Guǎngyuán huángchá (广元黄茶) is a green tea from yellow-leaf cultivars of Guangyuan prefecture-level city in the northeast of Sichuan Province. Despite the name, the tea does not belong to the yellow class: the technology is that of green tea, there is no sealed yellowing (闷黄), and the “yellow” is the color of the spring leaf of the cultivars 中黄1号 and 中黄2号. The first of them was brought to Guangyuan in 2010, and in thirteen years a trial planting in Wangcang County grew, according to the prefecture, into 51,000 mu of gardens — the largest “yellow tea” base in China. The prefecture describes the tea with the formula “three yellows — three highs”: golden-yellow leaf, “goose-yellow” liquor, jade-yellow spent leaves, abundant amino acids, a high aroma and abundant yellow pigments. The name has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark since 2014.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá) from yellow-leaf cultivars. The prefecture itself also calls it that: a “green tea product” made by spreading, fixation, straightening, shaping and drying.
- Name trap: “黄茶” (huángchá) in the name is the color of the leaf, not the class. Yellow tea under GB/T 30766 requires sealed yellowing, which is absent here.
- Category: Tea from light-leaf (黄化, huánghuà) cultivars; geographical indication certification mark (2014).
- Origin: China, Sichuan Province (四川, Sìchuān), Guangyuan prefecture-level city (广元, Guǎngyuán). The main area is Wangcang County (旺苍县). The prefecture is given as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone.
- Geographic coordinates: Guangyuan — about 32.4° N and 105.8° E.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- 2010. Guangyuan brought in the cultivar 中黄1号, bred by the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and established a successful trial planting in Wangcang County.
- 2013–2014. The city authorities entrusted the application to the prefecture’s industrial crops station, and in 2014 the geographical indication certification mark 广元黄茶 was registered — No. 14056995. The adjacent number 14056996 belongs to the paired mark 广元纯黄茶. According to the 2014 annual trademark report of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the PRC, both marks are held by the same prefecture industrial crops station (广元市经济作物管理站), and both are registered for the same goods — tea. No document that would distinguish the products under the two marks was found in the sources consulted.
- Standards. According to the prefecture, two local standards have been adopted — on cultivation and on processing — as well as a group standard “广元黄茶”; as of 2023, eleven companies were permitted to use the mark.
- 2023. According to the prefecture, 51,000 mu of gardens; the prefecture calls this the largest “yellow tea” base in China.
- The tea has been entered in the national catalogs of rural specialty products and of “名特优新” — famous, special, high-quality and new agricultural products. The province recognized it as an excellent regional public brand of agricultural products and as the most influential single tea of Sichuan (四川省最具影响力茶叶单品).
- Name: “Guangyuan” is the name of the prefecture; huángchá (黄茶) is “yellow tea”, after the color of the leaf.
- Cultural significance: Guǎngyuán huángchá is younger than the neighboring protected teas of the prefecture — Qifo Gongcha (protected since 2008) and Micangshan Cha (since 2009). Its history is the history of a cultivar, not of a place: the tea appeared together with a cultivar bred in Zhejiang.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties: 中黄1号 (Zhōnghuáng 1) and 中黄2号 (Zhōnghuáng 2) — state-registered cultivars with a naturally yellow leaf. 中黄1号 was bred by the academy’s Tea Research Institute; 中黄2号 descends from a mutant from Jinyun County, Zhejiang Province.
- Leaf color: The spring shoots are yellow; in the cultivar 中黄2号 the leaf turns green by summer.
- Raw material: Tender spring shoots (鲜嫩春梢) of cultivars grown in the prefecture.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Northeast Sichuan, mountains on the border with Shaanxi and Gansu.
- Growing altitude: No data in the sources consulted. The prefecture writes only that Guangyuan has many high mountains and fogs (多高山、多云雾).
- Climate: No precise data for the gardens in the sources consulted.
- Soils: No data in the sources consulted.
- Distinctive feature: The yellow color of the leaf is set by the cultivar, not by the place: the cultivars were brought from Zhejiang. The place gives altitude and fogs.
5. Production Technology
According to the prefecture’s description, Guǎngyuán huángchá is made as follows:
- Withering (摊放, tānfàng): The fresh leaf is spread out in a thin layer.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Heating stops oxidation.
- Straightening (理条, lǐtiáo): The leaf is straightened into strands.
- Shaping (做形, zuòxíng): The leaf takes the form of a “little orchid” (形似小兰花).
- Drying (干燥, gānzào).
There is no sealed yellowing (闷黄). The prefecture reports a local processing standard, but I have not seen its text; no parameters were found in the sources consulted.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The prefecture describes the appearance with the formula “three yellows — three highs” (三黄三高).
- Dry leaf appearance: Resembles a little orchid (形似小兰花); golden yellow (外形金黄).
- Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: High (香气高).
- Taste: No descriptions in the sources consulted, apart from a reference to the high amino acid content.
- Liquor color: Light yellow, “the color of a gosling” (汤色鹅黄).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Jade yellow (叶底玉黄).
7. Chemical Composition
According to the prefecture (2023):
| Indicator | Content |
|---|---|
| Extractives | more than 40 % |
| Amino acids | about 7 % on average |
According to the same data, there are 2–3 times more amino acids than in ordinary green tea. The prefecture also notes a high content of yellow pigments, but gives no figures.
8. Brewing
Class practice for tender green tea.
- Water temperature: 75–80 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A glass tumbler — it shows the yellow-green leaf and the light-yellow liquor.
- Process:
- Warm the glass.
- Add the tea and pour the water down the side.
- First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
- Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three further infusions.
9. Storage
Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Best drunk within a year.
10. Price and Counterfeits
According to the prefecture, 70 t of tea were produced in 2023, and the market price was 4,000–16,000 yuan per jin (500 g). This is the prefecture’s estimate, not a retail price list.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication certification mark No. 14056995; as of 2023, eleven companies could use it.
- Check that the producer is from Guangyuan prefecture.
- The leaf is golden yellow, the liquor light yellow, the spent leaves jade yellow.
- Do not confuse it with the yellow tea class: there is no sealed yellowing here.
11. Interesting Facts
- The cultivars for this tea were bred in Zhejiang, and the first trial planting in Guangyuan was in 2010.
- In thirteen years the area grew from a trial planting to 51,000 mu.
- Sanhe Village in Wangcang County, according to the prefecture, was recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture as a national “village with a hundred-million-yuan specialty industry”.
- The mark has a paired mark — 广元纯黄茶 (“pure yellow tea of Guangyuan”), with the adjacent number.
- The same name trap as with Jinyun Huangcha: the tea is called yellow, but by class it is green.
12. Comparison with Other Teas
- Jinyun Huangcha (缙云黄茶): The home of the cultivar 中黄2号; also a green tea under a “yellow” name.
- Anji Huangjin Ya (安吉黄金芽): A yellow-leaf green tea of Zhejiang.
- Mengding Huangya (蒙顶黄芽): A true yellow tea of Sichuan, with sealed yellowing.
- Micangshan Cha (米仓山茶): Tea of the Micang Mountains in Wangcang County of the same prefecture; its technology has been entered in the provincial heritage list as a branch of the Sichuan green tea technology.
In Conclusion:
Guǎngyuán huángchá is a green tea of northeastern Sichuan from the Zhejiang yellow-leaf cultivars 中黄1号 and 中黄2号. Three yellows — leaf, liquor and spent leaves — and three highs — amino acids at about 7 %, aroma and pigments. From the trial planting of 2010 the tea has grown into an industry of 51,000 mu; the mark has protected the name since 2014.
Sources
Standards
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page