Liánnán dàyè chá

Liánnán dàyè chá (连南大叶茶), “the large-leaf tea of Liannan”, is a green tea of Liannan Yao Autonomous County (连南瑶族自治县) of Qingyuan prefecture-level city in the north of Guangdong Province. The same name is borne by the local tea population, which, according to the local press, the Yao maintained and spread through the mountains for centuries; a saying here goes “有瑶就有茶” — “where there are Yao, there is tea”. The protection document describes two kinds of the tea, pan-dried and hot-air-dried, with the formula “a dense chestnut aroma, a clean bitterness with a sweet return”. 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) in two kinds — 炒青 (chǎoqīng, pan-dried) and 烘青 (hōngqīng, hot-air-dried). In both chains of the protection document spreading is followed directly by fixation; there is no oxidation. The county also makes red tea from the same leaf, but the document describes only the green.
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), Qingyuan prefecture-level city (清远, Qīngyuǎn), Liannan Yao Autonomous County (连南, Liánnán).
Protection zone: Seven towns and 69 villages of the county — Sanjiang (三江镇), Zhaigang (寨岗镇), Sanpai (三排镇), Damaishan (大麦山镇), Daping (大坪镇), Xiangping (香坪镇) and Woshui (涡水镇).
Coordinate discrepancy: In the description of the agricultural indication zone — 112°02′–112°29′ E, 24°17′–24°56′ N. In the 2025 CNIPA announcement — 112°17′–113°2′ E, 21°34′–22°8′ N. The latitude in the announcement differs by more than two degrees and does not match the position of the county in the north of the province; a typo is likely.

2. History and Cultural Significance

The Yao and tea. According to the outlet Nanfang+ (2021), the Yao moved into these mountains from Hunan and other places under the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties. In the new place every family planted tea bushes, and a bride’s dowry always included tea. Written confirmation with dates is not found in the materials consulted. According to the same outlet, minorities, above all the Yao, make up 57.57 % of the county’s population, and their settlements formed the system “八排二十四冲” — eight large (排) and twenty-four small (冲) mountain settlements.
The tea offering rite. According to Nanfang+ (2021), the Yao have the custom of “敬茶”: on major holidays the ancestors are honored with tea. At the wedding the bride carries a silver teapot with tea; after bowing to the ancestors, she pours a little into the cups on the altar and spills a few drops at the door; in the ancestral temple, on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, the elders change the tea in the altar cups. In the Yao language the rite, according to the outlet, sounds like “典哒”.
The legend of wild tea. According to a local trading platform, the ancestors of the mountain Yao (过山瑶, Guòshān Yáo) found wild tea trees and carried their seedlings and seeds closer to their homes.
Old chronicles. Nanfang+ quotes the Chronicle of Lianshan County (《连山县志》) of 1928: in the localities of Daxu, Dalong and Jinkeng tea “has long flourished”; and the Republican-era Chronicle of Lian County (《连县志》): Dalong produces the most tea, and 黄连茶 is a local special product.
Late Qing and the 1950s. According to Nanfang+ (2021), tea was already grown here in the late Qing. The local trading platform (2017) adds that at the same time it was made here in notable quantities: merchants set up factories here and shipped the tea to the provincial capital, where about 90 % of the output went. According to the same platform, in the early 1950s provincial tea scientists surveyed the area and helped switch it to red tea, and it was then that the local leaf received the name “连南大叶种”.
20th century. According to the local trading platform (2017), in the late 1960s — early 1970s the county set up tea farms on a mass scale, and the gardens covered 5400 mu; then some of them were abandoned. In 1988 the provincial variety-testing commission approved the local tea as the variety “连南大叶” (Nanfang+).
Protection documents:
- 2021. Announcement No. 431 of the Ministry of Agriculture — registration of the agricultural product geographical indication.
- By spring 2023. The second edition of the national list of famous, special and new agricultural products; a ceremony granting enterprises the right to use the indication mark; the meteorological mark “岭南生态气候优品”.
- 2025. By announcement No. 632 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) of 9 June (published on 27 June), the name was recognized as a geographical indication product — item 177 of 224. The applicant is the agricultural technology extension center of Liannan County.
Awards. By 2021, according to Nanfang+, the tea had national-level gold and silver, and at the provincial level three golds, six silvers and two quality awards. Every year the county holds the “大叶杯” tea competition (斗茶大赛).

