Zhèng'ān báichá · thetea.app

Zhèng’ān báichá (正安白茶) is a green tea of Zheng’an County (正安县) of Zunyi prefecture-level city in the north of Guizhou Province, made from the white-leaf variety 白叶一号 (báiyè yī hào). The name is misleading: “white” here is not the class but the color of the spring leaf. In spring the variety puts out almost white shoots, which turn green as it gets warmer, and from them a green tea with fixation is made — the same technology as that of the Anji prototype. The 2011 geographical indication document sets out everything for Zheng’an in detail: nineteen towns, the variety, altitudes, picking dates, the technology with its regimes, the appearance and an amino acid threshold of at least 7%.

1. Classification and Origin

Type: Green tea (绿茶, lǜchá), unfermented. The class is determined by the technology in the geographical indication document: spreading → fixation (杀青) → first drying → final drying. “White” in the name is the color of the leaf of a white-leaf variety, not the white class.
Category: Green tea from a white-leaf variety; geographical indication product (2011) and geographical mark.
Origin: China, Guizhou Province (贵州, Guìzhōu), Zunyi prefecture-level city (遵义, Zūnyì), Zheng’an County (正安县, Zhèng’ān Xiàn). The protection zone — nineteen towns and townships: Fengyi (凤仪镇), Anchang (安场镇), Ruixi (瑞溪镇), Xinzhou (新州镇), Xiaoya (小雅镇), Miaotang (庙塘镇), Hexi (和溪镇), Tuping (土坪镇), Liudu (流渡镇), Gelin (格林镇), Zhongguan (中观镇), Lejian (乐俭乡), Xieba (谢坝乡), Shiping (市坪乡), Banzhu (班竹乡), Fuyan (桴焉乡), Bifeng (碧峰乡), Yangxing (杨兴乡) and Jianping (俭坪乡).
Geographic coordinates: Zheng’an County — about 28.6° N and 107.4° E.

2. History and Cultural Significance

History:
- The variety from Anji. 白叶一号 is the same variety as that of Anji Baicha in Zhejiang; its history is described in the article on Anji tea.
- Arrival in Zheng’an. When and how the variety came to Zheng’an is not stated in the sources consulted.
- 2011. On 12 May the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), by announcement No. 69, placed Zhèng’ān báichá under protection as a geographical indication product. The same announcement protects the local quince (正安野木瓜).
- The mark. Separately, geographical mark No. 7620458 has been registered; the holder is the Zheng’an County tea association (贵州省正安县茶业协会), the goods — “白茶；茶”.
Name:
- “Zheng’an” (正安) — the name of the county.
- “Baicha” (白茶, báichá) — “white tea”, after the color of the spring leaf.
Cultural significance: Zheng’an is an example of how a Zhejiang white-leaf variety became a protected product of a county in another province. The name báichá is used here just as it is in Anji: it describes the leaf, not the class, and the buyer should know this in advance.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

Variety / Cultivar: 白叶一号 — according to the geographical indication document. The whiteness of the leaf depends on temperature: in spring, while the cool weather holds, the young leaf hardly synthesizes chlorophyll and looks white, and as it gets warmer it turns green. That is why the harvest is short: the white phase does not last long.
Harvest: According to the document — from the beginning of March to the beginning of May.
Harvest standard: From a just-opened bud with one leaf to a bud with two leaves (一芽一叶初展至一芽二叶).
Cultivation: According to the document — propagation by cuttings; planting from mid-February to the beginning of March or from the end of October to the end of November; no more than 45,000 bushes per hectare; no less than 30 tonnes of well-rotted organic fertilizer per hectare a year.
Raw material requirements: Origin from the nineteen units of the zone; variety — 白叶一号.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

Region: A mountainous county in the north of Guizhou.
Growing altitude: According to the document — 500–1100 m.
Soils: Red or yellow soils (红壤或黄壤), pH 5.0–6.5, layer depth not less than 50 cm, organic matter more than 1.0%.
Climate: No exact data in the sources consulted.
Features: For a white-leaf variety the spring temperature matters more than usual: it determines how white the leaf comes out and how long the harvest lasts.

5. Production Technology

The technology according to the geographical indication document: fresh leaf → spreading → fixation → first drying → final drying.

