Sōngxī hóngchá

Sōngxī hóngchá (松溪红茶) is a red tea of Songxi County (松溪县) in Nanping prefecture-level city in the north of Fujian Province. The name is protected by geographical indication mark No. 10034709; according to reference data, the zone is the entire territory of the county. The reference description depicts fine, tight strands with golden down, a red liquor with a yellowish tinge and a “golden ring” at the edge, and a sweet aroma with a barely perceptible floral note. The name is included in the second list of the agreement between China and the European Union on geographical indications.

1. Classification and Origin

• Type: Red tea (红茶, hóngchá), fully fermented. The class is stated in the name of the mark itself — “松溪红茶 SONGXI BLACK TEA”. According to the newspaper Minbei Ribao (2012), the local “Jinmaohou” (金毛猴, jīnmáohóu) is one of the early kinds of gongfu red tea (工夫红茶, gōngfu hóngchá).
• Category: Fujian red tea with a geographical indication mark.
• Origin: China, Fujian Province (福建, Fújiàn), Nanping prefecture-level city (南平, Nánpíng), Songxi County (松溪县, Sōngxī xiàn).
• Zone: According to the geographical indications reference site — the entire territory of the county, nine townships and towns, among them Songyuan (松源镇), Weitian (渭田镇) and Zhengdun (郑墩镇). I have not checked this boundary against the mark document.
• Protection regime: Geographical indication certification mark or collective mark of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) No. 10034709; goods — tea. In the provincial list as of June 30, 2026, the registration is shown as in force. The mark holder is not named in the sources consulted.
• Geographic coordinates: Songxi County — about 27.5° N and 118.8° E.

2. History and Cultural Significance

• History:
  • 1920s — “Jīnmáohóu”. According to Minbei Ribao, when Sino-Russian trade resumed and the tea route from Chishi (赤石) to Kyakhta opened, Songxi, following the model of the popular white tea “Baimaohou” (白毛猴, “white monkey”), began to select the best gōngfu hóngchá with an abundance of golden tips and to produce it under the name “Jīnmáohóu” — “golden monkey”. An earlier date for red tea in Songxi is not found in the sources consulted.
  • 1934 and 1960–1975. According to the same newspaper, in 1934 “Jīnmáohóu” and “Baimaohou” were the most expensive of all the county’s teas, and in 1960–1975 “Jīnmáohóu” was the main export kind of gōngfu hóngchá.
  • 1980s — “top county”. According to the newspaper Fujian Ribao (2023), the yield and quality of Songxi tea rose to among the best in the province, and the county was nicknamed “茶叶状元县” (cháyè zhuàngyuán xiàn) — “the top county for tea”. This refers to the county’s tea in general, not to red tea.
  • 1998. According to Minbei Ribao, “Jīnmáohóu” was awarded the title “international advanced level” (国际先进水平) at a tea exhibition in Hangzhou.
  • 2010. A gold award at the World Expo in Shanghai. The geographical indications reference site names “松溪红茶” as the award winner, while Minbei Ribao names “Jīnmáohóu”.
  • The mark. The sources consulted do not give the registration date of mark No. 10034709.
  • 2020. According to the text of the agreement between China and the European Union on geographical indications, signed on September 14, 2020, the name is in Annex V — among 175 Chinese names whose protection was promised to begin within four years of the agreement’s entry into force. According to a 2022 snapshot of the register, protection in the European Union was still pending; I have not established the current status. The county’s green tea, 松溪绿茶, is on the first list — in Annex III.
• Name: “Songxi” (松溪) is the name of the county: 松 means “pine”, 溪 means “stream”. “Hóngchá” (红茶) means “red tea”. In the English part of the mark it is “black”, as red tea is called in the West.
• Cultural significance: The county has three marks for tea of three classes: the red Sōngxī hóngchá, the green 松溪绿茶 and the white 松溪九龙大白茶. According to a publication on the provincial government website (2025), white tea from the 九龙大白茶 variety has been the county’s common brand since 2013.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Variety / Cultivar: The sources consulted do not name varieties for the red tea. Minbei Ribao traces “Jīnmáohóu” back to ancient local bushes (古代原生茶树品种) without naming a variety. The county’s main variety is 九龙大白茶 (jiǔlóng dàbáichá), according to a 2025 publication more than 20,000 mu; whether it goes into red tea, the sources do not say.
• Raw material: Requirements for the fresh leaf are not found in the sources consulted. The reference description of the appearance mentions conspicuous shoot tips (苗锋显) and buds in the spent leaves.
• Harvest standard and timing: No data in the sources consulted.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Region: The north of Fujian Province, Songxi County of Nanping prefecture-level city.
• County garden area: According to Fujian Ribao, as of 2023 — 80,000 mu; output of raw tea (毛茶, máochá) in 2022 — 12,500 t. These are data for tea of all classes.
• Altitude, climate, soils: No data in the sources consulted.

