Sōngbǎi chángqīng chá

Songbai Changqing Cha (Sōngbǎi chángqīng chá, 松柏長青茶) is an oolong from the Songbailing plateau (松柏嶺, Sōngbǎilǐng) in Mingjian Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. According to a 1990 Taiwanese magazine, the name was given after an inspection of the area in January 1975 to promote the local tea, and thereafter it was used for all tea made in Songbailing; previously it was known as “Puzhong Cha”. Thus, according to this magazine, it is the name of an area, not of a tea cultivar or a separate brand. The area itself is well described in official publications: a plateau with red soils, where Jin Xuan, Cui Yu, oolong, and Si Ji Chun grow. About the tea itself, the sources speak sparingly: there is no production flow chart, the name has no origin mark in the lists found, and the only discovered description of taste dates to 1990.

1. Classification and Origin

• Type: Oolong (烏龍茶, wūlóngchá). The magazine “鄉間小路” (Xiāngjiān xiǎolù, 1990), whose text was proofread by the Taiwan Tea Improvement Station (台灣省茶業改良場), speaks of the oolong of the Songbailing area. The degree of oxidation and roasting is not indicated in the sources found.
• Leaf shape: Descriptions diverge. The 1990 magazine calls the leaf curled (曲捲, qūjuǎn); in the Russian-language tea community it was called one of the “semi-spherical baozhongs” (半球形包種茶, bànqiúxíng bāozhǒng chá). According to a 2012 article by a Taiwan tea station staff member in an agricultural agency bulletin, semi-spherical baozhong is oolong in a broad sense, while in the six-color classification it is “blue-green tea” (青茶, qīngchá). In the current classification of the station (2024), ball-shaped oolongs are divided into light-aroma oolongs (清香型球形烏龍茶, qīngxiāngxíng qiúxíng wūlóngchá) and roasted-aroma oolongs (焙香型球形烏龍茶, bèixiāngxíng qiúxíng wūlóngchá); to which group Songbai Changqing Cha belongs is not stated in the sources found.
• Category: Low-mountain Taiwanese oolong (about 500 m according to the 1990 magazine); according to the same magazine, it is the name of all tea of the area, that is, a regional name, not a cultivar and not a separate brand.
• Origin: Taiwan (臺灣, Táiwān), Nantou County (南投縣, Nántóu xiàn), Mingjian Township (名間鄉, Míngjiān xiāng), Songbailing plateau. According to the 1990 magazine, the area lies on the southern end of the Bagua Mountain Range (八卦山脈, Bāguà shānmài).
• Origin mark: Not found in the lists. In the 2014 agricultural agency list of 13 Taiwanese tea origin marks (產地證明標章, chǎndì zhèngmíng biāozhāng) this name is absent, and in the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office list as of August 2026, Mingjian Township administration is not among the holders of tea marks.
• Geographic coordinates: Not given for the area in the sources. A 2025 scientific study limits its own area, the low mountains of Mingjian (0–500 m), where the authors selected eight gardens, to the coordinates 23°50′25″–23°52′39″ N and 120°37′34″–120°39′24″ E; whether this falls within the Songbailing zone, the study does not say.

