Zhǎoshān cháyè

Zhǎoshān cháyè (沼山茶叶), “the tea of Zhaoshan”, is the tea name of the mountains and town of Zhaoshan (沼山) in Liangzihu District (梁子湖区) of Ezhou prefecture-level city in the east of Hubei Province. Since December 2017 it has been registered as a geographical indication certification mark, and it is held neither by an association nor by a company but by the Zhaoshan state forest farm (鄂州市国有沼山林场), which runs an ecological tea garden and a machine-processing workshop in the mountains. The class of the tea, the variety, the technology and the appearance are not described in the documents found. For this reason the article stands among the categories: it is known who holds the name and how it is promoted, but not what tea exactly is sold under it.

1. Classification and Origin

• Type: Not established. “茶叶” (cháyè) simply means “tea leaf”; the word does not name a class, and the text of the mark with a description of the product is not found in the sources consulted.
• Category: Geographical indication certification mark for tea leaf (2017).
• Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Ezhou prefecture-level city (鄂州, Èzhōu), Liangzihu District (梁子湖, Liángzǐhú), Zhaoshan Town (沼山镇).
• Mark holder: The Zhaoshan state forest farm. According to a reference note of the municipal bureau of natural resources, the farm was founded in 1957 with funds from the provincial forestry department, lies in the southeast of Ezhou, and its office is in Zhaoshan Town; it manages 9,700 mu of land, and the forest cover is 92.1%. Since 1997 the farm and the Zhaoshan Provincial Forest Park (湖北省沼山森林公园) have worked under one management — “two signboards, one team”.
• Mark zone: The provincial list gives Liangzihu District. This is the administrative affiliation of the holder, not the legal boundary of the zone: a text with the boundaries is not found in the sources consulted.
• Geographic coordinates: Ezhou — about 30.4° N and 114.9° E; Liangzihu District lies further south, by the lake of the same name.

2. History and Cultural Significance

• History:
  • The old background of the prefecture. An article by the Hubei Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission on the Great Tea Road (2025) quotes a line from the treatise Chapu (茶谱), which it dates to the Tang era: in the “Eastern Mountains of Ezhou” (鄂州之东山), in Puqi and in Tangnian County grows “a large tea, black in color, resembling leek, very soft”. Whether the Zhaoshan mountains are meant, the article does not say, so this is the history of the prefecture, not the history of the mark.
  • 2017 — registration. According to the provincial list of geographical marks (data as of May 2020), the mark “沼山茶叶” No. 20827439 is registered in class 30, goods — tea leaf (茶叶). The term of the exclusive right runs from December 28, 2017 to December 27, 2027.
  • 2023 — new harvest tasting. On April 16 the forest farm and the forest park hosted the event “品沼山茶，游梁子湖” — “taste Zhaoshan tea, stroll by Lake Liangzihu”, combined with a tasting of the new tea of 2023; representatives of the Ezhou Tea Association (鄂州市茶叶协会) also spoke. According to the report on the event, the guests toured the farm’s standardized ecological tea base, tasted the new tea with commentary from invited experts and watched the whole process of machine processing in the workshop. The author of the report formulates the aim as follows: to “擦亮” the “沼山茶叶” mark, that is, to make it more visible, and to link the tea business with tourism and wellness leisure.
• Name: 沼山 (Zhǎoshān) is the name of the mountains and the town; 茶叶 means “tea leaf”, in everyday use simply “tea”.
• Cultural significance: In the district the name Zhaoshan works as a common brand for local products. In the same provincial list, Liangzihu District has the marks “沼山胡柚” for pomelo (2011) and “沼山茶油” for edible oil (2013), and the tea mark came last, in 2017. At the 2023 event the tea was explicitly framed as part of the push for “tea plus tourism” (茶旅融合).

