--- title: "Gānkēng xiǎozhǒng hóngchá" url: https://thetea.app/article/gankeng-xiaozhong-hongcha lang: en updated: 2026-10-01 source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app) --- # Gānkēng xiǎozhǒng hóngchá (干坑小种红茶) *Gānkēng xiǎozhǒng hóngchá* (干坑小种红茶) is a red tea from the Gankeng forest tract of Siqian Township (司前乡), Guangze County (光泽县), Nanping prefecture-level city, Fujian Province. Gankeng lies in the northern part of the Wuyi Mountains, in the western zone of Wuyishan National Park: from its hamlet of Chenjiapai to Guadun in Tongmu is about an hour on foot. The mountains, the bushes and the techniques of smoking over pine wood here are, according to the sources, almost the same as in Tongmu, the home of zhengshan xiaozhong, but Tongmu belongs to Wuyishan county-level city and Gankeng to Guangze. The name “[正山小种](https://thetea.app/article/zheng-shan-xiao-zhong)” is protected for the Tongmu zone, so the Gankeng tea has its own protected name. **1. Classification and Origin:** * **Type:** Red tea (红茶, *hóngchá*), xiaozhong (小种, *xiǎozhǒng*), traditionally smoked over pine wood. The class is stated in the name of the mark. The 2022 group standard, according to a summary, expects pine smoke in the aroma; I have not found whether the mark itself requires smoking. * **Origin:** China, Fujian Province (福建, *Fújiàn*), Nanping prefecture-level city (南平, *Nánpíng*), Guangze County (光泽, *Guāngzé*), Siqian Township, Gankeng forest tract. Within it, smaller plots are distinguished — Hengkeng (横坑), Dakeng (大坑), Bengshan (崩山), Chenjiapai (陈家排). * **Protection zone:** The provincial list of marks names Guangze County as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone. * **Protection regime:** Mark No. 19240580 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) — a geographical indication certification mark or a collective mark; I have not established which. The exact name of the mark is “干坑 小种红茶”, with a space; the goods are tea. I have not found the holder or the year of registration; in the provincial list as of June 30, 2026, the registration is valid. * **Geographic coordinates:** Gankeng is the western edge of the “zhengshan” area, which the reference work *Zhongguo Cha Jing* (中国茶经) outlines with the coordinates 27°41′35″–27°49′00″ N and 117°38′06″–117°44′30″ E. **2. History and Cultural Significance:** * **History:** * **Ming and Qing.** A local newspaper quotes the Ming-era *General Description of the Eight Min Regions* (八闽通志): the most tea is in Guangze and Taining counties. The newspaper reads the 1759 Guangze county chronicle as evidence of Gankeng red tea, but the quoted text describes the tea plant in general; red tea is not named in it. * **18th century.** According to the newspaper's quotation, the *Great Dictionary of Chinese Tea* (中国茶叶大辞典) writes: the smoked red tea created in the second half of the 18th century was called “Tongmuguan xiaozhong” when it came from Tongmu, while the tea of the high-mountain gardens of Chong'an, Jianyang and Guangze counties went by the common name “zhengshan xiaozhong”. * **The era of state procurement.** According to a Tongmu master quoted by *Chinese National Geography*, in the years of state procurement Gankeng red tea was purchased together with Tongmu tea. * **2018 and 2022.** The production technique of red tea (Guangze Gankeng xiaozhong) was entered in the municipal, then in the provincial list of intangible cultural heritage. * **2022.** On September 26 the group standard T/CSTEA 00048-2022 “Guangze red tea. Gankeng zhengshan xiaozhong” was published; together with it came the technical code of practice T/CSTEA 00049-2022. In all, according to the local newspaper, the county has six such standards. * **Legends.** Popular texts tie to Gankeng the brand “Heaven Number One” (天字一号) and the story of red tea at European courts. I have not found documents that would connect these stories specifically with Gankeng. * **Name:** *Xiǎozhǒng* (小种) means “small variety”, the traditional name of the Wuyi red teas. The origin of the name *Gānkēng* (干坑) has not been established; one version derives it from the Gan family (甘) who lived here, and a local legend attributes to this family the accidental discovery of red tea. * **Name dispute:** *Chinese National Geography* writes that by law only Tongmu tea may be called “zhengshan xiaozhong”, and Gankeng tea only “Gankeng xiaozhong”. Yet the county group standards call the product “干坑正山小种”, and the mark itself is “干坑小种红茶”. The local press writes openly about the effort to win the name “zhengshan” for Gankeng tea. **3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:** * **Variety / Cultivar:** Seed-grown population bushes ([群体种](https://thetea.app/article/qunti-zhong)), propagated from seed and therefore very diverse. According to the Tongmu master, the varietal makeup in Gankeng and Tongmu is almost the same. * **Wild trees:** Gankeng has groups of wild tea trees 300–400 years old; they are included in the provincial protected zone for valuable genetic resources of the tea plant. * **Harvest:** Once a year, in spring: the highlands are cold, and no second harvest is made. A photo caption in the feature article links the harvest to the Guyu season (谷雨, *gǔyǔ*), around April 20. * **Yield:** According to a local producer, one mu (about 1/15 ha) gives 8–10 jin (4–5 kg) of finished tea a year. **4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:** * **Region:** The northern part of the Wuyi Mountains, the surroundings of Xianglu Mountain (香炉山), 1938 m high — according to *Chinese National Geography*, the second-highest peak of East China. * **Growing