Zhōngxiáng mǐchá

Zhōngxiáng mǐchá (钟祥米茶) is the Zhongxiang “rice tea”: rice dry-roasted in an iron wok and then boiled in water, at once a summer dish and a drink, from the county-level city of Zhongxiang (钟祥市) in Hubei Province. None of the descriptions found includes tea leaf, so by classification it is not a tea but a grain drink. A local formula explains the name this way: “eat it and you are full, drink it and your thirst is quenched” (食之果腹，饮之解渴). Since 2018 the name has been protected by a geographical indication certification trademark, and since 2021 a group standard has been in force for it.

1. Classification and Origin

• Type: A grain drink and dish of roasted rice; there is no Camellia sinensis leaf, and the product has no tea class.
• Category: Geographical indication certification trademark (2018); local cuisine.
• Classification of the standard: The group standard of the mark is assigned to beverages, and under the international classification to the section “tea, coffee, cocoa”. This is a rubric, not evidence of tea leaf.
• Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Jingmen prefecture-level city (荆门, Jīngmén), Zhongxiang county-level city (钟祥, Zhōngxiáng).
• Mark zone: No exact boundary found in the sources consulted; the holder of the mark is the Zhongxiang local products association (钟祥市特产协会).
• Folk names: “Roasted rice tea” (炒米茶, chǎomǐchá) and 沏米茶 (qīmǐchá) — according to the Baidu encyclopedia.

2. History and Cultural Significance

• History:
  • A legend of the Ming court. Material from the publicity department of the Zhongxiang city party committee on the Xinhua website (hereafter Xinhua) and the provincial intellectual property office retell a legend: the consort of Zhu Youyuan (朱祐杬), Prince of Xing, whose fief was the Anlu region — present-day Zhongxiang — could not eat refined dishes during her pregnancy; a cook brought her the rice tea he made at home, her appetite returned, and the dish “went from the people into the palace”. Her son became the Jiajing Emperor; according to Xinhua, after moving to the Forbidden City she had rice tea prepared there too in summer. This is a legend, not a document.
  • Another version. The cook at first boiled a soup of rice crust (锅巴), and later began roasting the rice directly (a popular source).
  • 1531. According to a reference website, in this year the county received the name Zhongxiang; the date has nothing to do with rice tea.
  • Raw material of the past. According to Xinhua, rice tea was at first made from hulled barley (麦米), and as prosperity grew it switched to rice.
  • 2018. The mark “钟祥米茶” (registration No. 26327613) was published as registered on December 20, 2018.
  • 2020–2022. Two enterprises were granted the right to use the mark: one for 2020–2023, the other for 2022–2028. Whether the first has been extended is not stated in the sources consulted.
  • 2021. The group standard T/ZXTC 001-2021 “地理标志证明商标 钟祥米茶” was issued (published on April 18, in force since April 25).
  • 2020–2023. Hubei Ribao writes that rice tea long did not go beyond the Jianghan Plain because of difficult transport and the lack of product variety. In 2020 a local firm launched “bread with rice tea flavor” — more than 3,000 t were sold in a little over two years; in total more than a dozen new products have been created, with an output value of about 100 million yuan a year.
• Name: 米 (mǐ) — “rice”, 茶 (chá) — “tea”. Xinhua states plainly that literally it is “tea made from rice”.
• Cultural significance: Zhongxiang is famous for its long-lived people, and rice tea is one of the “four treasures of Zhongxiang” (钟祥四宝). A local ditty quoted by the Zhongxin news agency places it above nectar: “爽口米茶胜琼浆”. According to Xinhua, from early summer until late autumn rice tea is roasted “in every home”.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Plant: Rice (Oryza sativa); in the past, barley. There is no tea plant.
• Grain: Hubei University of Economics recommends large, plump, even indica rice (籼米), preferably unpolished (糙米), or barley groats. Xinhua calls for large, plump grains. The Baidu encyclopedia names the cheap unpolished rice 牙黄米 as the best.
• Variety under the standard: Not found in the sources consulted.
• Raw material bases: According to the intellectual property office, one of the users of the mark has 2,000 mu of rice plantings for rice tea.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Region: The center of Hubei; the Hanjiang River crosses the whole county; a climate with four distinct seasons and moderate precipitation (Zhongxin news agency, 2024).
• Rice: Xinhua calls Zhongxiang a “land of fish and rice” where rice and wheat grow; the Zhongxin news agency writes that Zhongxiang is rich in rice.
• Altitudes, soils, slopes: Not described for a grain product in the sources consulted.

