Enping Lecai Tea

Enping Lecai Tea

　　When traveling to Enping, you can visit a teahouse or a rural farmhouse to taste the local specialty dish lecai, which boasts a uniquely sweet, cool, and refreshing flavor that will surely lift your spirits.

　　After trying lecai, brew yourself a cup of the locally unique Enping Lecai Tea and savor its rich, aromatic richness—you’ll be enchanted once again… The lecai and lecai tea of Enping, with their distinct regional flavors, attract visitors from all over.

　　Originally a wild plant, lecai grows on slopes, in valleys, along forest edges, and among shrubs. In Enping, this once-wild mountain vegetable has become a delicacy at banquets. Thanks to Enping’s unique natural resources and climate, its lecai is crispy, sweet, cool, and refreshing. Though slightly bitter when first tasted, its flavor is truly distinctive—making it a rare, naturally green, and healthful vegetable that’s truly one of Enping’s specialties.

　　Every part of the lecai plant is valuable. Fresh lecai can be used not only as an ingredient but also made into tea. In recent years, Cen Lurong, founder of Xiangshan-brand Lecai Tea, through his own exploration and innovation, created Enping’s unique lecai tea. It’s not only excellent for soothing the throat and offering a mellow taste, but also has effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, improving liver and eye health, and relieving fatigue. Additionally, they’ve processed lecai into lecai powder, dried lecai, and lecai bath products for body cleansing.

　　Today, lecai tea has been recognized as one of the “Top Ten Most Valuable Branded Products in Southern China in 2010” and one of the “Top Ten Tourism Products in Guangdong Province in 2010.”

　　Lecai tea is a beverage that can be brewed as tea or used in soups—it’s both tea and vegetable. There’s also lecai powder that can nourish the skin and treat ailments.

　　Lecai: A plant of the Araliaceae family, closely related to ginseng, it’s a wild vegetable with high nutritional and health value. The *Shennong Bencao Jing* (The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica) calls it a “superior tonic for boosting qi.” The *Jin · Mingyi Bie Lu* (Medical Records of Eminent Physicians from the Jin Dynasty) states it “nourishes the middle, boosts qi, strengthens sinews and bones, and fortifies the will.” The *Ming · Bencao Gangmu* (Compendium of Materia Medica from the Ming Dynasty) says “long-term consumption lightens the body and prolongs youth.” *Wanshan Herbal Medicine* records it as “unblocking stagnant qi and blood, dispelling wind and dampness, removing stasis, stopping bleeding and pain, clearing heat and detoxifying.” The *Guangdong Medicinal Plants Compendium* notes its roots, stems, and leaves are all medicinal—the root dispels wind and dampness, removes stasis, and relieves pain; the leaves disperse wind, reduce swelling, relieve itching, and have the effects of relaxing sinews, activating blood, reducing swelling, and detoxifying.

　　Lecai also offers multiple dietary therapeutic functions: It can enhance the body’s immunity, improve vascular elasticity, cleanse blood vessels, promote cholesterol breakdown, and help prevent epidemic influenza and upper respiratory infections. Lecai contains glutamic acid, which benefits brain development by enhancing brain cell respiration. With high chlorophyll content, it strengthens heart function, influences the vascular system, clears blood vessels, lowers blood lipids and blood pressure, balances blood sugar, and enhances liver metabolism. It also has antibacterial properties that complement anti-inflammatory medications, making it an ideal health food for diabetes management. As a bitter food that combines medicine and food, lecai clears heat and detoxifies. In Enping, Guangdong, the folk tradition of gathering lecai as a health vegetable and medicinal herb has a long history. Its unique therapeutic benefits are deeply loved by locals, making it a popular wild vegetable and nutritious health food in daily life. Regularly drinking lecai soup clears deep-seated toxins from the body.

　　Dietary Therapeutic Functions of Lecai Tea

　　Lecai tea also offers multiple dietary therapeutic functions: It can enhance the body’s immunity, improve vascular elasticity, cleanse blood vessels, promote cholesterol breakdown, and help prevent epidemic influenza and upper respiratory infections. Lecai contains glutamic acid, which benefits brain development by enhancing brain cell respiration. With high chlorophyll content, it strengthens heart function, influences the vascular system, clears blood vessels, lowers blood lipids and blood pressure, balances blood sugar, and enhances liver metabolism. It also has antibacterial properties that complement anti-inflammatory medications, making it an ideal health food for diabetes management. As a bitter food that combines medicine and food, lecai clears heat and detoxifies. In Enping, Guangdong, the folk tradition of gathering lecai as a health vegetable and medicinal herb has a long history. Its unique therapeutic benefits are deeply loved by locals, making it a popular wild vegetable and nutritious health food in daily life. Regularly drinking lecai soup clears deep-seated toxins from the body.

