---
title: "Púkēng chá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/pukeng-cha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-07
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Púkēng chá (蒲坑茶)

**Pukeng Cha** (*Púkēng chá*, 蒲坑茶; in English-language publications — Pukeng tea) is a dark tea from the Qingxin District (清新区) of Qingyuan City (清远市), Guangdong Province. It takes its name from the village of Pukeng (蒲坑村) in Shitan Township (石潭镇). According to a 2026 scientific article, production is concentrated in Shitan Township, while district authorities, citing the county chronicle, write that the tea is made "in the Pukeng area" of this township. Both the scientific article and the district market regulation authority call it a dark tea. The article describes the traditional technology as follows: steam fixation, repeated rolling, wet piling, drying and long-term storage. According to the authors' observations, local residents drink tea aged from three to twenty years.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Dark tea (黑茶, *hēichá*). The class is given by the 2026 scientific article — "a type of dark tea", while the district market regulation authority (2023) compares Pukeng Cha with "other teas of the 黑茶 class" (其他黑茶类茶叶). How the class is recorded in the text of the district standard is unknown: the text itself has not been found.
* **Category:** Guangdong dark tea; a regional style rather than a cultivar or a single producer's brand.
* **Origin:** China, Guangdong Province (广东, *Guǎngdōng*), Qingyuan City (清远, *Qīngyuǎn*), Qingxin District (清新, *Qīngxīn*), Shitan Township (石潭, *Shítán*), Pukeng Village (蒲坑, *Púkēng*). The county chronicle cited by district authorities places production "in the Pukeng area" of Shitan Township (产于石潭镇蒲坑一带).
* **District standard:** According to the 2026 scientific article, the study samples were produced according to a local agricultural standard of Qingxin District (cited in the article as DB441827, without an order number or year). It was jointly issued by the district agriculture bureau and the district market regulation authority. The Guangdong publication "Nanfang+" (南方+) wrote in 2022 that the district had developed a document 《蒲坑茶加工技术规范》 — "Technical Rules for Processing Pukeng Cha" — regulating the semi-finished product (毛茶, *máochá*) and the technological process. Whether this is the same document is not stated directly by the sources. In the national database of local standards there are no entries for 蒲坑 or 蒲坑茶, and the text of the standard has not been found.
* **Geographical indication:** In September 2022, the Shitan Township Comprehensive Agricultural Service Center (石潭镇农业综合服务中心) filed an application with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (国家知识产权局) for a geographical certification mark "蒲坑茶". According to district publications from January and April 2023, the application was accepted for examination (受理, *shòulǐ*); the found sources do not report registration of the mark. The 2026 scientific article calls Pukeng Cha "a local product with a geographical indication" — this diverges from official publications, which refer only to an application.
* **Geographical coordinates:** Not given in the found sources.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Qing dynasty.** The district market regulation authority (2023) writes that "authentic traditional" Pukeng Cha dates back to the Qing dynasty (源于清代) and belongs to traditional local famous teas. The authority cites the county chronicle 《清新县志（1988-2005）》: according to it, Pukeng Cha is the main tea of Qingxin County, made in the Pukeng area of Shitan Township. The authority gives no exact date.
    * **Before the 1830s.** The 2026 scientific article, citing a 2020 publication, writes that, according to historical records, local residents drank this tea even before the 1830s. The records themselves are not provided in the found sources.
    * **Hong Kong and Macao.** The English-language news portal of Guangdong (2026) writes that already under the Qing the tea reached the markets of Hong Kong and Macao. No primary confirmation is found in the found sources.
    * **Heritage.** According to "Nanfang+" (2022), Pukeng Cha and the neighbouring Bi Jia Cha (笔架茶, *Bǐjià chá*) were included in the municipal intangible cultural heritage list of Qingyuan for their special production technique; the English-language portal of the same media group (2026) names the year — 2017. The list itself is not opened in the found sources, and both reports come from one media group.
    * **2022.** In September — the application for a geographical mark. In December, the district market regulation authority announced the creation of a cluster of small workshops for Pukeng Cha (蒲坑茶小作坊集聚区) in Pukeng Village. According to a district publication from January 2023, six workshops were housed there, a village tea growers' association was created for joint oversight, and a shared laboratory was set up for rapid control of raw materials and finished products.
    * **2023.** At a training in Shitan Township, tea growers discussed with specialists from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Tea Research Institute of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences the tracing of planting material origin (种源追溯, *zhǒngyuán zhuīsù*), cultivar selection (品种筛选, *pǐnzhǒng shāixuǎn*), the tea's flavour characteristics and industry standardization.
    * **2026.** A scientific work on volatile compounds and microflora of Pukeng Cha of different aging was published — by the authors' own assessment, the first comprehensive study of its kind (see section 7).
* **Name:** 蒲 (*pú*) — cattail, 坑 (*kēng*) — pit, hollow; together this is the name of the village of Pukeng, and 茶 (*chá*) — tea. Why the village is so named is not explained in the found sources. In English-language texts the name is written in Latin letters without tones — Pukeng. The spelling 浦坑 (with the character 浦, *pǔ*) found in Russian-language texts is not found in Chinese sources: both district authorities and the press write 蒲坑.
* **Cultural significance:** According to "Nanfang+" (2022), Pukeng Cha is one of the eight local "mountain teas" of Qingxin District (笔架茶、蒲坑茶、骆坑茶、石坎木古营茶、鱼坝风云茶、秦皇山茶、禾云飞鹅茶、石马大坑茶). The district website reported in 2025 that the district supply and marketing cooperative presented the "eight mountain teas" of Qingxin (八大山茶, *bā dà shān chá*) at the provincial season of local tea culture in Yingde. Pukeng Village, according to the district rural revitalization report, is building its development on the linkage of tea, culture and tourism (茶文旅融合, *chá wén lǚ rónghé*).

