Róngxiàn lǜchá (荣县绿茶) is a green tea of Rongxian County (荣县), in the prefecture-level city of Zigong in the south of Sichuan Province. The county is known above all for scented tea — it is called the “home of Chinese scented tea”, and its “荣县花茶” is among the country’s hundred regional tea brands by brand valuation. Green tea is the second pillar of the same economy: the county has two national geographical indication certification marks, “荣县花茶” and “荣县绿茶”. The press links the local tea with the dome-shaped topography, which, in its words, favors early tea, and describes the local green tea as rich in amino acids, with a clean, rich aroma and a sweet aftertaste.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá) — the class is stated in the name of the mark itself.
- Category: County green tea; geographical indication certification mark.
- Origin: China, Sichuan Province (四川, Sìchuān), the prefecture-level city of Zigong (自贡, Zìgòng), Rongxian County (荣县, Róngxiàn).
- Mark zone: The registry records only the province; the county name of the mark points to Rongxian, but I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone.
- Neighboring mark: “荣县花茶” is a separate mark of the same county for scented tea. It is a different product, not a synonym.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- A long tradition. The press writes of more than two thousand years of tea growing in the county; documentary support for this figure is not found in the texts consulted.
- The mark. According to a publication of May 2024, the county received two national geographical indication certification marks — for scented tea and for green tea. I have not found the mark’s number, its holder or the year of registration.
- 2024. “荣县花茶” entered the hundred regional tea brands of China by brand valuation; its value is given as 1.153 billion yuan.
- 2025–2026. In 2025 the procuratorate of Rongxian County dealt with the protection of the marks “荣县花茶” and “荣县绿茶”; in April 2026 the provincial procuratorate included this case among its model cases.
- Protection of the marks (2025): According to the procuratorate’s material, an inspection found that the marks were being used with violations and that the brands were poorly protected. After the procuratorate’s recommendations (检察建议), market regulators penalized six violations, and in November 2025 the agriculture bureau revised the rules for using both marks and approved a list of authorized companies. Another measure was a food standard for gardenia flowers (栀子花): the county also makes gardenia scented tea, and there was no standard for this raw material.
- Titles of the county: “Home of Chinese scented tea” (中国花茶之乡, according to the prefecture — since 2021) and “top ten tea counties of Sichuan” (四川茶业十强县). Among the more than ten local brands, publications name 龙都香茗 (jasmine tea), 绿茗春, 春兰芗 and 黄金叶.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties / Cultivars: According to a 2021 publication, the county mainly plants 福选9号, 福鼎大白, 名山131 and 黄金芽. One family farm, according to a 2022 publication, also plants 黄芽早, 川茶3号 and the local old Sichuan tea (老川茶). Which varieties are admitted for the “荣县绿茶” mark is not stated.
- Raw material: According to the county (2024–2025), more than 90% of the leaf for famous teas is standard single buds (独芽), picked by hand by the “提手采” rule; a harvest standard specifically for the mark is not found in the sources consulted.
- Machine harvesting: According to the prefecture, by 2024 machines harvested 86% of the county’s leaf.
- Harvest time: In 2022, according to a press report, the harvest of early tea began on February 9. This is the date of one season, not a norm.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Southern Sichuan (川南). According to a 2021 publication, the gardens lie in ten towns, among them Shuanggu (双古镇), Laimou (来牟镇) and Tiechang (铁厂镇); the county accounts for 90% of the tea gardens of the prefecture-level city of Zigong.
- Topography: The main feature named by publications of 2022 and 2025 is the dome-shaped topography (穹隆地貌, the “Rong — Wei dome”). According to 2022 publications, it produces a climate best suited for early tea.
- Climate: The Zigong agriculture bureau (2025) gives an average annual temperature of 17.8 °C, about 1000 mm of precipitation, 1289.5 hours of sunshine and 333 frost-free days a year. Spring tea, according to the same data, reaches the market in early to mid-February, 4–5 days earlier than in the Mount Emei area and about 20 days earlier than in eastern Sichuan.
