Tunxi Green Tea

Tunxi Green Tea

　　Tunxi Green Tea is a type of green tea and a historically renowned variety. It was created during the Jiaqing and Daoguang eras of the Qing Dynasty, evolving from refined Songluo Tea. It is produced in counties such as Xiuning, She, Yi, Qimen, and Jixi.

　　The deep mountain valleys of the Tunlu production area feature winding rivers that twist around the mountains, with long, curved river bends and confluences that have formed alluvial river valley plains over time. Deep valleys and mountain hollows boast thick soil layers, good water permeability, and rich organic matter—making them fertile and ideal for tea cultivation. The so-called "Four Great Famous Teas of Xiuning" and the "Four Great Famous Teas of Qimen" all come from teas grown on these valley plains. The tea gardens on these river valley plains thrive with lush tea bushes that yield high-quality and abundant harvests, locally referred to as “valley garden tea.” Examples include the Yangshulin Tea from Fuxikou in Qimen County and the Mingzhou Tea from Liukou in Xiuning County, both known for their rich, mellow, and refreshing flavors with long-lasting, delicate aromas and the distinctive chestnut-like fragrance, making them treasured varieties among Tunxi’s famous teas.

　　The initial processing procedure for pan-fired green tea is: fresh leaves → withering → fixation → rolling → first drying → second drying → polishing → rough tea. The refining process of Tunlu tea involves sorting pan-fired green rough tea through steps such as screening, shaking, winnowing, air classification, tight sifting, and hand-picking, initially separating the tea leaves by shape into long, round, stem, and leaf categories, which are then processed separately. The final products include varieties such as Chunmee, Gunpowder, and Xiumei.

　　Since the 1980s, when tea supply exceeded demand, the product structure of the Tunlu production area has changed. The production and sales of premium teas such as Huangshan Maofeng have surged, while the output of mid- to high-grade pan-fired green rough tea has decreased. Due to pricing factors, high-grade pan-fired green rough tea is now virtually unavailable, and most Tunlu export tea consists of low-grade products. Moreover, outdated malpractices such as counterfeiting, artificial coloring, and starch adulteration have resurfaced, further trapping the industry in a vicious cycle of declining product quality and prices. Tea farmers living below the poverty line produce low-grade pan-fired tea merely to make a living; processing factories compromise on quality to maintain profits; and exporters, faced with quality issues, can do little but resign to the situation. Finding a way out of this predicament—further adjusting the product mix and reducing or ceasing the production of exported green tea—may be an inevitable path forward.

　　The Draft History of the Qing · Geography Volume refers to Tunxi as a “hub of the tea trade,” where green teas from all six counties of Huizhou, western Zhejiang, and northern Jiangxi were gathered and distributed. Hence, it came to be called “Tunlu.” In the international tea market, it is known as Twailay Tea. “Tunxi Green Tea” is a regional brand, not a shorthand for all green tea products produced in Tunxi.