Pínglè shíyá chá (平乐石崖茶) is the “tea from the cliffs” of Pingle County (平乐县), Guilin prefecture-level city, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is not the leaf of the tea bush Camellia sinensis: the protection document names as the raw material 亮叶黄瑞木 (liàngyè huángruìmù) — according to reference sources, a tree of the genus 杨桐属 (Adinandra); the wild trees, according to popular descriptions, grow on cliffs — hence the name. The leaf is pan-fired and rolled by hand three times. The name has been protected as an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI) since 2014 and as a geographical indication product since 2025.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Not tea in the botanical sense and none of the six classes. The technology resembles that of green tea, but the protection document does not name a class; sites that call the product an oolong do not rely on standards.
- Category: An infusion not from the tea plant; agricultural product indication (2014) and geographical indication product (2025).
- Origin: China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (广西, Guǎngxī), Guilin prefecture-level city (桂林, Guìlín), Pingle County (平乐, Pínglè).
- Protection zone: According to the 2025 announcement — the mountain and foothill areas of the east, south and center of the county (around Lianhuashan Mountain, 莲花山): 27 administrative villages in the towns and townships of Yuantou (源头镇), Yang’an (阳安乡), Qinglong (青龙乡), Qiaoting (桥亭乡), Dafa Yao Ethnic Township (大发瑶族乡), Pingle (平乐镇) and Ertang (二塘镇), as well as the state-owned Guangyun forest farm (广运林场).
- Geographic coordinates: 110°34′–111°02′ E, 24°16′–24°38′ N.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Tang, according to legend. The Baidu reference links the drink to the poet Li Shangyin, who in 848 served as acting governor of Zhaozhou prefecture (昭州, present-day Pingle), and to his line “小鼎煎茶面曲池”. But the poem is about tea drinking in general, not about this leaf. The tribute to the court that the reference writes about is not confirmed by documents.
- Before the 1970s. According to the Agricultural Chronicle of Pingle County (1991) as retold by reference sites, the drink was drunk in hot weather as a “cooling” one, but it was made crudely.
- 1974. According to Guilin Ribao (2018, reprinted on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture), a tea specialist of the county local products company, having gathered folk experience, began to process the leaf by the method of 桂青茶 (guìqīng chá) and was the first to release “石崖茶”. Since the end of the 1980s the product has been on sale.
- 2000–2011. According to the press, in 2000 at an exhibition in Chengdu the product was named a “famous tea of China”, in 2004 the China — ASEAN Expo made it its only tea drink, and in 2011 it received the “China — ASEAN” gold award for the best promotion of tea culture.
- 2014. The Ministry of Agriculture registered the agricultural product indication; the Baidu reference dates the decision to 18 November. The holder, according to the reference, is the county agricultural technology extension center (平乐县农业技术推广中心).
- 2025. By announcement No. 640 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) (signed on 16 July), the name was recognized as a geographical indication product, item 1065 of 1409. The applicant is the People’s Government of Pingle County.
- Cultural significance: Since 2023 Qinglong Township has held a harvest festival (青龙采茶节); the first took place on 1 April 2023 in Dagang village (大刚村).
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Plant: In the “variety” field of the protection document only 亮叶黄瑞木 is given. The document gives no Latin name, and for the similar name 亮叶杨桐 reference works diverge: Chinese Wikipedia gives it as Adinandra nitida, while the “Species 2000 China” catalog lists it as a common name of the species Adinandra glischroloma (两广杨桐). Even within Wikipedia the genus is assigned now to the tea family (山茶科), now to the Pentaphylacaceae (五列木科). What exactly grows in Pingle cannot be established from the sources consulted.
- Harvest standard: According to the requirements — a bud with two leaves no longer than 4 cm, hand-picked by snapping (提手采), without scales, fruits and old twigs, in ventilated baskets.
- Wild stock: The figures do not agree. According to the Pingle County Chronicle of 1995 as retold by reference sites — more than 20,000 trees, 25–30 t of fresh leaf and 6–7.5 t of product a year; Yuantou gave the most, and the leaf from Dagang was considered the best. According to one reference site, because of predatory harvesting about 10,000 trees remain; a report of the county political consultative council (2025) speaks of 229 century-old wild trees.
- Plantings: According to reports by Xinhua and Renmin Wang (2023), farmers transplant wild plants from the cliffs to the foot of neighboring mountains; the plantings are concentrated in Dafa, Yuantou, Qinglong and Qiaoting.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Climate: According to the Baidu reference — subtropical monsoon: a frost-free period of more than 310 days, 1414–2094 hours of sunshine, an average temperature of 19.9 °C, precipitation of 1355–1865 mm a year.
