Shàngyóu lǜchá

Shàngyóu lǜchá (上犹绿茶) is a green tea of Shangyou County (上犹县) of Ganzhou prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi Province. The name is protected by geographical indication certification mark No. 9026435, and the tea has its own series of provincial standards — for the product, for the technology, for labeling and for the management system. In 2017 the county’s materials on how Shangyou is building a tea brand appeared on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission: five tea bases, annual presentations of “上犹绿茶”, gardens “to order” via the internet. The county describes the character of the tea in five words: high aroma, emerald color, mellow taste, green liquor, beautiful appearance.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá). The class appears in the name and in the titles of the provincial standards “上犹绿茶”, including the technology standard.
Category: Regional green tea of Jiangxi; geographical indication certification mark; provincial standards DB36/T.
Origin: China, Jiangxi Province (江西, Jiāngxī), Ganzhou prefecture-level city (赣州, Gànzhōu), Shangyou County (上犹, Shàngyóu).
Mark zone: Not verified. The register gives only the province; the mark holder and the zone boundaries are not found in the sources consulted. The county’s article on the Commission’s website names five main tea bases: Youshizhang (油石嶂), Meiling (梅岭), Yuancun (园村), Wuzhifeng (五指峰) and Yingqian (营前).
Geographic coordinates: Shangyou County — about 25.8° N and 114.5° E.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Ming tribute. According to the county agriculture bureau (an advertising page in Renmin Ribao, overseas edition, 2021), as early as the beginning of the Ming dynasty the Shangyou teas “上洞茶” and “上寨茶” were included among the tribute teas. I have not seen the primary source of this record.
- The mark. The same page writes that the “上犹绿茶” mark was obtained in 2010. It is absent from the list of registered geographical indications as of 31 December 2009, and present in the 2012 list of the Trademark Office under No. 9026435. I have not seen the exact registration date in the primary source.
- 2011 — standards. The Jiangxi Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision issued the provincial standard DB36/T 631-2011 “上犹绿茶” on 9 September 2011, in force from 1 November 2011. The same series includes DB36/T 634-2011 “上犹绿茶 — management system” and DB36/T 635-2011 “上犹绿茶 — labeling and sale”; I have not checked their dates. One reference database lists the product standard as current, while the national standards platform notes that it has a newer version; I have not found out which one.
- 2017. In September and October 2017 two articles by the county monitoring point appeared on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission. According to them, tea gardens occupy 101,100 mu, output is 2060 t, and output value is 326.86 million yuan. The brand value of the mark is estimated at 396 million yuan, and the mark has been recognized as a “famous trademark of Jiangxi Province” (江西省著名商标). The county cooperates with the China Tea Research Institute (中国茶叶研究所) and Jiangxi Agricultural University.
- 2018. The technology standard DB36/T 633-2018 “上犹绿茶 — technical regulations for processing” replaced DB36/T 633-2011; it was issued on 3 July 2018 and has been in force since 4 January 2019. The 2021 advertising page writes that the “上犹绿茶” standard was approved as a provincial one in 2018. This diverges from the date of the product standard (2011) and coincides with the date of the technology standard; I have not found out whether there was also a new version of the product standard in 2018.
- 2021. According to the county, the gardens cover almost 110,000 mu.
- Status. According to the 2026 register, the mark has been confirmed recently: the Ganzhou government mentioned it in 2025.
Name: 上犹 is the name of the county; 绿茶 is “green tea”.
Cultural significance: The county’s article on the Commission’s website is titled as follows: how Shangyou, with one cup of tea, “paves the way and creates a brand”. It covers the annual presentations of “上犹绿茶”, the “六统一分” model — unified land transfer, clearing, planning, development, acceptance and supply of seedlings with separate farm management — and 1500 mu of gardens assigned to private customers via the internet.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Cultivar: The county requires a single variety of tea bush (“三统四不”, see section 5), but the variety itself is not named in the sources consulted.
Harvest and harvest standard: Data are not found in the sources consulted. Requirements for the fresh leaf are probably in the technology standard DB36/T 633-2018, but I have not seen its text.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The south of Jiangxi Province, Ganzhou prefecture-level city.
Altitude, climate: Data are not found in the sources consulted.
Selenium: According to the county (2021), a land quality report compiled for Shangyou in December 2018 by the Center for Hydrogeological and Environmental Geological Survey of the China Geological Survey showed that all gardens “reach the selenium-enrichment standard”; the maximum is 0.96 mg/kg, the average 0.6 mg/kg. From the context, this refers to the soil at the roots of the bushes; the text does not say by which standard it was calculated. I draw no health conclusions from these numbers.
Certificates: The county’s 2017 article writes that the county promotes the certification of safe, “green” and organic tea; the 2021 advertising page, citing the same land report, calls the tea safe, “green” and organic.

