Nánjìng dānguì · thetea.app

Nánjìng dānguì (南靖丹桂) is a tea made from the dānguì variety (丹桂) in Nanjing County (南靖县) of Zhangzhou prefecture-level city, Fujian Province. The variety was bred by the Tea Research Institute of the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences from the offspring of a natural cross of the Rougui variety (肉桂); it was brought to Nanjing County in the early 2000s and became the county’s main variety. It is made into oolong of two styles — rich and fresh — and into red tea, so the name denotes not a single class but a variety and a place. Nanjing County is the land of the Fujian tulou, rammed-earth fortress houses, and the county brand is called accordingly: “南靖土楼茶”. A geographical indication certification mark is associated with the name.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Not a single class. The dānguì variety is suitable both for oolong (乌龙茶, wūlóngchá) and for red tea (红茶, hóngchá); in Nanjing it is made into oolong of the rich (浓香型) and fresh (清香型) styles and into red tea. The mark is registered for the goods “tea” without specifying the class.
Category: A varietal tea of the county with a geographical indication mark; the main product of the county brand “Nanjing Tulou Cha”.
Origin: China, Fujian Province (福建, Fújiàn), Zhangzhou prefecture-level city (漳州, Zhāngzhōu), Nanjing County (南靖, Nánjìng).
Protection zone: The provincial list of marks names Nanjing County as the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone.
Protection regime: Geographical indication certification mark of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) No. 5819161, goods — tea. In the provincial list as of June 30, 2026, the registration is listed as valid. I have not found the holder, the year of registration or the rules of the mark.
Geographic coordinates: Nanjing County — about 24.5° N and 117.4° E.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Local accounts. According to county texts, the inhabitants of these places were already gathering and making wild tea at the end of the Sui and the beginning of the Tang, and in the Jiajing years of the Ming era the local tea was listed as tribute. I have not seen the primary sources of these accounts.
- Breeding of the variety. According to reference data, the Tea Research Institute of the Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences spent 19 years selecting dānguì; the variety was approved in the province in 1998 and recognized at the national level in 2010.
- Early 2000s. The dānguì variety comes to Nanjing: a 2020 feature names 2001, Fujian Ribao in 2026 says “around 2002”.
- 2018. The county presented the public brand “南靖土楼茶” and made dānguì its main product. County texts describe nine lines of “tulou cha”, contests of masters and of “tea kings”.
- 2020s. According to Fujian Ribao, one of the county’s farms adopted the first enterprise standard for dānguì and introduced “one product — one code” traceability.
Name: Nánjìng (南靖) is the name of the county; not to be confused with the city of Nanjing (南京) in Jiangsu. Dānguì (丹桂) is the name of the variety, echoing the name of the parent variety Rougui. In China the same word denotes an orange variety of osmanthus, but this tea is not scented with flowers.
Cultural significance: The county builds tourism on dānguì: tea gardens alternate with tulou, tourists drink tea in the fortress houses themselves and try picking and making it. The county has three geographical indication marks for tea — “南靖土楼茶”, “南靖丹桂” and “南靖铁观音”.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Cultivar: 丹桂 (dānguì) — a highly aromatic, high-yielding national-level variety suitable for oolong and red tea. Most sources call it an offspring of a natural cross of Rougui; some reference works name Dahongpao (大红袍) as the mother variety and Rougui as the father. I have not resolved the discrepancy.
Leaf: Fujian Ribao describes the dānguì leaf as thick and rich in taste; the bitterness and astringency of the variety are hard to remove in processing.
Harvest: According to the same newspaper, the leaf is picked at noon and taken to the factory every half hour so that it does not lose its freshness. According to the 2020 feature, Qingming tea and finely processed tea are picked mainly by hand.
Area: The 2020 feature names almost 10,000 mu of dānguì gardens, Fujian Ribao in 2026 more than 6,000 mu; I have not resolved the discrepancy.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The mountains in the west of Zhangzhou prefecture, the south of Fujian.
Growing altitude: According to a local publication on Nanjing tea, it grows mainly at an altitude of 400–1000 m. The organic garden of Yangdingdong (洋顶岽), according to Fujian Ribao, lies at an altitude of 1050 m.
Climate: According to the same publication, the tea grows in remote mountain forests, in clouds and mists all year round, with a large daily temperature range. No other climate data in the sources consulted.
Soils: In the Yangdingdong garden — deep and fertile; no other data in the sources consulted.
Garden management: The 2020 feature writes of a shift from herbicides to hand weeding, organic fertilizers and biological means of protection.