- Soils: According to the requirements — pH 4.5–6.5, organic matter 2–3%, good drainage; at the border with wasteland, forest and fields it is advised to dig isolation ditches.
- Habitat: Popular texts describe cliffs and mountain streams, coolness and moisture. There are no altitude data in the primary sources.
5. Production Technology
According to the requirements for the protected product:
- Spreading the leaf (摊青, tānqīng): Immediately after picking, so that moisture leaves and the leaf stays fresh.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Pan-firing in an iron wok, after which the leaf is cooled immediately.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): By hand, into thin strands.
- “Three firings, three rollings” (三炒三揉, sān chǎo sān róu): The rolled leaf is fired in the wok again, and the cycle is repeated three times so that the leaf becomes tight, the stalks brittle, and the aroma clean.
- Initial drying, cooling, full firing and aroma raising (初干、摊凉、足火、提香).
- Packaging.
The requirements give no temperatures or times; the method of 桂青茶 is not described in the sources consulted.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description follows the 2025 requirements for the protected product. The product comes in strand and granular forms.
- Dry leaf appearance: Strands — large and tight, “sand-green” (沙绿), glossy, with a bloom resembling frost (霜斑). Granules — tight, heavy, smooth, dark green.
- Dry leaf aroma: The requirements call the aroma rich and lasting (香气浓郁持久), without specifying whether of the dry leaf or of the liquor.
- Liquor aroma: Rich and lasting — by the same formula.
- Taste: Thick, mellow and sweet, with a distinct sweet aftertaste (滋味浓醇甘甜，回甘明显). According to Guilin Ribao — “first astringent, then sweet”.
- Liquor color: Yellow-green and bright (汤色黄绿明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Buds and leaves whole and bright (叶底芽叶完整明亮).
7. Chemical Composition
Requirements for the dry product: total flavonoids not less than 6.0%, soluble sugars not less than 1.5%. Guilin Ribao (2018), citing botanists of Sun Yat-sen University, gives for the wild raw material flavonoids 20%, “tea polyphenols” 23.4% and amino acids 9.73%, without method or sample. No data on caffeine are found in the sources consulted.
8. Health Properties
There are no verified data on the effects of this particular product. Advertising lists of properties are not repeated here.
9. Brewing
Class practice. Brewing regimes for Pínglè shíyá chá are not found in the sources consulted; below are the usual parameters for herbal infusions from rolled leaf.
- Water temperature: 90–100 °C.
- Amount: 2–3 g per 150–200 ml.
- Teaware: Glass tumbler, gaiwan or porcelain teapot.
- Process: First infusion — 2–3 minutes, then several infusions of increasing length.
10. Storage
Class practice. In tightly closed packaging, in a dry dark place, away from odors. The bloom on the strands is a property of the product, not mold.
11. Price and Counterfeits
Retail prices are not found in the sources consulted. The scale, according to Guangxi Zhengxie Bao (2025), is more than 8000 mu of plantings, more than 300 t and more than 40 million yuan a year. Other publications give other figures: Guilin Ribao (2018) — about 10,000 mu and about 2000 t for the county; reports on the first harvest festival (2023) — 6000 mu of plantings “imitating wild ones” and more than 120 t of dry leaf a year. The figures do not agree with one another.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Shíyá chá, according to the Baidu reference, is also made in other counties of Guangxi — Pingnan, Mengshan, Guiping, Jinxiu and others; the name 平乐石崖茶 applies only to raw material from the zone. Look for the geographical indication product mark.
- Strands are “sand-green” with a bloom, or granules are dark green and smooth; the liquor is yellow-green.
- A seller who calls the product an oolong or a tea from ancient tea trees is at odds with the protection document.
12. Interesting Facts
- The name describes the place: 石崖 means “stone cliff”.
- The method of “three firings and three rollings” is written into the protection document word for word.
- For the name 亮叶杨桐, reference works give different scientific names — Adinandra nitida or Adinandra glischroloma.
13. Comparison with Other Infusions Not from the Tea Bush
- Kuding (苦丁茶): A bitter infusion from the leaves of holly or privet, also made in Guangxi; shíyá chá is described as sweet.
- Yongshun Meicha (永顺莓茶): A Hunan infusion from a vine, also with a bloom on the leaf and a flavonoid norm.
- Xupu Yaocha (溆浦瑶茶): A Hunan “sweet tea” from the leaves of a tree of the beech family, also a geographical indication product.
In Conclusion:
Pínglè shíyá chá is the leaf of a wild and transplanted tree of the genus Adinandra, which Guilin villages pan-fire and roll three times. The protection document describes it in detail — the zone, the harvest, the “sand-green” strands with a bloom, the yellow-green sweet liquor and the flavonoid norm — but does not make it a tea: it is an infusion from the world of southern “teas”, where the word 茶 means “that which is brewed”.