Fùlì chá (复立茶) is a green tea of Xiaohe town, Weiyuan County (威远县), Neijiang prefecture-level city, Sichuan Province. The name is taken from the old name of the place: the present town of Xiaohe was formerly the market town of Fuli (复立场). The top grade is made flat, the lower ones twisted; the documents describe a chestnut aroma and a mellow taste. The name has been protected as a geographical indication since 2010.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá). The specification describes a green tea technology — fixation, rolling, drying — without oxidation.
- Category: A Sichuan “famous” green tea (名优茶, míngyōuchá): flat in the top grade, twisted in the others; geographical indication product.
- Origin: China, Sichuan Province (四川, Sìchuān), Neijiang prefecture-level city (内江, Nèijiāng), Weiyuan County (威远, Wēiyuǎn), Xiaohe town (小河镇, Xiǎohé zhèn).
- Protection zone: 15 villages of Xiaohe town — Putao, Tiechang, Sanhe, Yumai, Qinglan, Xingu, Nianzi, Xintong, Dayan, Xiaohe, Kaiyuan, Pingle, Sanyang, Paifang and Minzhi — and 11 tea farms (茶场). The protected area, according to the 2010 specification, is 2254 ha, and the production volume is 5000 t.
- Geographic coordinates: 29°34′05.8″–29°40′50.3″ N and 104°17′09.9″–104°22′27.9″ E.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- 583 and 591. According to the specification, under the Sui dynasty the military post of Weiyuan (威远戍) was established here in 583, and in 591 — Weiyuan County.
- Legends. The specification retells as a legend the story that in 1242 the Song governor of Sichuan, Yu Jie (余玠), ordered tea to be picked on Mount Fuli and a strong decoction to be brewed from it. Documentary support for this and the other legends of the specification is not found in the texts consulted.
- The inscription of Zhao Xi. According to the same text, Zhao Xi (赵熙), a man of letters of the late Qing — early Republic, passing through the market town of Fuli, left the inscription “复立茶树” — “the tea trees of Fuli”.
- 2000. According to the specification — a gold medal at the international tea exhibition in Chengdu; the same text says that the tea was “included among the thirteen famous teas of the country”, but who compiled this list is not stated.
- 2010. On 15 November, the Ministry of Agriculture of the PRC, by announcement No. 1478, registered Fùlì chá as an agricultural product geographical indication (农产品地理标志).
- 2025. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), by announcement No. 646 (dated 23 September), recognized Fùlì chá as a geographical indication product — among 870 names. The applicant is a local cooperative of tea growers (威远复立茶叶种植农民专业合作社).
- Name: “Fuli” (复立) is an old name of the place: of the market town that became Xiaohe town, and of the mountain that legend calls Mount Fuli.
- Cultural significance: According to the specification, this tea is served to honored guests and given as a gift; the county included the tea industry in its development program for the 11th Five-Year Plan, and holds a tea-picking festival and contests of tea masters.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties / Cultivars: Fuding Dabai (福鼎大白, Fúdǐng dàbái), Mingshan 131 (名山131, Míngshān 131) and Fuxuan No. 9 (福选9号, Fúxuǎn 9 hào) “and other” varieties.
- Raw material: According to the 2025 requirements — early spring single buds (独芽, dúyá) from high-mountain gardens. The 2010 grade table describes the raw material differently: the first grade — a bud with one leaf, the second — a bud with two leaves, the third — a bud with two just-opened leaves, the fourth — a bud with three opened leaves. How to reconcile this with “single buds”, the documents do not explain.
- Start of harvest: When there are 10–15 standard buds per square meter of the bush surface. Picking is done on a clear morning, into bamboo containers.
- Harvest time: “Early spring”; exact dates are not found in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The south-central part of the Sichuan Basin. The center of a dome-shaped mountain massif (穹窿山形地貌): mountains, ravines, dense forests.
- Soils: Yellow soils (黄壤), cold sandy yellow clays (冷沙黄泥) and grey-brown clays (灰棕泥); light and medium loams, slightly acidic, with a deep, loose plow layer and a large reserve of organic matter.
- Waters: The Yuexi River (越溪河, Yuèxī hé) flows through the gardens; the gardens lie in its upper reaches, in a zone without industrial pollution; the pH of the river water and groundwater is 5.5–7.5.
