- 2006. In February the Mount Dudu tea industry association was registered; in July the tea passed QS certification, and in November it received the title of Anhui brand agricultural product.
- 2018. On 12 February the Ministry of Agriculture (as then constituted) registered the tea as an agricultural product geographical indication by announcement No. 2651 (certificate AGI02279).
- 2019–2020. The Catalog of Chinese Agricultural Brands (15 November 2019), the first 2020 list of famous, special, high-quality and new agricultural products (20 May 2020). On 22 December 2020 the Hefei local standard DB3401/T 202—2020 came into force; the national standards platform now lists it as repealed.
- 2025. By CNIPA announcement No. 632 (signed on 9 June, published on 27 June), the tea, together with 223 other products, was recognized as a geographical indication product; by announcement No. 633 (published on 7 July) its producers were permitted to use the special mark.
Name: 都督 (dūdū) means “commander-in-chief”, 翠 (cuì) “emerald”, 茗 (míng) “tea”. According to legend, the mountain was named after Zhou Yu, the great commander-in-chief (大都督) of the Wu kingdom, who supposedly trained troops here and discussed military affairs over tea.
Awards: According to descriptions of the brand — first prize of the third “Zhongcha Bei” (中茶杯) competition, the title of brand product of the China International Agricultural Exhibition, a gold medal of the fourth China (Wuhu) International Tea Expo, a well-known trademark of Chaohu (2010), the first list of “巢湖名茶” (2011), the first list of famous tourist goods of Anhui (2012).

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Cultivar: Not named. The CNIPA requirements say only that “introduced improved varieties” are suitable (适宜引进优良品种).
Raw material: A bud with one or two leaves; a machine divides the leaf into four grades by degree of opening, and each is processed separately.
Harvest standard: In batches, repeatedly. On mature bushes, the “fish leaf” (鱼叶) is left in spring, and one leaf at the end of spring.
Harvest time: Exact dates are not found in the sources consulted.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The spurs of the Dabieshan range (大别山) between the Yangtze and Chaohu: about 15 km in a straight line to the river, about 8 km to the lake.
Climate: Subtropical monsoon. According to the Ministry of Agriculture specification: mean annual temperature 16 °C, sum of active temperatures above 0 °C — 5726 °C over 315 days, above 10 °C — 5024.6 °C over 233 days, sunshine 2106 hours a year, precipitation 900–1200 mm, frost-free period 247 days. Fogs there are called year-round and spring light diffused, and the specification links the tea’s distinctiveness to this.
Soils: Yellow-red, yellow and sandy loam, deep, holding water and fertilizer well and letting air through, pH 5.5–6.0, organic matter about 1.5%. Under the CNIPA requirements, plots are elevated, dry, sheltered from wind and open to the sun, with a gradient of no more than 25°.
Water sources: The Zhaohe River (兆河), a tributary of Chaohu, and six reservoirs, among them Xiangshan (象山), Zaoshuke (枣树棵) and Qingshan (青山).
Altitude: No data in the sources consulted.

5. Production Technology

The scheme under the 2025 CNIPA requirements: withering → leaf sorting → fixation → cooling and cleaning → pan-firing with pressing and shaping → resting and picking over → drying → aroma finishing → cold storage. The specification reduces the distinctiveness to the formula “做形成笋、烘干固色” — “shaping into a bamboo shoot, drying that fixes the color”.

Withering (摊青, tānqīng): A layer of about 3 cm on bamboo trays, 3–5 hours, until 15–20% of the water is lost and the moisture is about 70%.
Sorting (鲜叶分级, xiānyè fēnjí): Four grades of raw material (section 3).
Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): A pan at 180–220 °C, about 250 g of leaf, 6–8 minutes; when the aroma comes through, shaping begins. The Ministry of Agriculture specification also allows a drum: 90–150 seconds at 100–120 °C.
Cooling and cleaning (摊凉去杂): In a thin layer for 15–30 minutes, then the fines are sifted out.
Pan-firing with pressing (炒压做形, chǎoyā zuòxíng): A pan from 90 down to 60 °C, 15–20 minutes; by pressing and straightening, the leaf is turned into straight flat strips “in the shape of a bamboo shoot”. The machine variant under the Ministry of Agriculture specification is a multifunctional straightening machine at 170 → 150 °C, 6–8 minutes.
Resting and picking over (摊放拣剔): 40–60 minutes; unsuitable strips, stems and old leaves are removed by hand.
Drying (烘焙, hōngbèi): Three stages: about 80 °C for 8–10 minutes, about 60 °C for 10–15 minutes, about 50 °C for 20–30 minutes — until the petiole crumbles to powder when rubbed. Machine drying in the same specification: about 110 °C for 4–6 minutes, then about 90 °C and finally about 60 °C.
Aroma finishing (提香, tíxiāng): About 140 °C for about 30 minutes.
Storage: In sealed iron tins at 4–12 °C.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The formulas of the Ministry of Agriculture specification and the CNIPA requirements coincide.