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Variety / Cultivar: No data for the mark. In 2013 — four years before the mark was registered — an Ezhou reference website called tea of the brand “沼山春” (Zhǎoshān chūn) a product of the Zhaoshan forest park and wrote that it is made from the variety 福鼎大白毫 (Fúdǐng dàbáiháo) and that the bushes are grown with “pollution-free” technology (无公害). Whether this brand belongs to the mark, the website does not say.
• Raw material and harvest standard: No data in the sources consulted.
• Harvest time: There are no exact dates. The only time reference is the new harvest tasting on April 16, 2023.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Region: The Zhaoshan mountains in Liangzihu District, by Lake Liangzihu, in the southeast of Ezhou. The garden belongs to a farm whose main work is forestry: the forest cover of its lands, according to the reference note of the bureau of natural resources, is 92.1%.
• Altitude: The same 2013 reference website writes of an altitude of “more than 400 m” for a place that it calls “沼山茶园” and at once describes as a provincial forest park; whether the figure applies to the tea gardens is not clear from the text.
• Climate, soils: No data in the sources consulted.
• Tea garden area: No data in the sources consulted; the reference note on the farm does not mention tea at all.

5. Production Technology

A document with the technology is not found in the sources consulted. It is only known that the forest farm has a machine tea-processing workshop: in 2023 the guests were shown the whole process in it, but the report does not name the stages.

For the “沼山春” brand the 2013 reference website writes of careful picking, strict selection of raw material and hand processing by a master with more than twenty years of experience. The link between the brand and the mark is not established, and which class of tea the brand produces, the website does not say. We do not give a general scheme of any class here: the class is unknown.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Descriptions of the tea under the mark are not found in the sources consulted.

• Dry leaf appearance: No data in the sources consulted.
• Dry leaf aroma: No data in the sources consulted.
• Liquor aroma: No data in the sources consulted.
• Taste: No data in the sources consulted.
• Liquor color: No data in the sources consulted.
• Spent leaves (wet leaves): No data in the sources consulted.

The only description of taste found refers to the “沼山春” brand and is taken from the same 2013 reference website: a persistent rich aroma, a clear light liquor, a fresh taste, a beautiful leaf shape. This is an advertising characterization of one brand, not a description of the product under the mark.

7. Chemical Composition

No physico-chemical data in the sources consulted.

8. Brewing

Class practice. The class is not established; the guidelines below are for green tea, the appearance described for the neighboring mark of the same district, Lianghu Biyu Cha, and for the “沼山春” brand. This is not proof of the class: for a tea of another class the parameters would be different.

• 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; two or three repeat infusions.

9. Storage

Class practice for green tea. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors; best drunk within a year.

10. Price and Counterfeits

Price data are not found in the sources consulted.

• Mark status: The term of mark No. 20827439, according to the provincial list, runs until December 27, 2027.
• How to avoid counterfeits:
  • Look for the certification mark “沼山茶叶” on the packaging and check the number 20827439.
  • Check that the producer is from Liangzihu District.
  • Remember that a brand name by itself, including “沼山春”, proves nothing: it is the name of the mark that is protected, not the name of a brand.
  • Do not confuse with the neighboring mark “梁湖碧玉茶” (No. 14531126): it is a different name with a different holder — the Ezhou Zhaoshan Camellia Oil Association.

11. Interesting Facts

• The holder of the tea mark is a forest farm founded in 1957; its main work is forestry, not tea: the list of main species in the reference note on the farm does not include the tea bush, but it does include oil camellia and pomelo.
• Under the name Zhaoshan, pomelo, edible oil and tea are registered in one district; tea came last.
• The “茶” in the name “沼山茶油” is not tea: it is oil from the oil camellia, and it has its own mark, in a different class of goods.
• In Liangzihu District there are two tea marks tied to the Zhaoshan mountains — “沼山茶叶” and “梁湖碧玉茶” — and they are held by different organizations.

12. Comparison with Other Teas

• Lianghu Biyu Cha (梁湖碧玉茶): A neighboring mark of the same district, also in the Zhaoshan mountains, but with a different holder; its description depicts the appearance of a green tea, although the class is not named in the documents either.
• Jiangxia Bifang (江夏碧舫): A flat green tea of Jiangxia District of Wuhan, with gardens by the same Lake Liangzihu.
• Huangpi Lücha (黄陂绿茶): A green tea of Huangpi District in the north of Wuhan, also with a geographical mark.

In Conclusion:

Zhǎoshān cháyè is a name behind which, for now, an organization is visible rather than a tea: a 2017 mark, a holder that is a state forest farm with a garden and a workshop, new harvest tastings and a push for “tea plus tourism”. The documents found do not name the class, the variety or the appearance, and the encyclopedia leaves these fields blank until the text of the mark or a description of the product from the holder itself appears.