Shimen Tea

Shimen Tea

　　Shimen tea is a specialty of Shimen County, Changde City, Hunan Province. The tea leaves from Shimen have excellent tenderness retention, rich internal content, good infusibility, and distinctive regional aroma. Shimen has become a national base for green food tea raw materials.

　　The region of Shimen County lies in the transitional zone between mid-subtropical and north-subtropical climates, characterized by warm and humid weather, with an average annual temperature of around 17°C. In the northwestern part of the county, the terrain is relatively high, the soil is weakly acidic, and rainfall is abundant. Tea plantations are all located on the hillsides at altitudes of 300 to 1500 meters around the Huping Mountain area, far away from cities, industrial zones, and residential areas. The forest coverage rate within these tea gardens reaches 70%, creating an environment where tea and forest coexist — an ideal setting recognized by experts both in China and abroad for growing premium and organic teas.

　　Over 100,000 mu of tea plantations in Shimen County have passed the joint inspection of the Green Food Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and the China Green Food Development Center, making it one of the 13th batch of national standardized production bases for green food raw materials. The standardized production base for green food tea raw materials in Shimen County covers a scale of more than 100,000 mu, encompassing 10 townships (management areas) and farms. The main cultivated varieties are Zhuyeqi, Bixiangzao, and Fuding Dabai, with a high-quality variety adoption rate of 95%. The base yields an average of 1,150 kilograms of fresh tea leaves per mu, totaling 120,750 tons annually. The average output value per mu is 3,105 yuan, with total output value reaching 326.025 million yuan. This is 240 yuan higher per mu compared to conventional planting, and the average income increase per farming household in the base is 2,000 yuan.

　　The excellent quality of Shimen tea stems from the outstanding ecological environment of the tea-growing region. All tea-growing areas in Shimen are located far from industrial zones, with no pollution or pollution sources within dozens of kilometers. Authoritative testing has shown that the water, soil, and air quality in the tea region meet the first-class standards of GB30—95—82.