Dúshān Gāozhài chá (独山高寨茶), “Gaozhai tea from Dushan”, is a tea of Dushan County (独山县) in the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in southern Guizhou. The local press ranks it among the three “famous teas of Qiannan”, alongside Duyun maojian and Guiding yunwu. The 2025 protection requirements describe processing according to the red tea scheme — withering, rolling, fermentation and drying — and an appearance to match: fine twisted leaf with down, a sweet lasting aroma, an orange-red liquor. The name is protected as an agricultural product geographical indication and under China National Intellectual Property Administration Announcement No. 646 (2025).
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Red tea (红茶, hóngchá) — by technology. The protection requirements do not use the word “red”, but they set out its chain: withering (萎凋), machine rolling, fermentation (发酵), drying. The orange-red liquor and sweet aroma in the same requirements are consistent with this.
- Category: County tea with a geographical indication; in the county’s brand system — a “special regional brand” under the Duyun Maojian umbrella.
- Origin: China, Guizhou Province (贵州, Guìzhōu), Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (黔南, Qiánnán), Dushan County (独山, Dúshān).
- Protection zone: Under the 2025 requirements — eight towns of the county: Baiquan (百泉镇), Mawan (麻万镇), Shangsi (上司镇), Xiasi (下司镇), Jichang (基长镇), Yushui (玉水镇), Yingshan (影山镇) and Mawei (麻尾镇), 64 administrative villages in all. The extreme points are Heli Village of Yushui Town in the east, Xintong of Xiasi Town in the west, Siting of Mawei Town in the south and Wengqi of Yingshan Town in the north. The geographical indications portal says otherwise in the product card — “the entire present territory of the county”; the discrepancy is not explained in the sources consulted.
- Geographic coordinates: 107°41′–107°55′ E, 25°04′–25°31′ N.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- The old name. The Guizhou edition of Renmin Ribao (April 2020) writes that Gaozhai tea is known for its distinctive shape, inner quality and long history and, together with Duyun maojian (都匀毛尖) and Guiding yunwu (贵定云雾茶), is called one of the “three famous teas of Qiannan” (黔南三大名茶). The 2024 edition mentions “独山高寨贡茶” — “Gaozhai tribute tea” — and “独山沟山茶” as brands with a long history. Dates, chronicles or documents on tribute are not found in the sources consulted, and they do not name the class of the old Gaozhai tea.
- The agricultural indication. The tea is registered as an agricultural product geographical indication; the indications portal gives the certificate number AGI03049. The year of registration is not found in the sources consulted.
- 2024. China National Radio describes the county’s brand system in three levels: Duyun Maojian as the “mother” brand, Dúshān Gāozhài chá as a special regional brand with an agricultural indication, and the brands of individual companies. In the same year the county agriculture bureau named “沟山茶” and “高寨茶” as regional brands that it intends to promote at exhibitions and fairs.
- 2025. By China National Intellectual Property Administration Announcement No. 646 of 23 September 2025 the tea was recognized as a geographical indication product. The applicant under the protection requirements is the rural economy station of the county agriculture bureau.
- Name: “Dushan” (独山) is the name of the county; “Gaozhai” (高寨) literally means “high settlement”. Which particular place the name is connected with is not stated in the sources consulted.
- Cultural significance: According to China National Radio (2024), the county has 136,700 mu of tea gardens, of which 113,000 mu are bearing and 6,000 mu have organic certification; the value of tea production in 2023 was 793.6 million yuan. Renmin Ribao (2024) gives an output of 4886 t and 163 registered tea enterprises and cooperatives. These are figures for all the tea of the county, not for Gaozhai tea.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety under the protection requirements: In the “variety” field the document repeats the name of the product — “独山高寨茶”. Whether this is a local population or a selected variety, the requirements do not explain.
- Propagation: By cuttings; planting in the rainy season, from September to February, 37,500–60,000 plants per hectare, in single rows of one bush or in double rows of two.
- Raw material: One bud with one barely unfolded leaf, with two barely unfolded leaves, with two, three or four leaves, as well as paired leaves without a bud (对夹叶) of the same tenderness.
- Harvest time: From February to the end of September.
