---
title: "Téngchōng hēichá"
url: https://thetea.app/article/tengchong-heicha
lang: en
updated: 2026-10-01
source: THE TEA — encyclopedia of Chinese tea (https://thetea.app)
---
# Téngchōng hēichá (腾冲黑茶)

*Téngchōng hēichá* (腾冲黑茶) is a dark tea of the county-level city of Tengchong (腾冲市) in the prefecture-level city of Baoshan in western Yunnan Province, on the border with Myanmar. The name is one of five geographical indication certification marks that Tengchong, according to local authorities, registered in 2016 for five classes of tea. The mark's description is short: tight leaf with visible tips, a dense “aged” aroma, a rich, mellow taste, a deep red color and brownish-red infused leaf. This is the profile of a post-fermented tea, but the sources consulted do not explain how the mark relates to pu-erh, whose protection also covers the same county.

**1. Classification and Origin:**

* **Type:** Dark tea (黑茶, *hēichá*). The class is stated in the name, which stands in a series of five marks by class — 绿茶, 红茶, 乌龙茶, 黑茶, 白茶. The mark's description is consistent with it: the “aged” aroma (陈香) and brownish-red leaf are features of a post-fermented tea. I have not seen technology requirements.
* **Category:** Yunnan dark tea; a geographical indication certification mark from the “腾冲茶” series.
* **Origin:** China, Yunnan Province (云南, *Yúnnán*), Baoshan prefecture-level city (保山, *Bǎoshān*), Tengchong county-level city (腾冲, *Téngchōng*).
* **Mark zone:** According to the consolidated geographical indication database “地理标志特产大全”, 18 townships and towns of the county, among them Tengyue (腾越镇), Gudong (固东镇) and Diantan (滇滩镇). For the green and red marks of the series the zone is the whole county; for the dark one it is recorded as a list of townships. I did not find the full list or the mark's rules. The application for all five marks of the series, according to the county tea bureau, was filed by the Tengchong Tea Association.
* **Geographic coordinates:** About 25.0° N and 98.5° E.

**2. History and Cultural Significance:**

* **History:**
    * **Beginnings.** According to a 2014 county publication, tea has been planted in Tengchong since the Hongwu (洪武) years of the Ming (明) dynasty. I found no information on dark tea in old Tengchong.
    * **1912–1921.** According to a publication on the Tengchong government website (2021), Feng Zhenguo (封镇国), who from 1912 served as an inspector in Xiaomengtong (小猛统), next to tea-growing Mengku (勐库), brought tea seeds from there and planted them near his home village of Cuanlong (窜龙村). The 2014 county publication dates the introduction of the seeds to the 1920s.
    * **2015–2016.** According to the county tea bureau, in 2015 the Tengchong Tea Association applied for five marks by tea class; according to the government, the marks were registered in 2016, among them 腾冲黑茶. In the same year, 2016, the association was preparing a common design for the “腾冲茶” series, and the list of its products names green and red tea, oolong and “腾冲[普洱茶](https://thetea.app/article/pu-ercha)” — pu-erh, with the proviso “and others”; dark tea is not named separately.
    * **2019.** The mark is in Yunnan's provincial list of geographical marks as of December 28, 2019 (line 63).
    * **2024.** The agriculture bureau reported five geographical indication certification marks for tea in the county.
* **Name:** 腾冲 (*Téngchōng*) is the name of the county-level city, formerly Tengyue (腾越); 黑茶 (*hēichá*) is dark tea, literally “black”.
* **Cultural significance:** The county develops “腾冲茶” as one of its six industry clusters. At the 2023 competitions, according to a reply from the city agriculture bureau (2024), tea was judged in six categories — red, green, pu-erh, oolong, white and the local “moguocha” (磨锅茶, *móguōchá*). There is no dark tea under its own name among them.

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

* **Variety / Cultivar:** Not named in the mark's description. According to the agriculture bureau, in 2023 the county had more than 50,000 mu of the 云南群体大[叶种](https://thetea.app/article/qiaomuguanmu) (*Yúnnán qúntǐ dàyèzhǒng*) population, 64,000 mu of the clonal cultivar 云抗10号 (*Yúnkàng shí hào*) and 47,000 mu of old tea tree communities (1 mu is about 667 m²). Which of these goes into dark tea the source does not say.
* **Raw material:** The “visible tips” in the dry tea and the “thin and tender” infused leaf in the mark's description point to tender raw material in at least part of the output. I did not find a harvest standard.
* **Harvest time:** Data not found in the sources consulted.

