Wèng’ān báichá (瓮安白茶) is a geographical indication certification mark of Weng’an County (瓮安县) of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the center of Guizhou Province. The name translates as “white tea of Weng’an”, but the documents found do not say what class of tea stands behind it: the county plan for 2021 lists among the county’s products “老白茶”, “白茶” and “名优绿茶”, that is, both true white tea and green tea are made here. According to the provincial summary, the mark was approved on 7 June 2018. In 2020 the county filed an application for an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI) for the same name.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Not established. “Baicha” (白茶) in the name does not prove the class: light-leaf varieties give green tea, as with Anji Baicha or with Zheng’an Baicha in the north of the same province. Weng’an, however, also has true white tea — the 2021 plan names “老白茶”, aged white tea. I have not seen a document with the technology or a description of the mark’s product, so I do not assign a class.
- Category: Geographical indication certification mark (证明商标, zhèngmíng shāngbiāo) of the county; application for an agricultural product geographical indication (2020).
- Origin: China, Guizhou Province (贵州, Guìzhōu), Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (黔南, Qiánnán), Weng’an County (瓮安, Wèng’ān).
- Mark zone: The provincial summary gives Weng’an County as the holder’s affiliation; I have not checked the legal boundary of the mark zone.
- Zone under the 2020 application: Ten towns (猴场镇, 江界河镇, 银盏镇, 珠藏镇, 中坪镇, 平定营镇, 永和镇, 玉山镇, 天文镇, 建中镇), Languan Township (岚关乡) and two urban subdistricts — Yongyang (雍阳街道) and Wengshui (瓮水街道), 90 administrative villages in all. These are the boundaries of the application, not of a registered indication.
- Geographic coordinates: According to the application — 107°07′–107°42′ E and 26°53′–27°29′ N.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Early records. A reference site on local products, citing the Weng’an Agricultural Gazetteer (瓮安农业志), writes that in 1944 the county produced 9.5 t of tea and that green tea is grown here most of all.
- 2018 — the mark. According to the summary of all geographical marks of Guizhou attached to the notice of the provincial intellectual property administration of 22 August 2022, the mark “瓮安白茶” was approved on 7 June 2018; the holder is the county office for the development of the tea industry (瓮安县茶产业发展办公室). This summary does not give the mark number. The county’s second mark — “瓮安黄金芽”, with the holder 瓮安县黄金芽茶业协会 — is dated 28 October of the same year.
- 2020 — application for the agricultural indication. On 8 September the county agriculture administration announced the acceptance of an application to register “瓮安白茶” as an agricultural product with a geographical indication. The applicant is the county tea industry development center (瓮安县茶产业发展中心). The period for objections is 30 days, until 8 October 2020.
- 2021 — the plan. The county tea industry development plan for 2021 sets the tasks “to use the marks 瓮安白茶 and 瓮安黄金芽” and to “create” a national agricultural indication for 瓮安白茶 — which means that in spring 2021 the registration had not yet taken place. How the application ended is not found in the sources consulted.
- Name: “Weng’an” (瓮安) is the name of the county; “baicha” (白茶) means “white tea”. Whether this refers to the color of the leaf or to the class cannot be said without the mark document.
- Cultural significance: The county’s main brand is not white tea. The 2021 plan bets on the brand “瓮安欧标茶” — Weng’an tea grown to European standards — under the name Duyun Maojian. White tea in the same plan is a separate line: in Jianzhong Town (建中镇) a white tea park (建中白茶园区) with a processing factory is being designed.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: Not named in the sources consulted. Whether the white-leaf variety 白叶一号 grows in Weng’an, as it does in Zheng’an, the documents do not say.
- Raw material: Data are not found in the sources consulted.
- Harvest standard: Data are not found in the sources consulted.
- Harvest time: Data are not found in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The center of Guizhou Province. According to the reference site on local products, the terrain is mountainous, clouds and mists are frequent, the climate is subtropical humid monsoon, precipitation is abundant, and the rains fall in the warm season.
- Soils: According to the same source — mainly yellow soils (黄壤) developed on sandstones and shales, slightly acidic.
- Growing altitude: Data are not found in the sources consulted.
