Jiǔgōngshān chá (九宫山茶) is a mountain green tea of Tongshan County (通山县), Xianning prefecture-level city, in the southeast of Hubei Province. The protection zone is five towns and townships in the middle part of the Mufu range (幕阜山脉): Mount Jiugongshan and the mountains around it. The tea comes in two forms — flat (扁形茶) and twisted (条形茶), each with its own technology. Since 2019 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). The protection requirements do not name the class explicitly, but both of their technological schemes are green: with fixation, without oxidation and without smothering.
- Category: Mountain green tea of southern Hubei, flat and twisted; agricultural product geographical indication (2019) and geographical indication product (2025).
- Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Xianning prefecture-level city (咸宁, Xiánníng), Tongshan County (通山, Tōngshān).
- Protection zone: The towns of Xiapu (厦铺镇), Chuangwang (闯王镇), Jiugongshan (九宫山镇) and Honggang (洪港镇), and Yangfanglin Township (杨芳林乡). The applicant is the Jiugongshan Tea Association of Tongshan County (通山县九宫山茶叶协会).
- Geographic coordinates: 114°15′–114°58′ E, 29°19′–29°33′ N.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Ancient records. A reference description cites a Jin-era record of picking tea on “Mount Wuchang” (入武昌山采茗) and considers it to be Jiugongshan — this is an interpretation, not direct evidence. According to the same description, under the Song the Chaliaoguan temple (茶寮观) stood on the mountain, and The Gazetteer of Mount Jiugongshan (《九宫山志》) mentions a plot of one qing under tea.
- Qing. The county government quotes The Kangxi General Gazetteer of Huguang (《康熙湖广通志》): “茶出通山者为上” — tea from Tongshan was considered the best.
- 1958 and 1980. The reference description reports two finds of descendants of ancient native tea trees.
- 1996 and later. According to a reference website, in 1996 the organic tea base “九宫山有机茶” was set up; teas of the series won gold at the 中茶杯, 陆羽杯 and 鄂茶杯 competitions, and in 2011 the “九宫山” trademark was recognized as a well-known trademark of China. The same site writes that in 2011 the brand was named among the country’s top hundred standardized agricultural brands and that it received the organic tea certificate fifteen times in a row.
- 2019. On 17 January the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs placed “九宫山茶” under protection as an agricultural product geographical indication (number AGI02564).
- 2022. The county reported that it had been included in the list of Hubei’s major tea-producing areas for 2021; this list includes administrative units with at least 10,000 mu under tea.
- 2025. By announcement No. 640 of 16 July 2025 (published on 13 August), the China National Intellectual Property Administration recognized “九宫山茶” as a geographical indication product. By the same announcement and on the application of the same association, the red Tongshan Hongcha, with the same zone, was recognized.
- Name: “Jiugongshan” (九宫山) — “the mountain of nine palaces”, the name of the mountain; 茶 — tea.
- Cultural significance: The reference description cites a local saying: a thousand tea bushes and a thousand tung trees keep a family from want (家有千棵茶千棵桐，吃穿不受穷).
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties / Cultivars: According to the protection requirements — 鄂茶8 (Èchá 8), 五峰212 (Wǔfēng 212) and others. The county government (2022) speaks of more than ten varieties without naming them.
- Picking principles: The requirements set not a harvest standard but five paired rules: pick from the surface of the crown and spare the base, pick the middle and spare the sides, the high shoots — and spare the low ones, the dense ones — and spare the sparse ones, the large ones — and spare the small ones (采面养底、采中养侧、采高养低、采密养稀、采大养小).
- Harvest standard and timing: No data in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Southeastern Hubei, the middle part of the Mufu range. According to the reference description, the relief of the county is “eight parts mountains, one part water, one part fields” (八山一水一分田), rising to the southwest and falling to the east.
- Growing altitude: 400–900 m — according to the protection requirements.
- Soils: According to the requirements — sandy loams on weathered rock (风化石砂质壤) and yellow-brown soils (黄棕壤) of medium fertility; organic matter on average 5.31%, total nitrogen 0.12%, available phosphorus 16–21 mg/kg, available potassium 13 mg/kg, pH 4.5–5.5. The description of the zone on the Ministry of Commerce portal, known only at second hand, gives 100–130 mg/kg for potassium; which figure is correct cannot be established. A reference website on local products describes the soils as acidic red-yellow soils on sandstone and shale, rich in mineral elements and available potassium.
- Climate: According to the reference description — abundant precipitation, warm and humid, with the slopes in fog in the mornings and evenings. No numerical data.
