Wēnzhōu zǎochá (温州早茶) is “the early tea of Wenzhou”, a green tea of the whole of Wenzhou prefecture-level city in the south of Zhejiang Province. The name rests on the picking time: according to a reference description, picking begins here in mid-February, and the tea is called “the first early tea of Zhejiang” (浙江茶叶第一早). Since 2020 the name has been an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI), the first for tea in Zhejiang at the prefecture level, and since 2025 a geographical indication product in two forms, curled and flat. The same name is borne by a city brand with county marks of different classes.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), unfermented. Both lines in the protection requirements involve fixation (杀青), without smothering or oxidation.
- Name trap: “温州早茶” is also the prefecture’s public brand on the “one county — one brand” principle (一县一品). According to a report by the city agriculture bureau (2026), it covers eight marks: 泰顺三杯香, 平阳黄汤, 永嘉乌牛早, 乐清雁荡毛峰, 苍南翠龙, 文成贡茶, 瑞安清明早 and 瓯海黄叶早. Pingyang Huangtang (平阳黄汤) among them is a yellow tea. The brand is wider than the class; the protected product is defined by the protection requirements, and the technology in them is only green.
- Category: Green tea of a prefecture-level city; geographical indication (2020, 2025).
- Origin: China, Zhejiang Province (浙江, Zhèjiāng), Wenzhou prefecture-level city (温州, Wēnzhōu).
- Protection zone: Lucheng (鹿城区) and Ouhai (瓯海区) districts, the county-level cities of Yueqing (乐清市) and Rui’an (瑞安市), and the counties of Yongjia (永嘉县), Wencheng (文成县), Pingyang (平阳县), Taishun (泰顺县) and Cangnan (苍南县) — 118 townships and towns in all.
- Geographic coordinates: 119°37′–121°18′ E, 27°03′–28°36′ N — the boundaries of the zone according to the document.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Legend. City news reports (2021) say that, according to legend, tea began to be grown here in the Yonghe (永和) years of the Eastern Jin dynasty, and counts more than 1600 years of tea growing; the agriculture bureau repeats this figure in 2026. No document of that era is found in the sources consulted.
- October 2019. According to a report of 25 October, the application had shortly before passed expert review by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; with it Wenzhou came to have seven agricultural indications.
- 2020. Registration by ministry announcement No. 290 of 30 April 2020 — in the first batch of the year, 312 products nationwide; certificate AGI02849. The holder at registration was the city special crops station (温州市特产站); according to a list of changes that the ministry put up for comment in December 2021, after the restructuring of agencies the holder became the city agricultural technology extension center (温州市农业技术推广中心). The city agricultural channel gives the date as May 2020.
- April 2021. From 16 to 18 April the city agriculture bureau held a tea craftsmen competition and a selection of premium teas in Taishun County; as a result the ten best masters and the ten best teas of the city were named (city news, 2021).
- February 2024. Wenzhou hosted the first conference on early spring tea (organizers — the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the China Tea Science Society); an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering called there to “turn early tea into good tea” (把“早茶”做成“好茶”). The conference adopted the “Wenzhou Declaration on the High-Quality Development of Chinese Early Spring Tea” (中国早春茶高质量发展温州宣言); among the measures in it is a group standard for the production and processing of early spring tea. According to provincial news, the city intends to hold such a conference every year.
- Early 2025. The Zhejiang Tea Industry Association (浙江省茶叶产业协会) put up for comment a draft group standard “温州早茶生产技术规程” — “Technical Regulations for the Production of Wēnzhōu zǎochá”; comments were accepted until 20 February 2025. The number and approval date of the final version are not found in the sources consulted.
- 2025. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), by announcement No. 640 (signed 16 July, published 13 August), recognized the name as a geographical indication product — line 469 in a list of 1409 products — and approved the protection requirements. The applicant is the same center.
- Name: “Wēnzhōu” (温州) is the name of the prefecture; “zǎochá” (早茶) means “early tea”. The word speaks of the picking time, not of a variety or a class.
- Cultural significance: The name serves as a signboard for all the tea of the prefecture: the county marks are sold under their own names, and the brand adds the name of the city to them.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties: The protection requirements name 嘉茗1号 (Jiāmíng 1 hào), 平阳特早 (Píngyáng tèzǎo), 清明早 (Qīngmíngzǎo), 黄叶早 (Huángyèzǎo), 智仁早 (Zhìrénzǎo) and other suitable varieties; four of the five names contain “早” — “early”. The variety 嘉茗1号 is described in the encyclopedia as the same bush as Wuniu Zao (乌牛早); the Rui’an Qingmingzao mark rests on the variety 清明早.
- Harvest periods: According to the document — from late February to mid-May and from early August to late September; a garden is opened for picking when the first leaf unfolds (一芽一叶初展). The reference description names mid-February as the start of picking — earlier than the document.
- Harvest standard: From a bud with a just-unfolded leaf to a bud with three leaves; the shoot whole, fresh, even and clean. Picking is done in batches, according to the grade of the tea to be made.
- Raw material requirements: Only picking by “lifting the hand” (提手采), without old leaf; the leaf is carried in bamboo baskets, not packed down.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: The very south of Zhejiang, by the East China Sea. The climate is subtropical monsoon.
- Climate: The city agricultural channel (2025) describes it with the formula “three eighteens”: mean annual temperature 18 °C, 1800 mm of precipitation and 1800 hours of sunshine a year.
- Soils: According to the document — deep red or yellow soils, pH 4.5–6.5, organic matter more than 1.0%.
- Growing altitude: No data found in the sources consulted.
- Garden: On slopes of 15–25° the document requires terraces at least 1.5 m wide.