2. History and Cultural Significance

• History:
  • Beginning of tea cultivation. Dates diverge. The 1990 magazine writes that tea has been made in the Songbailing area “for more than two hundred years,” that is, roughly since the late 18th century. The magazine “Yuanjian” (遠見, Yuǎnjiàn, 2018) traces the tea history of the township to the late Qing era, when the Wang family from Anxi (安溪王氏家族) brought oolong cultivars from the mainland.
  • Former names. According to the 1990 magazine, the tea of the area was called “Puzhong Cha” (埔中茶, Pǔzhōng chá), because the locality was anciently called Puzhong (埔中). “Yuanjian” gives two former names, “Puzhong Cha” and “Songbaikeng Cha” (松柏坑茶, Sōngbǎikēng chá), and writes that under these names the tea was known across Taiwan.
  • January 1975. According to the 1990 magazine, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國, Jiǎng Jīngguó), then Premier of the Executive Yuan and later President, inspected Songbailing, asked about tea production and sales, and heard a report from county magistrate Liu Yuyou (劉裕猷, Liú Yùyóu): the oolong of the area was good but little known. To build a reputation for the local tea, a special and representative name was needed, and the tea was given the name “松柏長青茶”. The magazine calls Liu Yuyou “former county magistrate”, as he was in 1990; according to Chinese Wikipedia, he headed Nantou County from 1973 to 1981, so in 1975 he was the incumbent magistrate.
  • Another version. “Yuanjian” (2018) tells it differently: in 1975 Chiang Ching-kuo came to Mingjian three times, tasted “松柏坑茶”, praised it highly, and named it “松柏長青茶”. In the Russian-language tea community a third version circulated, that the name was given by Chiang Kai-shek; the Chinese sources found do not confirm this and name Chiang Ching-kuo.
  • Provincial program. According to the 1990 magazine, after the name was given, the tea’s fame grew immediately, and the provincial government supported it with a “Songbai Changqing tea revival program” (松柏長青茶振興計劃). The years and content of the program are unknown.
  • 1980s–1990s. According to “Yuanjian” (2018), at the rise of canned tea drinks Songbailing was the main supplier of leaf for two brands of canned tea.
  • 2005–2007. According to the agricultural agency bulletin “農政與農情” (2014), in late 2005 “松柏長青”, along with other well-known names of Taiwanese tea places, was registered in the PRC as a trademark by third parties. The Taiwan Council of Agriculture filed an application in the PRC for their cancellation, and in 2007 four such marks were cancelled: Alishan (阿里山, Ālǐshān), Riyuetan (日月潭, Rìyuètán), Lishan (梨山, Líshān), and Wushe zhi chun (霧社之春, Wùshè zhī chūn). “松柏長青” is not named among them; how the matter with this mark ended, the bulletin does not say.
  • 2018. According to “Yuanjian”, a former township mayor recalled that in the best years the tea area of Mingjian reached 2700 ha, and there were more than two hundred tea factories. As of 2018, the magazine gives about 2004 ha and about 70 factories working for tea drink chains, and calls the township Taiwan’s main base of Si Ji Chun. More than ten thousand of the roughly 38 thousand township residents, according to the magazine, live by tea. One local producer told the magazine that “this mountain” (Songbailing) supplies about 4000 t of Si Ji Chun per year to freshly brewed drink chains.
• Name:
  • Writing. 松柏長青茶 in traditional characters, as in Taiwanese sources; the 2014 bulletin gives the short form “松柏長青” among the famous tea place names of Taiwan (著名產茶地名, zhùmíng chǎnchá dìmíng).
  • Meaning. 松柏 (sōngbǎi) means “pine and cypress,” and this is also the beginning of the local toponyms Songbailing (松柏嶺) and Songbaikeng (松柏坑); 長青 (chángqīng) means “evergreen”; 茶 (chá) means “tea.” Why this particular name was chosen, the sources do not explain: the 1990 magazine writes only that the name had to be special and representative.
  • Reading. In the Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary “重編國語辭典修訂本”, the word 松柏 is given with the literary reading sōng bó; for the character 柏 it also lists the colloquial reading bǎi, which is also accepted on the mainland. The Russian form “Songbai” follows the reading bǎi. No tonal pinyin of the tea name itself is found in the sources.