- Altitude and soils: No data in the sources consulted.
- Areas: The figures grow from year to year and diverge from one another:
- 2022 — 206,700 mu of gardens and 43 tea enterprises (press);
- 2024 — 210,000 mu of gardens, 20,000 mu of flower bases for scenting and 45 processing enterprises (publication of May 2024);
- 2024 — output of 31,900 t, of which export green tea 29,800 t; total output value — 5.118 billion yuan (Zigong agriculture bureau, 2025).
All the figures refer to the county’s tea as a whole — scented and green together; I have not found a separate area for the “荣县绿茶” mark.
5. Production Technology
The technology and parameters of this particular tea are not found in the sources consulted. Below is the general scheme of the class, not a description of Róngxiàn lǜchá:
- Spreading of the fresh leaf (摊放, tānfàng): The leaf gives off part of its moisture.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Heating stops oxidation.
- Rolling or shaping (揉捻, róuniǎn).
- Drying (干燥, gānzào).
According to a 2024 publication, the county’s primary processing capacity is 35,000 t a year and its refining capacity 70,000 t; these figures do not refer to green tea separately.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description below was given by the press for the county’s green tea as a whole, not taken from the mark document.
- Dry leaf appearance: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Clean and rich (清香馥郁).
- Taste: Fresh and brisk, with a sweet aftertaste (鲜爽回甘).
- Liquor color: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions in the sources consulted.
7. Chemical Composition
No numerical data in the sources consulted. The press writes only that the county’s green tea has “a high content of amino acids and a moderate content of polyphenols” (氨基酸含量高，茶多酚适中).
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C; for delicate early tea from single buds — closer to 80 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A 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 liquor.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three further 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
- Prices: According to a press report, in February 2022 fresh single buds for early tea were bought at an average of 112 yuan per jin (500 g), at most 125 yuan. In 2024, according to the prefecture, fresh leaf for famous teas cost an average of 220 yuan per kilogram, at most 280. These are prices of raw material, not of finished tea; prices of finished “荣县绿茶” are not found in the sources consulted.
- Scale: According to the procuratorate’s material, in 2025 the total output value of the county’s tea industry exceeded 5 billion yuan, and tea gave more than fifty thousand peasant households an average of more than 20,000 yuan of income a year.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication certification mark “荣县绿茶”: since November 2025 the county agriculture bureau has had an approved list of companies permitted to use it.
- Check that the producer is from Rongxian County of the prefecture-level city of Zigong.
- Do not confuse it with “荣县花茶”: that is a mark for scented tea, not for green tea.
11. Interesting Facts
- One county has two tea marks — scented and green, and it was above all the first that made the county famous.
- The protection of the tea marks was taken up by the county procuratorate, and one of its measures was a food standard for gardenia flowers — the raw material of the local gardenia tea.
- The early season here begins in February: in 2022 the first buds were picked on February 9.
12. Comparison with Other Sichuan Teas
- Rongxian Huacha (荣县花茶): A scented tea of the same county under a separate mark; the corpus has no article on it yet.
- Qianwei Molihua Cha (犍为茉莉花茶): A jasmine tea of Qianwei County in Sichuan — the neighbor closest in profile to the county’s scented tea.
- Moli Piaoxue (茉莉飘雪): A Sichuan jasmine tea on a green tea base.
- Zhuyeqing (竹叶青): A flat green tea of Mount Emei.
- Guang’an Songzhen (广安松针): A needle-shaped green tea of eastern Sichuan, also under a certification mark.
In Conclusion:
Róngxiàn lǜchá is the green tea of a county the whole country knows for its scented tea. Its pillars are the dome-shaped topography with an early season, gardens of enormous area and a mark that in 2025 had to be defended through the procuratorate. Descriptions of its character are still scant: a clean, rich aroma, a fresh taste with a sweet aftertaste and plenty of amino acids — in the words of the press, not of a document.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page