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety: According to the protection document — the “连南大叶” population (连南大叶群体种) or clonal varieties and lines bred from it.
Plant: According to the local trading platform (2017), it is an arbor-type large-leaf tea (乔木型大叶种): the tree can be taller than 10 m, the trunk girth of large ones is up to 1 m, the crown is upright or semi-spreading, branching is sparse; by leaf shape a large-leaf and a long-leaf type are distinguished, and most common is a large elliptical leaf with coarse, small and blunt teeth. The same source says that no frost damage was noticed during the local severe cold spells and that the leaf suits green and red tea and pu-erh (普洱茶). According to Nanfang+ (2021), the oldest known tree, according to a survey by provincial tea scientists, grows in the mountains of Huanglian Village (黄连村), and it is almost a thousand years old.
Wild tea: According to Nanfang+ (2021), large tracts of wild tea are found on Huanglianshan Mountain (黄连山) in Damaishan Town, in Bandong (板洞) and on Dalongshan Mountain (大龙山); the “连南大叶” population predominates in the county’s gardens.
Leaf: According to the press, thin and soft, elongated-elliptical, with a narrow long tip and a smooth surface; an increased content of extractives, polyphenols and zinc has been noted.
Local names: By place of origin the tea is called 高界茶, 黄连茶 and 大龙茶.
Harvest standard: A bud with two or three leaves and “paired” leaves (对夹叶) of equal tenderness.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: Northern Guangdong, the southern slopes of the Nanling range; the locality is described by the formula “nine parts mountains, half a part water and half a part fields”. According to Nanfang+ (2021), in the north of the county stands Dalongshan Mountain (大龙山), in the west Dawushan (大雾山), in the south Qiweishan (起微山); the county is elongated from north to south and narrow from west to east.
Growing altitude: Originally wild tea, according to the local platform (2017), grows in mountain hollows at 700–1000 m; according to Nanfang+ (2021), tea is common in hollows at 600–1000 m. The protection document names no altitude: the gardens are on hills and gentle slopes with a gradient of up to 30°.
Soils: According to the protection document — deep, loose and fertile red earths, lateritic red earths and yellow earths, from acidic to slightly acidic, pH 4.5–6.5. The description of the agricultural indication gives pH 4.5–5.5 and soils rich in organic matter. The local platform specifies that the red and yellow soils here formed from the weathering of granites and sandstones.
Climate: According to the zone description, mid-subtropical monsoon humid; mean annual temperature 19.5 °C, precipitation 1705.1 mm. Between the peaks and the plains the temperature difference reaches 4–5 °C (Nanfang+). Forest cover according to the zone description is 80.88 %, according to Nanfang+ (2021) 83.8 %. The zone description on the county website names Dawushan Mountain in Sanjiang Town, 1659 m, as the highest point, and gives a relative humidity of 79 %.
Scale: According to the description of the agricultural indication zone — 624 ha and more than 829 t a year; according to the press — 15,000 mu by mid-2021, 25,000 mu and 914 t of dry tea (2022), 29,700 mu (2023).

5. Production Technology

Regimes according to the 2025 protection document.

Pan-dried 炒青:

Spreading (摊青, tānqīng): A layer of 5–10 cm, 8–12 hours, until the leaf loses its sheen and reaches a moisture content of 68–70 %.
Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): In a pan or drum machine at 280–300 °C, 5–8 minutes.
Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): Pressure “light — medium — strong — light”, until tight strands form.
Second pan-firing (炒二青, chǎo èrqīng): In a pan at 160–220 °C to seven-tenths dryness.
Cooling (摊晾, tānliàng): A layer of 3–5 cm, 30 minutes.
Charcoal drying (炭焙, tànbèi): In a drying basket (烘笼) over charcoal covered with ash, 55–60 °C, 4 hours.
Final drying (辉锅, huīguō): In a pan, bringing out the aroma, to a moisture content below 6 %.

