---
title: "Jiùjiē báichá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/jiujie-baicha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Jiùjiē báichá (旧街白茶)

*Jiùjiē báichá* (旧街白茶) is a tea of Jiujie Subdistrict (旧街街道), Xinzhou District (新洲区), on the eastern outskirts of Wuhan, Hubei Province, in the southern spurs of the Dabieshan. The name has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark since 2015; it is the second oldest of the three tea marks of a single quarter. The word *báichá* (白茶, “white tea”) in the name does not prove the class. Reference texts assign the tea to green teas, but I have not seen a mark document stating the class, so the article is filed among the categories. The first term of the mark expired in November 2025; whether it has been renewed has not been checked.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** The class has not been established by the mark document. A reference encyclopedia (Baidu Baike) assigns the tea to green teas and names fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*) among the operations; a publication on the Hubei government portal (2022) compares it only with “ordinary tea”. I have not seen rules for the use of the mark or a standard stating the class.
* **Category:** 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*), Xinzhou District (新洲, *Xīnzhōu*), Jiujie Subdistrict (旧街, *Jiùjiē*).
* **Zone:** The provincial register gives Xinzhou District as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone. The 2022 publication names tea areas wider than the quarter: besides Jiujie, Fenghuang Town (凤凰镇) and Jiamiao Township (贾庙乡) of neighboring Tuanfeng County.
* **Mark:** Geographical indication certification mark No. 13660551, class 30, goods — “tea” (茶); the exact name of the mark is “旧街白茶 JBCL”. The holder, according to the 2023 report of the Hubei Intellectual Property Administration, is the white tea association of Jiujie Subdistrict (武汉市新洲区旧街街白茶协会). According to the 2020 provincial register, the first term ran from 14 November 2015 to 13 November 2025.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Place.** According to a 2022 publication on the Hubei government portal (a piece from the Wuhan market regulation administration), in olden times Jiujie was called Jiuchangzhen (久长镇); tea has been planted and made here since long ago. A publication in *Zhongguo Zhishi Chanquan Bao* (2019) places the quarter on the eastern outskirts of Wuhan, in the southern spurs of the Dabieshan.
    * **2008.** According to the 2019 publication, in that year one local company was a small workshop with a single trademark, “旧街白茶”; later the district intellectual property office helped to set up a white tea association and to register the name as a certification mark.
    * **2010–2015.** The 2022 publication lists awards: a silver medal at the International Tea Expo in Shanghai (2010), first prize at the “Zhong Cha Bei” (中茶杯, 2011), a place in the first list of famous teas of Hubei food culture (2012), a well-known trademark of Wuhan (2013).
    * **2015.** The mark was registered (term — from 14 November).
    * **2016–2019.** According to the 2019 publication, over three years the district office “nurtured and strengthened” three tea marks in a single subdistrict — *Jiùjiē báichá*, Daolouzhai Baicha and Chenglouzhai Cha — although two of them had been registered earlier, in 2013 and 2015.
    * **2023.** According to *Hubei Ribao* as relayed by the Wuhan agriculture bureau, the name “旧街白茶” is to become a common brand of thirteen tea companies of the quarter, with uniform packaging, standard, quality and price.
* **Scale — figures of different scope:**
    * The 2019 publication: the *Jiùjiē báichá* industry produced 5000 *jin* in 2016 and 7500 *jin* (about 3.75 t) in 2018, worth 10 and 15 million yuan.
    * *Hubei Ribao* (2023): in the whole quarter — 8 tea enterprises above designated size, about twenty cooperatives, almost 20,000 *mu* of tea gardens and more than 200 million yuan worth of tea products.
    * The first figures refer to the industry of a single name, the second to the whole tea industry of the quarter; they cannot be compared directly.
* **Name:** “Jiujie” (旧街) — “old street”, the name of the quarter; *báichá* (白茶) — “white tea”; the sources do not explain why the tea is called white.
* **Cultural significance:** The 2019 publication calls *Jiùjiē báichá* one of the six famous teas of Hubei and quotes a folk saying about it: “淡中有味茶偏好，清茗一杯情更真” — “there is taste in the plain — that is what makes the tea good; over a cup of clear tea, feeling is truer”.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** Not named in the sources consulted.
* **Harvest standard:** No document was found. A reference encyclopedia writes of plucking “one bud with one leaf”. According to the 2019 publication, local pickers were trained by invited plucking masters who had worked for many years in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The southern spurs of the Dabieshan (大别山, *Dàbié shān*) on the eastern outskirts of Wuhan.
* **Soils and conditions:** According to the 2022 publication, the garden soil contains much weathered rock; the gardens lie fairly high, in mountains with clouds and mists, and the climate is mild. The publication gives no figures.
* **Altitude, climate data:** No data were found in the sources consulted.

