Zhènbā máojiān (镇巴毛尖) is a green tea of Zhenba County (镇巴县) of Hanzhong prefecture-level city in the far south of Shaanxi Province, in the Dabashan mountains near the border with Sichuan. The word máojiān — “downy tips” — names the shape, not the technology; the class is determined by the processing chain in the protection requirements: fixation, two rollings, drying and pan-firing, without oxidation and without sealed yellowing. The name is protected as an agricultural product geographical indication (AGI03433) and as a geographical indication product in the CNIPA list of 2025.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá). The protection requirements do not name the class explicitly, but they set a green-tea technology — fixation (杀青, shāqīng), rolling, drying — without oxidation and without sealed yellowing (闷黄, mènhuáng); the liquor is tender green.
- Category: Green tea of Hanzhong in the south of Shaanxi, with two protection regimes.
- Origin: China, Shaanxi Province (陕西, Shǎnxī), Hanzhong prefecture-level city (汉中, Hànzhōng), Zhenba County (镇巴, Zhènbā).
- Applicant: The Zhenba County tea technical guidance station (镇巴县茶叶技术指导站).
- Protection zone: 20 towns and subdistricts of the county, with 137 administrative villages in them. Eighteen are named: Nianzi, Bamiao, Guanyin, Xinglong, Ping’an, Yongle, Dachi, Jianchi, Sanyuan, Liba, Changling, Yanchang, Chinan, Bashan, Yudu, Xiaoyang, Jingyang and Yangjiahe — “and others”. According to a reference list, the county has exactly 20 such units, and only Qingshui (青水) and Rencun (仁村) are not named; villages and residents’ committees in the county, according to the reference, number 256.
- Geographic coordinates: 107°25′–108°16′ E, 32°08′–32°50′ N.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Before protection. There is no history of the tea in the sources consulted: no dates, no awards, no chronicles.
- Agricultural indication. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs registered the name under number AGI03433; the year of registration is not in the sources consulted.
- 2025. CNIPA announcement No. 646 included “镇巴毛尖” in the list of geographical indication products (row 759 of the appendix) and approved the protection requirements: zone, varieties, site, agronomy, technology, appearance and physicochemical indicators.
- Name: “Zhenba” (镇巴) — the name of the county; máojiān (毛尖) — “downy tips”, after the look of the dry leaf.
- Cultural significance: Hanzhong is the tea-growing south of Shaanxi, separated from the arid north by the Qinling range. According to an article in our corpus, the county is also part of the zone of the prefecture-level umbrella name Hanzhong Xianhao (汉中仙毫); Zhènbā máojiān is a separate name with its own requirements.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Varieties: The protection requirements name the population 紫阳槠叶群体种 (Zǐyáng zhūyè qúntǐzhǒng) — bearing the name of Ziyang County of the same province — and the variety 名山131 (Míngshān 131), “and others”. The document gives no description of the bushes.
- Harvest: By hand only (全部手工采摘); buds with leaves full and even, without dew and without damage (芽叶饱满匀整，不带露水无损伤).
- Harvest standard: How many leaves to take with the bud the document does not say; no data in the sources consulted.
- Seasons: The pruning rules mention a spring and an autumn harvest; no exact dates in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Region: According to reference data, the county lies in the western part of the Dabashan mountains and in the eastern part of the Micangshan range, in the southeastern corner of Hanzhong prefecture-level city, and in the south borders Wanyuan and Tongjiang in Sichuan. It is crossed by rivers of two basins — the Jialing River and the Han River.
- Growing altitude: According to the protection requirements — 800–1200 m. Elevations in the county, according to a reference, range from 425 m near Bamiao town to 2534 m on Mount Jianganshan.
- Climate: There are no data for the gardens. According to a reference on the county: a humid northern subtropical zone of the southeast monsoon, noticeably continental; mean annual temperature 13.8 °C, precipitation 1250 mm, frost-free period 236 days.
- Soils: According to the protection requirements — yellow-brown earths (黄棕壤), yellow-cinnamon soils (黄褐土), gravelly soils (石渣土) and sandy soils with platy rock fragments (片砂土); a layer of not less than 1 m, pH 5.5–6.0, organic matter not less than 2.0%.
- Agronomy: Dense planting along the contours of the slope in one or two rows, in a “丁” pattern, 25,000–32,000 seedlings per hectare. Fertilizing by the scheme “one basal, two top dressings” (一基两追): the basal dressing, mainly organic, is applied in autumn or winter with deep plowing, not shallower than 20 cm; the top dressings in spring and in summer-autumn, mainly quick-acting nitrogen. Pruning in spring — after the spring harvest, deep (10–15 cm) or heavy (half of the crown); in autumn — after the autumn harvest, 3–5 cm above the previous cut.
