Hǎifēng Liánhuāshān chá (海丰莲花山茶), “the tea of Lianhuashan Mountain from Haifeng”, is a green tea from Haifeng County (海丰县) of Shanwei prefecture-level city in the east of Guangdong Province. Lianhuashan (莲花山, “Lotus Mountain”) is the name of a range north of the county town; it has nothing to do with lotus or flower teas. The protection document allows oolong varieties for this tea, but prescribes a green technology — fixation at 250–270 °C and many hours of pan drying, without oxidation; its formula is “a golden liquor, a honey-chestnut aroma”. Since 2021 the name has been protected as an agricultural product geographical indication, and since 2025 as a geographical indication product.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), pan-dried. The 2025 protection document sets the chain “spreading — fixation — rolling — breaking up clumps — drying”; it contains no shaking with partial oxidation, without which there is no oolong. The oolong varieties in the list of raw material do not change the class — it is set by the technology. The county website names “莲花绿茶” — “lotus green tea” — as the best-known local brand.
- Category: Geographical indication product (地理标志产品, dìlǐ biāozhì chǎnpǐn), 2025; agricultural product geographical indication (农产品地理标志), 2021.
- Origin: China, Guangdong Province (广东, Guǎngdōng), Shanwei prefecture-level city (汕尾, Shànwěi), Haifeng County (海丰, Hǎifēng).
- Protection zone: Four towns and 80 villages of the county — Haicheng (海城镇), Gongping (公平镇), Pingdong (平东镇) and Huangqiang (黄羌镇). Coordinates: 115°07′–115°30′ E, 22°56′–23°13′ N.
- Core and zone: The newspaper Nanfang Nongcun Bao (2022) names five towns as the core of production — to the four of the protection zone it adds Meilong (梅陇镇). Meilong is not part of the protection zone under either the 2020 application or the 2025 announcement.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- Legends and old testimonies:
- Legend. According to Beijing Ribao (2023), legend has it that under the Jin dynasty the healer Ge Hong (葛洪), gathering herbs on the Lianhuashan range, found and planted mountain tea (山子茶) and called it “tea of the immortals” (仙人茶, xiānrén chá).
- Chronicle of the Qianlong years (乾隆). The newspaper Shanwei Ribao (2021) quotes the Qing chronicle of Haifeng County. At the Lianhua’an monastery on the summit grow a few tea bushes, and brewed with spring water the tea is “滋味甘洁” — sweet and clean; and on the flat top of the mountain, by the Seven Star Mound (七星墩), the tea is “气味最佳” — the best in taste and aroma.
- Guangxu years (光绪). According to the same newspaper, the poet and calligrapher Jiang Fengchen (江逢辰) was a friend of the abbot of Jiming Temple (鸡鸣寺) on Lianhuashan, tasted the tea “龙头凤尾” there and in verse asked the monk to send him a few jin every year. The newspaper considers this the beginning of the tea’s fame.
- 1950s. According to Shanwei Ribao and Beijing Ribao, the mother of the revolutionary Peng Pai, Zhou Feng (周凤), presented the Lianhuashan “tea of the immortals” to Zhou Enlai. There is no documentary confirmation in the sources.
- Best plots. According to Shanwei Ribao, folk legends say that the best tea comes from the plots “Kezailiao” (客仔寮) and “the third ridge” (第三条垄). This is legend, not the result of a comparison.
- Chronicle of the Jiajing years (嘉靖). China Daily (2024) traces the history of the tea to the “Products” (物产) section of the Haifeng chronicle of the Jiajing years of the Ming dynasty. The text of this chronicle is not found in the sources consulted, while the local press speaks of “200 years of history”; the sources diverge by centuries.
- Industry: According to Shanwei Ribao (2021), records that the people of Haifeng gathered young shoots from the bushes scattered over Lianhuashan and made tea from them are known from the Qing era. Nanfang Nongcun Bao (2022) writes of “200 years of history” of the tea, of large-scale plantings from the 1960s–1970s and of faster growth of the industry from the 1990s. According to the head of the county agriculture bureau in the same newspaper, tea growers, relying on their own experience, used to make mainly green tea, and now they also produce red tea, dancong and oolong.
- Protection documents:
- 2019. The national list of famous, special and new agricultural products.
