--- title: "Lóngchí xiāngjiān" url: https://thetea.app/article/longchi-xiangjian lang: en updated: 2026-10-01 source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app) --- # Lóngchí xiāngjiān (龙池香尖) *Lóngchí xiāngjiān* (龙池香尖), also called *Lóngchí jiānchá* (龙池尖茶), is a flat green tea from Huaining County (怀宁县), Anqing prefecture-level city, Anhui Province. The name comes from Longchijian Mountain (龙池尖), around which the gardens lie; descriptively — “fragrant tips from Longchijian”. The name has been protected as a geographical indication product since 2016 and as an agricultural product geographical indication since 2019; in 2025 CNIPA re-registered the protection by its own announcement. **1. Classification and Origin:** * **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*): fixation, straightening and shaping, drying. * **Category:** Flat green tea with a geographical indication. * **Origin:** China, Anhui Province (安徽, *Ānhuī*), Anqing prefecture-level city (安庆, *Ānqìng*), Huaining County (怀宁, *Huáiníng*). * **Protection zone:** Five townships and towns of the county — Qinghe (清河乡), Jiangzhen (江镇镇), Hongpu (洪铺镇), Huangdun (黄墩镇) and Shijing (石镜乡). The CNIPA requirements cover them within their current administrative boundaries, and the agricultural indication covers 18 administrative villages of the same five units. The applicant for the CNIPA protection is the People's Government of Huaining County; the holder of the agricultural indication is the county tea association. * **Geographic coordinates:** 116°41′29″–116°53′08″ E, 30°27′30″–30°38′15″ N (according to the agricultural indication). **2. History and Cultural Significance:** * **History:** * **Dating.** Reference descriptions date the beginning of production to the Song era and in the same breath speak of “almost 700 years” of tradition. The Song ended in 1279, and the two figures do not fit well together; documents on the Song date are not found in the sources consulted. * **The Chen clan.** A county publication (2019), citing local genealogies, writes that at the end of the Yuan the Chen clan moved to the headwaters of the Qingshuihe River and began to cultivate tea from local wild bushes; the same text dates the creation of the tea itself to the beginning of the Song, and this contradiction remains within the source. According to the same text, the tea was used for offerings in local monasteries — Longchi'an (龙池庵), Zhengjue'an (正觉庵) and others — and at the end of the Qing and the beginning of the Republic it was sent to Anqing, to the table of the provincial, prefectural and county offices. * **1915.** The oldest testimony found is the *Chronicle of Huaining County* (《怀宁县志》) of the 4th year of the Republic, as retold by reference descriptions: tea from Longchijian is “excellent”; picked around Qingming, after processing it is “like a young silkworm”, and brewed with mountain water, it is “in taste not inferior to Mengding” (蒙顶). * **Since the 1980s.** According to the county publication, the county invited specialists from Anhui Agricultural University and the Anhui Tea Research Institute; manual production was replaced by machine production, and flattening (压扁) was added so that the tea would better withstand repeated infusions. * **Awards.** According to the same publication: 2004 — inclusion in the *Guide to Chinese Tea Brands* (《中国茶叶品牌指南》), 2009 — first prize at the eighth “Zhongcha Bei” (中茶杯) competition, 2010 and 2014 — the “龙池” trademark recognized as a famous trademark of Anhui, 2017 — the national catalog of famous, special, high-quality and new agricultural products. * **2016.** On December 28, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), by announcement No. 128, took “龙池香尖（龙池尖茶）” under protection as a geographical indication product and approved the quality requirements. * **2019.** By announcement No. 185 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, dated June 24, the tea was registered as an agricultural product geographical indication. * **2025.