  • Other forms. In the Russian-language tea community, “Sun Bai Zhang Qing Cha” and the descriptive “oolong of pine and cypress” are encountered. The reading “zhang” for 長 is erroneous here: in the word 長青 this character is read cháng.
• Cultural significance: The name was from the very beginning a tool of fame: according to the 1990 magazine, it was given to build a reputation for Songbailing tea, and after that the tea’s renown, in the magazine’s words, spread across Taiwan and beyond. Thirty years later it stood in one row with Alishan, Riyuetan, and Lishan: the 2014 bulletin places “松柏長青” among the famous tea place names of the country that in late 2005 third parties registered as trademarks in the PRC.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Cultivars: According to the bulletin “農政與農情” (2012), the main cultivars of the Songbailing area are Jin Xuan (金萱, Jīnxuān), Cui Yu (翠玉, Cuìyù), oolong (烏龍, wūlóng), and Si Ji Chun (四季春, Sìjìchūn). From which cultivar a specific tea under this name is made, the sources do not specify; according to the 1990 magazine, the name applied to all tea of the area.
• Predominant cultivar: A former township mayor, according to “Yuanjian” (2018), recalls that earlier oolong and “Wuyi” (武夷茶, Wǔyí chá) were planted here, and later nine tenths (九成) switched to Si Ji Chun; the share of what, area or farms, is not stated. The authors of the 2025 study also write that Si Ji Chun predominates in the low mountains of Mingjian.
• Harvest: According to the 1990 magazine, young leaf (幼嫩茶菁) in the area was harvested by machines. “Yuanjian” (2018), quoting a former township mayor, writes that Si Ji Chun here can be harvested six times a year. Seasons and months of harvest specifically for Songbai Changqing Cha are not described in the sources found.
• Plucking standard: How many leaves and buds are taken is not stated in the sources found; the 1990 magazine speaks only of young leaf.
• Raw material requirements: Not described in the sources found.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Region: According to the 2012 bulletin, the plateau’s special relief (台地, táidì), climate, and red soils create the most suitable environment for tea here, and the gardens stand most densely. The 1990 magazine describes the area as slopes on the southern end of the Bagua Mountain Range.
• Locality: The relation between the names Songbailing and Songbaikeng (松柏坑, Sōngbǎikēng) in the sources is ambiguous. Chinese Wikipedia, in the article on the township, gives Songbaikeng the second name “松柏嶺”, while in the article on Songbaikeng itself it mentions a road “from 松柏嶺 to 松柏坑”, that is, distinguishes them as different points. It also says that the traditional locality of Songbaikeng covers parts of the present villages of Songshan (松山村), Songbai (松柏村), Puzhong (埔中村), and Tanliao (炭寮村). The exact boundaries of the growing area are not defined in the sources found.
• Growing altitude: About 500 m, according to the 1990 magazine. The 2025 study places Mingjian gardens in the low-mountain belt of 0–500 m. No primary altitude mark for the area is found in the sources.
• Climate: According to the 1990 magazine, the area is in clouds and fog all day and it is cool there, conditions very suitable for the tea plant, in the magazine’s words. No meteorological data are found in the sources.
• Soils: Red soils (紅色土壤), according to the 2012 bulletin. No soil analyses are found in the sources.
• Scale: Estimates refer to different territories and years, and cannot be reduced to one figure:
  • 2012 bulletin: Songbailing is first in the country in tea output, accounting for a quarter of Taiwan’s tea area and 40% of its tea;
  • 2014 bulletin: Nantou County in 2013 produced 49% (of area or output, the bulletin does not specify), and Mingjian is named one of its eight tea districts;
  • “Yuanjian” (2018): Nantou County produces 64% of Taiwanese tea, and Mingjian 46.5% of the county’s tea.