Dry leaf appearance: Flat, “like a bamboo shoot”, the color of jade (外形扁平似笋，色如翡翠). Advertising texts also compare the shape to a sword (扁平似剑).
Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: Clean and rich (清香浓郁).
Taste: Fresh and brisk (鲜爽).
Liquor color: Green and bright (绿明亮).
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Green and even (绿匀).

The short formula of the mark is “色翠味鲜形如笋”: jade color, fresh taste, the shape of a bamboo shoot.

7. Chemical Composition

Norms of the 2025 CNIPA requirements for the premium to second grades (in brackets — for the third to fifth grades, where they differ): moisture no more than 7.0%, total ash no more than 7.5%, fines no more than 1.0% (1.5%), water extract no less than 36.0% (34.0%), crude fiber no more than 16.5%, tea polyphenols no less than 13%, catechins no less than 8%. These are norms for the product, not an analysis of specific batches.

8. Brewing

Class practice for green tea: the documents give no parameters.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
Process: Warm the teaware, add the tea, pour the water down the side; first infusion — after 40–60 seconds; drink, leaving part of the liquor, and top up — two or three further infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in the cold, away from light, moisture and odors; best drunk within a year. The specification itself prescribes sealed iron tins and 4–12 °C.

10. Price and Counterfeits

According to a publication on the website of the Chaohu Institute (2019), the premium and first grades cost from 400 to 2000 yuan; the weight is not stated. The same publication attributes the firm price of pre-Qingming tea to the small harvest in cold weather. The figures on scale do not agree: the old description of the brand speaks of 10,000 mu of gardens and about 90 t of tea a year, a reference summary for 2017 — of 800 ha in the protected zone and more than 100 t, one for 2018 — of 12,000 mu under harvest, 320 t and 140 million yuan.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special geographical indication mark; the authorized producers are listed in CNIPA announcement No. 633.
- Check that the tea is from Ba Town of Chaohu county-level city.
- Do not confuse it with Duyun Mao Jian (都匀毛尖): the name sounds similar, but it is a Guizhou tea.
- The historical name “小兰花” coincides with the name of another Anhui indication — Shucheng Xiao Lan Hua (舒城小兰花); these are different products.

11. Interesting Facts

The mountain and the tea are associated with Zhou Yu, a military commander of the Three Kingdoms era — this is a legend, not a document.
Before the new name, tea from this mountain was sold as “小兰花” and, according to descriptions, exported as far as Russia.
According to descriptions of the brand, remains of old plantations and wild tea trees still exist on the mountain.

12. Comparison with Other Flat Green Teas

Tianzhu Jian Hao (天柱剑毫): A flat “sword-shaped” tea of Mount Tianzhu in Anhui; advertising texts also compare Dūdū cuìmíng to a sword.
Longchi Xiangjian (龙池香尖): A flat tea of Huaining County, whose shape documents compare to a spearhead.
Shucheng Xiao Lan Hua (舒城小兰花): An Anhui tea whose name coincides with the historical name of the Mount Dudu tea.

In Conclusion:

Dūdū cuìmíng is a young flat green tea from Mount Dudu near the southern shore of Chaohu: a leaf “like a bamboo shoot”, jade color, a fresh taste and a clean, rich aroma. Behind it stand the legend of Zhou Yu, the old name “小兰花” and protection — since 2018 under the Ministry of Agriculture and since 2025 under CNIPA.