** CNIPA announcement No. 632 (signed June 9, published June 27) recognized *Lóngchí xiāngjiān* as a geographical indication product. A note states that the entry replaces item 18 and annex 18 of the 2016 AQSIQ announcement: the protection is not new but re-registered. * **Name:** 龙池 (*lóngchí*) — “dragon pond”, part of the mountain's name; 香 (*xiāng*) — “fragrant”; 尖 (*jiān*) — “tip”, and also “peak” in the mountain's name. The second name simply means “tea from Longchijian”. **3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:** * **Variety / Cultivar:** According to the CNIPA requirements — local traditional varieties (当地传统茶树品种). The agricultural indication specifies: a local population ([群体种](https://thetea.app/article/qunti-zhong)) — shrub, medium-leaf, early-sprouting. At the same time, the CNIPA requirements prescribe vegetative propagation (无性繁殖); the documents do not explain how this fits with a population. * **Raw material:** A bud with one leaf and a bud with two barely opened leaves; the leaf is tender, firm, with abundant down. * **Harvest standard:** According to the agricultural indication — the shoot intact, without dew or rain moisture, without scales or “fish leaves”; the picked leaf is sorted by grade and put into processing after 6 hours. * **Harvest time:** According to the CNIPA requirements — late March to early April. According to the agricultural indication, the top grade is picked after Chunfen and before Qingming, and the others are finished around Guyu. **4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:** * **Region:** Low mountains around Longchijian Mountain (433 m according to the agricultural indication), the “roof of Huaining”. Reference descriptions place the gardens near Shuangjianshan Mountain (双尖山) next to the Longchi'an hermitage (龙池庵), at an altitude of about 400 m. * **Altitude:** According to the CNIPA requirements — not below 200 m. * **Climate:** Northern subtropical humid monsoon. For the county: 16–17 °C on average over the year, 2057.1 hours of sunshine, 1349.4 mm of precipitation, a frost-free period of 241 days. The zone lies south of the watershed of Caizi Lake (菜子湖) and the Wan River (皖河); according to the description, in summer it is about 4 °C cooler here, and in the winter cold about 2 °C warmer, than in the rest of the county. The compilers link the diffused light and morning fogs to the aroma of the tea. * **Soils:** According to the CNIPA requirements — red, yellow-red and yellow-brown, at least 1 m thick, organic matter at least 1.0 %, pH 5.5–6.0. The agricultural indication adds sandy loam and a pH of about 5.57. * **Care:** No more than 50,000 bushes per hectare, fertilizer — oilseed cake or manure. Only reference texts claim that pesticides are not used. **5. Production Technology:** The scheme according to the CNIPA requirements: spreading → fixation → straightening and shaping → cooling → drying. 1. **Spreading (摊凉, *tānliáng*):** A layer no thicker than 5 cm, until the leaf darkens and becomes soft. 2. **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*):** 180–200 °C, until the leaf darkens. 3. **Straightening and shaping (理条、做形, *lǐtiáo, zuòxíng*):** By hand — in a pan at 80 → 50 °C. By machine — straightening at 150 °C for 2.5–3 minutes, cooling for 0.5–1 hour, then shaping at 120 °C with pressing for 1–2 minutes, to 80 % dryness. 4. **Drying (烘干, *hōnggān*):** The first at 80 °C, an hour of cooling, a repeated one at 60 °C until fully dry; moisture — no more than 5 %. The agricultural indication describes the manual method: fixation in an electric pan at about 160 °C, 100–150 g of leaf at a time, about 3 minutes; shaping in the same pan at 80 → 50–60 °C, about 4 minutes, by pressing with the palm; drying in woven baskets over charcoal — about 25 minutes at 80 °C, then at 60 °C. For machines, the same document gives drum fixation at 270 °C for about a minute, straightening at 200 °C, shaping at about 190 °C and final drying at 160 °C; straightening and shaping here are hotter than in the CNIPA requirements (150 and 120 °C), and the documents do not explain the reason for the discrepancy. **6. Organoleptic Characteristics:** First comes the CNIPA description (it repeats the 2016 AQSIQ description), then, where it differs, that of the agricultural indication. * **Dry leaf appearance:** Flat, “like a spearhead” (形扁似矛). The second document adds: green with a sheen, down visible (绿润显毫). * **Dry leaf aroma:** A separate