Táoyuán dàyè chá

Táoyuán dàyè chá (桃源大叶茶) is “the large-leaf tea of Taoyuan”: the name of a local tea bush variety and of the tea made from it in Taoyuan County (桃源县) of Changde prefecture-level city in the northwest of Hunan Province. The variety began from a single wild bush found in 1969 in the mountains of Taipingpu Township; after more than twenty years of selection and propagation it became the provincial variety “桃源大叶”. Green teas are made under this name — a bud tea, a maojian and a leaf tea — and the variety itself also goes into both red and dark tea. So the name designates not a class but a variety and a place. Since the late 2000s it has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Not a single class. Reference descriptions divide the products into three lines — 桃源大叶芽茶 (bud tea), 桃源大叶毛尖 (maojian) and 桃源大叶绿茶 (green tea); the mark was granted for the goods “茶叶” — “tea” without specifying a class. The variety is used both for red tea and as raw material for dark tea.
Category: Tea of a local large-leaf variety; geographical indication certification mark.
Origin: China, Hunan Province (湖南, Húnán), Changde prefecture-level city (常德, Chángdé), Taoyuan County (桃源县, Táoyuán Xiàn). The home of the variety is Taipingpu Township (太平铺乡).
Zone: The administrative address of the mark’s holder is given; I have not checked the legal boundary of the production zone.
Protection regime: Geographical indication certification mark No. 6230496, goods — 茶叶; holder — the Taoyuan County Tea Industry Association (桃源县茶叶产业协会). The mark is on the list of registered geographical indications of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and on the Hunan government’s 2024 list of geographical indications.
Geographic coordinates: Taoyuan County — about 28.9° N and 111.5° E.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- The ancient tea of Wuling. Local materials quote a line from the Records of the Lands of Jingzhou (荆州土地记) of the Western Jin era: “tea grows in all seven counties of Wuling, and it is the best”; Taoyuan is counted among these seven counties.
- 1969 — the find. In the mountains of Taipingpu Township, near the place called Lujiachong (陆家冲), a wild large-leaf bush was found. Local texts call it a thousand years old; the age is not confirmed by anything.
- 1970s–1980s — selection. The bush was selected and propagated. One reference dates the breeding work to 1976–1992 and names the county tea variety station and the tea institute of Hunan Agricultural University as those who carried it out.
- 1989. The variety passed a provincial scientific evaluation.
- 1992. The provincial commission for crop varieties approved the variety under the name “桃源大叶”.
- 2005. The provincial standard DB43/272-2005 “桃源大叶茶” was issued.
- Late 2000s. Mark No. 6230496 appears on the list of registered geographical indications for 2009.
Name:
- Táoyuán (桃源), “the source of peaches”, is the name of the county; it alludes to Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring.
- The word dàyè (大叶) means “large leaf”, after the main feature of the variety.
- The word chá (茶) means “tea”.
Cultural significance: For Taoyuan this is a variety that grew from a single bush into an industry of the county, and at the same time the name of a tea. Local texts repeat a laudatory formula about it — “in shape it rivals longjing, in aroma it surpasses biluochun, in taste it vies with maofeng” (形赛龙井，香高碧螺，味斗毛峰) — this is praise, not a description.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety: 桃源大叶 (Táoyuán dàyè) — a local large-leaf variety selected from a single wild bush.
Bush: According to reference descriptions — with a semi-spreading crown; the branches are thick and rather sparse.
Leaf: Large, soft, elliptical. The sources disagree about its color: some call the leaf dark green, another yellow-green and glossy.
Shoots: Thick; the bud is large and downy. One reference describes the shoot as green with a purplish-red tinge and gives the weight of a hundred “bud and three leaves” shoots — 103.0 g.
Timing: The spring buds break, according to the same reference, in mid-March.
Properties: The yield is described differently: the reference on the variety calls it medium, local texts call it high. Resistance to cold and drought is good.
Harvest standard: Not given for the three lines in the sources consulted.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: The mountains of Taoyuan County, where, according to local descriptions, the Xuefengshan (雪峰山) and Wulingshan (武陵山) ranges meet. Local texts call the town of Cha’anpu (茶庵铺), deep in the Wuyunjie (乌云界) massif, the tea center; the small river Yiwangxi (夷望溪) flows through the town.
Climate: According to a local description — humid monsoon, transitional from the middle subtropics to the northern subtropics; mild, with abundant water.
Growing altitude: No data in the sources consulted.
Soils: In local descriptions — loose and fertile; the exact type is not found in the sources consulted.
Spread of the variety: A local text says that the variety grows in fifteen counties and cities of three provinces south of the Yangtze. Garden areas under the variety in Taoyuan itself are not given with attribution in the sources consulted.