- Climate: Subtropical monsoon: mean annual temperature 17.9 °C, 1192 hours of sunshine a year, more than 1000 mm of precipitation, a frost-free period of more than 330 days, a large daily temperature range.
- Altitude: The documents speak of “high-mountain gardens”; figures are not found in the sources consulted.
5. Production Technology
The technology is described in detail by the 2010 specification; before processing, the raw material is sorted by grade.
Top grade — flat tea:
- First pan-firing (青锅, qīngguō): Pan at 180–200 °C; the hand techniques include shaking, laying, pressing, rubbing, tossing, gripping and straightening (抖、搭、捺、拓、甩、扣、挺). Three stages: 3–4 minutes of shaking, 2–3 minutes of shaking with rubbing, then pressing with rubbing until the leaf becomes flat at a moisture content of 20–25%.
- Resting: 40–60 minutes; then the leaf is sieved into three fractions.
- Second pan-firing (辉锅, huīguō): Each fraction separately: pan at 60–80 °C; when the down shows — 80–90 °C; when the down begins to fall off and the leaf becomes firm — 50–60 °C.
Other grades — twisted tea:
- Spreading (摊青, tānqīng).
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Pan at 200–220 °C, 200–250 g of leaf, the leaf quickly heats up to 80 °C; it is fired with shaking until the leaf darkens and the stalk bends without breaking.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): “Light — strong — light”, 1–2 minutes in all.
- Pre-drying (烘青, hōngqīng): 90–110 °C, a layer of about 1 cm.
- Shaping and bringing out the down (整形提毫, zhěngxíng tíháo): Pan at about 100 °C, straightening of the twist — about 70 °C.
- Final drying (烘干, hōnggān): “High — low — high”, to a moisture content of 5–6%.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The 2010 and 2025 documents describe the tea differently; both are given.
- Dry leaf appearance: Flat, straight, even (扁直匀齐), green with an oily sheen (绿润). The first grade — tender yellow with a sheen, every bud covered with down (嫩黄油润、全芽有毫).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Chestnut, rich and lasting (栗香浓郁持久); the documents do not specify whether of the dry leaf or of the liquor.
- Taste: Mellow and full (醇厚) — in 2010; fresh, mellow, sweetish (鲜醇味甘) — in 2025. The tea withstands many infusions (耐冲泡).
- Liquor color: Tender green, bright (嫩绿亮) — in 2010; light green, clear (淡绿清流) — in 2025. The grade table gives a yellow-green bright liquor for the two top grades.
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender green, bright (嫩绿明亮) — in both documents.
7. Chemical Composition
Indicators of the 2010 specification, repeated in the 2025 requirements:
| Indicator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Tea polyphenols | not less than 13.5% |
| Soluble sugars | not less than 1.0% |
| Caffeine | not less than 0.1 g per 100 g |
In addition, the documents speak of a “moderate” selenium content and a “richness” in amino acids, without figures. The unit for caffeine is given as in the documents.
8. Health Properties
There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea. The healing promises of reference works are not repeated here: they cite no research.
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:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
- First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
- Drink, leaving part of the liquor, and top up with water.
- 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.
11. Price and Counterfeits
No price data in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication mark: only a producer from the protection zone may use it, with a permit approved by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
- Check that the tea was made in Xiaohe town, Weiyuan County.
- Look at the label: the specification requires the grade to be stated.
- Twisted leaf is not a counterfeit but a lower grade of the same tea.
12. Interesting Facts
- The protection zone fits within one town: 15 villages and 11 tea farms.
- The tea got its name from a name that is no longer on the map: the market town of Fuli became Xiaohe town.
- Only the top grade is made flat; for the other three the specification describes a different, twisting technology.
13. Comparison with Other Teas
- Xihu Longjing (西湖龙井): A flat tea of Hangzhou; the stages of the first and second pan-firing in the Fùlì chá specification are called by the same words — 青锅 and 辉锅.
- Zhuyeqing (竹叶青): A flat pan-fired green tea of Mount Emei in the same province.
- Rongxian Lücha (荣县绿茶): Green tea of the neighboring Rongxian County of Zigong prefecture, which borders the Fùlì chá zone on the south.
In Conclusion:
Fùlì chá is a green tea of a single town in south-central Sichuan. The documents on it are unusually detailed — down to the pan temperature at each stage. The flat top grade with a chestnut aroma and the twisted lower grades are one and the same tea, and its name came from Fuli, a market town that has disappeared from the map.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page