description is not found in the sources consulted. * **Liquor aroma:** Clean, high and rich, refined (清香高郁，香气清雅); or clean and long-lasting (清香持久). * **Taste:** Mellow and fresh (滋味醇爽); or fresh, mellow, with a sweet return (鲜醇回甘). * **Liquor color:** Yellow-green and bright (黄绿明亮); or tender green and bright (嫩绿明亮). * **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Even, green and light (匀整绿明); or buds and leaves firm, tender and even, green and bright (芽叶壮实，嫩匀绿亮). **7. Chemical Composition:** The CNIPA requirements set one indicator: water extract not less than 38.0 %. The agricultural indication sets five, with a different extract threshold: water extract not less than 36.0 %, crude fiber not more than 10.0 %, total ash not more than 6.5 %, broken leaf and dust not more than 3.0 %, moisture not more than 7.0 %. These are norms for the product, not an analysis of specific batches. **8. Health Properties:** There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea. **9. Brewing:** Class practice for green tea: the documents give no parameters. * **Water temperature:** 80–85 °C. * **Tea amount:** 3 g per 150 ml. * **Teaware:** Glass tumbler or a white gaiwan. * **Process:** Warm the teaware, add the tea, pour the water down the side; the first infusion — after 40–60 seconds; drink, leaving part of the liquor, and top up — two or three repeated infusions. **10. Storage:** Class practice. In airtight packaging, in the cold, away from light, moisture and odors. The agricultural indication requires: tea not sold by the end of May is to be moved into cold storage so that it does not turn yellow; shelf life — 12 months. **11. Price and Counterfeits:** Price data are not found in the sources consulted. The figures on scale do not agree: 553 ha and 124 t a year according to the agricultural indication, 12,200 mu and 170 t in Qinghe Township alone according to a 2017 reference summary, more than 12,000 mu in the townships of Qinghe, Jiangzhen, Huangdun and others according to a 2018 summary, more than 6,000 mu under the brand according to the *Renmin Wang* site (Anhui channel) in 2020. * **How to avoid counterfeits:** * Look for the special geographical indication mark; permission to use it is granted by CNIPA through the intellectual property office of Huaining County. * Check that the tea is from the five townships and towns of Huaining County. * The leaf is flat, “like a spearhead”, green with a sheen and visible down. **12. Interesting Facts:** * The 1915 chronicle ranks the tea not below Mengding, and reference descriptions cite next to it the saying “water from the middle of the Yangtze, tea from the top of Mengshan”. * According to a record in the county publication, there is a custom at harvest: the first picking is begun by unmarried girls, and they do not perfume or powder their hands and faces, so that no foreign smell clings to the leaf. * On April 6, 2020, according to the *Renmin Wang* site (Anhui channel), sixteen bloggers livestreamed the harvest in Qinghe Township: in one day, 424,000 yuan worth of tea was sold on site and orders worth 2.3 million were taken. * One tea is protected by two documents with different norms: water extract not less than 38 % under CNIPA and not less than 36 % in the agricultural indication, the liquor “yellow-green” in one and “tender green” in the other. **13. Comparison with Other Teas:** * **Tianzhu Jian Hao ([天柱剑毫](https://thetea.app/article/tianzhu-jian-hao)):** A flat “sword-shaped” tea of Tianzhu Mountain, of the same Anqing prefecture. * **Dudu Cuiming ([都督翠茗](https://thetea.app/article/dudu-cuiming)):** A flat Anhui tea of Dudu Mountain near Lake Chaohu, whose shape is compared to a bamboo shoot. * **Mengding Ganlu ([蒙顶甘露](https://thetea.app/article/mengding-gan-lu)):** A curled tea of Mengshan Mountain in Sichuan. The 1915 chronicle compared Longchijian tea with Mengding tea in general, not with this variety. **In Conclusion:** *Lóngchí xiāngjiān* is a flat green tea of the low mountains of Huaining County: a leaf “like a spearhead”, a clean high aroma, a mellow fresh taste. Its past rests on a single line of the 1915 chronicle, and its present on two protection documents, which describe the tea a little differently.