Bijia Tea

Bijia Tea

　　Bijia Tea is imbued with the essence of mountains and rivers, boasting unique quality and standing out as a remarkable local specialty of Qingyuan. Its characteristics include tightly rolled leaves with a dark, slightly greenish hue; an enduring, delicate fragrance; a rich, reddish-brown liquor with bright clarity; a refreshing, smooth taste with a sweet aftertaste. Even after more than ten infusions, the sweet flavor remains, and the leaves are neat and uniform. It has the benefits of relieving summer heat, dissolving phlegm, and promoting saliva production. A careful sip is like wandering through a tranquil mountain forest—refreshing the spirit and leaving a lingering aftertaste.

　　Bijia Tea has a long and storied history. As early as 1,200 years ago, Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea mentioned “tea produced in the Lingnan region from Shaozhou” (present-day Shaoguan), and at that time, Qingyuan’s “Bijia Tea” was already well renowned. According to the Qingyuan County Annals: “The best tea in Qingyuan comes from Bijia Mountain. Even after being left overnight in the intense heat of dog days, it retains its qualities, unmatched in its ability to relieve summer heat and aid digestion. If stored for many years, aged tea can even be used for medicinal purposes.” Qingyuan features a subtropical monsoon climate, with an average annual temperature of 21.5°C, frost-free days totaling 320 throughout the year, and an average annual rainfall of 2,215.7 mm—warm and rainy. The climate in the Bijia Mountain tea-growing area is mild, with no severe cold in winter or extreme heat in summer. Lush green mountains, enveloped in mist, receive dappled sunlight, and the soil is fertile, loose in the top layer, with suitable acidity, all creating optimal natural conditions for high-quality tea. The main production areas of Bijia Tea are villages located between the back hills of Bijia Mountain, from the mouth to the end of the valley, including Yangtaolong, Kokou, Qikeng, and Maoping. The original variety of Bijia Tea was a shrub-type small-leaf tea plant, with fine leaves and slender stems, but strong resilience—it feared neither heat nor cold and suffered little from pests or diseases. Varieties were further divided into long fine leaf and egg-shaped fine leaf. The picking standard is half-open buds, harvesting one bud with two or three leaves, requiring freshness, uniformity, neatness, and freedom from pest-infested or overlapping leaves. Based on picking time, it can be categorized into Sheqian Tea (picked before the first Wu day of the second lunar month), Qingming Tea, Guyu Tea, and Bailu Tea.

　　The production method of Bijia Tea is rather unique, somewhat resembling that of Lapsang Souchong black tea. The traditional process involves pan-firing with an iron wok and drying over open flames. After kill-green and initial rolling, the leaves are smoked with pine firewood, absorbing a smoky flavor, then further dried over charcoal fire in bamboo baskets. The resulting rough tea is pungent and not suitable for drinking directly—it must be stored in bags for one to two years before undergoing refinement. During refinement, the tea is placed in bags, steamed over a pot of water for several minutes, then re-rolled to shape the leaves neatly, and finally re-fired. The finished tea, known as aged tea, is mellow, sweet, and pleasantly drinkable with an endless aftertaste, highly resistant to brewing. The finished tea grades are divided as follows: Grades 1–3 are called fragrant tea (commonly referred to as hanging tea), Grades 4–5 are called dark-core tea (also known as semi-dark, semi-coarse tea), and substandard grades are called coarse tea.