5. Production Technology

There is no production flow chart for Songbai Changqing Cha in the sources found. The 1990 magazine reports little: young leaf was harvested by machines, and the tea was made by a “traditional ancient method” (傳統式的古法焙製); what stages it includes and whether there is a separate roasting, the magazine does not specify. Captions to the photographs in the magazine are solar withering, traditional manual processing, and mechanized harvesting. Regimes, temperatures, durations, oxidation degree, the sources do not give.

According to a 2024 teaching material of the Taiwan tea station, the technology of Dong Ding Oolong (凍頂烏龍, Dòngdǐng wūlóng), native to Lugu Township (鹿谷鄉, Lùgǔ xiāng), also spread to Mingjian. What this means for Songbai Changqing Cha, the material does not say.

Below is a general scheme, common for most rolled Taiwanese oolongs; for this tea it has not been verified:

1. Solar withering (日光萎凋, rìguāng wěidiāo): The leaf loses part of its moisture, oxidation begins.
2. Rest and tossing of leaf indoors (浪菁, làngqīng): The leaf edges oxidize, the aroma takes shape.
3. Fixation (殺菁, shāqīng): Heating stops oxidation.
4. Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): The leaf is rolled to bring the sap to the surface.
5. Ball shaping in cloth (團揉, tuánróu): Repeated rolling in cloth gives the leaf a tight curled shape.
6. Drying and roasting (焙火, bèihuǒ): The depth of roasting determines to which group, light aroma or roasted aroma, the finished tea is assigned.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The only description found is the 1990 magazine. It has no tasting methodology, and the area’s cultivars differ, so this description should not be taken as a definition of style. No modern descriptions are found in the sources.

• Dry leaf appearance: According to the 1990 magazine, curled (曲捲), with a slight natural greenish tint.
• Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources found.
• Infusion aroma: No separate description; the aroma of narcissus flowers is mentioned by the 1990 magazine as part of the taste (see below).
• Taste: According to the 1990 magazine, with notes of milk and the aroma of narcissus flowers (牛乳加水仙花香的滋味). No other taste descriptions are found in the sources.
• Liquor color: According to the 1990 magazine, from golden to brownish (金黃色到褐色之間).
• Wet leaf (brewed leaf): No descriptions in the sources found.

7. Chemical Composition

No physicochemical data on Songbai Changqing Cha, polyphenols, caffeine, amino acids, extractives, are found in the sources. As for most oolongs, the infusion contains polyphenols (catechins, some of which are converted by partial oxidation into colored products), caffeine, and amino acids, including theanine; this is a general characteristic of the class and has not been measured for this tea. Since, according to the 1990 magazine, all tea of the area went under this name, and the area has several cultivars, no single chemical profile should be expected either.

8. Health Properties

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular tea. General ideas about the benefits of oolongs have not been tested for Songbai Changqing Cha and are not given here.

9. Brewing

No recommendations specifically for Songbai Changqing Cha are found in the sources. Below is the practice usual for most rolled Taiwanese oolongs; it has not been verified for this tea.

• Water temperature: 95–100 °C, as for most rolled oolongs.
• Amount of tea: 5–7 g per 150 ml of water.
• Teaware: Gaiwan (蓋碗, gàiwǎn) or a small clay teapot: in a tight vessel the rolled leaf has time to open over several infusions.
• Process:
  1. Preheat the vessel with boiling water.
  2. Add the tea.
  3. Briefly rinse the leaf with hot water and discard it.
  4. First infusion about 50 seconds.
  5. Pour the infusion completely into a chahai (茶海, cháhǎi) and distribute among cups.
  6. Repeat infusions, adding 10–15 seconds each time; a rolled oolong usually withstands several infusions.

How to adjust brewing depending on cultivar and roasting degree, the sources do not describe for this tea.

10. Storage

Storage conditions specifically for Songbai Changqing Cha are not described in the sources found. As for most Taiwanese oolongs, tea is kept in airtight packaging, in a dry dark cool place, away from foreign odors; an opened package is best finished within a few weeks. This is general practice for the class, not a requirement for this tea.

11. Price and Counterfeits

No market statistics or retail prices are found in the sources.

• How to avoid counterfeits:
  • There is no origin mark to look for on the package for this name in the lists found, unlike the neighboring Nantoushi Qingshan Cha.
  • The name “松柏長青” was registered as a trademark in the PRC by third parties in late 2005, and how the matter ended for this mark, the 2014 bulletin does not say; therefore, in the editors’ view, the name itself on a package from mainland China does not prove Taiwanese origin.
  • Check the indicated place: Mingjian Township, Nantou County, Songbailing area.
  • Remember that Songbai Changqing Cha is the name of an area, not of a cultivar: under it, according to the 1990 magazine, all tea of the area went, and there are several cultivars there, so the name itself does not name a cultivar.
  • No organoleptic signs by which this tea is distinguished from other low-mountain Nantou oolongs are found in the sources.

