---
title: "Fúzhōu mòlìhuā chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/fuzhou-molihua-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Fúzhōu mòlìhuā chá (福州茉莉花茶)

*Fúzhōu mòlìhuā chá* (福州[茉莉花茶](https://thetea.app/article/molihua-cha)) is a jasmine tea of Fuzhou prefecture-level city, Fujian Province. Fuzhou is regarded as the historical home of jasmine tea: the heritage description traces it back to the Northern Song era, and the local scenting technology is included in the national list of intangible heritage. The base is *hōngqīng* green tea, dried by heating (烘青绿茶, *hōngqīng lǜchá*), which is saturated several times over with the aroma of opening jasmine flowers and then separated from them. Hence the local formula “the tea is seen, the flowers are not” (见茶不见花). In China the name is protected in three ways — as a geographical indication product, as a certification mark and as an agricultural product geographical indication — and in the European Union as a PGI.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Flower-scented tea (花茶, *huāchá*) on a green tea base. Provincial standard DB35/T 991—2010 names the raw material directly: jasmine flowers and *hōngqīng* green tea. That is why the article is placed among the green teas, like the other jasmine teas of the series.
* **Category:** Jasmine tea from the historical center of its production; a name with a legal zone, not the generic name of jasmine tea.
* **Origin:** China, Fujian Province (福建, *Fújiàn*), Fuzhou prefecture-level city (福州, *Fúzhōu*).
* **Protection zone:** Ten units of Fuzhou within their current administrative boundaries: the districts of Jin'an (晋安), Cangshan (仓山), Mawei (马尾) and Changle (长乐), the county-level city of Fuqing (福清), and the counties of Minhou (闽侯), Lianjiang (连江), Luoyuan (罗源), Minqing (闽清) and Yongtai (永泰). The same list is given by the 2009 announcement and the provincial standard. In the 2025 CNIPA record Changle is still called a county-level city (长乐市), although by then it had already become a district of Fuzhou; the formula “within current boundaries” covers this, but the name itself in the record is outdated.
* **Geographic coordinates:** The protection documents do not give a coordinate frame.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Song — Qing.** According to the description for the national intangible heritage list, jasmine tea appears in Fuzhou under the Northern Song, the scenting technology takes shape under the Ming, and under the Qing the tea becomes a tribute to the court. A review of the products of the China–EU Agreement, published by the Mission of China to the EU, calls the Qing the time of its heyday and describes it after 1949 as a tea for diplomatic gifts.
    * **2008–2009.** The name received the certification mark “福州茉莉花茶” No. 4939090, and by announcement No. 87 of 2009 the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) took it under protection as a geographical indication product. In addition, the name is registered by the Ministry of Agriculture as an agricultural product geographical indication; I have not seen the year of this registration in the primary source.
    * **2010.** Provincial standard DB35/T 991—2010 “Geographical indication product. Fuzhou Molihua Cha” was issued; in 2022 the province issued its English version.
    * **2011.** According to the review of the Mission of China to the EU, the International Tea Committee named Fuzhou the “world home of jasmine tea”.
    * **2013–2014.** According to the same review, Fuzhou jasmine and tea culture entered the first list of China's important agricultural heritage, and then the FAO list of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems. In 2014, with the fourth batch, the scenting technology entered the national list of intangible heritage — under item Ⅷ-147 “flower tea making technique” (花茶制作技艺); the applicant named in the record is Cangshan District.
    * **2025.** CNIPA, by announcement No. 640, confirmed the recognition of the geographical indication product; the record gives the mark number — 4939090.
    * **European Union.** Under the China–EU Agreement the name is protected as a PGI (dossier PGI-CN-2675). The basis is the same mark; the applicant is the Fuzhou Horticultural Society (福州市园艺学会), which is also one of the three organizations that drafted the provincial standard.
* **Name:** “Fuzhou” (福州) is the name of the city; *mòlìhuā chá* (茉莉花茶) means “tea with jasmine flowers”.
* **Cultural significance:** The Fuzhou school of scenting tea with live flowers is recognized at three levels: as a technology, as an agricultural system and as a name with a protection zone.