**3. Botanical Description and Raw Material:**

* **Variety / Cultivar:** Not named in the found sources. The origin of planting material and cultivar selection were in 2023 among the topics that township tea growers discussed with specialists (see section 2).
* **Raw material:** "Nanfang+" divides Qingyuan into three tea zones: black tea centered on Yingde, high-mountain green tea in the north, and a zone of teas with aged aroma (陈香, *chénxiāng*) from medium- and small-leaf cultivars, mainly in Qingxin District. What exact raw material goes into Pukeng Cha is not specified by the sources.
* **Harvest:** The technology, according to the scientific article, begins with picking fresh leaves. The season and picking standard — how many leaves per shoot — are not described in the found sources. The English-language 2025 note about a student promo project writes that tender leaves are hand-picked at dawn; this is a promotional description, not a requirement of the standard.
* **Raw material requirements:** They could have been written in the district standard, but its text has not been found.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation:**

* **Region:** Shitan Township, Qingxin District, Qingyuan City. District authorities (2023) link the quality of Pukeng Cha with the local natural environment and a special production technique, but do not describe the environment itself.
* **Area and output:** According to the district rural revitalization report (2025 issue, published in January 2026), there are about 8900 mu under Pukeng Cha in Shitan Township (1 mu is about 667 m²), gross dry tea output is about 694 t, and production value is about 230 million yuan; the indicator year is not stated. The English-language 2025 note names more than 8700 mu and more than 320 t per year. Why the output figures diverge — coverage or year — is not explained by the sources.
* **Climate and relief:** No data from primary sources. The same English-language note mentions subtropical climate and "high-mountain relief", but gives no altitudes.
* **Growing altitude:** Not given in the found sources.
* **Soils:** Not described in the found sources.

**5. Production Technology:**

The regimes — temperatures, durations, humidity — are not given in the found sources, and the lists of stages in them diverge. The most detailed description is given by the 2026 scientific article. Its samples were produced according to the district standard, and the article calls the list of stages a traditional technology; the article does not state that this list is taken from the text of the standard itself.

