Suíníng qīngqiánliǔ chá

Suíníng qīngqiánliǔ chá (绥宁青钱柳茶) is a “tea” from the young leaves of cyclocarya, the tree 青钱柳 (Cyclocarya paliurus) of the walnut family, from Suining County (绥宁县) of Shaoyang prefecture-level city in the southwest of Hunan Province. There is no tea bush Camellia sinensis in it: the word “chá” here means a way of brewing, not botanical kinship. The leaf is processed by a scheme similar to that of tea — with fixation, rolling and drying — and the finished product, according to the requirements for it, is brown, with a golden liquor and a sweet taste. Since 2016 it has been a geographical indication product.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Not tea in the botanical sense and none of the six classes of Chinese tea. The requirements for the protected product name only 青钱柳 (Cyclocarya paliurus) as the raw material.
Category: An infusion not from the tea plant; a geographical indication product (2016).
Origin: China, Hunan Province (湖南, Húnán), Shaoyang prefecture-level city (邵阳, Shàoyáng), Suining County (绥宁, Suíníng).
Protection zone: The product requirements, as retold by reference publications, list 25 townships and towns of the county, including Huangsangping Miao Township (黄桑坪苗族乡), Zhaishi Miao and Dong Township (寨市苗族侗族乡), Le’anpu Miao and Dong Township (乐安铺苗族侗族乡) and Hongyan Town (红岩镇). The 2017 county regulation, citing the same 2016 announcement, names 17 townships and towns within the county’s current administrative boundaries as the zone. What explains the difference in the count is not stated in the sources consulted.
Other names: Popularly the tree is called the “money tree” (摇钱树, yáoqiánshù).

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Legends. A local publication citing Suining Minzu Zhi (绥宁民族志) writes that the Miao of the county have brewed the young leaves of cyclocarya for more than five hundred years, and that Li Tianbao (李天保; the spelling 李天宝 also occurs), leader of a Miao uprising under the Ming, supposedly declared the “money tree” a “sacred tree that guards the country”. Another legend tells how in the 1930s local residents treated passing Red Army soldiers to this drink. These are local stories, not verified documents.
- 2014–2015. According to Red Net, from 2014 Suining and the neighboring Chengbu Miao Autonomous County (城步) independently prepared applications for the geographical indication “青钱柳茶”. On July 1, 2015, the Shaoyang municipal bureau of technical supervision reported that both had passed the preliminary review at the provincial bureau. The head of a division of the municipal bureau explained that because of the different climate the products of the two counties differ in composition and taste.
- 2016. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (质检总局), by announcement No. 63 of 2016, took “绥宁青钱柳茶” under protection as a geographical indication product; reference publications date the decision to July 4, 2016.
- 2017. The county government approved a regulation on the protection of the product and the procedure for using the special mark (a document dated January 17, 2017).
- 2023. The Hunan Administration for Market Regulation issued the local standard DB43/T 2873-2023 “地理标志产品绥宁青钱柳茶”: published on December 20, 2023, in force since March 20, 2024.
Name: “Suíníng” (绥宁) is the name of the county; “qīngqiánliǔ” (青钱柳) literally means “green money willow”, the Chinese name of cyclocarya; “chá” (茶) is tea in the broad sense.
Cultural significance: According to a reference publication on 2016–2017, the county had more than 20,000 mu of cyclocarya plantations and 14 cooperatives, the annual output value exceeded 100 million yuan, and the product was exported to Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Russia.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Plant: 青钱柳 (qīngqiánliǔ, Cyclocarya paliurus) is a tree of the walnut family (胡桃科), endemic to China. The Hunan association of medicinal raw materials calls it a relic of the Ice Age and a tree of the second category of state protection; a local newspaper, as retold, counts it among the species of provincial significance in the Huangsang (黄桑) nature reserve. This discrepancy has not been checked against the list of protected plants.
Variety: The product requirements do not name varieties or clones.
Harvest standard: Shoots from “a bud and one leaf” to “a bud and four leaves”.
Harvest time: From the end of March to mid-April — according to the product requirements.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: A mountainous county in the southwest of Hunan, with the Huangsang nature reserve within its boundaries.
Growing altitude: Product requirements — not lower than 500 m above sea level. The association of medicinal raw materials writes of mountains above 800 m, a reference publication of a range of 500–2500 m for the county’s cyclocarya.
Climate: According to the association’s description — warm and humid, rainy, with a large daily temperature range; during the spring picking there is fog almost every day, and there are more than a hundred foggy days a year.
Soils: According to the requirements — clayey, at least 85 cm thick, pH 4.5–6.7, organic matter not less than 1.5%.
Cultivation practices: Not more than 1400 trees per hectare; organic fertilizer — not less than 1.5 kg per tree a year during the growing period and not less than 9 kg after picking begins.