5. Production Technology

Nanjing dānguì is described as a combination of the northern Fujian and southern Fujian oolong schools. For oolong, a local master in Fujian Ribao lists the following operations:

Picking (采青, cǎiqīng).
Cooling the leaf in the shade (凉青, liángqīng).
Withering in the sun (晒青, shàiqīng).
Tossing (摇青, yáoqīng).
Fixation and pan-firing (杀青, shāqīng; 炒青, chǎoqīng).
Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn).
Drying and baking (烘焙, hōngbèi).

Each operation, according to the master, has to be adjusted to the weather and the condition of the leaf. The parameters, the differences between the rich and fresh styles and the technology of red tea from dānguì are not found in the sources consulted.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Below is the description from the 2020 feature; it apparently refers to oolong. Other publications (including Fujian Ribao in 2026) describe the leaf differently — “翠绿”, emerald green — and the liquor as golden; these are probably different styles, but the sources do not specify this.

Dry leaf appearance: Tightly rolled (紧结), brown with a sheen (色泽褐润).
Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: Rich, high and long-lasting (馥郁高长); other publications say “extraordinarily high” (香气奇高).
Taste: Rich, with a sweet aftertaste (醇厚回甘); withstands many infusions.
Liquor color: Orange-yellow, bright (橙黄明亮); in other publications — golden.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Soft, with a sheen (软亮).

7. Chemical Composition

Physicochemical data are not found in the sources consulted.

8. Brewing

Class practice for southern Fujian oolong; for red tea from dānguì the usual red tea scheme will do (90–95 °C, 3–4 g per 150 ml).

Water temperature: 95–100 °C.
Tea amount: 6–8 g per 110 ml.
Teaware: A gaiwan or a small clay teapot.
Process:
1. Warm the teaware, rinse the tea with a short infusion.
2. First infusion — 20–30 seconds.
3. Each subsequent one — 5–10 seconds longer.
4. Six to eight infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice. In airtight packaging, away from light, moisture and foreign odors. The fresh style of oolong is best kept cold and drunk within a year; the rich style and the red tea are stored at room temperature.

10. Price and Counterfeits

No price data in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the “南靖丹桂” mark on the package.
- Check that the producer is from Nanjing County.
- Remember that “土楼茶” on the package is the name of the county brand and of a separate mark, not of the variety.

11. Interesting Facts

The dānguì variety appeared in Nanjing only in the early 2000s, but within two decades it became the county’s main variety.
The name of the variety coincides with the name of the orange osmanthus, although this is a tea without floral scenting.
Nánjìng (南靖) has nothing to do with the city of Nanjing (南京): the characters are different.
According to Fujian Ribao, the county is among the top ten tea counties of Fujian, and in oolong it ranks second in the south of the province, behind only one county.

12. Comparison with Related Teas

Rougui (肉桂): The parent variety, a Wuyishan rock oolong; dānguì carried its high aroma to the south of the province.
Tieguanyin (铁观音): The main variety of southern Fujian oolong; Nanjing also has its own mark “南靖铁观音”.
Zhangzhou Se Zhong (漳州色种): A blended oolong of the whole Zhangzhou prefecture; the corpus article about it mentions dānguì from Nanjing among the raw materials.

In Conclusion:

Nánjìng dānguì is a young varietal tea of southern Fujian: a variety bred from the offspring of Rougui came to the county in the early 2000s and became its calling card alongside the tulou. It is made into rich and fresh oolong and into red tea; the descriptions agree on a high aroma, a rich sweet taste and staying power, but diverge on the color of the leaf — apparently by style.