**4. Terroir and Cultivation Features:**

* **Region:** Western Yunnan, near the Gaoligongshan range (高黎贡山). According to the Tengchong government, the county borders Myanmar to the west; the border is 150 km long.
* **Climate and soils:** Tengchong is known for its volcanoes. According to the 2014 county publication, the climate here is tropical monsoon, the mean annual temperature is 14.9 °C, precipitation is 1400–1700 mm a year, and tea grows on volcanic lava plateaus, on fertile volcanic ash soils. This is a description of the county, not the mark's requirements.
* **Growing altitude:** No data for the mark zone. According to the 2014 county publication, altitudes in Tengchong range from 930 to 3780 m.
* **Proximity to pu-erh:** According to Annex A of the national standard GB/T 22111-2008, the pu-erh protection zone includes the townships and towns of what was then Tengchong County — among them the same Tengyue, Gudong and Diantan that are named in this mark's zone.

**5. Production Technology:**

The technology of this tea and its parameters were not found in the sources consulted. Dark tea is usually made as follows:

1.  **Fixation (杀青, *shāqīng*).**
2.  **Rolling (揉捻, *róuniǎn*).**
3.  **Drying of the primary material** — for Yunnan large-leaf tea, usually in the sun ([晒青](https://thetea.app/article/shai-qing), *shàiqīng*).
4.  **Wet piling ([渥堆](https://thetea.app/article/wodui), *wòduī*):** The material is moistened and kept in piles; under the action of microorganisms the leaf turns brown and the taste softens.
5.  **Drying, and pressing if needed.**

This is the general scheme for the class, not a description of the technology of *Téngchōng hēichá*.

**6. Organoleptic Characteristics:**

The profile follows the mark's description in the consolidated geographical indication database.

* **Dry leaf appearance:** Tight (紧结), even, with visible tips (显毫), clean.
* **Dry leaf aroma:** No descriptions were found in the sources consulted.
* **Liquor aroma:** Dense “aged” (陈香浓郁).
* **Taste:** Rich and mellow (浓醇).
* **Liquor color:** The description calls the “color” (色泽) deep red and bright, or simply deep red (红浓明亮或红浓). In the list it stands between taste and infused leaf, in the place of liquor color, but the text does not say directly whether this is the liquor or the dry leaf.
* **Spent leaves (wet leaves):** Brownish-red (褐红), thin and tender or fleshy and tender, soft, fairly bright.

**7. Chemical Composition:**

No physicochemical data were found in the sources consulted.

**8. Health Properties:**

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

**9. Brewing:**

Standard practice for dark tea as a class.

* **Water temperature:** 95–100 °C.
* **Tea amount:** 5–7 g per 150 ml.
* **Teaware:** Clay teapot or gaiwan.
* **Process:** Warm the teaware and briefly rinse the tea; the first infusions are 10–20 seconds, then longer with each infusion. Dark tea withstands many infusions.

**10. Storage:**

Standard practice for the class. In a dry, ventilated place without direct sunlight or foreign odors, at room temperature. Dark tea is also customarily aged, but there are no data on aging this particular tea.

**11. Price and Counterfeits:**

No price data were found in the sources consulted.

* **How to avoid counterfeits:**
    * Look for the geographical indication certification mark “腾冲黑茶”; according to the consolidated geographical indication database, its number is 17259279.
    * Check that the producer is from Tengchong — according to the zone description, from one of its 18 townships and towns.
    * Do not confuse the mark with pu-erh: pu-erh has its own protection regime and its own national standard.
    * Remember that each class in the series has its own mark.

**12. Interesting Facts:**

* In the zone descriptions of the series' marks, Tengchong is still called a county (腾冲县), not a county-level city: it became a county-level city later.
* In the table of the 2008 pu-erh standard, 17 townships and towns are recorded for Tengchong County; in the zone description of the dark tea mark, 18.
* Pu-erh is still made in Tengchong today: according to a reply from the agriculture bureau (2024), in 2023 the county supported companies that were increasing their output of green tea and pu-erh.

**13. Comparison with Other Dark Teas:**

* **Pu-erh Shucha ([普洱熟茶](https://thetea.app/article/pu-er-shucha)):** Yunnan post-fermented tea under its own protection regime; Tengchong County is part of its zone.
* **Heicha (黑茶):** Overview of the dark tea class.
* **Liubao Cha ([六堡茶](https://thetea.app/article/liu-bao-cha)):** Dark tea of Guangxi — another school of dark tea.
* **Qionglai Heicha ([邛崃黑茶](https://thetea.app/article/qionglai-heicha)):** Dark tea of Sichuan with a geographical mark — also a “heicha” bearing a place name.
* **Tengchong Hongcha ([腾冲红茶](https://thetea.app/article/tengchong-hongcha)):** A neighboring mark of the same series — red tea.

**In Conclusion:**

*Téngchōng hēichá* is the most enigmatic mark of the Tengchong five. The description promises a post-fermented tea with an “aged” aroma, a deep red color and brownish-red leaf, the zone is recorded as a list of townships, and the mark number is known. But the sources consulted name neither the technology nor the rules, and the main question remains open: how Tengchong “heicha” differs from pu-erh, whose zone includes the same county.