Xiàochāng Fènghuángshān chá

Xiàochāng Fènghuángshān chá (孝昌凤凰山茶) is a flat green tea of Zhouxiang town (周巷镇), Xiaochang County, Xiaogan prefecture-level city, in the northeast of Hubei Province, at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains. Since 2015 the name has been protected by a geographical indication certification mark, and since 2022 the tea has had a prefecture-level standard, DB4209/T 26—2022. The standard explicitly calls it a green tea. “Fènghuáng” here is the name of a local mountain, not a reference to the Guangdong oolong Fenghuang Dancong.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá). The class is established by a document: the standard DB4209/T 26—2022 defines this tea as a green tea made from the buds and leaves of young shoots picked in Zhouxiang town.
Category: A flat green tea of Xiaogan; geographical indication certification mark (2015).
Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Xiaogan prefecture-level city (孝感, Xiàogǎn), Xiaochang County (孝昌, Xiàochāng), Zhouxiang town (周巷, Zhōuxiàng).
Zone of the mark: According to the standard — the whole of Zhouxiang town; the boundary is outlined on a map in the appendix. The introduction to the standard names the Fenghuangshan, Gongmushan (公牧山) and Shuangfengshan (双峰山) mountains and the Gucheng’an (古城庵) locality as the best places.
Geographic coordinates: The county seat of Xiaochang — about 31.3° N and 114.0° E; the zone lies in the southeastern part of the county.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Ming era. The introduction to the standard says that tea has been grown in Zhouxiang since the Ming (明) dynasty and that poems and paintings about it have survived. Details are given in the Hubei Intellectual Property Administration’s description of the neighboring protected product Zhouxiang Fenghuang Cha: according to an inscription on a stele, a Ming official who left the service and took monastic vows brought tea seeds from elsewhere and laid out gardens around Mount Fenghuangshan; the Xiaogan county chronicle in the edition of the eighth year of Guangxu (光绪) contains a poem about tasting tea at the Gucheng’an hermitage with the line “穿云寻古寺，带露摘新茶” — “through the clouds I seek an old temple, in the dew I pick new tea”.
- Legend. According to a legend from the same description, the future emperor Zhu Di (朱棣) passed Mount Fenghuangshan incognito, and the local people treated him to tea.
- 2015. In September the name “孝昌凤凰山茶” was registered as a geographical indication certification mark. According to the provincial register of 2020, this is mark No. 14514917, class 30, goods — tea; the holder is the tea association of Zhouxiang town; the term of the exclusive right — from 28 September 2015 to 27 September 2025.
- 2022. The Xiaogan Administration for Market Regulation issued the standard DB4209/T 26—2022: published on 8 August, in force from 8 September. It was developed by the town tea association, local agencies and a tea company; the introduction admits that before this the tea had no quality standard.
Name: “Xiàochāng” (孝昌) is the name of the county; “Fènghuángshān” (凤凰山) means “Mountain of Phoenixes”, a local peak; “chá” (茶) means tea. According to the description of the Hubei Intellectual Property Administration, local people have long called all the tea of the town “凤凰茶” — “Fènghuáng tea”.
Cultural significance: The introduction to the standard calls Zhouxiang a well-known “home of tea” (茶叶之乡). According to the description of the Hubei Intellectual Property Administration, in Xiaogan the tea of the town is known in every household and is readily taken as a gift.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Varieties / Cultivars: The standard names Echa No. 1 (鄂茶1号), Fuding Dabai (福鼎大白) and Zhongcha 108 (中茶108) as the main ones; according to the introduction, the first two are planted most.
Harvest standard: One bud with one leaf, or one bud with a just-opening leaf (一芽一叶或一芽一叶初展).
Harvest time: No exact dates in the standard.
Raw material requirements: The fresh leaf is transported in ventilated containers, without crushing or heating.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: According to the standard, the production base lies at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains (大别山): hills, the terrain descends from northeast to southwest, forest cover — more than 80%.
Climate: Subtropical monsoon, humid. The mean annual temperature is 16.1 °C, precipitation — 1100–1200 mm, the frost-free period — 248 days. The standard also gives 4427.2 hours of sunshine a year. A commercial publication on the Renmin Wang website (2019) gives the same figure but specifies that, because of cloud cover, the sun actually shines about 2150 hours a year.
Growing altitude: No data found in the sources consulted.
Soils: Predominantly yellow-brown (黄棕壤), a fertile layer of no less than 0.5 m, pH 5.5–6.5, organic matter more than 1%.
Agricultural practices: The standard prescribes protecting the garden with light traps, sticky traps, pheromones and biological preparations.

