Nánjiàn lǜchá (南涧绿茶) is a green tea of Nanjian Yi Autonomous County (南涧彝族自治县), Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province. The bushes grow in the Wuliangshan (无量山) and Ailaoshan (哀牢山) mountains within the county, at an altitude of 1700–2500 m. The tea is described as follows: a dark green dry leaf, a fresh, clean and lasting aroma, a yellow-green, bright liquor, a rich, mellow taste and tender yellow-green infused leaves. The name is protected by geographical indication certification mark No. 9351027, whose holder is the county tea station. This is one of Nanjian’s two tea marks and the only one of them already found in the 2012 list; the second is the red Nanjian Wuliangshan Hongcha.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), unfermented. The class is named in the name of the mark, and the description of the technology — fixation, rolling, drying — is that of green tea.
- Category: Yunnan mountain green tea; geographical indication certification mark and regional public brand of the county.
- Origin: China, Yunnan province (云南, Yúnnán), Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture (大理, Dàlǐ), Nanjian Yi Autonomous County (南涧, Nánjiàn).
- Mark zone: The provincial list gives Nanjian County as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder. This is not the legal boundary of the zone; I have not seen the rules of the mark with its description.
- Geographic coordinates: The county seat — about 25.0° N and 100.5° E.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Tang roots. According to Yunnan Ribao (2019), the recorded history of tea growing in the Wuliangshan mountains goes back to the Tang era: the Tang treatise Manshu (蛮书) describes how tea was grown and drunk in the kingdom of Nanzhao (南诏).
- “Southern Peak”. The description of the tea on the “中国好绿茶地图” portal reports that in the Nanzhao era the Wuliangshan mountains received the title “Southern Peak” (南岳).
- Trade route. According to a 2022 publication, Nanjian tea traveled along the old Tea Horse Road to Tibet and to the countries of Southeast Asia.
- Mark. Geographical indication certification mark No. 9351027 for the goods “tea” appears in the 2012 list of the Trademark Office; the holder is the tea station of Nanjian Yi Autonomous County (南涧彝族自治县茶叶工作站). The mark is also included in the provincial list of geographical marks of Yunnan as of 28 December 2019. The exact date of registration is not found in the sources consulted.
- Brand. Yunnan Wang (2021) names “南涧绿茶” one of the county’s three regional public brands — together with “大理凤凰沱茶” and “无量高山茶”. According to the description on the “中国好绿茶地图” portal, in 2023 the name entered the list of regional public brands.
- Name: 南涧 (Nánjiàn) is the name of the county; 绿茶 (lǜchá) means green tea.
- Cultural significance: Tea is one of the county’s main industries. According to Yunnan Ribao (2019), it is grown by 26,000 farming households, the county has 56 tea enterprises and 35 cooperatives, and the annual output value of the industry has reached 1 billion yuan.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: The variety is not named in the sources consulted.
- Old trees: According to Yunnan Ribao (2019), the county has more than 30,000 old tea trees, and data have been collected on 11,700 of them; Yunnan Wang (2021) gives 37,000 century-old trees. The figures diverge, and what share of the raw material for green tea comes from old trees, the sources do not say.
- Harvest standard: The description on the “中国好绿茶地图” portal speaks only of young, tender buds and leaves (幼嫩芽叶); how many leaves are taken with the bud is not stated.
- Harvest time: No data in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The Wuliangshan and Ailaoshan mountains within the county. The county lies at the junction of Dali, Lincang and Pu’er prefectures; its area is about 1.7 thousand km².
- Growing altitude: 1700–2500 m according to the description on the “中国好绿茶地图” portal; Yunnan Ribao (2019) gives 1800–2500 m for the county’s high-mountain gardens.
- Topography and nature: The same description speaks of complex terrain, a varied climate and the well-preserved primary vegetation of the Wuliangshan national nature reserve.
- Climate: Humid subtropical with a dry winter. For the county seat, at an altitude of 1377 m, the mean temperature ranges from 12.3 °C in January to 24.8 °C in June, and precipitation is about 740 mm a year. The gardens lie higher, so these figures are only a guide.
- Soils: No data in the sources consulted.
- Gardens: Yunnan Ribao (2019) gives 110,000 mu of high-mountain gardens (1 mu is about 667 m²), of which 31,000 mu are certified as “green” or organic. Yunnan Wang (2021) gives 120,000 mu of high-mountain gardens and about 72,000 mu of “green” and organic ones.
5. Production Technology
The description on the “中国好绿茶地图” portal names three stages; no parameters are found in the sources consulted.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Heating stops oxidation and preserves the green color of the leaf.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): The leaf takes shape, and the juice comes to the surface.
- Drying (干燥, gānzào): Removes moisture and fixes the aroma.
The description does not mention the short withering before fixation that is usual for green tea; whether it takes place in practice cannot be established from the sources consulted.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description below is from the “中国好绿茶地图” portal; this is a secondary source.
- Dry leaf appearance: Dark green, almost blackish green (色泽墨绿); the shape of the leaf is not described.
- Dry leaf aroma: No data in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Fresh, clean and lasting (香气鲜纯持久).
- Taste: Rich and mellow (滋味浓醇).
- Liquor color: Yellow-green and bright (汤色黄绿明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Yellow-green, even and tender (叶底黄绿匀嫩).
7. Chemical Composition
No physicochemical data on the green tea of the mark are found in the sources consulted. Yunnan Ribao (2019) writes about the tea of the Wuliangshan mountains in general: water extract usually above 40%, polyphenols usually more than 30%, amino acids more than 3%. The newspaper names neither the method nor the sample, nor whether raw material or finished tea is meant, so these figures do not apply directly to the green tea of the mark.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: 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 infusion.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three repeated 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
No price data in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication certification mark “南涧绿茶” (No. 9351027).
- Check that the producer is from Nanjian County.
- The dry leaf is dark green, the liquor yellow-green and bright, the infused leaf yellow-green and tender.
11. Interesting Facts
- The mark for green tea already appears in the 2012 list of the Trademark Office; the mark for red tea I found only in the 2019 list.
- The holder of the mark is neither an association nor a company, but the county tea station.
- The gardens lie in two mountain systems at once — Wuliangshan and Ailaoshan.
- Yunnan Wang (2021) writes that the county makes five classes of tea — green, pu-erh, oolong, red and white — but it has one mark for green tea.
12. Comparison with Other Yunnan Green Teas
- Nanjian Wuliangshan Hongcha (南涧无量山红茶): Red tea of the same county, Nanjian’s second tea mark.
- Cangshan Xue Lü (苍山雪绿): A rolled green tea of Dali prefecture, created at the Xiaguan Tea Factory.
- Huilong Lücha (回龙绿茶): A high-mountain green tea of Lianghe County in the west of Yunnan.
In Conclusion:
Nánjiàn lǜchá is a mountain green tea of a county where the gardens rise to 1700–2500 m on the slopes of Wuliangshan and Ailaoshan. Its mark has appeared in the lists since 2012 and belongs to the county tea station, and its description is short and coherent: a dark green leaf, a fresh, lasting aroma, a yellow-green, bright liquor, a rich, mellow taste. The variety, harvest times and technology parameters are not named in the sources consulted.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page