- Planting and care according to the requirements: Planting is done around the Spring Festival, no later than February, 5,000–6,000 bushes per mu. In winter, 300 kg of rapeseed or peanut cake or 1,000 kg of manure, together with organic and phosphate fertilizer, are applied per mu. Formative pruning is done in three stages.
- Scale: In March 2022 the county reported 64,000 mu of ecological gardens, about 43,000 mu being harvested and an output value of more than 100 million yuan. These are figures for the whole county, not for the protection zone. Yangfanglin, Jiugongshan, Xiapu and Yanxia (燕厦) are named as the main bases — the last of them is not in the protection zone. Among the companies brought in, the county names 湖北九宫山茶业股份有限公司 first.
5. Production Technology
The protection requirements set two schemes of eight operations each.
- Flat tea (扁形茶, biǎnxíngchá):
- Spreading the fresh leaf (摊放, tānfàng).
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng).
- Cooling (冷却, lěngquè).
- Straightening the leaf (理条, lǐtiáo).
- Pressing flat (压扁, yābiǎn).
- Finishing in the pan (煇锅, huīguō).
- Combining into a batch (归堆, guīduī).
- Packing in boxes (装箱, zhuāngxiāng).
- Twisted tea (条形茶, tiáoxíngchá):
- Spreading, fixation, cooling — as for flat tea.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn).
- Second pan-firing (炒二青, chǎo èrqīng).
- Moisture regain (回潮, huícháo).
- Pan-firing to dryness (炒干, chǎogān).
- Combining into a batch and packing.
The document gives no temperatures or durations.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description follows the protection requirements, separately for the two forms.
- Dry leaf appearance: Flat — flat and straight (扁平挺直), tender green, the down hidden in the leaf (嫩绿隐毫). Twisted — a tight, heavy twist (条索紧结重实), an oily color (色泽油润).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Flat — lasting (香气持久). Twisted — a lasting chestnut aroma (栗香持久), a clean aroma spreading all around (清香四溢).
- Taste: Flat — fresh and mellow, with a sweet aftertaste (滋味鲜醇回甘). Twisted — mellow and rich (滋味醇厚); the reference website adds that it withstands many infusions.
- Liquor color: Flat — green and bright (汤色绿亮). For the twisted form there is no separate description.
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Flat — tender green and bright (叶底嫩绿明亮). Twisted — green and bright (叶底绿亮).
The reference website on local products also describes the “cloud tea of Mount Jiugongshan” (九宫山云雾茶): the twist is tight, thin and elegantly curled, the liquor clear and light, the aroma rich, the taste sweetish, the spent leaf tender green and even. The sources do not say whether this name belongs to the protected profile.
7. Chemical Composition
The 2025 protection requirements set lower thresholds:
| Indicator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Tea polyphenols | not less than 22.2% |
| Free amino acids | not less than 2.7% |
| Water-soluble extractives | not less than 42.4% |
The reference website gives lower figures — 20%, 2.5% and 40%, probably from the earlier version. Data on caffeine are not available.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: Glass tumbler or white gaiwan.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- 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; the twisted tea, according to the reference description, withstands more.
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 product mark or the agricultural indication mark.
- Check that the tea is made in one of the five units of the zone — Xiapu, Chuangwang, Jiugongshan, Honggang or Yangfanglin — and not simply in Tongshan County.
- Do not confuse the “九宫山” trademark with the geographical indication: the trademark is a brand, while the indication is the name of a place and the requirements for the product.
- Flat tea is tender green, with the down hidden in the leaf; twisted tea is tight and oily, with a chestnut aroma.
11. Interesting Facts
- One association holds two protected names with one zone — the green Jiǔgōngshān chá and the red Tongshan Hongcha — and the physicochemical thresholds in their requirements are written identically.
- Under one name, two forms with different technologies are protected — flat and twisted.
12. Comparison with Other Teas
- Tongshan Hongcha (通山红茶): A red tea of the same zone and the same association.
- Songfeng Lücha (松峰绿茶): A green tea of Chibi county-level city in the same Xianning prefecture.
- Jiangxia Bifang (江夏碧舫): A flat green tea of Wuhan — for comparison with the flat form.
In Conclusion:
Jiǔgōngshān chá is a mountain green tea of southern Hubei with gardens at 400–900 m around the Taoist mountain Jiugongshan. The protection documents recognize two forms of it: flat, tender green, with a fresh sweet taste, and twisted, oily, with a chestnut aroma. Behind the name stand old records of Tongshan tea, an organic tea base since 1996 and protection in 2019 and 2025.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page