Shàowǔ suìtóng chá (邵武碎铜茶) is a green tea from Shaowu county-level city (邵武市) of Nanping prefecture-level city in the north of Fujian Province; descriptively — “Shaowu tea that crumbles copper”. The name comes from a local belief: if you chew the leaf together with an old copper coin, the coin becomes brittle and crumbles. The cause, according to reports, has not been established. Three protection regimes apply: a geographical indication certification mark (2009), a geographical indication product (2012, in 2025 the requirements were replaced by a new announcement) and an agricultural product geographical indication.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá) dried in a dryer. This scheme is set by the 2012 requirements; the Nanping press writes plainly “碎铜茶（绿茶）”.
- Category: Geographical indication certification mark (2009), geographical indication product (2012; 2025), agricultural indication (the year is not stated in the sources consulted).
- Caveat: Red tea is also sold under the name “碎铜”; the requirements of the protection document describe only green tea.
- Origin: China, Fujian Province (福建, Fújiàn), Nanping prefecture-level city (南平, Nánpíng), Shaowu county-level city (邵武, Shàowǔ).
- Protection zone: The entire current territory of Shaowu county-level city. The core is Heping Town (和平镇, Hépíng; old spelling 禾坪) and the Wuyangfeng massif (武阳峰) with the peaks Cuiyun, Jinyun, Liuxian and Lingying.
- Geographic coordinates: No data in the sources consulted.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Song. The Chronicle of the Tea Industry of Northern Fujian (《闽北茶业志》) writes that under the Song famous teas were made no longer only in Fuzhou and Jianzhou, but also in the Shaowu military prefecture. In November 1998, near Mount Fengchishan (Shuibei Town), a Song tomb was found with silver tea utensils — a box for tea powder, a basket for cakes, spoons.
- Qing. According to the Fujian press (2023), in Pingshang Village of Heping Town, by a bridge, stands a merit stele with the inscription “the imperial tea garden of Guanyinkeng donated twenty liang of silver”; its date is contradictory in the retelling (the 58th year of Kangxi is 1719, while the cyclical year 乙亥 named next to it is 1695). The Shaowu County Gazetteer of the Xianfeng years, according to the same publication, already knows “碎铜茶”.
- Before the name. According to the magazine Yanhuang Zongheng (2019), the peasants of Heping once a year gathered the leaf of the wild bushes of Mount Guanxingshan (Wuyangfeng massif) and made the green tea “guanxingcha” (观星茶); the name “suìtóng” came later, and there are no exact records of when.
- 1992. The Hong Kong newspaper Dagong Bao wrote about the tea.
- 2006. An analysis at the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; the cause of the “crumbling of copper”, according to the retelling, was not established.
- 2007. First prize at the seventh national famous tea competition “Zhongcha Cup”.
- 2009. In December a geographical indication certification mark was registered (the magazine names the 13th, the press the 14th).
- 2012. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), by announcement No. 205 of December 14, placed “邵武碎铜茶” under protection as a geographical indication product and approved the requirements for it.
- 2025. According to the registry summary, announcement No. 640 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration replaced the item on Shàowǔ suìtóng chá and the annex with the requirements from the 2012 announcement. The new text of the requirements is not found in the sources consulted.
- Legends: According to legend, the Taoist Zhang Sanfeng (张三丰) saved a child who had swallowed a coin by giving him a chewed tea leaf — hence the local name “Sanfeng tea” (三丰茶). Other versions speak of monks whose copper vessels were ruined by this tea, and of a late Ming student who held a coin in his mouth while drinking tea.
- Cultural significance: The production technique has been included in the Nanping-level list of intangible heritage (according to a reference website — in 2010, in the second list).
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties / Cultivars: According to the 2012 requirements — Anhui Zhuyezhong (安徽槠叶种), Fuyun No. 6 (福云6号) and the local Wuyi Caicha (武夷菜茶).
- Propagation: According to the same requirements — by cuttings: in summer (May to early June, preferably) or in October.
- Local resource: According to the press (2023), a 238-mu garden on Wuyangfeng, above 1180 m, is a provincial genetic resource protection zone, and all the bushes in it were grown from cuttings of the mother trees of the local “special variety” (奇种, qízhǒng). Fujian Keji Bao (2008), as retold by the 2019 magazine, wrote that only a few hundred trees of a wild garden of more than 20 mu have the “crumbling” effect.