- County context: Reports of 2024 name the variety 福云六号 (Fúyún liù hào) and Anji baicha (安吉白茶) on the county’s plantations; they do not link them to the raw material of this particular indication.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Southern Guizhou. Renmin Ribao (2024) describes the county as a transition from the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the hills of Guangxi.
- Altitude: Under the protection requirements — from 850 m.
- Soils: Yellow or yellow-brown, pH 5.0–7.0, organic matter not less than 1.0%, soil layer no thinner than 40 cm.
- Climate under the requirements: Sunshine — 1100–1300 hours a year; mean annual temperature — 15 °C, absolute maximum — 35.5 °C, minimum — minus 4.0 °C; precipitation — about 1430 mm; frost-free period — 297 days.
- Water quality: The requirements call it clean, without foreign color, odor or taste.
5. Production Technology
The 2025 protection requirements give the following chain:
- Withering (萎凋, wěidiāo): The text of the document has it with a slip: “萎调”. No parameters are given.
- Machine rolling (机揉, jīróu).
- Fermentation (发酵, fājiào): No parameters are given.
- Drying (干燥, gānzào): Immediately after the list of stages the document gives settings that, judging by their meaning, apply to drying: 125–145 °C, the leaf in an even layer without overlapping, 12–15 minutes; then final drying with aroma raising at 90–110 °C, 30 minutes. If the tea still smells grassy, the next day it is heated for 15 minutes at 90–100 °C.
In general terms this is the red tea scheme: withering removes moisture, rolling breaks the cells of the leaf, fermentation oxidizes it to an orange-red liquor, drying fixes the result.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
According to the 2025 protection requirements; the document’s wording is given in brackets.
- Dry leaf appearance: Tight, fine, twisted strands with visible down (条索紧结纤细卷曲、显毫).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description is found in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Sweet, rich and lasting (甜香浓郁持久).
- Taste: Mellow and full (滋味醇厚).
- Liquor color: Orange-red, bright (汤色橙红，明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Even and bright (叶底匀亮).
7. Chemical Composition
| Indicator | Protection requirement |
|---|---|
| Extractives | not less than 34.0% |
| Fines | not more than 2.0% |
| Crude fiber | not more than 15.0% |
| Ash | not more than 6.0 g per 100 g |
Data on polyphenols, amino acids and caffeine are not found in the sources consulted.
8. Brewing
Class practice for red tea.
- Water temperature: 90–95 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A gaiwan or a porcelain teapot.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in the tea and pour in the water.
- First infusion — about a minute.
- Several further infusions, gradually lengthening them.
9. Storage
Class practice. In tight, opaque packaging, in a dry, dark place at room temperature, away from odors.
10. Price and Counterfeits
Price data are not found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special geographical indication mark and a producer from Dushan County.
- Remember that the county’s products also go under the Duyun Maojian umbrella brand: a name on the packaging alone does not yet indicate the style of the tea.
- The leaf is fine twisted strands with down, the liquor orange-red and bright, the aroma sweet.
- Among the leading tea companies of the county, reports name 中缦, 邦朵, 云山 and 绿欣, but a list of those authorized to use the mark is not found in the sources consulted.
11. Interesting Facts
- Gaozhai tea is one of the “three famous teas of Qiannan”, together with two green ones — Duyun maojian and Guiding yunwu.
- Picking under the protection requirements stretches over eight months — from February to the end of September.
- In the “variety” field the document repeats the name of the tea itself.
12. Comparison with Other Guizhou Teas
- Duyun Maojian (都匀毛尖): A green tea of neighboring Duyun and the “mother” brand under which the products of Dushan also go; the second of the “three famous teas of Qiannan”.
- Yunwu Gong Cha (云雾贡茶): Guiding yunwu — the third of the trio, a historical green tea of Guiding County.
- Zunyi Hongcha (遵义红茶): A red gongfu tea of the north of the province.
- Pu’an Hongcha (普安红茶): A red tea of Qianxinan Prefecture in the southwest of Guizhou.
In Conclusion:
Dúshān Gāozhài chá is a county tea of southern Guizhou with an old name from the “Qiannan trio” and a new, detailed description in the 2025 protection requirements: withering, rolling, fermentation, fine twisted leaf with down and a sweet orange-red liquor. Its history is so far known only in general terms, but its appearance and growing rules are recorded precisely.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page