5. Production Technology

A document with technology requirements and parameters is not found in the sources consulted. According to Minbei Ribao, “Jīnmáohóu” was selected from finished gōngfu hóngchá with an abundance of golden tips; in 1997 an enterprise standard was introduced for it, but the newspaper does not give its requirements.

Below is the general scheme of gongfu red tea, not a description of the technology of this tea:

1. Withering (萎凋, wěidiāo).
2. Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn).
3. Fermentation (发酵, fājiào): Oxidation turns the leaf copper-red.
4. Drying (干燥, gānzào).
5. Refining (精制, jīngzhì): Sorting by shape and size.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Below is the description from the geographical indications reference site. It has not been checked against the mark document.

• Dry leaf appearance: The strands are tight and fine, slightly curved, the tips conspicuous; the color is black and lustrous, with much golden down, the tips golden-yellow (条索紧细略带弯曲，苗锋显，色泽乌润多显金色茸毫).
• Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
• Liquor aroma: Long, a sweet “aroma of tender leaf”, rich, with a barely perceptible note of 紫罗兰 (香气悠长……嫩甜香，浓郁芳香、隐约间带紫罗兰香气). In botany 紫罗兰 is stock; in tea texts the word is usually translated as violet.
• Taste: Fresh and mellow, sweet, with a sweet returning aftertaste (滋味鲜醇、甜和回甘).
• Liquor color: Red, bright, with a yellowish tinge, with a distinct “golden ring” at the edge (汤色红艳透黄、明亮显金圈).
• Spent leaves (wet leaves): Soft, with visible buds, the color of red copper (叶底柔软见芽，呈紫铜色).

7. Chemical Composition

Physicochemical data are not found in the sources consulted.

8. Brewing

Class practice for red tea.

• Water temperature: 90–95 °C.
• Tea amount: 3–4 g per 150 ml.
• Teaware: A white porcelain gaiwan — it shows the color of the liquor and the “golden ring”.
• Process:
  1. Warm the teaware.
  2. Add the tea.
  3. First infusion — 10–20 seconds; pour off completely.
  4. Each subsequent one slightly longer; four to six infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice. In airtight packaging, at room temperature, in a dry, dark place, away from foreign odors. The sweet aroma weakens over time.

10. Price and Counterfeits

Price data are not found in the sources consulted. The geographical indications reference site, without naming a year, writes of about 180 enterprises in the county making red tea, output of more than 3000 t a year and sales of almost 150 million yuan.

• How to avoid counterfeits:
  • Look for geographical indication mark No. 10034709 and a producer from Songxi County.
  • Do not confuse it with the county’s white and green tea: they have their own marks.
  • Compare the appearance with the description in section 6.

11. Interesting Facts

• One county has three protected teas of three classes.
• The name “golden monkey”, according to Minbei Ribao, is a reference to the white tea “Baimaohou”, the “white monkey”. Several teas share the name: in our corpus it is the name of a Hunan red tea, and a corpus article links the Fujian “golden monkey” with Zhenghe Gongfu.
• In 2012 a private individual tried to register the mark “金毛猴”; the county, according to the same newspaper, contested the application and filed its own — for the collective mark “金毛猴红茶”. How the dispute ended is not found in the sources consulted.

12. Comparison with Other Red Teas

• Zhenghe Gongfu (政和工夫): The gōngfu hóngchá of Zhenghe County in the same Nanping prefecture-level city, one of the three great gongfu teas of Fujian; its aroma is also described as violet-like.
• Tanyang Gongfu (坦洋工夫): A gōngfu hóngchá from Fu’an, another of the “three great”.
• Zhengshan Xiaozhong (正山小种): A red tea from Tongmu in Wuyishan, in the same Nanping prefecture-level city.
• Jin Mao Hou Hongcha (金毛猴红茶): A Hunan red tea from Zhangjiajie; it shares only its name with the Songxi “Jīnmáohóu”.
• Songxi Jiulong Dabaicha (松溪九龙大白茶): A white tea of the same county with its own mark.

In Conclusion:

Sōngxī hóngchá is a red tea of northern Fujian with mark No. 10034709 covering the entire territory of the county and a place on the second list of the agreement between China and the European Union. Its historical identity is “Jīnmáohóu”, a gōngfu hóngchá with golden tips, which the local newspaper traces back to the 1920s. The reference description: fine strands with golden down, a red liquor with a “golden ring”, a sweet aroma with a floral note. The sources do not disclose the varieties, technology or chemistry of the tea.

Sources

Geographical indication

• 中欧协定附录V (中国注册)

Full list — on the Sources page