Basic Introduction to Hongya Green Tea
Hongya Green Tea is a specialty of Hongya County, Meishan City, Sichuan Province. Green tea is one of the main types of tea in China, made from new leaves or buds of the tea plant without fermentation, typically processed through steps such as fixation, shaping, and drying. The final product retains the green hue of fresh tea leaves when brewed. Regular consumption of green tea can help prevent cancer, lower blood lipids, aid weight loss, and reduce harm caused by nicotine for smokers.
Hongya Green Tea has a slender, sharp appearance with flat, smooth leaves and a grain-yellow color. It has a unique aroma, and when sipped, it fills the mouth with fragrance. Chewing the infused leaves reveals a soft texture with a slight bitterness. The tea leaves are long and thin, providing a refreshing and cooling effect, and it falls into the category of strong green teas.
The relatively low temperature, high humidity, low radiation, and frequent fog in Hongya County, coupled with its soil rich in organic matter and slightly acidic, not only inhibits the synthesis of cellulose in tea shoots, maintaining a high concentration of soluble nitrogen compounds in new shoots to keep them tender but also enhances the diffuse light effect in tea gardens, favoring the synthesis of various aromatic substances.
Nutritional Value
Green tea, being unfermented, retains natural substances found in fresh leaves, including abundant polyphenols, catechins, chlorophyll, Caffeine, amino acids, vitamins, and other nutrients. These natural nutrients have special effects in preventing aging, cancer, killing bacteria, and reducing inflammation, making green tea superior to other types of tea in these aspects.
Product Characteristics
(1) External Sensory Quality:
Hongya Green Tea has an elegant bud shape, is flat and straight, evenly sized, with a glossy green color, a fragrant and lasting aroma, a bright yellow-green broth, a fresh and mellow taste, and tender, uniformly bright leaves at the bottom of the cup.
(2) Internal Quality Indicators:
Water-soluble extractives ≥40%, polyphenols ≥16%, and rich in amino acids.
Historical Folklore
From the mention of tea names in the ancient text “Er Ya” and the tribute of tea by the Shu people to the Zhou people recorded in “The Chronicles of Huayang,” it can be inferred that Tea drinking in Hongya originated during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
In the Western Han Dynasty (73-49 BCE), Wang Bao, a native of Shu, wrote in his “Tongyue” that the tasks of servants included “leading dogs, selling geese, and buying tea in Wuyang”; and in “The Chronicles of Huayang: History of Shu” written by Chang Qum (approx. 291-357 CE), a famous geographer from Shu, it mentions that Jianwei Commandery produced “famous tea” in Nan'an and Wuyang. This suggests that the history of tea production in Hongya dates back over two thousand years.
In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu (733-804 CE) listed Hongya, Meishan Prefecture as a tea-producing area in his book “The Classic of Tea.”
In the eighth year of Yuanhe (813 CE), Li Jifu's “Yuanhe Records of Counties and Prefectures” records that there was a tea market in Hongya located in Luxi (today's Huaxi).
Also, Li Zao of the Tang Dynasty wrote in “The Forest of National History” that “customs valued tea, and the number of famous varieties increased, with the best coming from Mount Mengding in Jian'nan, including small squares or loose tea, which were considered the top tier.”
In the Five Dynasties period, Mao Wenxi wrote in “The Tea Spectrum” that “Hongya, Changhe, and Danling counties in Meishan Prefecture produce tea using the same method as Mount Mengding; the loose tea has large, yellow leaves with a sweet and bitter taste, ranking second to tea leaves as thin as cicada wings.”
In the Song Dynasty, Wu Shu (947-1002 CE) wrote in “The Tea Ode” that “Hongya and Wucheng in Shu Prefecture, with green ravines and purple shoots, are mentioned along with ascending fairy cliffs and flowers falling, and taking flight on the Red Hill.”
“The History of the Song Dynasty: Food and Goods Volume” records that there were forty-one tea markets in the Shu region from the seventh year of Xining (1074 CE) to the eighth year of Yuanchou (1085 CE). In the same period, the “Nine Prefecture Records of the Yuanchou Era” compiled by Wang Cun, Zeng Zhao, and Li Dechu in 1080 CE mentions that there was one tea market in Hongya and two in Danling.
During the Qing Dynasty, “The Annals of Sichuan in the Jiaqing Era: Tea Administration Chapter” states that in Hongya, 6,456 contracts for fine tea trade were concluded annually, accounting for 60% of the county's agricultural tax revenue, ranking first in the province.
After 2000, Hongya County was successively named as one of the country's first batch of advanced counties in ecological agriculture construction and a national base county for pesticide-free green tea.
In 2011, the protected area for Hongya Green Tea covered 14,378 hectares, with an annual output of 13,000 tons.
Awards and Honors for Hongya Green Tea
On November 6, 2010, at the Fourth Cross-Straits Tea Expo in China, Hongya's “Ya Tea” was awarded the title of “China's Best Ecological Tea Garden Brand.”
On December 20, 2011, the former Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China approved the registration and protection of “Hongya Green Tea” under the agricultural product geographical indication system.