Suìchāng lónggǔ chá (遂昌龙谷茶), “the Dragon Valley tea from Suichang”, is a flat green tea of the mountainous Suichang County (遂昌县) of Lishui prefecture-level city in the southwest of Zhejiang Province. “Lónggǔ” (龙谷) is the county brand of three teas: the straight green Longgu Liren (龙谷丽人), the flat green Longgu Cha and the red Longgu Hongcha (龙谷红茶); the geographical indication describes only the flat one. The name is linked with the playwright Tang Xianzu, who was head of the county for five years. Since 2020 it has been an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI), since 2025 a geographical indication product.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), flat. A caveat: the protection requirements do not name the class in words and contain no section on technology. The class is evident from the quality description in the same document — an emerald leaf, a tender-green liquor, tender-green spent leaves — and from the county’s text, where the flat Longgu Cha is directly called a flat green tea (扁形绿茶).
- Name trap: The “龙谷” brand is broader than the indication: the quality description in the protection requirements coincides word for word with the description of the flat line in the county’s text (2022), while the straight Longgu Liren and the red Longgu Hongcha do not fit it.
- Category: County famous tea; geographical indication (2020, 2025).
- Origin: China, Zhejiang Province (浙江, Zhèjiāng), Lishui prefecture-level city (丽水, Lìshuǐ), Suichang County (遂昌, Suìchāng).
- Protection zone: According to the protection requirements — 2 subdistricts, 7 towns and 11 townships, 203 administrative villages; the area is 18,000 ha.
- Geographic coordinates: The document gives 118°41′–119°30′ E and 27°13′–28°49′ N. For the honey of the same county (遂昌土蜂蜜), in the adjacent line of the announcement, the lower latitude limit is 28°13′, so the “27°13′” for the tea is probably a typo.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Antiquity. Reference descriptions write that under the Sui and Tang Suichang was among the 55 tea-producing counties of the country, and under the Northern Song the Suichang tea workshop (茶坊) was one of the forty largest in the country. The date of this record is given differently: some name the Yuanyou era (1086–1094), the county reference on the provincial government portal names the first year of Chongning (1102). The magazine Nongchanpin Shichang Zhoukan (2017) writes that under the Southern Song the tea was sent as tribute. Primary sources are not found in the materials consulted.
- Tang Xianzu. The playwright Tang Xianzu (汤显祖, Tāng Xiǎnzǔ), author of The Peony Pavilion (《牡丹亭》), was head of Suichang County for five years and wrote the poem 《竹屿烹茶》 about brewing tea. The sources give its last line differently: an essay on Zhongguo Zuojia Wang (2022) and the county’s text (2022) give “来试桃溪雨后茶”, “I try the tea from the Taoxi stream after the rains”, the 2017 magazine gives “来试遂昌龙谷茶”, with the name of the tea. The essay explains that Taoxi and Yujing Peak (玉井峰) are local place names, that the county head drank the local spring tea and that this well-known local tea is now called Longgu Cha; according to this version, the name “龙谷” is not in the poem. The county writes that the two characters “龙谷” have survived in Tang Xianzu’s own handwriting.
- 2001. According to county news (2020), from this year the county has been building its tea industry and the “龙谷” brand; since then the tea has received awards at competitions more than 50 times. According to a reference site, in the same year a tea performance with Kunqu opera, 《昆曲·龙谷丽人》, was staged.
- End of 2019. The application passed the fourth expert review of agricultural product geographical indications of 2019 in Beijing, at which 67 products were considered; for the county this is its fourth such product.
- 2020. Registration by ministry announcement No. 290 of April 30, 2020 — in the first batch of the year, 312 products nationwide; certificate AGI02863, the holder at registration was the county tea technology extension station (遂昌县茶叶技术推广站). On December 25, according to the reference site, the tea was included in the list of “famous, special, high-quality and new” agricultural products (全国名特优新农产品名录).
- 2024. According to a reply from the county agriculture bureau (December 2024), the brand value was assessed this year at 1.82 billion yuan.