**5. Production Technology:**

I have not come across the technology in the mark documents. A reference encyclopedia mentions twelve operations, including withering (萎凋, *wěidiāo*) and fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*); it gives neither the full list nor a source.

If this is a green tea, as the encyclopedia writes, the general scheme of the class is: spreading of the leaf, fixation, shaping, drying. This is the general scheme of the class, not a description of the technology of *Jiùjiē báichá*.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

There is no normative description in the sources consulted. Below are scattered descriptions from the press and a reference encyclopedia.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** The reference encyclopedia — emerald, shaped “like an orchid leaf” (兰蕙状).
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions were found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** The reference encyclopedia names the aroma with the image “淡竹积雪” — “bamboo under snow”; it does not explain what lies behind it.
* **Taste:** A folk saying as relayed by the 2019 publication — “there is taste in the plain” (淡中有味).
* **Liquor color:** The reference encyclopedia — goose-yellow (鹅黄).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No descriptions were found in the sources consulted.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

The 2022 publication on the Hubei government portal writes that the measured amino acid content is 12.86 %, three to four times more than in ordinary tea; it names neither the method, nor the sample, nor the batch. The reference encyclopedia repeats 12.86 % and adds polyphenols below 15 %; I have not seen the primary source of the second figure.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea.

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice. The class has not been established by a document, so below is a gentle regime, usual for tender spring green tea, to which reference texts assign the 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. Add the tea and pour the water down the side.
    3. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
    4. Two or three further infusions.

**10. Storage:**

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

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

The 2019 publication writes that the local “white tea” rose in price from 800 to 1200–1800 yuan per *jin* (500 g), and the purchase price of fresh leaf from 80 to 100–120 yuan per *jin*. These are prices as retold by the press, not a market summary.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for geographical indication certification mark No. 13660551 and check whether it has been renewed after November 2025.
    * Check that the producer is from Xinzhou District and has been authorized by the association to use the mark.
    * Do not confuse it with Fujian white tea: the class of *Jiùjiē báichá* has not been established by a document.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* A single subdistrict, Jiujie, has three tea certification marks: Chenglouzhai Cha (2013), *Jiùjiē báichá* (2015) and Daolouzhai Baicha (2017).
* The name of the mark coincides with the trademark that a small local workshop held in 2008.
* The tea areas extend beyond the boundary of Wuhan: the 2022 publication names among them Jiamiao Township of neighboring Tuanfeng County.
* The name of the mark contains Latin letters — “JBCL”.

**13. Comparison with Neighboring and Related Teas:**

* **Daolouzhai Baicha ([刀楼寨白茶](https://thetea.app/article/daolouzhai-baicha)):** The neighboring mark of the same quarter, since 2017; its class has not been established either, and reference texts assign it to green teas.
* **Chenglouzhai Cha ([城楼寨茶](https://thetea.app/article/chenglouzhai-cha)):** The oldest of the three Jiujie marks, since 2013; according to the press description — a flat tea, green with a touch of yellow, with a chestnut aroma.
* **Anji Baicha ([安吉白茶](https://thetea.app/article/anji-baicha)):** A green tea from a white-leaf variety of Anji County — an example showing that *báichá* in the name does not mean the white class.
* **Baihao Yinzhen ([白毫银针](https://thetea.app/article/baihao-yinzhen)):** A true white tea of Fujian, without fixation or rolling — for contrast.

**In Conclusion:**

*Jiùjiē báichá* is a tea with a documented name and an unestablished class. Little is reliably known: mark No. 13660551 since 2015, the holder — the association of the quarter, the plan for a common brand of thirteen companies, and a high amino acid content, according to local measurements. Reference texts assign the tea to green teas, but this must be confirmed by the mark documents, not by the characters of the name.