　　Usage and Dosage of Lecai Tea

　　For facial acne: Mix the product with hot water above 80°C to form a paste, let it cool to a comfortable temperature, apply it evenly and thinly to the face for about 20 minutes, massage the face, then rinse with hot water. Alternatively, sprinkle the product about 1–2 mm thick on a sheet mask and apply to the face.

　　For skin, damp toxins, and prickly heat: Use 2 packets per 10 kg of water, boil the water, let it cool to a comfortable temperature, and use it for bathing.

　　For athlete’s foot and damp toxins on the feet: Soak with 1–2 packets in an appropriate amount of water for over 30 minutes.

　　Benefits of Lecai Tea

　　Brewing Method for Lecai Tea: Brew with water at 95°C to 100°C for about five seconds. The recommended amount is about one-third that of other teas for optimal taste, and the tea should be light. Each infusion varies in flavor depending on the color and concentration of the tea liquor.

　　Recommended Method for Cooking Lecai Tea in Soups: Use 5 grams of tea leaves for three bowls of water, add one crucian carp (or meat or bones), with appropriate oil and salt. Bring the water to a boil, then simmer for three to five minutes.

　　Wild Lecai Powder: Since ancient times in Enping, Guangdong, locals have used lecai roots and stems boiled in water for bathing to treat skin conditions such as eczema, prickly heat, acne, and athlete’s foot. Our factory produces this product from natural wild lecai roots and stems, with no added ingredients. It dissolves easily in water, retains its natural essence, and is convenient to use.

　　Geographic Scope

　　Enping City is located in the southwestern part of Guangdong Province, at the junction of central and western Guangdong. It is home to the only primeval forest in the Pearl River Delta. To the northeast, it borders Kaiping City; to the southeast, Taishan City; to the west and southwest, Yangchun City and Yangdong County of Yangjiang City; to the northwest, Xinxing County of Yunfu City; and to the south, it faces the vast South China Sea, with a coastline of 21 kilometers. The protected area for Enping lecai covers the entire territory of Enping City, including 11 towns (subdistrict offices): Encheng Subdistrict Office, Shahu Town, Niujian Town, Juntang Town, Dongcheng Town, Liangxi Town, Shengtang Town, Datian Town, Dahuai Town, Hengbei Town, and Najitown, as well as 151 villages such as Micang, Shalan, Hewan, Shilian, Shiquan, Luping, Naxi, Behe, Xiahui, and Shanghu. The area spans 71,306 hectares with a total production of 789,000 tons. The protected area’s geographic coordinates are between 112°31′ to 112°46′ east longitude and 22°13′ to 22°41′ north latitude.

　　Product Quality Characteristics

　　1. External Sensory Characteristics: Fresh Enping lecai: Tender shoots are intact, free of yellow or old leaves, dirt, or rot. The leaves are palmately compound, with three small leaflets—the central one being the largest, oval or long-ovate, 4–10 cm long and 2.5–4.5 cm wide, crisp and tender in texture, bright green in color, uniform in size, and with the unique fragrance of lecai. The edges have fine serrations or sparse blunt teeth, are hairless or sparsely prickly on the veins. The taste is mildly sweet, crisp, and without residue. 2. Internal Quality Indicators: Enping lecai is highly nutritious. Fresh lecai has a moisture content of 77.3–84.8%, ash content of 1.68–1.80%, crude protein content of 3.34–3.47%, crude fiber content of 2.9–3.5%, zinc content of 8.7–8.9 mg per 100g, iron content of 1.24–1.58 mg, manganese content of 4.72–5.12 mg, calcium content of 93.97–159.16 mg, and phosphorus content of 45–50 mg. Lecai can be harvested year-round, but the best harvesting period is around the Qingming Festival in spring and from September to November in autumn and winter. 3. Safety Requirements: Enping lecai is domesticated from wild plants, hardy and fast-growing, with strong resistance and a unique fragrance. It suffers from few pests and diseases. The growing environment meets the requirements of NY5010-2002 *Environmental Conditions for the Production of Pollution-Free Vegetable Agricultural Products*, and the product quality meets pollution-free agricultural standards.