- 2020–2021. On August 5, 2020, the Guangdong agriculture department announced the acceptance of the application for an agricultural product geographical indication; the applicant was the Haifeng County Institute of Agricultural Sciences. In 2021 the Ministry of Agriculture put it up for public comment with notice No. 1, and in the same year the name was registered. At the same time “海丰莲花绿茶” was included in the provincial list of zones of priority production of special agricultural products.
- 2021. Shanwei approved the local standard “海丰莲花山茶生产技术规程” (DB4415/T 3-2021), in force from October 1. Beijing Ribao (2023) writes of one municipal-level code of practice — under the name “海丰莲花山茶标准化生产技术规程” — and of two enterprise standards.
- 2022. According to the county website, the tea received the meteorological label “岭南生态气候优品”, and Haicheng town was included in the national list of model villages and towns “一村一品” — “one village, one product”.
- 2025. By announcement No. 632 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) of June 9 (published June 27), the name was recognized as a geographical indication product — item 176 of 224. The same announcement granted protection to a local rice; before that, according to county data, the county had only one such product — daylily buds.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties / Cultivars: According to the protection document — the local population (本地群体种) or lines selected from it, as well as the high-aroma oolong varieties 本山 (Běnshān), 铁观音 (Tiěguānyīn), 金观音 (Jīnguānyīn), 黄旦 (Huángdàn), 凤凰单丛 (Fènghuáng dāncóng) and others.
- Introductions: According to the press (2023), from the 1990s the county introduced 铁观音, 金萱, 白叶单丛, 大红袍 and 黄旦 — a list that does not coincide with the list in the document.
- Wild tea: According to the press (2023), the local “tea of the immortals” is a small evergreen tree with a leaf the size of a palm; the wild trees are included in the list of protected plants of the second category. According to Beijing Ribao (2023), an old “tea of the immortals” tree 6.5 m tall survives on the mountain, and by that time 218 wild trees had been transplanted to a nursery at the foot of the mountain with a survival rate of 94.4 %, and more than 13,500 cutting-grown seedlings had been raised.
- Harvest standard: From a bud with one leaf to a bud with three leaves; the shoots whole, clean and even.
- Harvest time: Twice a year — before the Qingming festival (清明) and in the Bailu season (白露).
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The county is surrounded by mountains on three sides and opens onto the sea in the south. According to Shanwei Ribao, the tea gardens lie within a radius of about 50 km of the main peak of the range; according to Beijing Ribao, this is Lianhuafeng Peak (莲花峰), 1337.6 m. The range itself, according to the same newspaper, stretches for more than 400 km — from Longyan (龙岩) in Fujian to the mouth of the Pearl River.
- Description of the agricultural indication zone (as retold by a reference website): hills mostly 100–200 m, the highest point of the county — 1337.3 m; mountains and hills occupy 60 % of the territory, plains 40 %; average annual temperature 22.5 °C, precipitation 2389.5 mm a year, of which 1450 mm in summer. The newspapers give the height of the peak and the temperature slightly differently — 1337.6 m and 22.7 °C.
- Growing altitude: 80–700 m — plains, hills and gentle slopes.
- Soils: Yellow (黄壤) and red-yellow (红黄壤). pH according to the protection document — 4.0–5.0, according to Shanwei Ribao — 4.0–4.8.
- Climate: South subtropical monsoon. Sunshine — on average 1873 hours a year (Shanwei Ribao); average annual temperature 22.7 °C and a frost-free period of 360 days (Nanfang Nongcun Bao).
- Agronomy according to the document: Slopes no steeper than 15°, planting from November to March.
- Scale: According to the 2020 application — 2330 ha and 4302 t a year; according to the press of 2022–2023 — about 52,500 mu and 4146 t; China Daily (2024) writes of more than 60,000 mu and more than 5,000 t. The county puts the annual output value at 439 million yuan (at 2330 ha and 4302 t), Nanfang Nongcun Bao (2022) — about 1.39 billion yuan.
5. Production Technology
Process parameters according to the 2025 protection document:
- Spreading (摊青, tānqīng): In a layer of 3 cm on sieves or 10–15 cm in a trough, 6–12 hours, down to a moisture content of 68–70 %.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): 250–270 °C with a leaf temperature of 80–85 °C, 4.0–4.5 minutes, weight loss 12–14 %, moisture 58–60 %.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): Following the scheme “no pressure — light pressure — no pressure — heavy pressure — no pressure”, 25–35 minutes in all, until the leaf strand curls tightly and sap appears on it.