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

* **Scenting plant:** Jasmine sambac (*Jasminum sambac*). The standard allows two varieties — single-petal (单瓣茉莉) and double-petal (双瓣茉莉). The review of the Mission of China to the EU calls single-petal jasmine a feature of Fuzhou and the most fragrant of the varieties; it also says that jasmine came from the Persian Gulf region and reached China via India more than two thousand years ago.
* **Flower requirements:** The corolla tube has already elongated; the flower is full, large, white, whole and clean, with calyx and pedicel. There must be no green buds (青蕾), and no stems or foreign matter either.
* **Flower picking:** “Flowers of the day” (当天花) are taken — buds that will open on the same day. Flowers that have already opened and green buds are not picked. Picking begins after 10 a.m.
* **Tea base:** *Hōngqīng* green tea from varieties suited to it: 榕春早, 鼓山菜茶, 罗源七境菜茶, 福云6号, 福云7号 and others.
* **Tea harvest standard:** One bud, or a bud with one, two or three leaves; the shoots whole, fresh and clean, without scales, fruits and old leaves.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** According to the review of the Mission of China to the EU, Fuzhou lies in an estuary basin on the southeast coast. Jasmine grows mainly on alluvial sandbanks on both banks of the Minjiang River, on sandy loams.
* **Climate:** Warm, with abundant precipitation and a large difference between day and night temperatures (according to the same description). Numerical data are not found in the sources consulted.
* **Jasmine plots:** According to the appendix to the standard — sunny plains or hills with irrigation and drainage; loams and sandy loams with pH 6.0–6.5.
* **Tea gardens:** Red soils on slopes; soil depth no less than 0.8 m, organic matter no less than 1%, pH 4.0–6.5, slope no more than 25°, preferably a southern aspect.

**5. Production Technology:**

The standard describes three stages: primary processing of the tea base, its refining, and scenting (窨制, *xūnzhì*).

* **Primary processing of the base:** fresh leaf → fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*) at 200–280 °C in a pan, to a leaf moisture of about 60% → rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*): old leaf while hot, young leaf after cooling, pressure “light — strong — light” in a time ratio of 2 : 3 : 1 → drying (干燥, *gānzào*) by machine or in baskets over a fire → raw tea (毛茶, *máochá*) with a moisture content below 6%.
* **Refining of the base:** sieving, cutting, winnowing, removal of impurities, blending and drying give the tea base (茶坯, *chápī*).
* **Scenting:**
    1. **Preparing the base.** The base is dried further at 100–110 °C to 4–5% moisture and cooled until the pile is no more than 3 °C warmer than the room.
    2. **Nursing the flowers (鲜花养护, *xiānhuā yǎnghù*).** The flowers are spread in a thin layer; in a cool workshop (below 30 °C) they are gathered into a pile of 15–20 cm to warm up and spread out again at 38 °C. When 60% of the flowers have opened, they are sieved to remove buds and calyxes; at 80%, scenting begins.
    3. **Mixing with the flowers (窨花拌和, *xūnhuā bànhé*).** A pile of tea with flowers 25–35 cm thick.
    4. **Airing (通花, *tōnghuā*).** After 5–6 hours, when the pile has heated up to 40–48 °C (in the first scenting — to 45–48 °C), it is spread out for 0.5–1 hour.
    5. **Re-piling (收堆复窨, *shōuduī fùxūn*).** The cooled pile is gathered to a height of 20–30 cm for another 5–6 hours, until the flowers wilt and turn yellow.
    6. **Removing the flowers (起花, *qǐhuā*).** 10–12 hours after the start, the flowers are sieved out. The moisture of the tea is 17–18% after the first scenting and 10–11% after the fourth and later ones.
    7. **Drying (烘焙, *hōngbèi*).** Quickly, at 90–110 °C, so as not to lose the aroma; afterwards the tea is cooled to a pile temperature of no more than 40 °C.
    8. **Repeat scentings (转窨, *zhuǎnxūn*).** The cycle is repeated; for Fuzhou tea there must be no fewer than four scentings.
    9. **Final aroma refresh (提花, *tíhuā*).** With the best large white flowers, 5–10% of the tea weight, for 6–8 hours; after this the moisture of the tea is no more than 8%.
    10. **Blending and packing (匀堆装箱, *yúnduī zhuāngxiāng*)** after a trial blend and inspection.

