Xiāokēng lǜchá (霄坑绿茶) is a green tea of a single village: Xiaokeng (霄坑村) of Meicun Town, Guichi District, Chizhou prefecture-level city, in the south of Anhui Province. The protection zone is unusually small — not a county and not a township, but a single mountain valley. The requirements name a local large-leaf variety, hand picking, flat and twisted shapes, and the main feature — a chestnut aroma. The name is protected twice: as an agricultural product geographical indication (2010) and under announcement No. 632 of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (2025).
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), unfermented. The class is given in the name and confirmed by the technology: spreading of the leaf, fixation, shaping or rolling, drying.
- Category: Village green tea of southern Anhui; a geographical indication product protected under two regimes.
- Origin: China, Anhui Province (安徽, Ānhuī), Chizhou prefecture-level city (池州, Chízhōu), Guichi District (贵池, Guìchí), Meicun Town (梅村镇), Xiaokeng Village.
- Protection zone: The tea gardens of all twelve production groups of Xiaokeng Village and of the Gaotang group (高塘村民组) of Xishan Village (西山村), Tangxi Town (棠溪镇). The applicant is the tea cooperative of Xiaokeng Village.
- Geographic coordinates: 117°28′51″–117°34′46″ E, 30°19′02″–30°22′47″ N. The frame is less than six minutes of arc in longitude and four in latitude — it is a single mountain valley.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- The valley. According to an essay in the newspaper Anhui Ribao (2024), people lived and planted tea in this basin among the mountains as early as the Song; documentary confirmation is not found in the sources consulted.
- Forest and tea. In the past the village lived on timber, firewood and charcoal, and tea was a sideline. According to a report by the district government, the first collective tea factory opened in 1992. After the flood of the late 1990s the village wrote into its village charter a ban on clearing forest for tea, and banned chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and growth stimulants on its land.
- A dispute over the name. Formerly the village was called 肖坑 — also Xiāokēng. According to the same essay, around 1997 it ceded the trademark “肖坑” to an invited trader, after which a protracted dispute began, and the village lost the right to the mark.
- 2003. In an administrative redrawing, the neighboring village of Shuangcun (双村) was joined to the village, and the merged village received the name 霄坑: the “rain” radical (雨) was added to the character 肖. But the name sounds the same as the former one, so it could not become the village’s trademark.
- 2010. The village set up a tea cooperative and in December registered “霄坑绿茶” as an agricultural product geographical indication (number AGI00440).
- 2018. According to the district, six leading tea enterprises of the village joined in a tea association, which received the right to use the indication.
- 2025. By announcement No. 632 of 9 June 2025, the China National Intellectual Property Administration recognized Xiāokēng lǜchá as a geographical indication product.
- Name: 霄 (xiāo) — “the heavenly heights, clouds”, 坑 (kēng) — “a pit, a hollow”. Where the name comes from, according to the 2024 essay, not even the old-timers can say; it is explained by the look of the valley, which from the height of the clouds looks like a pit. The “rain” radical in the first character appeared only in 2003.
- Cultural significance: For the village, tea is the basis of the economy, and tourism has grown up around it. The valuation of China’s regional tea brands that the district cites put the name at 76 million yuan in 2013 and 1.197 billion in 2025.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: 霄坑大叶马兰种 (Xiāokēng dàyè mǎlán zhǒng) — the local large-leaf Malan variety. A botanical description of the variety is not found in the sources consulted. According to the district, the village, together with Anhui Agricultural University, selects the best local bushes for a nursery.
- Harvest: By hand only — as the protection requirements state.
- Harvest standard: The requirements do not set one. Exact harvest dates are not found in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: A gorge in the western spurs of Jiuhuashan, deep in the Laoshan Nature Reserve (老山自然保护区). Descriptions speak of mists and abundant moisture; the village’s forest cover, by its 2025 data, is over 95% (a district page from 2023 gave 92%).
- Growing altitude: According to the protection requirements, gardens are laid out at an altitude of 100–650 m. The district’s report gives the village’s average altitude as about 700 m — this is at odds with the requirements.
- Site: Level ground, a wide terrace or a gentle slope no steeper than 25°, with good water drainage and shelter from wind.
