Ēnshī fùxīchá · thetea.app

Ēnshī fùxīchá (恩施富硒茶) is “selenium-rich tea of Enshi”, a name protected by a geographical indication certification mark in the Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hubei Province. 富硒 (fùxī) means “selenium-rich”: the name, like the neighboring 恩施硒茶, refers to a feature of the terroir, not to a class of tea. It is the earlier of the prefecture’s two selenium names: according to a report on a 2021 case, the mark was registered in 2004. There is almost no publicly available material on the tea itself: more is known about the mark than about the leaf.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: The class is not identified in the source. The name describes a feature of the terroir, not a processing method. A class must not be assigned by association with Enshi Yulu: both green and red teas go under the prefecture’s selenium banner.
Category: Geographical indication certification mark (证明商标, zhèngmíng shāngbiāo). A page of the Selenium Tea College of Hubei Enshi College also places 恩施富硒茶 among the products under state geographical indication protection; I have not seen a document on this.
Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi county-level city (恩施市, Ēnshī Shì).
Zone: The 2026 register gives the county-level city of Enshi. This is the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone.
Geographic coordinates: Enshi county-level city — about 30.3° N and 109.5° E.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- 2004. A report on a 2021 case writes that in July 2004 the Enshi tea association “successfully registered” the mark 恩施富硒茶. Whether this date refers to the filing of the application or to the registration is not clear from the text.
- Term of the mark. According to the provincial list of geographical marks of Hubei (data as of May 2020), mark No. 4150055 (class 30, goods — tea) is held by the tea association of the county-level city of Enshi (恩施市茶业协会), with a term of validity from 21 May 2017 to 20 May 2027. How this term relates to the 2004 date — a renewal or a different count — I have not checked.
- 2021 — counterfeiting case. On 15 April 2021 the market supervision bureau of Jianshi County (建始县) in the same prefecture found, in a supermarket in Yezhou Town (业州镇), tea from a Wuhan company that bore the mark “恩施富硒茶” without the right to it. The association holding the mark confirmed the infringement. The seller was ordered to remedy the infringement, the goods were confiscated, and a fine of 3,000 yuan was imposed; it was noted separately that the seller had not checked the supplier’s license and test certificate.
- 2022. When three other marks of the prefecture — 恩施硒茶, 恩施玉露 and 利川红 — were transferred to the prefecture tea association with the zone extended to the whole prefecture, 恩施富硒茶 was not named among those transferred.
Name: 恩施 — Enshi, the name of the prefecture and of the county-level city; 富硒 — “selenium-rich”; 茶 — tea.
Cultural significance: According to the head of the prefecture tea association (2019), 恩施富硒茶 is one of the eight tea names for which the prefecture applied for geographical marks. The prefecture runs two flagship products, the green 恩施玉露 and the red 利川红, under the common banner “一红一绿” — “one red, one green”.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Cultivar: No data found in the sources consulted.
Raw material: No raw material requirements found in the sources consulted.
Harvest standard and time: No data found in the sources consulted.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: West of Hubei Province, the county-level city of Enshi.
Soils: Enshi is a terroir with a naturally high selenium content, and this feature is carried into the name itself. Neither soil figures nor selenium norms for this mark were found in the sources consulted.
Altitude and climate: No data found in the sources consulted.

5. Production Technology

The technology is not described in the sources consulted, and the class of the tea has not been established. For this reason I do not give even the general scheme of a class here: it is unknown which class that scheme would belong to.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Dry leaf appearance: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Taste: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Liquor color: No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions found in the sources consulted.

7. Chemical Composition

Norms for selenium content and other physicochemical data for this mark were not found in the sources consulted. The figures given for the prefecture brand 恩施硒茶 do not apply directly to this name.

8. Brewing

Class practice — and the class is unknown, so go by the appearance of the leaf.

If the tea is green: 80–85 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion 40–60 seconds, two or three repeat infusions.
If the tea is red: 90–95 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, first infusion about a minute, several infusions with increasing steeping time.

9. Storage

Class practice. Green tea — in airtight packaging, in the refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Red — in a dry, dark place at room temperature, away from odors.

10. Price and Counterfeits

No data on the prices of genuine tea were found in the sources consulted. In the 2021 case the counterfeit tea under this mark was bought at 100 yuan per box and sold at 220.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication certification mark “恩施富硒茶” (No. 4150055).
- Check that the producer is from Enshi and authorized by the mark holder.
- Do not confuse it with the prefecture brand “恩施硒茶” (No. 17754772): that is a different name.
- Selenium in the name guarantees nothing: only a test report gives the figure.

11. Interesting Facts

The prefecture has two selenium marks — 恩施富硒茶 and 恩施硒茶 — and in the 2020 provincial list both were listed under the same association of the county-level city of Enshi.
The documented history of the mark is above all a history of its protection: the known case concerns someone else’s tea sold under this name in another county of the same prefecture.
In the 2026 register the entry is listed as confirmed and in force.

12. Comparison with Other Teas

Enshi Xicha (恩施硒茶): The 2019 prefecture umbrella with the same selenium meaning; since 2022 its holder has been the prefecture association. The legal relationship between the two names has not been established.
Enshi Yulu (恩施玉露): A green tea with steam fixation, the flagship of the county-level city of Enshi.
Lichuan Hong (利川红): A red tea of the same prefecture, the second half of the “一红一绿” pair.
Kaiyang Fu Xi Cha (开阳富硒茶): A green tea of Guizhou with the same construction of the name — “selenium-rich”.

In Conclusion:

Ēnshī fùxīchá is an early selenium mark of Enshi: a name registered, according to a report on the 2021 case, in 2004 and valid, according to the list, until 2027, but without an openly described class, raw material or appearance. All that is known about it is the mark number, the holder and the counterfeiting case. Until a document with requirements for the tea appears, it is more correct to regard it as a protected name rather than a described tea.