Xiàogǎn hóng (孝感红) is a red tea of Xiaogan prefecture-level city (孝感市) in the northeast of Hubei Province. The name means “Xiaogan red”. Its history is short and almost entirely tied to export: at the end of 2016 the prefecture authorities brought seven tea companies together into the “Xiaogan Hong” company in order to make red tea from summer and autumn leaf, which had not been picked here before, and to sell it to Russia. In 2025 the name was recognized as a geographical indication product.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Red tea (红茶, hóngchá), fully oxidized. The protection document does not use the word “红茶” and does not describe the technology; the class follows from its description of the appearance — tawny brown leaf with golden down, a bright red liquor — and from press reports that red tea is produced under this name.
- Category: Red tea of northeastern Hubei; geographical indication product (2025).
- Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Xiaogan prefecture-level city (孝感, Xiàogǎn).
- Protection zone: All tea-producing townships and towns of Xiaonan District (孝南区), the Shuangfengshan management zone (双峰山管理区), Xiaochang County (孝昌县) and Dawu County (大悟县). The applicant is the Xiaogan Tea Chamber of Commerce (孝感市茶叶商会).
- Geographic coordinates: About 31° N and 114° E. The coordinate frame in the document contains an obvious typo — minutes greater than sixty (30°92′07″, 113°92′07″) — so an exact boundary cannot be drawn from it.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Before 2016. According to the Xinhua news agency (2023), the prefecture has 413,000 mu under tea — fourth place in the province. Only spring leaf was picked: summer and autumn leaf sold poorly within the country and was expensive to pick by hand, and, according to the agency, about 250,000 tonnes of fresh leaf remained in the gardens every year.
- 2016. The prefecture was visited by representatives of the Russian agricultural authority and by buyers; Xinhua explains: in Russia red tea is preferred, and summer and autumn leaf is good raw material for it.
- End of 2016. On the initiative of the authorities, seven companies, among them the Chanchuan farm (浐川茶场) and the Fenghuang company of Xiaochang County, founded the “Xiaogan Hong” company (湖北孝感红贡茶有限公司). In November 2016, according to Xinhua, it received a certificate of quality and safety of tea for export to the Customs Union.
- 2017. A digital red tea line was installed; according to Xinhua, the Fruit and Tea Institute of the Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences acted as consultant.
- 2018. At the beginning of the year the first 80 tonnes of tea went to the “Auchan” chain in Russia; in March the company registered its own firm and trademarks in Moscow.
- 2019–2023. In June 2019 an exhibition and trade center of Chinese tea opened in Moscow; since 2021 the company has been opening a chain of small shops in Russian cities with a population of more than half a million, and by December 2023 there were 87 of them. At the third “Belt and Road” Forum (2023) a contract was signed with a Russian firm for 5,205 tonnes of tea (Xinhua).
- 2025. The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), by announcement No. 640 — signed on 16 July, published on 13 August — recognized 1,409 names as geographical indication products, and Xiàogǎn hóng was among them.
- Name: “Xiaogan” (孝感) is the name of the prefecture; the first character means “filial piety”. “Hong” (红) means “red”.
- Cultural significance: Information on a tradition of red tea specifically in Xiaogan before 2016 was not found in the sources consulted: the name grew out of an export project.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: The protection document names the cultivars Zhongcha 108 (中茶108, Zhōngchá 108) and Echa No. 1 (鄂茶1号, Èchá yī hào) “and others”.
- Raw material: According to the press — leaf of the summer and autumn harvest. According to Xinhua, the founders rebuilt the gardens for machine picking.
- Raw material requirements: Fresh leaf — without scales, “fish leaves” (鱼叶) and fruits; it is carried in clean, ventilated bamboo baskets.
- Harvest standard: The document does not specify how many buds and leaves are taken; this was not found in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: Northeast Hubei, from Xiaonan District to Dawu County at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains.
- Soils: According to the document — mainly slightly acidic yellow, red and yellow-brown soils (黄壤、红壤、黄棕壤), pH 4.5–6.5, fertile, loose, rich in organic matter.
- Growing altitude and climate: No data in the document or in the sources consulted.
- Cultivation practices per the document: The main fertilizer is organic with a small share of mineral fertilizer, applied in autumn and winter, in furrows. Pruning — after the spring tea, around mid-May. Plant protection is primarily agrotechnical and biological, chemicals are auxiliary.