12. Interesting Facts

• The name was given not to a cultivar and not to a farm, but to an area: according to the 1990 magazine, after 1975 it was used for all tea of Songbailing.
• The word 埔中 from the tea’s former name lives on in the name of Puzhong Village (埔中村): according to Chinese Wikipedia, the traditional locality of Songbaikeng includes part of it.
• According to “Yuanjian” (2018), in the 1980s and 1990s leaf from Songbailing went to two brands of canned tea, and in 2018 the magazine called the township the main source of Si Ji Chun for tea drink chains.
• In the list of famous Taiwanese tea place names registered as trademarks in the PRC by third parties in late 2005, “松柏長青” stands alongside Shanlinxi (杉林溪, Shānlínxī), Meishan (梅山, Méishān), and Xitou (溪頭, Xītóu).

13. Comparison with Other Taiwanese Oolongs

• Nantoushi Qingshan Cha (南投市青山茶, Nántóushì Qīngshān chá): A neighboring low-mountain oolong of the same Bagua Mountain Range, but with an origin mark held by the Nantou City administration.
• Si Ji Chun (四季春, Sìjìchūn): The cultivar that now predominates in Mingjian; Songbai Changqing Cha is the name of an area, not of a cultivar.
• Cui Yu (翠玉, Cuìyù) and Jin Xuan (金萱, Jīnxuān): Cultivars that, according to the 2012 bulletin, grow on the Songbailing plateau.
• Dong Ding Oolong (凍頂烏龍, Dòngdǐng wūlóng): An oolong of Lugu Township in the same county, with an origin mark; its technology, according to the 2024 tea station material, also spread to Mingjian.
• Wenshan Baozhong (文山包種茶, Wénshān bāozhǒng chá): A different region, northern Taiwan, and a different leaf type: it belongs to the strip-shaped light-aroma baozhongs (清香型條形包種茶, qīngxiāngxíng tiáoxíng bāozhǒng chá), while the leaf of Songbai Changqing Cha, according to the 1990 magazine, is curled. According to the 2012 publication, strip-shaped and semi-spherical baozhong are different types of Taiwanese tea, although both belong to oolongs in a broad sense.

In conclusion:

Songbai Changqing Cha is the name that, according to the 1990 magazine, was given in 1975 to all oolong of the Songbailing plateau in Mingjian Township, one of Taiwan’s main tea districts. Behind it stands not a cultivar and not an origin mark, but a place: the red soils of the plateau, four main cultivars, and a long history in which the tea of the area was called now “埔中茶”, now “松柏坑茶”.

The sources describe the area well and say almost nothing about the tea itself: the history of the name is known from magazine publications, and the only taste description, milk and narcissus in a golden-brown infusion, was made in 1990. For those who study Taiwanese oolongs, this tea is interesting as an example of a name given not to a cultivar and not to a separate farm, but to a whole area, and as a reason to distinguish on the package the place, the cultivar, and the brand.

Sources

Documents and publications

1. 十大績優農業產銷班介紹之4─南投縣名間鄉特用作物產銷班第10班
2. 國產與進口農產品分流管理 「茶產地證明標章」帶您喝臺灣好茶
3. Estimating Tea Plant Physiological Parameters Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery and Machine Learning Algorithms — Sensors (Basel) 25(7):1966 (2025); DOI 10.3390/s25071966; PMID 40218479; Zhuang Z.-H., Tsai H.-P., Chen C.-I. (National Chung Hsing University; National Pingtung University of Science and Technology); academic editor — Parra L.; CC BY
4. 我國產地標章註冊一覽表 — PDF
5. 台灣新興特色茶－紅烏龍介紹
6. 臺灣特色茶 (國產農漁畜產品教材) — 農業部茶及飲料作物改良場 (TRES), 2024.9 出版; PDF
7. 松柏
8. 柏
9. 柏
10. 台灣茶園之旅：松柏長青茶 — 撰文 周朝, 攝影 曾文田, 核閱 台灣省茶業改良場
11. 每年供應4000噸基底茶 松柏嶺四季春迎來第二春 — 遠見雜誌 (Global Views Monthly), 2018-10-29
12. 名間鄉 revid 94464342 (2026-09-20)
13. 劉裕猷

Full list — on the Sources page