---
title: "Táojiāng lǜchá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/taojiang-lucha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Táojiāng lǜchá (桃江绿茶)

*Táojiāng lǜchá* (桃江绿茶) is “Taojiang green tea”, the public brand and geographical indication certification mark of Taojiang County (桃江县) of Yiyang prefecture-level city in Hunan Province. The county lies in the center of the province, closer to its north, on the middle and lower reaches of the Zijiang River (资江), where the spurs of the Xuefengshan mountains give way to the hills around Dongting Lake. It is called the “home of tea” (茶叶之乡) and the “home of bamboo”: by area of bamboo groves Taojiang is first in Hunan. The mark protects the name, but a description of the tea itself is not found in the sources consulted — neither varieties, nor technology, nor the appearance of the leaf. A flat green tea of the same county, Taojiang Zhuye, is protected under a separate regime and described in its own article.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Green tea (绿茶, *lǜchá*) — the class is stated in the name of the mark. Which green tea exactly is sold under this name is not stated in the sources consulted.
* **Category:** County public brand and geographical indication certification mark (地理标志证明商标); it is on the Hunan provincial government's list of geographical indications.
* **Origin:** China, Hunan Province (湖南, *Húnán*), Yiyang prefecture-level city (益阳, *Yìyáng*), Taojiang County (桃江, *Táojiāng*).
* **Zone of the mark:** The boundaries of the zone are not found in the sources consulted. The register on which this article relies links the holder of the mark to Taojiang County; this is the administrative affiliation of the holder, not the legal boundary of the zone.
* **Holder, number and year of registration:** No data in the sources consulted.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:** I have not found documents on how the mark itself came about; below is the history of the county's tea according to publications.
    * **The old tea road.** According to a 2018 article in *Hunan Ribao*, the county lay on the Great Tea Road (万里茶道), and the old town of Majitang (马迹塘) alone had more than ten tea transshipment points.
    * **1970s.** According to the same article, the county then made mainly green and red tea and raw dark tea (黑毛茶, *hēimáochá*). In 1972 the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce held in Taojiang a national meeting to exchange experience in tea production and procurement; the article says that it was entered in the chronology of the 1995 *Dictionary of Chinese Tea Science* (《中国茶学辞典》).
    * **1980s.** Green tea was developed in almost every township. In 1984, according to the article, the county produced 156,000 dan (担) of tea — about 7,800 t, if a dan is counted as 50 kg — and became fourth among the eight largest tea counties in the country. Among the well-known products of that time the article names Xuefengshan Maojian (雪峰山[毛尖](https://thetea.app/article/mao-jian)).
    * **1990s.** Decline: market restructuring, the departure of labor to the cities, abandoned gardens.
    * **2007.** According to the county agriculture bureau in a 2025 *Hunan Ribao* publication, the provincial government included Taojiang among the counties with an advantage in tea growing and the counties prioritized for tea development.
    * **2013.** The county adopted a decision on accelerating the development of the tea industry and set a subsidy of 2,000 yuan per mu for new gardens of clonal varieties covering 300 or more contiguous mu.
    * **The mark.** In the provincial reference *Hunan in Brief* (湖南简况), published in December 2020, “桃江绿茶” is listed among 229 collective and certification marks with a geographical indication, and in the 2024 edition among 250. The Yiyang prefecture government, in its description of the county (with data as of the end of 2022), calls it a Chinese geographical indication certification mark.
    * **Three public brands.** The 2018 article lists three public brands of the county: “[安化黑茶](https://thetea.app/article/anhua-heicha)”, “桃江绿茶” and “湖湘浩茗”.
* **Name:** The county is named after the Taohuajiang River ([桃花](https://thetea.app/article/taohua)江, *Táohuājiāng*) — the “River of Peach Blossom”; *Táojiāng* (桃江) means “Peach River”. The word *lǜchá* (绿茶) means “green tea”.
* **Cultural significance:** According to the *Taojiang County Gazetteer* (《桃江县志》) as retold in the same article, the county has the custom of the “five teas” (五道茶, *wǔdào chá*): boiled tea (煎茶, *jiānchá*), steeped tea (泡茶, *pàochá*), pounded tea (擂茶, *léichá*), tea with egg (蛋茶, *dànchá*) and tea with flour (面茶, *miànchá*). A guest is first served the boiled tea, then the steeped tea or *léichá*; an honored guest also gets the egg or the flour tea. The article calls Taojiang the home of *léichá*.

