---
title: "Shítái xiāngyá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/shitai-xiangya
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Shítái xiāngyá (石台香芽)

*Shítái xiāngyá* (石台香芽), “the fragrant buds of Shitai”, is a green tea of Shitai County (石台县), Chizhou prefecture-level city, in the south of Anhui Province. The county lies in the western part of the Wannan mountain area, and *Shítái xiāngyá* is its public green tea brand. The raw material comes from the *zhūyè*, *Shūchá zǎo* and Anhui No. 3 varieties; after a long withering the leaf is straightened and pressed by machines. The name has been protected since 2011 by an agricultural product geographical indication, and since 2025 as a geographical indication product.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*), unfermented. The description of the agricultural mark directly assigns it to the named green teas of the hongqing type (烘青, *hōngqīng*) — with final drying by hot air; the 2025 scheme is that of a green tea: withering, fixation, shaping, drying.
* **Category:** A mountain green tea of southern Anhui; a geographical indication product.
* **Origin:** China, Anhui Province (安徽, *Ānhuī*), Chizhou prefecture-level city (池州, *Chízhōu*), Shitai County (石台, *Shítái*).
* **Protection zone:** 38 villages in six townships and towns of the county: Xianyu (仙寓镇), Qidu (七都镇), Hengdu (横渡镇), Dayan (大演乡), Renli (仁里镇) and Dingxiang (丁香镇). The applicant is the Shitai County Tea Association.
* **Geographic coordinates:** 117°12′–117°59′ E and 29°59′–30°24′ N.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Song.** A reference book on geographical indications cites the *Wenxian Tongkao* (文献通考): of the country’s 26 famous leaf teas, two — “Xianzhi” (仙芝) and “Nenrui” (嫩蕊) — came from Shidai County (石埭, the former name of Shitai). *Shítái xiāngyá*, according to the same reference, inherits the raw-material properties and quality of “Nenrui”.
    * **Ming.** According to the same reference, the Ming author Zhang Xinghuan (张星焕) wrote in *Wanyou Jiwen* (皖游记闻) that the locals considered the tea of Mount Xianyushan (仙寓山) rare and “auspicious” (瑞茶), and the poet Xu Wei (徐渭) in his verses placed Shidai tea alongside Longjing and Huqiu.
    * **13 September 2011.** The Ministry of Agriculture of the PRC registered “石台香芽” as an agricultural product with a geographical indication. The description of the mark gives a planted area of 2400 ha.
    * **2016.** According to a reference description, the county adopted two county standards for the tea — for fresh leaf and for processing; their numbers and texts are not found in the sources consulted.
    * **2024.** The Chizhou Administration for Market Regulation, in a July note, lists *Shítái xiāngyá* among the city’s seven agricultural products with a geographical indication.
    * **2025.** The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), by announcement No. 632 of 9 June 2025 (published 27 June), recognized 224 geographical indication products; *Shítái xiāngyá* is number 26 on the list. According to the Chizhou administration (18 June 2025), the batch included seven products of the city, bringing Chizhou’s total to eight.
* **Name:** 石台 is Shitai County, literally “stone terrace”; 香芽 means “fragrant buds”.
* **Cultural significance:** The county’s public green tea brand, under which local producers operate.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** According to the 2025 requirements — clonal varieties of provincial level and above: zhuye (槠[叶种](https://thetea.app/article/qiaomuguanmu), *zhūyèzhǒng*), Shucha Zao (舒茶早, *Shūchá zǎo*), Anhui No. 3 (安徽3号) and others.
* **Planting:** Single-row — rows 150 cm apart, bushes 25–30 cm apart; double-row dense — wide inter-rows of 150 cm, narrow ones of 30 cm, bushes 30 cm apart. Planting is done in late autumn and early spring.
* **Care:** Fertilizers — manure, microbial, organic and organic-mineral; pests, diseases and weeds are controlled by a combination of agrotechnical, biological, physical and chemical measures.
* **Harvest:** On the principle of “combining picking and leaving leaves, taking into account both quantity and quality”: in batches, on time, to a standard. Harvest dates are not found in the sources consulted.
* **Harvest standard:** No data found in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** The western part of the Wannan mountain area (皖南山区) in the south of Anhui.
* **Growing altitude:** **300–1000 m**, hills and medium- and low-mountain terrain — according to reference descriptions. The 2025 requirements do not name an altitude.
* **Topography and vegetation:** According to reference descriptions, vegetation covers at least 80 % of the area (one of the descriptions gives a forest cover of the tea district of 80.9 %), and the environment must meet the conditions for organic tea gardens.
* **Soils:** According to the 2025 requirements — an effective layer thickness of more than 70 cm, no compacted interlayers in the profile, high biological activity and organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content not below medium. Reference descriptions specify: loams, light loams and sandy loams; red and yellow soils, from acidic to slightly acidic, pH 5.5–6.8, with moderate organic matter content.
* **Climate:** According to a reference description — the monsoon climate of the northern edge of the subtropics: a clear change of seasons, abundant precipitation, a large daily temperature range and short sunshine hours.