5. Production Technology

The tea has its own technology standard — DB36/T 633-2018 — but I have not seen its text, so I do not give parameters. According to the county, production is subject to the rule “三统四不”: a unified variety, technical standard and application of fertilizers and plant protection agents; no food additives, no herbicides, no synthetic fertilizers and no highly toxic persistent pesticides.

The general scheme for green tea is as follows:

Spreading of the fresh leaf (摊放, tānfàng): The leaf gives off part of its moisture.
Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): Heating stops oxidation and preserves the green color.
Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn).
Drying (干燥, gānzào).

This is the general scheme of the class, not a description of the technology of Shàngyóu lǜchá.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The county describes the tea with two short formulas. The county’s article on the Commission’s website (2017): “香高、色翠、味醇、汤绿、形美” — high aroma, emerald color, mellow full taste, green liquor, beautiful appearance. The county’s advertising page (2021): “形美、色绿、香高、味浓、汤清” — beautiful appearance, green color, high aroma, rich taste, clear liquor.

Dry leaf appearance: “Beautiful appearance” (形美); the color is “emerald” (色翠) or “green” (色绿). This refers to the dry leaf by the sense of the formula; it is not stated directly.
Dry leaf aroma: Data are not found in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: “High” (香高); the formula does not specify whether the aroma of the leaf or of the liquor is meant.
Taste: “Mellow, full” (味醇) in the 2017 description; “rich” (味浓) in the 2021 description. Which assessment is more accurate cannot be told from the sources.
Liquor color: “Green” (汤绿, 2017) or “clear” (汤清, 2021).
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Data are not found in the sources consulted.

7. Chemical Composition

Physicochemical indicators of the finished tea are not found in the sources consulted. The only number is selenium in the gardens according to county data (section 4), and it refers, judging by the context, to the soil, not to the tea.

8. Brewing

Class practice for green tea.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
Process:
1. Warm the teaware.
2. Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
3. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
4. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
5. Top up with water.
6. Two or three repeat 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

Retail price data are not found in the sources consulted. The brand valuation of 396 million yuan (county data, 2017) is the value of the mark, not the price of the tea.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication certification mark “上犹绿茶” (No. 9026435).
- Check that the producer is from Shangyou County of Ganzhou prefecture-level city.
- For labeling the tea has its own provincial standard, DB36/T 635-2011; I have not checked whether it is currently in force.
- Do not confuse it with teas of other counties of Ganzhou and Jiangxi: the word “绿茶” says nothing about the place.

11. Interesting Facts

A single county tea has separate provincial standards for the product, for the technology, for the management system and for labeling and sale.
The county has set up gardens “to order”: by 2017 there were 1500 mu of such gardens, and the customers follow the care, picking and processing via the internet.

12. Comparison with Other Teas of Jiangxi

Wuyuan Lücha (婺源绿茶): A green tea with a geographical indication, from the northeast of Jiangxi — at the other end of the province.
Jinggang Cui Lü (井冈翠绿): A green tea of the Jinggangshan mountains of Ji’an prefecture, one of the well-known provincial brands.
Lushan Yun Wu (庐山云雾): One of the best-known green teas of Jiangxi, from Mount Lushan in the north of the province.
Yaoli Nenrui (瑶里嫩蕊): A green tea of Yaoli town near Jingdezhen, in the northeast of the province.

In Conclusion:

Shàngyóu lǜchá is a green tea of southern Jiangxi that has more documents than descriptions: a certification mark, a series of provincial standards and the county’s materials on the brand on the Commission’s website. The county describes the tea itself in five words — high aroma, emerald color, mellow taste, green liquor, beautiful appearance. The details of the technology and appearance lie in the standards, whose texts I have not seen.