Fresh leaf (鲜叶 — xiānyè): A bud with one or two leaves, picked from the beginning of March to the beginning of May.
Spreading (摊青 — tānqīng): A leaf layer of 5–10 cm, 6–8 hours, turned carefully once; the leaf loses 10–15% of its moisture.
Fixation (杀青 — shāqīng): Pan temperature 200–250 °C; this step stops the enzymes and makes the tea green.
First drying (初烘 — chūhōng): About 130 °C, a layer of 0.5 cm.
Final drying (焙干 — bèigān): 80–100 °C; moisture of the finished tea — not more than 6.5%.

There is no rolling in the list: after fixation the leaf is only dried, in two stages.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

According to the document; the top grade (特级) is given first, the first grade (一级) in parentheses:

Dry leaf appearance: Thick, straight leaves (条索肥壮，挺直; for the first grade — 尚肥壮、挺直); color tender white, “snowy” (色泽嫩白，雪亮; for the first — 嫩白).
Dry leaf aroma: No separate description.
Liquor aroma: High and rich (高香、浓郁; for the first — 高香).
Taste: Sweet, mellow, fresh (甘醇，清爽; for the first — 甘醇).
Liquor color: Green, lush (绿润; for the first — fresh green, 鲜绿).
Spent leaves (wet leaves): Soft, bright (柔软、明亮; for the first — 柔软、匀亮).

7. Chemical Composition

The document sets two physicochemical thresholds:

Amino acids: not less than 7.0%.
Water-soluble substances: not less than 38%.

The high amino acid threshold is the main chemical feature of this product according to the document. Data on polyphenols and caffeine for the Zheng’an tea in particular were not found in the sources consulted.

8. Health Properties

There are no verified data on the effect of this particular tea. The document sets high amino acids as an indicator of quality, not as a health property, and I draw no conclusions about benefits from this figure here.

9. Brewing

Class practice for green tea from a white-leaf variety; the document has no separate recommendations.

Water temperature: 80–85 °C.
Tea amount: 3 g per 150 ml.
Teaware: A glass tumbler — the leaf unfolds and stands in the water — or a white gaiwan.
Process:
1. Warm the vessel.
2. Put in the tea.
3. Pour in a little water, let the leaf open for 20–30 seconds.
4. Add water; the first infusion — 1–2 minutes.
5. Drink, leaving part of the liquor.
6. Two or three re-infusions.

10. Storage

Class practice. In airtight packaging, in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C, away from light, moisture and odors. A seasonal tea, aging is not needed: the whiteness and the aroma fade with time.

11. Price and Counterfeits

No price data in the sources consulted.

How to avoid counterfeits:
- Look on the package for the geographical indication mark or the mark “正安白茶”.
- Check that the producer is from one of the nineteen units of the zone.
- Remember that this is a green tea with fixation. Leaf withered without fixation, as for white tea, is a different class and not the right product.
- The leaf — thick, straight, light, almost white; the liquor sweet and mellow.

12. Interesting Facts

The variety is the same as that of Anji Baicha, but Zheng’an has its own document: its own altitudes, dates and thresholds.
The document requires amino acids of not less than 7%.
There is no rolling in the technology: after fixation the leaf is dried in two stages.
The whiteness of the leaf is a temperature effect: in summer the same bush gives an ordinary green leaf.
The 2011 announcement protected the tea and the local quince at the same time.

13. Comparison with Other Teas

Anji Baicha (安吉白茶): The prototype — the same variety and the same technology; Zheng’an is its Guizhou branch with its own requirements.
Fuling Baicha (涪陵白茶): A Chongqing tea with the same word báichá in its name, given after the pale young leaf; its class according to the document has not been established.
Meitan Cuiya (湄潭翠芽): A green tea of the same Zunyi prefecture-level city — flat and not from a white-leaf variety.

In Conclusion:

Zhèng’ān báichá is a green tea with a “white” name, and the main thing about it is the precision of its document. It has everything needed: the variety 白叶一号, nineteen towns, altitudes of 500–1100 m, picking from March to May, fixation without rolling, amino acids no lower than 7%. In the cup it is a thick, light leaf, a high, rich aroma and a sweet, mellow taste — the white-leaf tea of Anji that has taken root in the mountains of northern Guizhou.

Sources

Geographical indication

Full list — on the Sources page