- Harvest standard and timing: From March to mid-May; from a bud with a barely opened leaf to a bud with two leaves.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The southern slopes of the Wuyi Mountains, the middle and upper reaches of the Futun River (富屯溪), a tributary of the Minjiang; a subtropical monsoon climate, abundant precipitation, a large difference between day and night temperatures, frequent fogs.
- Conditions under the 2012 requirements: Altitude 300–800 m, slope less than 25°, pH 4.5–6.5, organic matter no less than 2 %, deep red, red-yellow and yellow soils, low mountains and high hills far from sources of pollution.
- Historical massif: Mount Guanxingshan in the Wuyangfeng massif — 1413 m according to the 2019 magazine, Liuxian Peak — about 1500 m according to a reference portal; the historical core lies above the range set by the requirements for gardens.
- Scale: According to the press (2023), suìtóng chá is produced by 27 companies and cooperatives on 26,000 mu of gardens.
5. Production Technology
According to the requirements of the 2012 announcement:
- Spreading (摊青, tānqīng): On bamboo sieves in a layer no thicker than 5 cm, until the leaf softens and loses its sheen.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): In a drum machine at 100–200 °C, 1–2 minutes: the leaf turns from fresh green to emerald, gathers into a ball in the hand, and the stalk bends without breaking.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): The pressure alternates “light — strong — light”, with light pressure predominating; tender leaf — 20–25 minutes.
- Drying (烘焙, hōngbèi): In three stages in a dryer — to a moisture content of 40–45 % with cooling for 30–40 minutes, then to 18–20 % with cooling for 1–2 hours, then until dry, below 7 %, when the leaf rubs into powder between the fingers.
- Sorting (精选, jīngxuǎn): Removal of flakes, crumbs and stalks; dust in the finished tea is no more than 1.3 %.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The benchmark is the 2012 requirements.
- Dry leaf appearance: Thin, graceful strands, lush green, even and clean (条细秀，色泽绿润、匀整洁净).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Fresh, brisk, pure (香鲜爽纯); the text of the requirements has “粟香纯正” — literally “pure millet aroma”. The experts of the 2007 competition, as retold by the magazine, spoke of a chestnut aroma (栗香), so the text may contain a typo; the sources do not resolve this discrepancy.
- Taste: Fresh, rich and mellow (味鲜浓醇).
- Liquor color: Tender green (汤色嫩绿).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender green; the tea withstands many infusions (叶底嫩绿，耐冲泡).
7. Chemical Composition
The 2012 requirements set minimums:
| Indicator | Norm |
|---|---|
| Water-soluble extractives | no less than 40 % |
| Amino acids | no less than 4.0 % |
Other figures are retellings without published test reports: according to the 2006 analysis, there are polyphenols “three times more than in ordinary tea”, and noticeably more tannins and caffeine; the registry summary writes of amino acids “one to two times higher than usual”.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A glass tumbler — in a 2015 report green suìtóng chá was brewed in exactly that.
- Process: Warm the teaware, pour the water down the side, first infusion — after 40–60 seconds, then two or three repeat infusions, leaving part of the liquor.
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
There are no price data in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication product mark or the certification mark, and check that the producer is from Shaowu.
- The coin test is unreliable; its outcome depends on the coin itself: in a report by Minbei Ribao (2015), a journalist held a coin in the leaves of red suìtóng chá for three to five minutes — it did not soften, but became brittle and split into three pieces, and the shop owner warned that with modern replica coins the effect is weaker.
11. Interesting Facts
- The author of a 2019 magazine article looked for the tea in the Great Dictionary of Chinese Tea (《中国茶叶大辞典》) and found no entry on it.
- Popular websites write that suìtóng chá was a tribute tea as early as the Tang; they do not name a primary source.
12. Comparison with Other Teas
- Songxi Lücha (松溪绿茶): A green tea of Songxi County in the same Nanping prefecture-level city, at the foot of the Wuyi Mountains.
- Kongkeng Cha (孔坑茶): A green tea of Ninghua County in western Fujian, also recognized by announcement No. 640 in 2025.
In Conclusion:
Shàowǔ suìtóng chá is a mountain green tea of northern Fujian, known more for a belief than for its taste: thin lush-green strands, a tender green liquor, a fresh aroma and a coin that crumbles after being chewed with the leaf. There is no explanation for the belief, but the 2012 protection requirements describe the tea in detail — from varieties and altitudes to the moisture content at each stage of drying.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page