The review of the Mission of China to the EU names nine scentings and eighty-one operations as the highest level. The heritage description considers drying after scenting the most difficult part of the craft.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

The standard divides the tea into five grades: 特级, 香毫, 春毫, 银毫 and special teas above 银毫. The scale runs from the bottom up: 特级, literally “top grade”, is the lowest step here.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** For the special teas — round, flat, needle-shaped, spiral, pearl or bundle-tied shapes; for 银毫 — tight leaf with sturdy buds and noticeable down; for 特级 — tight, yellow-green.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** For the special teas and 银毫 — fresh and lively (鲜灵), rich and lasting; for 特级 — simply fresh and rich (鲜浓).
* **Taste:** Fresh, rich and full (鲜浓醇厚); the review of the Mission of China to the EU calls the “rock sugar taste” (冰糖味) characteristic.
* **Liquor color:** Yellow-green, clear and bright; for 特级 — light yellow.
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** For the special teas — fleshy, tender buds with down; for 特级 — tender green and even.

Number of scentings by grade: for the special teas — six or more; for 银毫 — six plus an aroma refresh; for 春毫 and 香毫 — five plus a refresh; for 特级 — four plus a refresh.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

The standard sets physicochemical limits for the finished tea:

| Indicator | No more than |
| :--- | :--- |
| Moisture | 8.0% |
| Total ash | 5.0% |
| Broken tea | 5.0% |
| Dust | 0.5% |

Data on the polyphenols, amino acids, caffeine and aroma compounds of Fuzhou tea specifically are not found in the sources consulted.

**8. Health Properties:**

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

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice for jasmine tea on a green base.

* **Water temperature:** 85–90 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 3 g per 150 ml.
* **Teaware:** A gaiwan with a lid — it holds the aroma — or a glass tumbler for the special shapes.
* **Process:**
    1. Warm the teaware.
    2. Add the tea.
    3. Pour in the water and cover with the lid.
    4. First infusion — 1–2 minutes.
    5. Before drinking, lift the lid and breathe in the aroma.
    6. Two or three repeat infusions.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. Airtight, in a dry, cool, dark place, strictly away from foreign odors. The standard requires the tea to be kept in a ventilated, dry warehouse separately from odorous and contaminating substances and gives a shelf life of 18 months at normal temperature.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the geographical indication mark and origin from the ten districts and counties of Fuzhou.
    * Under the standard the tea is scented no fewer than four times and refreshed once more; additives are prohibited. A sharp “perfumy” smell that quickly disappears in the liquor is a reason to be wary.
    * Dried flowers in the pack do not prove quality: the standard allows only a little dry jasmine, and the technology itself separates the flowers from the tea.
    * Check the grade against the standard's scale: for Fuzhou jasmine tea 特级 is the lowest step, not the highest.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* Fuzhou jasmine tea has three Chinese protection regimes at once — geographical indication product, mark and agricultural product geographical indication — plus protection in the EU.
* The flowers are picked in the daytime, after 10 a.m., while still buds, and they open later in the workshop.
* In the grading scale the name “top grade” (特级) went to the most modest step.
* The applicant for protection in the EU is a horticultural society, not a tea association; it is also named first among the drafters of the provincial standard.

**13. Comparison with Other Jasmine Teas:**

* **Jasmine tea (茉莉花茶):** The generic name of jasmine tea as a category; *Fúzhōu mòlìhuā chá* is a name with a legal zone and its own standard.
* **Hengxian Molihua Cha ([横县茉莉花茶](https://thetea.app/article/hengxian-molihua-cha)):** The jasmine tea of Hengxian County in Guangxi, with its own protected name — both in China and under the China–EU Agreement; a different zone and a different document.
* **Moli Yinhao ([茉莉银毫](https://thetea.app/article/moli-yin-hao)):** A jasmine tea whose name coincides with the 银毫 grade of the Fuzhou scale.
* **Moli Longzhu ([茉莉龙珠](https://thetea.app/article/moli-longzhu)):** A jasmine tea rolled into balls; the standard classes such shapes as special teas.

**In Conclusion:**

*Fúzhōu mòlìhuā chá* is the jasmine tea of its historical center, described by the standard down to the degree and the hour: a *hōngqīng* green base, live flowers picked in the daytime, scenting cycles of 10–12 hours — from four to six and more — an aroma refresh and separation of the flowers. The protection documents agree on a zone of ten districts and counties, and the craft is recognized as national intangible heritage. This is a tea whose aroma comes from the flower, not from a flavoring.