Hot-air-dried 烘青: Spreading, fixation and rolling are the same; then two dryings (烘干) — in a 3 cm layer at 120 °C to a moisture content of 30 %, and in a 4–6 cm layer at 80 °C until dry; and a firing finish (焙火, bèihuǒ) 30–60 days after production, at 70–80 °C, 5 hours.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The description of the 2025 protection document.

Dry leaf appearance: 炒青 — tightly rolled strands, silvery green, with a whitish bloom. 烘青 — tight, slightly curved, dark green.
Dry leaf aroma: A separate description is not found in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: 炒青 — dense chestnut (栗香馥郁); 烘青 — clean and sweet (清甜).
Taste: For both — thick and full (浓醇); the overall formula is a clean bitterness with a sweet return (清苦回甘).
Liquor color: For both — yellow-green, bright (黄绿亮).
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Yellow-green, fairly bright (黄绿尚亮).

The press names as signs of the tea a thick liquor (易起膏) and the clouding of the cooled liquor — “冷后浑” (lěnghòuhún). It describes the red tea from the same leaf separately: tight thin strands, black with a sheen, a dark red liquor that turns milky-cloudy as it cools.

7. Chemical Composition

Physico-chemical requirements of the 2025 protection document:

Indicator	Requirement
Tea polyphenols	20–25 %
Water-soluble ash, share of total	60–78 %
Water-soluble extractives	50–76 %

The upper limit for extractives, 76 %, is printed this way in the document; a typo is possible. In the description of the agricultural indication, as retold on the county website, the norms are different: moisture no more than 6.5 %, total ash no more than 6.5 %, polyphenols no less than 22.0 %, extractives no less than 50.0 %.

An assessment without figures: according to the local platform (2017), in the early 1980s the Tea Research Institute of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences carried out an organoleptic and biochemical analysis of green and red tea from this leaf, and polyphenols, in its words, turned out to be much higher than in ordinary Guangdong medium- and small-leaf varieties, and higher than in Yunnan large-leaf. The platform gives no figures.

8. Brewing

Class practice for green tea.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C; for the dense pan-dried 炒青 — up to 90 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler, a gaiwan or a porcelain teapot.
Process: Warm the teaware, the first infusion — after 40–60 seconds, then two or three repeat infusions.

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

Retail prices are not found in the sources consulted. There is one figure for raw material: according to the local platform, in spring 2017 more than 200,000 jin of fresh leaf were ordered in advance for a sum of more than 3 million yuan. The press gives the output value of the industry differently: more than 347 million yuan (a 2022 publication) and 80 million yuan for 2022 (a 2023 publication); which figure is correct could not be established.

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 one of the seven towns of Liannan County.
- 炒青 — silvery green strands with a bloom and a chestnut aroma, 烘青 — dark green strands and a sweet aroma.

11. Interesting Facts

One name is borne by both the population of bushes and the protected tea.
According to the document, 炒青 is dried over wood charcoal covered with ash.

12. Comparison with Other Teas

Yingde Lücha (英德绿茶): A green tea of Yingde county-level city in the same Qingyuan prefecture-level city.
Yingde Hongcha (英德红茶): A red tea of the same Qingyuan prefecture-level city.
Jinxiu Hongcha (金秀红茶): A red tea of Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi — also a tea of mountains where the Yao live.

In Conclusion:

Liánnán dàyè chá is a green tea of the mountains where the Yao live, made from a local large-leaf population of the same name. The protection document describes two kinds of it: the pan-dried 炒青 with drying over charcoal, silvery green strands and a chestnut aroma, and the hot-air-dried 烘青 with dark green strands and a sweet aroma. The legends of tea in the dowry and of the wild trees of the mountain Yao are known from the local press.

Sources

Geographical indication

CNIPA 地理标志产品认定 №632

Full list — on the Sources page