Xiàogǎn lóngjiàn chá

Xiàogǎn lóngjiàn chá (孝感龙剑茶) is a flat pan-fired green tea of Xiaogan prefecture-level city (孝感市) in Hubei Province, from the low mountains and hills of the Dabie Mountains north of the Yangtze. The name means “dragon sword”, and the specification describes the leaf in just this way: flat and straight, like a blade. Legend traces the tea of Xiaogan back to Ming and Qing times, while technologists say that the brand grew out of experiments with the Xihu Longjing technology from the mid-1980s. It has been an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI) since 2012 and a geographical indication product since 2025.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), pan-fired (炒青, chǎoqīng). The specification calls it “工艺绿茶” — a fancy-shaped green tea with strict processing requirements, made by machine and by hand.
Category: Agricultural product geographical indication (2012, certificate AGI01032); geographical indication product (2025).
Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Xiaogan prefecture-level city (孝感, Xiàogǎn).
Protection zone: According to the specification and announcement No. 640 — six counties, cities and districts of the prefecture: Dawu (大悟), Xiaochang (孝昌), Xiaonan (孝南), Yingcheng (应城), Anlu (安陆) and Shuangfeng (双峰), and within them sixteen named towns and townships — among them Sanlicheng, Xuanhua, Zhouxiang, Yangdian and Zougang — “and others”. In the southeast the zone borders on Wuhan, in the north on Xinyang.
Geographic coordinates: 113°19′–114°06′ E, 30°42′–31°29′ N.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- Legend. According to the specification, the Qianlong Emperor, during a southern tour, supposedly tasted Xiaogan tea and wrote the line “今日采茶我爱观，吴民生计勤自然”. The line itself speaks of the “people of Wu” (吴民), not of Xiaogan; the sources do not explain how the legend connected it with the local tea.
- Chronicle. According to the specification, the county chronicle (孝感县志) of the eighth year of Guangxu (1882) writes that tea was planted here as early as the Ming.
- Verses by Cheng Liangshou. The specification quotes the poem “Tasting Tea at Gucheng’an” (古城俺试茶) by Cheng Liangshou (程良寿), a native of the area, written after a walk and a tea session at Gucheng’an on Mount Shuangfeng: “穿云寻古寺，带露摘新茶” — “through the clouds I seek an ancient temple, in the dew I pick new tea”. “Since then”, in the words of the specification, the “unrivaled under Heaven” (天下一绝) Xiàogǎn lóngjiàn chá came into being.
- The technologists’ account. A text in the voice of local technologists, reprinted by a reference site on local products (2023), paints a different picture. In the mid-1980s the Fenghuangshan tea farm (凤凰山茶场) tried out the Xihu Longjing technology; the hand-made “Xiaogan Longjing” (孝感龙井茶) tasted quite good, but won no major awards at provincial competitions. Then the technologists decided not to copy someone else’s technology but to develop their own on its basis. The impetus, according to the same text, was economic: until the 1990s the prefecture made mainly ordinary pan-fired green tea, and it lost out to tea brought in from Yichang — a single hand picking in Xiaogan cost more than Yichang tea on the local market; gardens were abandoned, and in places uprooted for fruit and grain crops. After that, in the words of the technologists, demand moved from mass machine-made tea to hand-made lóngjiàn chá, and then to expensive tea of mixed machine-and-hand making. If one follows this account, the “dragon sword” was developed after the mid-1980s, while the legend of the Ming and Qing speaks of Xiaogan tea in general.
- 2012. Registration of the agricultural product geographical indication, certificate AGI01032 — the year according to the database of agricultural indications; the holder is the prefecture agricultural technology extension station (孝感市农业技术推广总站). The registration announcement is No. 1870 of 7 December 2012.
- 2025. By announcement No. 640 (signed on 16 July, published on 13 August), the China National Intellectual Property Administration recognized 1,409 geographical indication products; Xiàogǎn lóngjiàn chá is entry 745, the applicant is the Xiaogan agricultural technology extension center.
Name: “Xiaogan” (孝感) is the name of the prefecture; “lóngjiàn” (龙剑) means “dragon sword”. The specification does not explain why this name was chosen, but it compares the dry leaf to a blade (似刀剑).
Cultural significance: According to the specification, there are several hundred teahouses in the city, and the tea culture has grown together with the veneration of parents (孝, xiào).

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Varieties: There is no local variety. The specification requires stable, high-quality and high-yielding varieties approved at no lower than the provincial level; at present these are mainly 福鼎大白茶 (Fúdǐng dàbáichá), 鄂茶1号 (Èchá 1) and 中茶108 (Zhōngchá 108).
Harvest standard: The specification divides the picking into spring and autumn and requires hand picking by “lifting the hand” (提手采): bud and leaf whole, without scales, fruits and old shoots. According to the technologists’ account, one bud with one unfolding leaf is taken, rejecting purple buds, “paired” leaves (对夹叶) and stalks.
Harvest time: According to the technologists’ account — around the Qingming festival (清明).