5. Production Technology

A separate technology for each of the three lines — bud tea, maojian and leaf green tea — is not found in the sources consulted. Below is the general class scheme for green tea, not a description of the technology of Táoyuán dàyè chá.

Picking (采摘 — cǎizhāi): Young buds and leaves; for bud tea — buds only.
Withering (摊放 — tānfàng): The leaf is spread in a thin layer so that it loses part of its moisture.
Fixation (杀青 — shāqīng): Heat stops oxidation.
Rolling (揉捻 — róuniǎn): For maojian — into thin strands.
Drying (干燥 — gānzào).

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Descriptions of the appearance of each of the three lines are not found in the sources consulted. The reference on the variety gives a short assessment of green tea made from it — “clean aroma, rich and brisk taste” (香气清纯、滋味浓爽); it calls broken red tea from the variety especially successful.

Dry leaf appearance: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: For green tea from the variety — clean (清纯).
Taste: For green tea from the variety — rich and brisk (浓爽). Local texts stress that the tea withstands many infusions.
Liquor color: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions in the sources consulted.

7. Chemical Composition

The figures in the sources consulted diverge, so I give them with an indication of where they come from.

Indicator	Data	Source
Extractive substances	44.18%	average for steamed samples of spring, summer and autumn, 1987–1989
Polyphenols	31.69%	1991 measurement
Extractive substances	up to 49%	local text without indication of method
Polyphenols	34%	the same local text
Amino acids	4.69%	the same local text

The first two rows are given in a publication of the Hunan statistics bureau on the variety. These are data on the raw material of the variety, not indicators of finished tea under a standard. The sources agree on one thing: the variety is rich in extractive substances and polyphenols.

8. Brewing

Class practice for green tea — all three lines of the mark belong to it.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C; for bud tea — closer to 80 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
Process:
1. Warm the teaware.
2. Add the tea and pour the water down the side.
3. First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
4. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
5. Top up with water.
6. Three or four further infusions; the sources note that tea from this variety withstands many infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice for green tea. 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

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for geographical indication certification mark No. 6230496 on the packaging.
- Check that the producer is from Taoyuan County.
- Remember that the variety name does not guarantee origin: the variety is grown far beyond the county, while the mark covers only tea from Taoyuan.
- Check which of the three lines is in the pack — bud tea, maojian or leaf green tea.

11. Interesting Facts

The entire variety traces back to a single wild bush found in 1969.
More than twenty years passed from the find to the approval of the variety.
The county’s name alludes to Peach Blossom Spring — Tao Yuanming’s story of a valley hidden from the world.
Besides this mark, the county has a separate name for red tea — 桃源红茶.

12. Comparison with Other Hunan Teas

Shimen Yin Feng (石门银峰): A green tea of Shimen County in the same Changde prefecture; its name, unlike Táoyuán dàyè, does not name a variety.
Guzhang Mao Jian (古丈毛尖): A Hunan green maojian from Xiangxi — for comparison with maojian from a large-leaf variety.
Yueyang yellow tea (岳阳黄茶): The corpus article names Táoyuán dàyè among the varieties from which large-leaf yellow tea is made.
Anhua Hei Cha (安化黑茶): The dark tea of Anhua; a local text on the variety calls Táoyuán dàyè valuable raw material for red and dark tea and links it with Anhua dark tea.

In Conclusion:

Táoyuán dàyè chá is a rare case where the name of a tea coincides with the name of a variety. A single wild bush found in 1969 became a provincial variety with a large soft leaf and thick downy shoots rich in extractive substances, and then a mark under which the county makes bud tea, maojian and leaf green tea. Descriptions of the appearance of each line are still scarce, but the history of the variety is traced from the find to the approval.