- Scale: The figures describe all the tea of the prefecture, not only the protected product, and they change from year to year:
- at the 2019 expert review — 255,000 mu of plantings, 4657 t of tea a year and 300,000 mu of protected area;
- for 2020, according to city news — 234,000 mu of productive gardens, 6890 t of tea, of which 3703 t premium (名优茶), the output value of the primary sector — 1.245 billion yuan;
- according to the city agricultural channel (February 2025) — 290,000 mu of gardens, 7678 t of tea, of which 4143 t premium; output value — 1.523 billion yuan, of which premium teas — 1.268 billion.
5. Production Technology
The protection requirements set two lines with parameters — this is a description of this particular tea. The 2019 expert review materials already required that the processing conditions and equipment meet GB/T 32744 “Code of Good Practice for Tea Processing” (茶叶加工良好规范).
Curled tea (卷曲形):
- Spreading (摊青, tānqīng): By grade, in a layer up to 20 cm; moisture loss — 10–15%.
- Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): “High temperature, first higher, then lower; tender leaf is fixed more deeply, coarse leaf more lightly” (嫩叶老杀，老叶嫩杀). Weight loss — about 40%.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): Pressure light — heavy — light; 30–65% of the cells broken, 60–80% of the leaf rolled into strands.
- Second drying (二青, èrqīng): Hot air at 130–150 °C, a layer thinner than 2 cm, 8–12 minutes.
- Third drying (三青, sānqīng): About 120 °C, to a moisture content of about 20%.
- Final drying (干燥, gānzào): By pan-firing or drying at 110–120 °C, to a moisture content below 6.5%; then finishing (整理, zhěnglǐ).
Flat tea (扁形):
- Spreading (摊青, tānqīng): In a layer up to 5 cm; moisture loss — 10–15%.
- First pan (青锅, qīngguō): Fixation by hand or by machine under the same rule; the leaf begins to become flat, moisture falls by about 40%.
- Straightening (理条, lǐtiáo): In machine processing — until the bud is straight.
- Resting (摊凉回潮, tānliáng huícháo): In a layer up to 2 cm on bamboo trays, 1–2 hours.
- Polishing pan (辉锅, huīguō): In one pass or in two; the temperature first higher, then lower, at the end 130–150 °C; moisture at the output — below 6.5%. Then finishing.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description follows the protection requirements, for the two forms.
- Dry leaf appearance: Curled — tight, thin, emerald strands with visible down (紧细、翠绿显毫). Flat — a smooth, straight leaf, tender green, with a fresh luster (扁平光直、嫩绿鲜润).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description is found in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Curled — tender and lasting (嫩香持久); flat — high and lasting (香高持久).
- Taste: Curled — tender, fresh, sweetish and brisk (嫩鲜甘爽); flat — fresh, mellow, sweetish and brisk (鲜醇甘爽).
- Liquor color: For both forms — tender green, bright (嫩绿明亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender, even, opening into a “flower” (嫩匀成朵); in the flat form also tender green and bright.
The document reduces the distinctive feature to three words: “嫩、鲜、甘” — tenderness, freshness, sweetness.
7. Chemical Composition
Physicochemical protection requirements: moisture — not more than 6.5%, broken leaf and dust — not more than 6.0%, total ash — not more than 6.5%, crude fiber — not more than 16.0%, acid-insoluble ash — not more than 1.0%. Extractives are recorded as “not more than 37.0%”, water-soluble ash as “not more than 45.0%”; for the neighboring teas of the same announcement extractives are set by a lower limit, so the sign here is probably a misprint — the figures are given as printed. Data on catechins, amino acids and caffeine are not found in the sources consulted.
8. Brewing
Class practice for green tea; recommendations for this particular tea are not found in the sources consulted.
- Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: A tall glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in the tea and pour the water down the side.
- First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
- Drink, leaving a third of the liquor.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three more infusions.
9. Storage
Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. Early tea is valued for its freshness — it is better to drink it within a year.
10. Price and Counterfeits
No retail price data found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication product mark and a producer from the nine districts and counties of Wenzhou.
- Read the county name: Wenzhou tea is often sold as Wuniu Zao, Taishun Sanbeixiang, Cangnan Cuilong; the city name does not replace them.
- Check the appearance: emerald strands with down or a flat, straight leaf, a tender green liquor. An apricot-yellow liquor, as in Pingyang Huangtang, points to yellow tea.
11. Interesting Facts
- “早茶” in Chinese is also the Cantonese morning tea with snacks, so a search for the name of this tea often turns up restaurants.
- The document gives two picking windows: spring and late summer, from August to September.
- This is the first tea of Zhejiang with a geographical indication at the level of a prefecture-level city.
- Provincial news cites a local saying: “spring in Jiangnan begins with a cup of Wēnzhōu zǎochá” (江南的春天，从一杯温州早茶开始).
12. Comparison with Other Teas of Wenzhou
- Wuniu Zao (乌牛早): The mark of Yongjia County and the super-early variety of the same name; both green and red tea are made from it.
- Taishun Sanbeixiang (泰顺三杯香): A green tea of Taishun, named for an aroma that lasts through three infusions.
- Pingyang Huangtang (平阳黄汤): A yellow tea with smothering — it does not fit the protection requirements of Wēnzhōu zǎochá.
- Rui’an Qingmingzao (瑞安清明早): A tea from the variety 清明早, which is also named among the varieties of Wēnzhōu zǎochá.
In Conclusion:
Wēnzhōu zǎochá is a green tea named for its picking time. It is made across the whole prefecture from early varieties in two forms — curled, with emerald strands and down, and flat, smooth and straight — and the protection requirements reduce its character to three words: tenderness, freshness, sweetness. Above the tea stands a city brand that also includes a yellow tea, so on the packaging it is worth reading both the name of the city and the name of the county.
Sources
Standards
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page