- 2025. The China National Intellectual Property Administration, by announcement No. 640 (signed on July 16, published on August 13), recognized the name as a geographical indication product — line 481 in a list of 1409 products. The applicant was the county tea industry service center (遂昌县茶产业服务中心).
- February 24, 2026. The opening of the season, which the press called the county’s “first cup of green”.
- Name: “Suìchāng” (遂昌) is the name of the county; “lónggǔ” (龙谷) means “dragon valley”. The county’s text interprets it as “the valley of the divine dragon” (神龙谷), the best place in the Suichang mountains; “liren” (丽人, “beauty”) in the name of the straight line is a reference to Du Liniang.
- Cultural significance: According to the county’s text (2022), the flat Longgu Cha is the main tea of the county with a turnover of 500 million yuan a year, and it is said of it: “in the north — Xihu Longjing, in the south — Suichang Longgu” (北西湖龙井，南遂昌龙谷). The same text calls it a “tea of Chinese culture” (中华文化名茶) and the tasting tea of the first China International Tea Expo. According to the same text, the tea is among the ten nominated famous teas of Zhejiang (浙江十大提名名茶) and among the province’s ten famous tourism teas, was the official tea of all the Zhejiang green tea expos, is kept in the collection of the China National Tea Museum (中国茶叶博物馆), and the county calls the flat Longgu Cha the price benchmark for flat Longjing-type tea throughout the country.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties: According to the protection requirements — the local population (本地群体), varieties of the Longjing series (龙井系列), albino varieties of the white and yellow series (白化（黄化）系列), 嘉茗1号 (Jiāmíng 1 hào), 迎霜 (Yíngshuāng) and other approved medium- and small-leaf varieties. The albino varieties on the list do not make the tea white or yellow: this is raw material, not a class. On the first day of the 2026 season, according to a report, the variety 嘉茗1号 was being picked.
- Picking rules: “Combine picking with leaving leaves, balance quantity and quality, act according to the state of the garden” (采留结合、量质兼顾、因园制宜). The shoot is whole, fresh and even, without remnants of the shoot base (蒂头), fruits, old stalks and leaves, without foreign admixtures.
- Longgu Liren: According to the county’s text — picking from Qingming to Guyu, a bud with a just-opened leaf, the buds large and even.
- Care: According to the document — light pruning by 5–10 cm right after the spring picking, picking with leaves left on the bush in summer, picking stopped early in autumn.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The mountains of southwestern Zhejiang. The magazine (2017) describes the county with the saying “nine parts mountains, half water, half fields” (九山半水半分田): forest cover of 82.3%, little industry, the nickname — “the forest sea of southern Zhejiang, tea of clouds and mists”.
- Growing altitude: Protection requirements — 200–1100 m, on slopes and hills with a gradient of up to 25°, in a clean environment with a good microclimate. According to the magazine, 80% of the gardens lie at an altitude of 400–800 m.
- Scale: According to a reply from the county agriculture bureau (December 2024), the county’s tea gardens cover 140,100 mu, of which 133,500 are in production; the key base of the agricultural indication “遂昌龙谷茶” is 2458 mu; state-level organic tea certificates are held by 1900 mu of gardens, “green food” (绿色食品) certificates by 4557 mu. These are figures for all the county’s tea.
- Soils: Data on the soil type are not found in the sources consulted. The document sets the fertilization before planting: 2.5–4 t of manure or biogas digester residue, or 100 kg of oilseed cake per mu.
5. Production Technology
There is no section on technology in the protection requirements — this is a gap in the document itself. The county’s text (2022) says only that the flat Longgu Cha is made by the “Suichang flat tea processing technology” (遂昌扁茶加工工艺); its stages and parameters are not found in the sources consulted. A 2026 report describes an automated workshop where the raw material “loses its grassiness and becomes flat, slender, green and glossy”.
For the straight Longgu Liren, the county’s text names five operations: spreading (摊青, tānqīng), fixation (杀青, shāqīng), rubbing (搓揉, cuōróu), shaping (整形, zhěngxíng) and drying (烘干, hōnggān).
The red Longgu Hongcha is made in the county by the gongfu technology; it does not fit the quality description in the protection requirements.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description follows the protection requirements (flat tea).
