Pingyuan Guodu Tea

Pingyuan Guodu Tea

　　   Guodu tea is produced in Pingyuan at Tieshanzhang Mountain, which sits at an altitude of 1,163 meters. It is renowned for its unique fragrance, sweetness, smoothness, and mellow taste, and has been listed among the Eight Famous Historical Local Teas of Meizhou.

　　   Guodu tea has a long production history, with records dating back to the late Ming Dynasty. It is known for its fragrance, sweetness, smoothness, and mellow taste, and is often referred to as one of the “Eight Famous Teas of Jiaying.” The Guodu Narcissus Green Tea produced by Pingyuan Guodu Local Specialties Co., Ltd. is meticulously processed using traditional techniques combined with scientific methods. It offers health benefits such as refreshing the mind, strengthening the spleen, and warming the stomach. As a premium variety within the Guodu green tea series, it is highly favored by consumers and is sold to cities including Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, with an annual sales volume of over 85 tons.

　　   Recently, after rigorous evaluation by the Guangdong Provincial Famous Products Promotion Committee, the Pingyuan Guodu Narcissus Green Tea produced by Pingyuan Guodu Local Specialties Co., Ltd. in Meizhou City was awarded the title of “Guangdong Provincial Famous Product.”

　　   Guodu tea is ranked among the Eight Famous Teas of Meizhou. It is produced in Guodu Village, Pingyuan County, eastern Guangdong. The village includes Upper Guodu, Middle Guodu, Lower Guodu, and Baishuizhai, all situated at altitudes of over 800 meters and surrounded by clouds and mist year-round. The tea is grown in this uniquely favorable natural environment, truly a gift from nature. It contains polyphenols, plant alkaloids, proteins, amino acids, vitamins, pectins, organic acids, lipopolysaccharides, sugars, enzymes, pigments, and more. The organic chemical components in Guodu tea—such as polyphenols, catechins, and various amino acids—are significantly higher than in other types of tea. Inorganic mineral elements mainly include potassium, calcium, magnesium, cobalt, iron, manganese, aluminum, sodium, zinc, copper, nitrogen, phosphorus, fluorine, iodine, and selenium. The village of Guodu has a long history of tea cultivation, with every household growing tea and possessing knowledge of tea production and processing techniques. In the past, due to the lack of leading enterprises and brand strategy, tea farmers sold their produce on their own, making it difficult to achieve scale or raise prices. Since last year, a Taiwanese enterprise has set up a factory in the village, adopting an industrial operation model of “company + base + farmer.” The company purchases fresh tea leaves from farmers at contract-protected prices for further processing, which has improved the quality of Guodu tea and increased its price by about 10 yuan per kilogram. This has further motivated farmers to grow tea.

　　   Guodu tea is grown using farmyard manure, and no artificial fragrances are added during processing. Its production technique is simple, making it a true green food product.

　　   Guodu tea was exported to Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong, and Taiwan as early as the 17th and 18th centuries. It was awarded the National Green Food title in 1990 and received a Silver Award for Guangdong Traditional Famous Tea in 1992. It is also displayed as an exhibit at the China National Tea Museum in Hangzhou.