5. Production Technology

The requirements for the protected product, as retold by reference publications, set the following chain:

Washing (清洗, qīngxǐ) and airing of the leaf (晾青, liàngqīng).
Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): 120–130 °C, until the leaf becomes soft and moist, dark green, and can be squeezed into a loose lump.
Cooling (冷却, lěngquè): In a layer no thicker than 6 cm.
Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn).
Pan-drying (炒干, chǎogān): 80–90 °C, to a dryness of 80–85%.
Aroma firing (提香, tíxiāng): 80–90 °C, to a dryness of 95%.
Sorting (挑选, tiāoxuǎn) and packaging.

Other publications describe the chain more briefly: selection, cleaning, spreading of the leaf, fixation, rolling with cutting (揉切, róuqiē) and drying.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The description below is taken from the requirements for the protected product.

Dry leaf appearance: Long strips or granules, tawny brown in color (棕褐色).
Dry leaf aroma: No separate description.
Liquor aroma: Clean, fresh (清香).
Taste: Sweet (甘甜).
Liquor color: Golden yellow (金黄).
Spent leaves (wet leaves): The requirements have no description; the association of medicinal raw materials calls them bright (叶底明亮).

The same association writes differently in its promotional part: the leaf is “肥壮” — fleshy, the liquor “嫩黄” — tender yellow, the taste “鲜爽回甘” — fresh, with a sweet return. This description differs from the product requirements in the color of the liquor.

7. Chemical Composition

The physical and chemical requirements for the protected product:

Indicator	Requirement
Total cyclocarya flavonoids	not less than 2.0 g per 100 g
Total cyclocarya saponins	not less than 2.8%

Scientific reviews name polysaccharides, flavonoids and triterpenoids as the main groups of substances in the cyclocarya leaf. Caffeine measurements for this product are not found in the sources consulted.

8. Health Properties

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular product. Promotional texts attribute to the drink the lowering of blood sugar, lipids and blood pressure; scientific reviews mention such effects of the cyclocarya leaf as a direction of research, not as a proven effect of the product. This is not a medical recommendation.

9. Brewing

Class practice. Brewing regimes for Suíníng qīngqiánliǔ chá are not found in the sources consulted; below are the usual parameters of herbal infusions from rolled leaf.

Water temperature: 90–100 °C.
Amount: 2–3 g per 150–200 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler, a gaiwan or a porcelain teapot.
Process: Warm the teaware, pour water over the leaf, first infusion — 2–3 minutes, then several infusions with increasing time.

10. Storage

Class practice. In tight packaging, in a dry dark place, away from odors and moisture.

11. Price and Counterfeits

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special mark of a geographical indication product. The 2017 county regulation requires that the product and its labeling comply with the local standard or the applicable enterprise standard, and that the producer keep production, inspection and sales records; the right to the mark is revoked if the mark is not used for two years or violations are not corrected.
- In the China National Intellectual Property Administration’s list of 941 enterprises admitted to the special mark, the company 湖南青钱宝科技有限公司 is listed for “绥宁青钱柳茶”.
- Do not confuse it with cyclocarya drinks from other places: the same list has a separate protected product, “恩施青钱柳” from Hubei Province, and neighboring Chengbu also prepared its own application.

12. Interesting Facts

The Chinese name of the tree is “green money willow”, the popular one is “money tree”.
The picking lasts only three to four weeks — from the end of March to mid-April.
The neighboring Suining and Chengbu filed applications for the same name “青钱柳茶” at the same time, and an official of the Shaoyang municipal bureau explained the difference between the products by the different climate.

13. Comparison with Other Infusions Not from the Tea Bush

Xupu Yaocha (溆浦瑶茶): Also a protected Hunan infusion from the leaves of a tree, but of the beech family; a dark green rolled leaf and a light yellow liquor.
Laifeng Tengcha (来凤藤茶): A protected infusion from a vine of the grape family from Hubei, with a gray-white coating on the leaf and a yellow-green liquor.
Dayaoshan Tiancha (大瑶山甜茶): The “sweet tea” of the Dayaoshan mountains in Guangxi, also a geographical indication product.
Chengbu Dongcha (城步峒茶): For contrast — a real tea of the neighboring Chengbu County.

In Conclusion:

Suíníng qīngqiánliǔ chá is an infusion from the young leaves of cyclocarya from the mountains of southwestern Hunan, protected since 2016: a short spring picking, fixation and drying by a scheme similar to that of tea, a brown leaf, a golden liquor and a sweet taste. The requirements for it measure quality by the flavonoids and saponins of cyclocarya, not by tea substances: it is “tea” in the popular sense of the word, not in the botanical one.

Sources

Standards

DB43/T 2873-2023

Full list — on the Sources page