5. Production Technology

The standard combines manual and machine work and singles out three key operations — fixation, shaping and roasting with final drying.

Fixation (杀青, shāqīng): In a fixation machine, up to 1 kg of leaf per minute, at 170–230 °C; the leaf loses 25–30% of its weight. Then it is spread out to cool and to let its moisture even out for about 30 minutes.
Shaping (做形, zuòxíng): Two straightenings of the leaf (理条, lǐtiáo) in a multifunctional machine: the first — 150–180 °C, 10–15 minutes; the second — 100–120 °C, 8–10 minutes, until the leaf is 70–80% dry.
Removing the down (脱毫, tuōháo): The cooled semi-finished tea is rotated in a roasting drum (辉锅机, huīguōjī) at 60–100 °C; the down is rubbed off the leaf, and a fan blows it away.
Roasting and bringing out the aroma (辉干提香, huīgān tíxiāng): 25–35 minutes, with the temperature “low — high — low”, about 90–120 °C; before unloading, the heat is raised for the sake of the aroma.
Finished tea: Moisture no more than 6.5%; the leaf is flat, smooth and straight.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

The standard recognizes two grades — top (特级) and first (一级) — and updates the reference sample for each of them every year.

Dry leaf appearance: Top grade — flat, smooth and straight, emerald green, with noticeable down, even (扁平光直，翠绿显毫，匀齐). First — flat, smooth and straight, green and glossy (扁平光直，绿润).
Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the standard.
Liquor aroma: Top grade — clean and lasting (清香持久); first — clean (清香).
Taste: Fresh and mild (鲜醇) in both grades.
Liquor color: Tender green and bright (嫩绿明亮) in both grades.
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Top grade — soft, tender and even (柔嫩匀齐); first — tender, even and bright (嫩匀明亮).

The standard prohibits colorants and any additives.

7. Chemical Composition

The physicochemical requirements of the standard, the same for both grades:

Indicator	Requirement
Moisture	no more than 6.5%
Broken tea and dust	no more than 5.5%
Total ash	no more than 7%
Water-soluble extractives	no less than 38.0%
Crude fiber	no more than 10.0%

Data on the polyphenols, amino acids and caffeine of this particular tea were not found in the sources consulted.

8. Brewing

Class practice for green tea.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
Process:
1. Warm the teaware.
2. Put in 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. Two or three repeat infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice. The standard itself prescribes keeping the finished tea in a clean, dry, cool, dark warehouse free of foreign odors, or in a cold store. At home — in airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C; best drunk within a year.

10. Price and Counterfeits

No price data found in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the mark “孝昌凤凰山茶” (No. 14514917). The term from the 2020 register expired on 27 September 2025; I have not checked whether the mark has been renewed.
- Check that the producer is from Zhouxiang town, Xiaochang County.
- Look at the grade: the standard recognizes only top and first.
- The leaf is flat, smooth and straight; the liquor is tender green and bright.

11. Interesting Facts

The technology rubs the down off the leaf, yet for the top grade the standard requires the down to remain noticeable.
Two protection regimes meet in one town: the mark “孝昌凤凰山茶” and the protected product “周巷凤凰茶”. The description of the latter also calls the tea “凤凰山茶”.
This tea shares only the characters with the Guangdong “凤凰”: there it is an oolong, here a green tea.

12. Comparison with Other Teas

Zhouxiang Fenghuang Cha (周巷凤凰茶): A protected product of the same town (2014) with the provincial standard DB42/T 2174-2023. The descriptions of the two teas coincide in the main points; the documents do not say whether this is one product under two regimes.
Guanyinhu Lücha (观音湖绿茶): A green tea of the same Xiaochang County, a protected product since 2015.
Dawu Lücha (大悟绿茶): A green tea of neighboring Dawu County, also at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains.
Fenghuang Dancong (凤凰单丛): A Guangdong oolong — a coincidence of name, not kinship.

In Conclusion:

Xiàochāng Fènghuángshān chá is a flat green tea of a single town at the foot of the Dabie Mountains. Its documentation is unusually complete for so small a name: a mark of 2015 and a standard of 2022 with bush cultivars, processing regimes and two grades of finished tea. Its appearance is simple and recognizable: a flat emerald leaf, a clean lasting aroma, a tender green liquor, a fresh mild taste.

Sources

Standards

Full list — on the Sources page