- Scale: A reference article on the county gives 35,000 mu of tea gardens and 420 tonnes of tea a year, without stating the year.
5. Production Technology
The protection requirements set the processing chain but give no parameters — no temperatures, no times, no moisture levels. The order of the stages in the document: spreading of the fresh leaf (摊放, tānfàng) → fixation (杀青, shāqīng) → rolling (揉捻, róuniǎn) → breaking up clumps (解块, jiěkuài) → first drying (初烘, chūhōng) → cooling (摊晾, tānliàng) → second rolling (复揉, fùróu) → pan-firing with tumbling of the leaf (滚炒, gǔnchǎo) → final drying (足干, zúgān) → sorting (精选, jīngxuǎn) → packing.
According to the general scheme of green tea, and not to a description of this particular one, fixation by heat stops oxidation, and pan-firing and final drying lock in the aroma. A feature of the chain is visible even without parameters: there are two rollings, between them partial drying and cooling, and at the end pan-firing.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The description below is given by the protection requirements; it is short, and three of the sub-items are missing from it.
- Dry leaf appearance: Sturdy and tightly rolled, green with a moist luster, with visible down (外形壮实紧结、色泽绿润显毫).
- Dry leaf aroma: No descriptions in the sources consulted.
- Liquor aroma: Not described separately — the aroma is mentioned only in the description of the taste; no data in the sources consulted.
- Taste: Mellow and fragrant, with a sweet return (滋味醇香回甘).
- Liquor color: Tender green, clear and bright (茶汤嫩绿透亮).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions in the sources consulted.
The document adds that the tea is rich in extractive substances and withstands many infusions (内含物丰富耐冲泡).
7. Chemical Composition
Physicochemical indicators according to the protection requirements:
| Indicator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Extractive substances | not less than 40.0% |
| Amino acids | not less than 3% |
| Polyphenols | not less than 16% |
| Catechins | 15% |
For catechins the document has no comparison sign — simply “15%”; this was checked against the image of the page. Whether this is a threshold or an average cannot be told. The document calls the tea rich in amino acids and zinc, but gives no figure for zinc. These are protection requirements, 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: A glass tumbler or a white gaiwan.
- Process: Warm the vessel, pour the water down the side, the first infusion — after 40–60 seconds; drink, leaving a third, and top up. Usually two or three re-infusions, but the protection requirements note that the tea withstands many infusions.
9. Storage
Class practice. 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
No price data in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look for the special geographical indication mark: a producer’s application from the zone is accepted by the county intellectual property administration, checked by the provincial one, and the right to the mark is announced by CNIPA.
- Check that the producer is from Zhenba County and that the package says exactly “镇巴毛尖”: the word máojiān does not guarantee the place.
- Dry leaf — sturdy, tightly rolled, green with down; liquor — tender green and clear.
11. Interesting Facts
- Hand picking is mandatory for the whole name: the document does not divide the tea into grades.
- The protection zone is called “20 towns and subdistricts”, but eighteen are listed.
- One of the two varietal bases bears the name of another tea county of Shaanxi — Ziyang.
12. Comparison with Other Teas of Southern Shaanxi and with Maojian Teas
- Hanzhong Xianhao (汉中仙毫): A prefecture-level umbrella name whose zone includes Zhenba as well; here — a county name with its own requirements.
- Wuzi Xianhao (午子仙毫): A tea of Xixiang County of the same prefecture-level city, with flat, curved leaf; Zhènbā máojiān has sturdy, tightly rolled leaf.
- Ziyang Maojian (紫阳毛尖): A maojian of Ankang prefecture-level city; the population in the requirements for Zhènbā máojiān also bears the name of Ziyang.
- Xinyang Maojian (信阳毛尖): A Henan tea with the same word in its name — máojiān names the shape, not the place.
In Conclusion:
Zhènbā máojiān is a green tea of the southern edge of Shaanxi, where the Dabashan mountains reach Sichuan. The sources are silent about its history, but the 2025 protection requirements describe it in detail: gardens at 800–1200 m, hand picking, two rollings with pan-firing at the end, sturdy green leaf with down, a tender green clear liquor and a mellow taste with a sweet return. Harvest dates, aroma, spent leaves and prices remain a blank spot for now.
Sources
Geographical indication
Full list — on the Sources page