---
title: "Huángpí lǜchá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/huangpi-lucha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Huángpí lǜchá (黄陂绿茶)

*Huángpí lǜchá* (黄陂绿茶) is a green tea of Huangpi District (黄陂区) in the north of Wuhan, Hubei Province. The name has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark since 2018. Huangpi is the largest tea district of Wuhan: according to the district's data, about one hundred thousand *mu* are under tea, and the local authorities call it the largest green tea district in the city. Few documents have been found about the tea under this name itself: neither a description of the leaf nor its technology. More is known about a neighboring name of the same district — “Mulan cha” (木兰茶), which the district association promotes separately.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*). The class is stated in the name; the technology is not found in the sources consulted.
* **Category:** A tea with a geographical indication certification mark (证明商标, *zhèngmíng shāngbiāo*).
* **Origin:** China, Hubei Province (湖北, *Húběi*), Wuhan city (武汉, *Wǔhàn*), Huangpi District (黄陂, *Huángpí*).
* **Protection zone:** The register gives Huangpi District as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone. It cannot be reconstructed from the name of the tea.
* **Mark:** Geographical indication certification mark No. 21156921, class 30, goods — “tea” (茶). The holder is the Local Products Association of Huangpi District (武汉市黄陂区土特产协会). The term according to the 2020 provincial register — from April 14, 2018 to April 13, 2028. The 2026 register lists the mark as valid.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **The Song legend.** District materials on “Mulan cha” trace Huangpi tea back to the era of the Song emperor Renzong: supposedly tea was already being planted in the Mulanchuan valley (木兰川) at that time. No documentary confirmation is found in the sources consulted, and this refers to “Mulan cha”, not to the *Huángpí lǜchá* mark.
    * **2018.** On April 14 the certification mark “黄陂绿茶” was registered.
    * **2021.** The provincial list of the main tea-producing areas of Hubei included thirteen prefecture-level cities and forty-seven counties and districts, Huangpi among them.
    * **2024.** On the application of the district tea association, “Mulan cha” entered the second 2024 batch of the state index “Memory of Chinese Farm Products” (中国农耕农品记忆索引名录).
* **Name:** Huangpi (黄陂) is the name of the district; *lǜchá* (绿茶) means “green tea”.
* **Cultural significance:** For the district, tea is a traditional industry and one of the main rural ones. Mulan Township is developing a common brand around it, “Hua Mulan” (花木兰) — named after the heroine of the legend whose homeland these places are considered to be.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** For the *Huángpí lǜchá* mark, no variety is named in the sources consulted. The district press writes that one of the farms of Mulan Township has planted more than 700 *mu* of new varieties since 2018 — “Jibai” (极白), “Naibai” (奶白), “Huangjincha” (黄金茶) and others; these are the plantings of one farm, not a description of the tea under the mark.
* **Raw material:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Harvest time:** No data in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The north of Wuhan. Mulan Township, according to the district description, rests on Dabieshan (大别山) on its outer side and lies by Mulan Lake on its inner side.
* **Climate:** According to the district's data — distinct seasons, plenty of moisture, 1202 mm of precipitation a year, 1917.4 hours of sunshine, about 255 frost-free days.
* **Area:** About one hundred thousand *mu* of tea gardens, of which about eighty thousand are harvested (district data, 2022).
* **Zone of “Mulan cha”:** Six units of the district — Mulan Township, Mulanshan, Lijiaji, Changxuanling, Yaojiaji and Caidian; 840.8 km², 54,500 *mu* under tea, output about 950 t a year (according to the district's data, 2024). The sources do not say whether this zone coincides with the zone of the *Huángpí lǜchá* mark.
* **Altitude and soils:** No data in the sources consulted.

**5. Production Technology:**

The technology of *Huángpí lǜchá* is not described in the sources consulted. For green tea the usual sequence is as follows:

1.  **Withering (摊放, *tānfàng*).**
2.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*):** Heating stops oxidation.
3.  **Rolling or shaping (揉捻, *róuniǎn*).**
4.  **Drying (干燥, *gānzào*).**

This is the general scheme of the class, not a description of the technology of this tea. District materials on “Mulan cha” say only that processing is carried out in a standardized way and with machines.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

* **Dry leaf appearance:** There is no normative description for the mark. A reference article on the tea of the district calls the leaf flat and glossy (外形扁平光泽). The district describes “Mulan cha” as predominantly a flat green tea — straight, emerald (以扁形绿茶为主，挺直、翠绿).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** There are no descriptions for *Huángpí lǜchá*. “Mulan cha”, according to the district description, has a high and lasting aroma (香高持久).
* **Taste:** There is no normative description; a reference article on the tea of the district calls the taste fresh and mellow (滋味鲜醇).
* **Liquor color:** No descriptions found in the sources consulted.
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No descriptions found in the sources consulted.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

No physico-chemical data 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 green tea.

* **Water temperature:** 80–85 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 3 g per 150 ml.
* **Teaware:** A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
* **Process:**
    1. Warm the teaware.
    2. Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
    3. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
    4. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
    5. Top up with water.
    6. Two or three further infusions.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in the refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Best drunk within a year.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No price data found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for geographical indication certification mark No. 21156921.
    * Check that the producer is from Huangpi District.
    * Remember that “Mulan cha” and “Hua Mulan” are separate names, not the *Huángpí lǜchá* mark.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The mark holder is not a tea association but a general association of local products. In the 2020 register it holds seven certification marks: clay sculpture, water chestnut, tofu, persimmon, green onion, sweet potato shoots and green tea. The tea mark is the latest of them.
* By area of tea gardens, Huangpi ranks first among the districts of Wuhan.
* The name of Mulan Township is linked with the heroine of the legend, Hua Mulan, and the local tea brand takes its name from her too.

**13. Comparison with Neighboring Teas:**

* **Baiquan Lücha ([柏泉绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/baiquan-lucha)):** A flat green tea of the Longjing type from Dongxihu District, also in Wuhan; documents give both its technology and its organoleptic characteristics.
* **Dawu Lücha ([大悟绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/dawu-lucha)):** A green tea of neighboring Dawu County to the north, by the same Dabieshan; protected by a standard and a mark, in three leaf shapes.
* **Xihu Longjing ([西湖龙井](https://thetea.app/article/xihu-longjing)):** The model of flat green tea — the shape that the district ascribes to “Mulan cha”.

**In Conclusion:**

*Huángpí lǜchá* is the name of a large tea district of Wuhan: one hundred thousand *mu* of gardens and a certification mark since 2018. Descriptions of the tea itself under this mark could not be found; the closest to them is the district's portrait of “Mulan cha”, a flat green tea with a high, lasting aroma. Whether these two names coincide in zone and product should be shown by the documents of the mark holder.