- Scale under the 2020 application: 4,333.34 ha, annual output 325 t, annual production value 422.5 million yuan. The application does not give the method of calculation.
- Tea gardens of the county as a whole: The 2021 plan sets the task of keeping 208,100 mu of gardens (1 mu is about 667 m²), of which 192,000 mu are productive, and of bringing gardens under European standards up to 120,000 mu. The plan names gardens of ten thousand mu and more in six townships, towns and subdistricts, among them Languan, Jianzhong and Wengshui. These are target figures of the plan, not results.
5. Production Technology
The technology of the mark’s product and its parameters are not found in the sources consulted. The class is not established, so below are two general schemes between which the mark document chooses, not a description of this tea.
- If it is a white tea by class: withering (萎凋, wěidiāo) — long, until most of the moisture is lost, without fixation or rolling; then drying (干燥, gānzào).
- If it is a green tea from a light-leaf variety: spreading of the fresh leaf (摊放, tānfàng), fixation (杀青, shāqīng), shaping or rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn) and drying (干燥, gānzào).
The 2021 plan describes equipping the Jianzhong factory with four lines: “红茶(老白茶)”, pressed tea, “名优茶” and bulk tea. The red tea line is marked with “老白茶” in brackets; what this means for the technology, the document does not explain.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
- Dry leaf appearance: Descriptions are not found in the sources consulted.
- Dry leaf aroma: Descriptions are not found in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Descriptions are not found in the sources consulted.
- Taste: Descriptions are not found in the sources consulted.
- Liquor color: Descriptions are not found in the sources consulted.
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Descriptions are not found in the sources consulted.
7. Chemical Composition
Physico-chemical data are not found in the sources consulted.
8. Brewing
Class practice — the parameters depend on which tea under this name is in hand.
- Green from a light-leaf variety: 75–80 °C, 3 g per 150 ml, glass tumbler or white gaiwan, first infusion after 40–60 seconds, two or three repeat infusions.
- White: 85–95 °C, 4–5 g per 150 ml, gaiwan or porcelain teapot, first infusion about a minute, then several infusions with increasing time.
9. Storage
Class practice. Green tea — in airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors; drink within a year. White tea — in tight packaging in a dry dark place at room temperature, away from odors; it is usually kept for years as well.
10. Price and Counterfeits
Price data are not found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the certification mark “瓮安白茶”.
- Check that the producer is from Weng’an County.
- Do not confuse it with Zheng’an Baicha (正安白茶) from Zheng’an County of the same province: the names differ by one character, and the Zheng’an tea has its own indication and its own zone.
- Do not confuse it with the county’s second mark — “瓮安黄金芽”: this is a different name.
- Ask about the class: the name does not say whether the tea is white or green, and brewing and storage depend on it.
11. Interesting Facts
- In 2018 alone the county received two marks with “colored” names — “white” (瓮安白茶) and “golden” (瓮安黄金芽).
- The mark holder and the applicant for the agricultural indication are named differently in the documents: the county tea industry development “office” (办公室) and “center” (中心).
- The 2021 plan lists seven types of the county’s products — aged white, red, “黄金饼”, dark brick fuzhuan (茯砖), “黄金芽”, white and green — with a total target of more than 700 t.
12. Comparison with Other Teas
- Zheng’an Baicha (正安白茶): A green tea from the white-leaf variety 白叶一号 of Zheng’an County in the north of Guizhou; its class is established by the indication document, while that of the Weng’an name is not.
- Anji Baicha (安吉白茶): A Zhejiang green tea from the same white-leaf variety — the prototype of all “white” green teas.
- Fuding Baicha (福鼎白茶): A true white tea of Fujian — for contrast: withering and drying without fixation.
- Duyun Maojian (都匀毛尖): The main green tea of Qiannan Prefecture; under its name Weng’an promotes its main products.
In Conclusion:
Wèng’ān báichá is a name behind which, so far, one can see documents but not a tea. It is known that the mark was approved in 2018, that in 2020 the county applied for an agricultural indication with an exact zone of 90 villages, and that the county makes both aged white tea and green tea. The sources consulted do not name the variety, the technology or the appearance, so when buying tea under this name it is worth first finding out whether it is white or green.