5. Production Technology
The protection document gives no technological scheme — unlike its neighbor in the announcement, Lichuan Hong. From the press it is known only that the company works on automatic red tea lines.
Below is the general scheme of red tea, not a description of the technology of Xiàogǎn hóng:
- Withering (萎凋, wěidiāo): The leaf loses part of its moisture and becomes soft.
- Rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn): The cells are broken, the sap comes to the surface.
- Fermentation (发酵, fājiào): The leaf darkens, the liquor turns red.
- Drying (干燥, gānzào).
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description is from the protection document.
- Dry leaf appearance: Fine twisted strips, tawny brown in color with noticeable golden down (条索细，色泽棕褐显金毫).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Dense, rich (香气浓郁) — the document does not separate the dry leaf and the liquor.
- Taste: Rich and mellow, with a returning sweetness (滋味浓醇回甘).
- Liquor color: Red, bright (汤色红亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Even (叶底匀齐).
The document also records a formula for the infusions: “一泡香，二泡浓，三泡四泡香高味更醇” — the first infusion gives aroma, the second richness, the third and fourth an even higher aroma and a mellow taste.
7. Chemical Composition
The protection document sets lower thresholds:
| Indicator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Tea polyphenols | no less than 13.0% |
| Water-soluble extractives | no less than 32% |
| Free amino acids | no less than 1.7% |
These are minimum requirements for the product, not an analysis of a specific batch.
8. Brewing
Class practice for red tea.
- Water temperature: 90–95 °C.
- Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
- Teaware: Gaiwan or porcelain teapot.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Put in the tea and pour water over it.
- First infusion — about a minute.
- Pour off the liquor completely.
- Lengthen each following infusion a little.
- According to the document’s formula, in the third and fourth infusions the aroma is higher and the taste mellower.
9. Storage
Class practice. In a dry, dark place at room temperature, in tight opaque packaging, away from odors. The protection document requires the same, and during transport — protection from sun, moisture and rain.
10. Price and Counterfeits
No retail prices were found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication product mark: a producer from the zone obtains the right to it by application through the local intellectual property authority, after review by the province and approval by CNIPA.
- Check that the producer is from Xiaonan District, the Shuangfengshan zone, Xiaochang County or Dawu County.
- Do not confuse the company brand with the geographical indication product. According to Xinhua, the “Xiaogan Hong” company also produces green and scented tea, and for the Russian taste it made blends in which Yunnan tea added aroma and Guangdong tea added liquor color. Such a blend is a product of the company, not the protected Xiaogan tea.
- Check the appearance: fine tawny brown twisted strips with golden down, a bright red liquor.
11. Interesting Facts
- The name appeared for the sake of leaf that was going to waste: red tea began to be made here in order to use the summer and autumn harvest.
- At the end of 2019 the company laid out a demonstration tea garden in Dubai: according to Xinhua, more than 600 tonnes of Xiaogan soil were shipped there by sea, and 30,000 three-year-old bushes by air.
- The Xiàogǎn hóng zone covers Dawu County, where the green tea names Dawu Lücha and Dawu Cha are protected by their own indications, and Xiaochang County with its Xiaochang Fenghuangshan Cha: protected names of two classes lie on the same land.
12. Comparison with Other Hubei Teas
- Lichuan Hong (利川红): A red tea of the west of the province, recognized in the same announcement as the next entry; its document sets out the technology.
- Yidu Yihong Cha (宜都宜红茶): A red tea of the old “Yihong” export family — an example of a long tradition that Xiaogan does not have.
- Xiangyang Hong (襄阳红): Another young Hubei red tea; according to a local description, it too began to be made for the sake of summer and autumn raw material in a land of green tea.
- Dawu Lücha (大悟绿茶): The green tea of Dawu County, which is part of the Xiàogǎn hóng zone.
In Conclusion:
Xiàogǎn hóng is a red tea that grew out of an export task: the green, spring-tea country of northeastern Hubei learned to make red tea from summer and autumn leaf for the Russian market. The 2025 protection document describes it sparingly but unambiguously: fine tawny brown twisted strips with golden down, a bright red liquor, a rich, mellow taste with a returning sweetness.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page