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: Hubei, northwest of Wuhan and north of the Yangtze: the low mountains and hills of the Dabie Mountains (大别山).
Growing altitude: On average 380 m (according to the specification).
Environment: Fogs, a network of streams; the gardens are far from cities and industry. The forest cover of the bases is 71–80%.
Soils: Deep yellow-brown sandy loams (黄棕砂壤土), pH 4.5–6; the gardens have long been fertilized with oilcake and manure, and there is a lot of organic matter in the soil.
Climate: Subtropical continental. Mean annual temperature 15.8 °C, humidity 65–85%, frost-free period 260 days, sunshine 1,996.7 h, precipitation 1,112 mm. The daily temperature range in the tea areas averages 10.6 °C.
Scale: According to the specification, the total area of the zone is 8,910 km², of which 3 million mu are suitable for tea; gardens — 370,000 mu, output — 7,124 t; the year of the data is not given.
Planting: According to the specification, a garden is laid out on slopes of up to 15°: trenches 70×60 cm are dug across the slope and planted in double rows — the wide inter-row 1.0 m, the narrow 0.3 m, 0.2 m between bushes, three seedlings per bush, about 5,500 bushes per mu. Along the edges of the garden and in windy places, protective or economic trees are planted.
Cultivation practices: Two fertilizer applications a year: 25–30 days before picking and at the beginning of October — 200 kg of oilcake and 1,500 kg of manure per mu. Pruning — once a year, after the spring picking. Against pests — light traps and biological agents; of the chemical agents the specification names imidacloprid against the leafhopper. At the end of June the soil is mulched with straw — about 1,000 kg per mu; fertility and heavy metals in the soil are checked once every two years. Environment, fertilizers and pesticides — according to the industry “green food” standards NY/T 391-2000, NY/T 394-2000 and NY/T 393-2000.

5. Production Technology

The specification sets the chain: picking → spreading (摊青, tānqīng) → fixation (杀青, shāqīng) → straightening (理条, lǐtiáo) → shaping (做形, zuòxíng) → first drying → final drying in the wok (辉锅, huīguō) → sorting → packing. It contains no parameters; the hand-processing regime below is from the technologists’ account:

Spreading: The leaf is lightly withered for 3–5 hours.
First wok (青锅): About 150 °C, 500 g of leaf at a time; for 1–2 minutes the leaf is tossed, then the heat is lowered to 80–90 °C and the leaf is worked until it becomes soft and the grassy smell gives way to a clean aroma. It is shaped at 80 °C; when the leaf has taken the form of a sword and is about seven-tenths dry, it is taken out.
Resting: 30–40 minutes in a thin layer under white gauze, so that the moisture is distributed evenly.
Final drying (辉锅): About 80 °C, 300 g of leaf at a time, to a moisture content of about 6%, when the leaf can be rubbed to powder between the fingers.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Requirements of the indication’s specification.

Dry leaf appearance: Flat, straight like a blade, emerald in color, clean and even (扁平挺直似刀剑，色泽翠绿，干净匀齐).
Dry leaf aroma: No separate description in the sources consulted.
Liquor aroma: Lasting chestnut (栗香持久).
Taste: Fresh, mellow and refreshing (鲜醇爽口).
Liquor color: Tender green, clear and bright (嫩绿清澈明亮).
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender green, bright, bud and leaf open into a “flower” (芽叶成朵).

In the section on technology the same specification writes differently: the leaf is green, with noticeable down, the aroma tender or clean (嫩香或清香), not chestnut. The document does not explain why the descriptions differ.

7. Chemical Composition

Physicochemical requirements of the specification:

Indicator	Norm
Amino acids	no less than 2.5%
Extractives	no less than 36.0%
Total ash	no more than 6.5%
Fines	no more than 5.0%
Crude fiber	no more than 14.0%
Moisture	no more than 6.0%

The specification mentions selenium and zinc in the tea without figures. Safety — according to the “green food” standard NY/T 288-2002. These are norms, not measurements of a batch.

8. Brewing

Class practice for green tea.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: Glass tumbler or white gaiwan.
Process: First infusion — after 40–60 seconds; drink, leaving part of the liquor, and top up — two or three infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, without light, moisture and odors; drink within a year.

10. Price and Counterfeits

No price data were found in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the geographical indication mark together with the product name; according to the specification, it is used by producers from the zone under an annual agreement with the holder.
- Since 2025 there has also been the geographical indication product mark: a producer from the zone submits an application to the prefecture intellectual property authority, it is reviewed by the Hubei provincial administration, and approved and published by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
- Check that the producer is from the six counties, cities and districts of the zone.
- The leaf is flat, straight, emerald.

11. Interesting Facts

According to the technologists’ account, the predecessor of the brand was the hand-made “Xiaogan Longjing” (孝感龙井茶).
In Yangdian town within the zone, the Chanchuan farm (浐川茶场), according to a 2024 reference publication, makes “浐川龙剑茶”; the sources do not say whether it belongs to the indication.
The specification forbids the holder of the indication to charge a fee for the use of the mark.

12. Comparison with Other Teas

Xihu Longjing (西湖龙井): The flat tea of Hangzhou; according to the technologists’ account, its technology became the starting point.
Xiaochang Fenghuangshan Cha (孝昌凤凰山茶): A flat green tea of Zhouxiang town, which lies within the indication zone.
Zhouxiang Fenghuang Cha (周巷凤凰茶): A protected name of the same town.
Dawu Lücha (大悟绿茶): The green tea of Dawu County, which is also part of the zone.
Xiaogan Hong (孝感红): A red tea of the same prefecture.

In Conclusion:

Xiàogǎn lóngjiàn chá is a flat green tea of Xiaogan, named after its leaf, straight as a blade. Behind it stand two stories — an old one, about the tea of the prefecture since the Ming, and a new one, about the technologists who created their own processing on the basis of Longjing. The specification describes it precisely: three varieties, yellow-brown sandy loams by the Dabie Mountains, emerald leaf, a chestnut aroma and a tender green liquor.