- Dry leaf appearance: Flat, slender and even, emerald green with a sheen (外形扁平，挺削匀齐，色泽翠绿光润).
- Dry leaf aroma: A separate description is not found in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Chestnut, rich and lasting (栗香馥郁持久).
- Taste: Fresh and mellow (滋味鲜醇).
- Liquor color: Tender green, bright (嫩绿明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender green, opening into a “flower”, even and bright (叶底嫩绿成朵、匀齐明亮).
The document’s formula is “色翠、香郁、味鲜醇”: “emerald color, rich aroma, fresh mellow taste”; the ministry’s experts named the same formula in 2019.
Longgu Liren, according to the county’s text, looks different: rounded straight strands “like an eyebrow”, emerald, with noticeable down (条形浑直似眉，色泽翠绿显毫); the aroma is clean, delicate and lasting, the liquor tender green and clear, the taste sweet, mellow and refreshing, the spent leaves fine, tender and bright; in a glass the buds stand vertically — “like a dancing beauty”. The same text calls it a “green food” (绿色食品) product with international gold awards. The 2017 magazine describes under the name “龙谷茶” precisely such a straight tea, not the flat one.
The red Longgu Hongcha, according to the same text, has tight curved strands, dark with a sheen, with golden down; the liquor is golden red, bright; the aroma is sweet, with a note of malt sugar (饴糖香); the taste is sweet and brisk; the spent leaves are red, bright, with buds. It does not fit the protection requirements.
7. Chemical Composition
The physical and chemical protection requirements:
| Indicator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Moisture | not more than 7.0% |
| Amino acids | not less than 2.5% |
| Tea polyphenols | not less than 15% |
| Water extract | not less than 36% |
| Dust and broken leaf | not more than 1.0% |
No other data on the composition are found in the sources consulted.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea; recommendations specifically for this tea are not found in the sources consulted.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A glass tumbler; for Longgu Liren it must be transparent, otherwise you cannot see the buds stand up.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
- First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
- Drink, leaving a third of the liquor.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three further 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
According to a report at the start of the 2026 season, a jin of fresh leaf of the 嘉茗1号 variety cost more than 100 yuan, and high-quality Longgu Cha, according to the head of a family farm, sells for up to 800 yuan per jin.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication product mark: according to the document, a producer from the county applies to the county intellectual property authority, the provincial authority checks the application, the national one approves it.
- Remember that the indication describes only the flat green tea.
- Check the appearance: a flat emerald leaf with a sheen, a chestnut aroma, a tender-green liquor.
11. Interesting Facts
- The county’s text claims that “Lónggǔ” tea accompanied Tang Xianzu in his work on The Peony Pavilion, and that the name of the straight line, “beauty”, is a reference to its heroine.
- The moisture allowance is up to 7.0%, softer than for the neighboring Qingtian Yucha and Wenzhou Zaocha (up to 6.5%), and no more than 1.0% of dust and broken leaf is allowed.
- The protection requirements have no section on processing, although the neighboring teas of the same announcement have one.
12. Comparison with Other Flat and Lishui Teas
- Xihu Longjing (西湖龙井): The model of flat tea with which the county itself compares its tea: “in the north — Longjing, in the south — Longgu”; varieties of the Longjing series are also on the Longgu Cha list.
- Qingtian Yucha (青田御茶): A flat green tea of the same Lishui prefecture, recognized by the same announcement; also with a chestnut aroma, but with a detailed technology in the document.
- Songyang Yinhou (松阳银猴): A green tea of Songyang County in the same prefecture — curled like a hook and downy, unlike the flat Longgu Cha.
- Wuniu Zao (乌牛早): The ultra-early variety 嘉茗1号, with which Suichang opened the 2026 season.
In Conclusion:
Suìchāng lónggǔ chá is a flat green tea of a mountainous county with an emerald leaf, a chestnut aroma and a fresh, mellow taste; the protection document describes its appearance but is silent about the technology. The “龙谷” brand is broader than the indication — it covers both the straight Longgu Liren and a red tea — and the name rests on the lines of Tang Xianzu.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page