Jiēyuán hōngqīng (街源烘青) is a baked green tea from the mountainous Jieyuan area in the south of She County (歙县) of Huangshan prefecture-level city, Anhui Province. The name combines the name of the locality and the processing method: hōngqīng (烘青) is a group of green teas whose final drying is done by heating over a fire rather than in a pan. Local historians write that the name was already known under the Ming, and that Huangwei village in this area was reputed to be the “first tea market of Jiangnan”. On 20 April 2025 the geographical indication certification mark “街源烘青” was presented.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá) of the hōngqīng group. A reference article on Huizhou hōngqīng (徽州烘青) defines it as a strip-shaped baked green tea (条形烘青绿茶) and writes that, by place of production, a distinction was historically drawn between Jiēyuán hōngqīng and Beiyuan Hongqing (北源烘青).
- Category: Regional green tea of the old Huizhou region; geographical indication certification mark (2025).
- Origin: China, Anhui Province (安徽, Ānhuī), Huangshan prefecture-level city (黄山, Huángshān), She County (Shèxiàn). According to a 2025 publication, the Jieyuan area includes the townships and towns of Huangtian (璜田), Jiekou (街口), Xiaochuan (小川) and others; about a hundred thousand people live here.
- Mark zone: The mark number, the holder and the zone boundaries are not named in the sources consulted.
- Geographic coordinates: Huangtian Township — about 29.7° N and 118.6° E.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Ming era. A local history publication on the portal “Zhong’an Zaixian” (中安在线, 2019) names Huangwei village (璜蔚) as one of the three hōngqīng areas of She County and writes that Gaiyuan Maofeng (陔源毛峰) and Jiēyuán hōngqīng were already known under the Ming. A reference note on Huizhou hōngqīng based on the county chronicle (《歙县志》) also dates its production to Ming times.
- 1575 — a legend. A 2025 publication writes that in the third year of the Wanli era (1575) a tea merchant from Huangwei, Hu Rugao (胡汝皋), was the first to apply the hōngqīng technology here. It does not name a primary source, so the date should be regarded as a local legend.
- The Yutai trading house. According to the village chronicle Records of Huangwei (《璜蔚志》), cited by a local history publication, the Yutai trading house (裕泰茶行) was opened under the Ming by the ancestors of the merchant Hu Miaohe (胡妙禾), and for a long time the house purchased tea for the Tianjin trading house Zhengxingde (正兴德茶行). In season it hired more than 120 workers and weighed incoming tea on 17 steelyards; the tea was packed in baskets of bamboo leaves (箬篓) of 90 jin each and shipped by water via Jiekou.
- Late Qing — early Republic. According to the same publication, five brothers of the Hu clan built a tea refining factory in Huangwei in the first years of the Republic. It produced the “Jiēyuán hōngqīng series” — maofeng, dafang and green tea — in tin cans and wooden crates, “overseas packaging” (洋装); the publication considers the brothers the pioneers of factory tea refining in Huizhou. The hōngqīng of the whole area was gathered in Huangwei and shipped across the country via Jiekou; traders from Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou came here, and the village was called the “first tea market of Jiangnan” (江南第一茶市) and “little Tunxi” (小屯溪).
- 1960s–1970s. According to the 2025 publication, in Wugongling village (蜈蚣岭) of Huangtian Township, in the wave of the “learn from Dazhai” campaign, stone tea terraces with an area of about a thousand mu were built over 13 years.
- 2023. The “Terraced tea garden system of She County” (安徽歙县梯地茶园系统) was included in the seventh list of China’s important agricultural heritage; the 2025 publication counts the Wugongling terraces as part of it as well.
- 2025. On 20 April, the day of the Guyu solar term, the geographical indication certification mark “街源烘青” was presented. According to a representative of the county tea industry development center, the mark for the first time gave the distinctiveness of this method a legal form.
- 2026. On 10 April a joint promotional season of Huangshan Baicha and Jiēyuán hōngqīng opened in Wugongling village.
- Name: “Jieyuan” (街源) is the name of the mountainous area in the south of the county. “Hōngqīng” (烘青) is the name of a group of green teas: 烘 (hōng) — to dry by heating over a fire, 青 (qīng) — green leaf.