altitude:** On average above **900 m**; the highest bush found is at about **1460 m**. The newspaper gives a range of 700–1500 m. * **Climate:** Mean annual temperature 14.6–16.7 °C, precipitation 1900–2200 mm a year (according to *Chinese National Geography*); another publication gives 15.1 °C and relative humidity of 80–85 %. A large difference between day and night temperatures, short days, long periods of frost, frequent fogs. * **Soils:** Well-aerated soils on weathered rock; according to the newspaper — loose, moist, rich in organic matter. * **Landscape:** The gardens lie below broadleaf forest and bamboo; among the bushes grow pear and torreya trees more than 200 years old; in Chenjiapai the bushes are not pruned. **5. Production Technology:** Gankeng holds to traditional smoking. The leaf is withered in the smoke of burning pine wood (生烟萎凋); according to the feature article, it is this technique that gives the taste of dried longan. The smoking is done in a *qīnglóu* (青楼) — a drying house where pine smoke rises through openings to the upper floor, to the leaf or the finished tea. The county has its own standard for the construction of such drying houses. Rolling, according to the feature article, is done on wooden rolling machines; a local master built a two-section machine in place of a single-section one. For smoked xiaozhong the usual sequence is as follows — this is the general scheme of the class, not a description of Gankeng tea specifically: 1. **Withering over warm smoke (萎凋, *wěidiāo*).** 2. **Rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*)** and **fermentation (发酵, *fājiào*).** 3. **Firing in a hot pan (过红锅, *guò hóngguō*)** — stops the fermentation. 4. **Second rolling (复揉, *fùróu*)** and **smoke-drying (熏焙, *xūnbèi*).** I have not seen the parameters of the technical code of practice T/CSTEA 00049-2022. **6. Organoleptic Characteristics:** * **Dry leaf appearance:** Black (茶叶呈黑色). * **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions in the sources consulted. * **Liquor aroma:** Pine smoke — according to a summary of the standard, in the top grade it must be clearly perceptible; journalists add floral notes, resin, dried fruit and longan (松香、干果香、桂圆香) and “the rich breath of the mountain forest”. * **Taste:** Fresh, mellow and full (鲜醇饱满), sweet, with a taste of dried longan; a coolness remains in the mouth at the end. * **Liquor color:** Orange-red (橙红). * **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No descriptions in the sources consulted. According to a summary of the standard T/CSTEA 00048-2022, the tea is divided into four grades — top, first, second and third — with physical reference samples that are replaced every five years. I have not seen the numerical requirements of the standard. **7. Chemical Composition:** Physicochemical data 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 smoked red tea. For xiaozhong there is a separate group standard for brewing and tasting (T/CSTEA 00036-2021), and the county has its own (T/CSTEA 00050-2022); I have not seen their parameters. * **Water temperature:** 90–95 °C. * **Tea amount:** 3–5 g per 150 ml. * **Teaware:** A white porcelain gaiwan or a small teapot. * **Process:** Warm the teaware; first infusion — 10–20 seconds, each following one slightly longer; five or six infusions. **10. Storage:** Class practice. In airtight packaging, at room temperature, in a dry, dark place. Smoked tea is kept apart from other teas: its smoky aroma easily passes to its neighbors, and it readily absorbs other odors itself. **11. Price and Counterfeits:** Price data are not found in the sources consulted. * **How to avoid counterfeits:** * Look for the mark “干坑 小种红茶” on the packaging. * Check that the producer is from Guangze County. * Remember that “干坑1662” is a county public brand, not the mark. **12. Interesting Facts:** * Gankeng and Guadun in Tongmu are about an hour's walk apart, but they lie in different counties, and this decides which name the tea may bear. * The reference work *Zhongguo Cha Jing* names Gankeng as the western boundary of the “zhengshan” area. Two summaries differ on the size of the area — about 556 and about 565 km² — but the western boundary is the same in both. * The county brand “干坑1662”, which appeared in 2021, is named after the year with which popular texts link the appearance of red tea at the English court. **13. Comparison with Neighboring Xiaozhong Teas:** * **Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong (正山小种):** The Tongmu prototype. The mountains, the bushes and the smoking are, according to the sources, almost the same; the difference lies in administrative affiliation and the right to the name. * **Tongmu Ye Sheng Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong ([桐木野生正山小种](https://thetea.app/article/tongmu-yesheng-zheng-shan-xiao-zhong)):** Tea from the wild bushes of the Tongmu reserve; there are wild tea trees in Gankeng too. * **Jin Jun Mei ([金骏眉](https://thetea.app/article/jin-jun-mei)):** A modern unsmoked red tea from Tongmu buds; Gankeng holds to smoked leaf xiaozhong. **In Conclusion:** *Gānkēng xiǎozhǒng hóngchá* is a red tea that in its mountains, bushes and pine smoke is almost indistinguishable from the Tongmu tea, but grows on the other side of an administrative boundary. Hence the mark's own name and the dispute over the word “zhengshan”. The 2022 standards, the intangible heritage status and the feature articles about the place itself speak about the tea more reliably than the legends: smoke-drying houses, a harvest once a year, black leaf, an orange-red liquor and a taste of dried longan.