- Soils: Fertile sandy loam, rich in organic matter, holding water and nutrients well; layer thickness over 70 cm, pH 4.5–6.5.
- Garden care: Without herbicides, chemical pesticides and hormones: shallow loosening before and after the spring harvest, deep cultivation between the rows to 20–30 cm in autumn or winter; once every few years, after the spring harvest, the top of the crown is cut back by 10–15 cm.
- Area and output: The figures differ. The 2024 essay gives more than 5,000 mu of gardens and 70 t of tea a year, the district’s 2025 report — 6,000 mu and more than 140,000 jin, that is, the same 70 t.
5. Production Technology
The protection requirements describe two lines, but without parameters.
- Flat famous tea (扁形名茶): spreading of the fresh leaf (摊青, tānqīng) — fixation (杀青, shāqīng) — shaping (做形, zuòxíng) — drying (干燥, gānzào).
- Maofeng and bulk tea (毛峰茶、大宗茶): spreading of the fresh leaf — fixation — rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn) — drying.
The purpose of the stages follows the general scheme of the class: the leaf gives up part of its moisture, heating stops oxidation, the leaf takes its shape, drying fixes it. Temperatures and times are not found in the sources consulted.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description follows the 2025 protection requirements; the source’s wording is given in parentheses.
- Dry leaf appearance: Tightly rolled, sturdy (紧结壮实); emerald green in color, oily and lustrous, with noticeable down (翠绿油润显毫).
- Dry leaf aroma: A separate description is not found in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Chestnut, high and long (栗香高长). The requirements do not separate the aroma of the leaf from that of the liquor.
- Taste: Fresh, mild, invigorating, with a sweet aftertaste (鲜醇爽口回甘). The district’s essay adds that the tea stands up to many infusions.
- Liquor color: Clear, green, bright (清澈绿亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender green, even, bright (嫩绿匀亮).
7. Chemical Composition
The protection requirements set ranges:
| Indicator | Content |
|---|---|
| Amino acids | 2.8–4.0% |
| Tea polyphenols | 25–32% |
| Caffeine | 3–4.8% |
| Extractives | 35–51% |
These are requirements of the document, not the results of analyses of specific batches: such data are 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 for the flat tea, a gaiwan for the twisted one.
- Process:
- Warm the teaware.
- Add the tea and pour the water down the side.
- First infusion — after 40–60 seconds.
- Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
- Top up with water.
- Two or three further infusions.
9. Storage
Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. The chestnut aroma weakens over time, so the tea is best drunk within a year.
10. Price and Counterfeits
Price data are not found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special geographical indication mark: it is issued only to producers from the protection zone.
- Keep in mind the size of the zone: a single village yields, by reports, about 70 t of tea a year. Supply under this name in volumes out of proportion to the valley is a reason to ask questions.
- Do not confuse it with the name “肖坑”: this was the village’s name until 2003, and the trademark bearing this name, according to the 2024 essay, has long ceased to belong to the village.
11. Interesting Facts
- The village changed a character in its own name for the sake of a trademark — and still could not register it, because the new name sounds like the old one.
- The protection zone includes not only the village itself but also one production group of the neighboring village of Xishan.
- According to the valuation of regional tea brands, in twelve years the value of the name grew almost sixteenfold.
12. Comparison with Neighboring Anhui Teas
- Jiuhua Fo Cha (九华佛茶): A green tea of Mount Jiuhuashan in the same Chizhou prefecture; one of its schools, according to the corpus article, is also of the chestnut type.
- Taiping Hou Kui (太平猴魁): A flat green tea of Huangshan prefecture; for Xiāokēng lǜchá the flat shape is only one of two.
- Huangshan Mao Feng (黄山毛峰): The benchmark of Anhui maofeng; the second line of Xiāokēng lǜchá also includes maofeng.
In Conclusion:
Xiāokēng lǜchá is a tea whose protection zone fits into a single mountain valley. The requirements for it are short and clear: the local large-leaf Malan variety, hand picking, a flat or twisted shape, an emerald leaf with down and a chestnut aroma. Its history is the history of a village that changed a character in its name after losing its trademark, and won the name back through a geographical indication.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page