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

* **Varieties / Cultivars:** No data for the mark. According to the 2018 article, the county's new gardens are planted with improved clonal varieties (无性系良种); the article gives no names.
* **Harvest standard:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Harvest time:** No data in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** According to the description of the county on the website of the Yiyang prefecture government, Taojiang covers 2068 km²; the Zijiang River runs 102 km through the county and collects seven tributaries; forest cover is 64.15%. Bamboo groves cover 1.15 million mu: third place in the country and first in Hunan.
* **Topography:** According to the 2018 article — a belt of hills where the spurs of the Xuefengshan descend to Dongting Lake: hills surround the county, ridges alternate with valleys. The county has the Xuefengshan tea farm (雪峰山茶场); the 2025 article mentions its title of “the most beautiful tea garden in the country” and a century-old garden on Fuqiu Mountain (浮邱山).
* **Altitude:** According to the 2018 article, 90% of the new garden bases are laid out in valleys at an altitude of 200–800 m.
* **Garden area:** According to the 2018 article, by 2017 the county had 80,040 mu of gardens, of which 65,500 mu were ready for picking. According to the 2025 article — more than 80,000 mu and about 70,000 t of fresh leaf a year. These are data for the county's entire tea industry, not only for products under the mark.
* **Climate and soils:** No data in the sources consulted.

**5. Production Technology:**

A technology attached to the mark is not found in the sources consulted. The 2018 article calls the county one of the country's main bases for refining and wholesale trade of green tea, and the 2025 article a place where more than 50,000 t of export green tea, *zhēnméi* (珍眉), are processed a year. Whether it is sold under the “桃江绿茶” mark the sources do not say.

The general scheme for green tea, not a description of this tea:

1.  **Spreading of the fresh leaf (摊放, *tānfàng*).**
2.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*):** Heat stops oxidation.
3.  **Rolling or shaping (揉捻, *róuniǎn*).**
4.  **Drying (干燥, *gānzào*).**

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

Requirements for the appearance of tea under the mark are not found in the sources consulted.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Taste:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor color:** No data in the sources consulted.
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** No data in the sources consulted.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

Physicochemical data are not found in the sources consulted.

**8. Health Properties:**

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

**9. Brewing:**

Class practice for green tea: water at 80–85 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, a glass tumbler or a white gaiwan. Pour the water down the side; first infusion — after 40–60 seconds; drink, leaving part of the liquor, and top up; it withstands two or three further infusions.

**10. Storage:**

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

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the “桃江绿茶” geographical indication certification mark on the packaging.
    * Check that the producer is from Taojiang County.
    * Do not confuse it with the “[桃江竹叶](https://thetea.app/article/taojiang-zhuye)” mark: this is a separate registration for a separate product.
    * Remember that the county also makes dark tea: six of its towns and townships, according to the 2025 article, are in the origin zone of Anhua Hei Cha, and such tea is sold under a different brand.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* The county has two protected names for green tea: the “桃江绿茶” certification mark and “桃江[竹叶](https://thetea.app/article/zhuye)”, which the Yiyang prefecture government calls an agricultural product with a geographical indication and lists with the note “green tea”. How these names relate to each other is not stated in the sources.
* The 2018 article says that in the 1980s the fame of Taojiang tea ran ahead of that of Anhua tea.
* According to the county agriculture bureau, as cited in the 2025 article, Taojiang is one of the fifteen main tea counties of Hunan.

**13. Comparison with Neighboring Hunan Teas:**

* **Taojiang Zhuye (桃江竹叶):** A flat green tea of the same county, with separate protection and with varieties and technology set out in its document; the “桃江绿茶” mark has no such description.
* **Anhua Song Zhen ([安化松针](https://thetea.app/article/anhua-song-zhen)):** A green tea of neighboring Anhua County in the same Yiyang prefecture, in the shape of a “pine needle”.
* **Anhua Hei Cha (安化黑茶):** A dark tea whose zone also includes townships of Taojiang.
* **Changsha Lücha ([长沙绿茶](https://thetea.app/article/changsha-lucha)):** The green tea of Changsha prefecture-level city — also a common name for the green tea of a whole territory, but with a protection document that describes its appearance.

**In Conclusion:**

*Táojiāng lǜchá* is a name, not a recipe: a certification mark for the green tea of a county that in the 1980s was fourth in the country by volume of tea and today holds more than 80,000 mu of gardens and processes export green tea. Documents describing the leaf, varieties and technology under this mark could not be found, so for the specific appearance of Taojiang green tea one should turn to Taojiang Zhuye and to producers' protocols.