**5. Production Technology:**

The 2025 requirements set a scheme of nine operations; parameters are named only for withering and shaping.

1.  **Fresh leaf (鲜叶, *xiānyè*).**
2.  **Withering (摊青, *tānqīng*):** The leaf is spread out for 6–8 hours.
3.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*).**
4.  **Cooling (摊凉, *tānliáng*).**
5.  **Shaping (做形, *zuòxíng*):** By machines — a straightening machine (理条机) and a finishing machine (辉干机); techniques — straightening (理条, *lǐtiáo*), pressing (加压, *jiāyā*) and finishing in the pan (辉锅, *huīguō*). Hence the straight, tight leaf.
6.  **Cooling (摊凉, *tānliáng*).**
7.  **Drying (烘干, *hōnggān*).**
8.  **Sorting (拣剔, *jiǎntī*).**
9.  **Packing.**

Temperatures and durations of fixation and drying are not found in the sources consulted.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

The description follows the 2025 requirements.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Tight, straight and even; the buds sturdy, with noticeable down; the color emerald green (外形紧直匀整、芽壮显毫、色泽翠绿). An agricultural portal writes “tight, thin, even” (紧细匀整) — instead of “straight” it has “thin”.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No separate description found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** Tender, high and long (嫩香高长).
* **Taste:** Mellow, harmonious, fresh and brisk (滋味醇和鲜爽).
* **Liquor color:** Tender green, clear (汤色嫩绿清澈).
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Tender green, even and bright (叶底嫩绿匀亮).

**7. Chemical Composition:**

There are no physicochemical requirements in the 2025 text; no other data were found in the sources consulted either.

**8. Health Properties:**

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea.

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice for green tea; no recommendations of its own were found in the sources consulted.

* **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.

**10. Storage:**

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Best drunk within a year.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No price data found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the special geographical indication mark. The right to it is approved by CNIPA on application through the Chizhou intellectual property office and the Anhui provincial administration.
    * Check that the tea comes from the six named townships and towns of Shitai County.
    * Do not confuse it with Shitai Fuxi Cha (石台富硒茶), the selenium tea of the same county: it is a separate product with its own protection; according to a 2024 note, three enterprises are permitted to use its mark. The requirements for *Shítái xiāngyá* do not mention selenium.
    * The leaf is straight, tight, emerald, with downy buds; the liquor is tender green and clear. A dull, broken or yellowish leaf does not match the description.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* Two protected tea names live in one county — *Shítái xiāngyá* and the selenium Shitai Fuxi Cha.
* In the 2025 batch, two more teas of the same prefecture-level city ended up next to *Shítái xiāngyá* — Xiaokeng Lücha and Huangshi Xi Maofeng.
* According to the reference book on geographical indications, the Ming author Zhang Xinghuan wrote that the tea of Mount Xianyushan, for its green color and noticeable white down, was called “white tea” (白茶) — a nickname for its appearance, not a class.

**13. Comparison with Other Teas of Chizhou Prefecture:**

* **Xiaokeng Lücha ([霄坑绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/xiaokeng-lucha)):** A green tea of Xiaokeng village, Guichi District; recognized in the same 2025 batch.
* **Huangshi Xi Maofeng ([黄石溪毛峰](https://thetea.app/article/huangshixi-maofeng)):** A green tea from the Jiuhuashan massif in Qingyang County; also from the 2025 batch.
* **Jiuhua Fo Cha ([九华佛茶](https://thetea.app/article/jiuhua-fucha)):** A historical green tea of Mount Jiuhuashan in the same prefecture-level city.
* **Dongzhi Yunjian ([东至云尖](https://thetea.app/article/dongzhi-yunjian)):** A green tea of neighboring Dongzhi County.
* **Qimen Hongcha ([祁门红茶](https://thetea.app/article/qimen-hongcha)):** A red tea whose historical zone is also considered to include Shitai County.

**In Conclusion:**

*Shítái xiāngyá* is a green tea of southern Anhui: the reference for the agricultural mark traces it back to the Song “Nenrui”, and protection of the name begins in 2011. The 2025 requirements describe it precisely — long withering, machine straightening and pressing, a straight emerald leaf with downy buds, a tender high aroma and a clear tender-green liquor.