1.  **Picking fresh leaves.**
2.  **Steam fixation:** Steam stops the action of the leaf's own enzymes.
3.  **Repeated rolling.**
4.  **Wet piling:** In the article — pile fermentation. For dark teas this stage is usually called [渥堆](https://thetea.app/article/wodui) (*wòduī*): moistened raw material is held in piles, and under the action of heat and microorganisms the leaf darkens and the taste softens. How it is carried out for Pukeng Cha is not described in the article.
5.  **Drying.**
6.  **Long-term storage.**

Other descriptions do not match this list or are incomplete:

* The district website (2025), describing a student excursion, names the stages after leaf picking as follows: fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*), rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*) and heating-drying (烘焙, *hōngbèi*). Wet piling is absent from this list.
* The English-language 2025 note writes about wok fixation, rolling and slow drying over pine firewood. The fixation method here differs from the scientific article.
* The English-language 2026 piece describes "re-steaming": semi-processed leaf is softened by steam, given a dense shape, and then the tea is aged naturally. The Chinese name of the stage is not given in the found sources.
* The district market regulation authority (2023) calls refining (精制, *jīngzhì*) an important stage on which quality depends, and writes that Pukeng Cha differs from other dark teas by this. What it consists of, the authority does not disclose.

**Aging.** According to the ethnobotanical observations of the scientific article's authors, local residents consider long aging necessary for taste and drink tea aged 3, 5, 8, 10, 15 and even 20 years.

**Tea in pomelo.** According to "Nanfang+" (2022), at one enterprise in Geshui Village (格水村) of Shitan Township, Pukeng Cha is placed into cut wild pomelos (野生柚子) and the fruits are sewn up; the product is called 柚合茶 (*yòuhéchá*). In the same material, in a retelling of the recommendations of a specialist from South China Agricultural University, pomelo tea (柚子茶) is called a new development of Pukeng Cha enterprises. This is the product of individual producers, not a definition of the style.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

There is no organoleptic description according to the standard in the found sources. Below are promotional descriptions by district authorities and the press, with an indication of whom they belong to.

* **Appearance of dry leaf:** No descriptions. The English-language 2026 piece writes only that during re-steaming the leaf is given a dense shape.
* **Aroma of dry leaf:** No descriptions in the found sources.
* **Aroma of infusion:** District authorities (2023) — soft, rich (气味香醇). The English-language 2026 piece — fresh tea has a light floral aroma, aged tea has richer roasted and woody notes with hints of medicinal herbs and dried jujube. The English-language 2025 note — smoky notes and a long orchid aroma.
* **Taste:** District authorities — "endless sweetness" (甘味无穷, 2023) and "pure, fresh, sweetish" (清冽甘爽, 2025). English-language pieces — fresh taste (2025); aged tea has a richer one (2026).
* **Infusion colour:** District authorities — clear (汤色清澈). The English-language 2026 piece — fresh tea is bright amber, aged tea is darker; the 2025 note — golden-green. The descriptions of fresh tea diverge; the sources do not explain why.
* **Tea bottom (spent leaf):** No descriptions in the found sources.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

No physicochemical indicators — extractive substances, polyphenols, caffeine, amino acids — are found in the found sources. The only found study is the 2026 work in Food Chemistry: X on volatile compounds and microflora.

* **Samples:** Six samples aged 3, 5, 8, 10, 15 and 20 years from one producer in Shitan Township.
* **Volatile compounds:** 189 compounds, mainly alcohols, aldehydes and ketones.
* **Bacteria:** 11 dominant genera; during storage the dominance shifts from Firmicutes to Actinobacteriota.
* **Fungi:** The genus *Aspergillus* dominates.
* **Caveats:** The results refer to the samples of one producer, not to the whole style. The links between microorganisms and aroma in the article are correlational, not causal. The authors call their work the first comprehensive description of volatile compounds and microflora of Pukeng Cha and see in it a basis for quality control and authenticity verification.

**8. Health Benefits:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this specific tea. The 2026 scientific work studied aroma and microflora, not the tea's effect on the human body. General ideas about the benefits of dark tea have not been verified for Pukeng Cha and are not presented here.

**9. Brewing:**

There are no data on brewing Pukeng Cha specifically in the found sources. Below is the practice common for most dark teas; it has not been verified for this tea.