5. Production Technology

According to Xinhua, Hubei University of Economics and the description of the provincial office:

1. Roasting (炒): The main operation. The wok is heated over a low flame to about eight tenths of full heat, unwashed rice is put in without any additions and stirred continuously with a spatula, watching the fire and the evenness of heating. Usually 15–20 minutes, until the grain turns pale yellow, golden or brownish yellow and becomes fragrant.
2. Quenching (the university’s variant): The fire is turned off and cold water is added little by little; the crisp rice absorbs it greedily, and the hissing subsides as it cools. Then the rice is taken out and rinsed.
3. Boiling, hot method (煮): The rinsed rice is covered with cold water and brought to a boil, the fire is turned off, and it is kept under a lid for 10–15 minutes.
4. Boiling, cold method: The rinsed rice is thrown into boiling water and boiled over high heat until the grains “open” (开花), then poured into a basin and cooled.

The university gives a rice-to-water ratio of about 1:1 if rice tea is eaten as porridge and about 1:3 if it is drunk, and boiling for 15–20 minutes. Everyone chooses the thickness to their own taste. The requirements of standard T/ZXTC 001-2021 have not been read.

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

According to Xinhua and the description of the intellectual property office:

• Dry leaf appearance: There is no leaf; the roasted grain is pale yellow, golden or brownish yellow (色泽金黄).
• Dry leaf aroma: The finished roasted rice has a strong roasted smell (浓香扑鼻), according to the university’s description.
• Liquor aroma: Rich (香气浓郁).
• Taste: Slightly sweet but not bland, a little astringent but not bitter (微甜不淡，略涩不苦). Rice tea that has stood overnight resembles sour plum drink (酸梅汤): “sourish but not sour, sweetish but not sweet”.
• Liquor color: Pale yellow (水色淡黄).
• Spent leaves (wet leaves): There are no spent leaves: the boiled rice is eaten together with the broth.

7. Chemical Composition

No data on the composition of this particular product found in the sources consulted. A Xinhua column gives the nutritional value of ordinary boiled rice, not of rice tea.

8. Health Properties

There are no verified data on the effects of this particular product. The local press writes about lowering sugar and fat in the blood; no confirmation is found in the materials consulted, and these claims are not repeated here.

9. Brewing

Class practice — here it is not brewing but boiling. The roasted rice is rinsed and boiled by one of the two methods of section 5: hot (bring to a boil and leave for 10–15 minutes under a lid) or cold (boil until the grains open, then cool). According to Xinhua, rice tea is eaten hot, cooled and after standing overnight, diluted with cold boiled water, or eaten as rice with a meal (米茶饭); the Zhongxin news agency writes that in summer it is usually eaten cooled.

10. Storage

Class practice for roasted grain: dry, in a tightly closed container, away from odors. Boiled rice tea, according to Xinhua, is kept until the next day in an earthenware basin. Storage periods are not found in the sources consulted.

11. Price and Counterfeits

No price data found in the sources consulted.

• How to avoid counterfeits:
  • Look for the certification mark “钟祥米茶” (No. 26327613) held by an enterprise with a valid right to it.
  • Remember that this is not tea: if a package labeled “米茶” contains tea leaf, it is a different product.
  • Appearance according to the descriptions: golden or brownish yellow grain, pale yellow broth.

12. Interesting Facts

• The group standard for a grain drink is classified under the section “tea, coffee, cocoa”, although there is no tea in it.
• Rice tea traces its lineage to the legend of the mother of the Jiajing Emperor, whose father held a fief in these parts.
• Rice tea is best, local people say, in the very heat: “the hotter it is, the more pleasant to eat”.

13. Comparison with Grain Drinks and Teas

• Barley tea (大麦茶): An infusion of roasted barley; rice tea, too, was once made from barley, but it is boiled and eaten together with the grain.
• Buckwheat tea (苦荞茶): Also a grain drink without tea leaf; it is steeped, not boiled.
• Genmaicha (玄米茶): A Japanese green tea with roasted rice — it contains tea leaf, unlike the rice tea of Zhongxiang.
• Zhongxiang Yunwu Cha (钟祥云雾茶): A true green tea of the same county-level city.

In Conclusion:

Zhōngxiáng mǐchá is rice dry-roasted and boiled, which in Zhongxiang is eaten and drunk hot, cooled or after standing overnight. It has a 2018 mark, a 2021 group standard and a court legend, but no tea leaf: it is a grain drink with a tea name.

Sources

Standards

• T/ZXTC 001-2021

Full list — on the Sources page