- Cultural significance: Local historians also call Huangwei the “little Shanghai” of southern She County — for its former trading bustle; the village, in their words, was famous for hōngqīng, timber and bamboo.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: The varieties for Jiēyuán hōngqīng are not named in the sources consulted.
- Harvest: According to residents’ recollections in a local history publication, the tea came to market in the fourth and fifth months (四五月份). Exact harvest dates are not found in the sources consulted.
- Harvest standard: For Huizhou hōngqīng as a whole, the reference note names a bud with two or three leaves (一芽二三叶); requirements specifically for Jiēyuán hōngqīng are not found in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The mountainous south of She County at the border with Zhejiang. Huangwei, according to the local history publication, borders Chun’an County of Zhejiang Province on the east. An old folk ditty cited by the same publication begins with the words “街口进街源，只见青山不见田” — “from Jiekou into Jieyuan: you see only green mountains and see no fields”.
- Scale: According to the 2025 publication, the area has about 67,000 mu of tea gardens — a quarter of the county’s gardens, an annual output of about 3700 t, about 18,000 tea households and about 70 tea companies.
- Altitude, soils and climate: No data in the sources consulted.
5. Production Technology
Only one characteristic of the technology of Jiēyuán hōngqīng has been found: the 2025 publication writes that it is distinguished by “steady firing and a soft aroma” (火功稳、香气醇). A step-by-step description and settings are not given in the sources consulted; the text of the group standard could not be opened.
For Huizhou hōngqīng as a whole, the reference note names three stages — this is a general scheme, not a description of Jiēyuán hōngqīng specifically:
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Heat stops the oxidation of the leaf.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): The leaf is rolled into strips.
- Baking (烘焙, hōngbèi): The tea is dried by heating, not in a pan; it is this stage that gives the group the name hōngqīng.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
- Dry leaf appearance: For Huizhou hōngqīng, the reference note names whole strips (条索完整). A description of Jiēyuán hōngqīng specifically is not found in the sources consulted.
- Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: The 2025 publication calls the aroma soft and full (香气醇) — as a feature of the local technology.
- Taste: At the 2026 promotional season, experts described the taste of Jiēyuán hōngqīng as rich and long (醇厚悠长). For Huizhou hōngqīng as a whole, the reference note calls the taste soft (滋味醇和) and the tea able to withstand many infusions.
- Liquor color: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions in the sources consulted.
7. Chemical Composition
No physicochemical data in the sources consulted.
8. 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:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in 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 repeat 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
Price data are not found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication certification mark “街源烘青”; the list of producers authorized to use it is not published in the sources consulted.
- Check that the producer is from the Jieyuan area of She County.
- Remember that hōngqīng is a large group, and the word “烘青” on the packaging says nothing about origin.
- The group standard of the county tea association T/SCX 004—2025 “地理标志证明商标 街源烘青茶” exists, but its text could not be opened in the sources consulted.
11. Interesting Facts
- The reference note calls Huizhou hōngqīng the basis of high-grade scented teas: the unprocessed tea absorbs aroma well.
- The Wugongling terraces, by a 2025 count, took more than 1.2 million person-days and about 700 million stones.
12. Comparison with Other Teas of Huangshan
- Huangshan Baicha (黄山白茶): A green tea of She County from a white-leaf variety found in the gardens of Huangtian Township; the two teas are promoted together.
- Huangshan Maofeng (黄山毛峰): A well-known hōngqīng of Huangshan prefecture — also a baked green tea.
- Tunlü (屯绿): A Huizhou pan-dried green tea; Huangwei was compared with its trading center, Tunxi.
- Songluo Cha (松萝茶): A historical pan-fired green tea from Xiuning County of the same prefecture-level city.
In Conclusion:
Jiēyuán hōngqīng is a baked green tea from the mountainous south of She County, whose history is better recorded in trade chronicles than in descriptions of taste: the Ming fame of the name, the Yutai trading house, the “first tea market of Jiangnan” in Huangwei, and now the Wugongling terraces on the heritage list and the 2025 mark. The character of the tea itself is described sparingly: steady firing, a soft aroma, a rich long taste.
Sources
Standards
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page