* **Water temperature:** 95–100 °C, as for most dark teas.
* **Amount of tea:** 5–7 g per 150 ml of water.
* **Vessel:** Clay teapot or gaiwan (盖碗, *gàiwǎn*).
* **Process:**
    1. Preheat the vessel with boiling water.
    2. Add the tea.
    3. Briefly rinse the tea and discard the water.
    4. First infusion — 10–20 seconds.
    5. Pour out the infusion completely and distribute among cups.
    6. Repeat infusions, extending the steeping time slightly each time; dark teas usually withstand many short infusions.

How brewing changes depending on aging — from three to twenty years — is not described in the sources.

**10. Storage:**

Storage conditions are not described in the found sources. Local practice is known: according to the observations of the scientific article's authors, the tea is aged and drunk up to 20 years; the English-language 2026 piece writes that the tea is aged naturally and long storage makes it deeper and more valuable. As for most dark teas, it is customary to keep it in a dry ventilated place without direct sunlight and foreign odours, at room temperature; this is a general practice of the class, not a requirement for Pukeng Cha.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

There are no retail price data in the found sources.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Do not treat the mark as a guarantee: the geographical certification mark "蒲坑茶" as of 2023, according to the found sources, had only been filed and accepted for examination; there are no data on registration.
    * Check the origin: Shitan Township, Qingxin District, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province.
    * Check the spelling: in official texts — 蒲坑茶; the spelling 浦坑 is not found in Chinese sources.
    * Remember that tea in pomelo (柚合茶) is a product of individual enterprises, not a mandatory form of Pukeng Cha.
    * Be cautious about claimed aging: the sources name no method available to the buyer for verifying the age of tea.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The workshop cluster in Pukeng Village, according to a district publication (2023), is the first cluster of small food workshops created in Qingxin since the district began working toward the status of a provincial model district for food safety.
* The tea bears the name of Pukeng Village, but the English-language 2026 piece calls another village of Shitan Township, rendered in Latin letters as Dakeng, "the core of cultivation".
* The township's output is assessed differently by sources: the district report — about 694 t of dry tea, the English-language note — more than 320 t per year.
* Qingxin District (清新, *Qīngxīn*) and the tea cultivar Qingxin (青心, *qīngxīn*), written about in articles on oolongs, coincide both in Russian and in pinyin, but these are different characters and different concepts.

**13. Comparison with Similar Teas:**

* **Hei Cha (黑茶):** An overview of the dark tea class.
* **An Cha ([安茶](https://thetea.app/article/ancha)):** Anhui dark tea; Guangdong is a sales market for it, not a place of production.
* **Liu Bao Cha ([六堡茶](https://thetea.app/article/liu-bao-cha)):** Dark tea of neighbouring Guangxi.
* **Gan Jie Cha ([柑桔茶](https://thetea.app/article/gan-jie-cha)) and Da Hong Gan ([大红柑](https://thetea.app/article/da-hong-gan)):** Tea in citrus on a different tea base; Pukeng Cha in pomelo is a product of individual enterprises.
* **Bi Jia Cha (笔架茶):** A neighbouring "mountain tea" of Qingxin District; according to a legend retold by "Nanfang+", already under the Tang it sold well overseas.
* **Ying De Hong Cha ([英德红茶](https://thetea.app/article/yingde-hongcha)) and Dayeqing ([大叶青](https://thetea.app/article/dayeqing)):** Teas of the same Qingyuan City but of other classes — black and yellow.

**In conclusion:**

Pukeng Cha is a Guangdong dark tea named after the village of Pukeng in Shitan Township. The class and place are confirmed by district authorities and the 2026 scientific article. The same article describes the traditional technology with steam fixation and wet piling, and local residents, according to its observations, drink tea aged up to twenty years.

Much remains open: the text of the district standard, the fate of the geographical mark application, the fixation method — steam or wok — and the taste according to the standard rather than according to advertising. For those studying dark teas, Pukeng Cha is interesting as a dark tea made in Guangdong itself: in articles about other dark teas this province appears only as a sales market.