- Breaking up clumps (解块, jiěkuài): By machine, with the crumbs sifted out.
- Drying (干燥, gānzào) in a pan in three stages: at 230–250 °C to eight-tenths dryness; at 145–150 °C for 30 minutes; final drying (辉锅, huīguō) at 110–115 °C for six hours — until a gray-green “frost” appears on the leaf strand and a sweet or honey aroma develops. Then the tea is sealed at once.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
Description from the 2025 protection document.
- Dry leaf appearance: Tightly rolled leaf strand, gray-green, with “frost” — a whitish bloom (条索紧实、灰绿起霜). Shanwei Ribao also allows a somewhat coarse, dark green leaf strand.
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Chestnut, with a “fire aroma” (栗香带火工香); in the document’s formula — honey-chestnut (蜜栗香).
- Taste: Rich, with a returning sweetness (滋味浓厚、回甘). The press adds: refreshing, withstands many infusions.
- Liquor color: Yellow-green with a golden sheen (黄绿泛金).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Yellow-green (叶底黄绿).
7. Chemical Composition
Physicochemical requirements of the 2025 protection document:
| Indicator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Moisture | no more than 3.5 % |
| Total ash | no more than 6.5 % |
| Tea polyphenols | no less than 18.0 % |
| Water-soluble extractives | no less than 48.0 % |
The moisture limit of 3.5 % is stricter than usual for green tea; this is how it is written in the document.
Actual values, according to China Daily (2024): tea polyphenols 19–25 %, free amino acids 2.7–3.5 %, water-soluble extractives 48–52 %. The publication names neither the method nor the sample.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea.
- Water temperature: 85–90 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: Gaiwan or porcelain teapot.
- Process: Warm the teaware, first infusion — after 40–60 seconds, then several repeated infusions, each slightly longer.
9. Storage
Class practice. In airtight packaging, away from light, moisture and odors, preferably in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C. Drink within a year.
10. Price and Counterfeits
There is no price list in the sources consulted, only the words of local people. According to the head of the county agriculture bureau (2022), when technology was lacking the tea sold for a few dozen yuan per jin (500 g), and now it sells for hundreds and even thousands of yuan. One of the local producers names more modest prices on the county website: autumn tea — more than 200, spring tea — 300–400-odd yuan; he does not name the unit; from the context, a jin. Spring tea, according to the county website, brings the tea growers about half of their annual income from tea.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special geographical indication mark: CNIPA approves it for producers from the protection zone.
- Check that the tea comes from Haicheng, Gongping, Pingdong or Huangqiang towns.
- Do not confuse it with flower blends “with lotus”: Lianhuashan is the name of a mountain.
- According to the document: a gray-green leaf strand with a bloom, a yellow-green liquor with a golden sheen, a chestnut aroma with a note of fire.
11. Interesting Facts
- The raw material may come from oolong bushes, but the tea is green: it is the technology that decides, not the variety.
- According to the document, the final pan drying lasts six hours.
- With one announcement in 2025 the county tripled the number of its geographical indication products.
12. Comparison with Other Teas
- Huidong Xianren Cha (惠东仙人茶): A local tea population of neighboring Huidong County; it too is called “tea of the immortals”, and its gardens too lie on the Lianhuashan range.
- Baipenzhu Hengkeng Cha (白盆珠横坑茶): A green tea from Hengkeng, a village in Huidong surrounded on all sides by the same range.
- Dan Cong (单枞): An oolong from Chaozhou; the variety 凤凰单丛 is in the list of raw material for Haifeng tea, but the technology here is green.
In Conclusion:
Hǎifēng Liánhuāshān chá is a pan-dried green tea from Lotus Mountain in the east of Guangdong, in which oolong raw material goes into a green technology. The protection document describes fixation at 250–270 °C, a six-hour final pan drying, a gray-green leaf strand with “frost” and the formula “a golden liquor, a honey-chestnut aroma”. Protection of the name dates from 2021 and 2025.
Sources
Standards
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page