Guangnan Girls' Tea

Guangnan Girls' Tea

　　“Girls' Tea” — whenever I recall this sweet and endearing name, I can never forget the profound impression left by my very first encounter with it.

Back in the early 1970s, I had the good fortune to visit the famous tea region of Dixu, Guangnan. No sooner had I stepped into a local farmhouse and barely settled down than a young Zhuang girl — a Le Shao — wearing a flowered headscarf, a soft pink flowy blouse and pants, white-edged cloth shoes, and a bright, shy face, offered me a cup of tender green tea brewed in a small hearthside pot, under the host’s hospitality. The moment the tea was handed to me, an aroma wafted up that instantly delighted the senses. With just one sip, I felt my eyes brighten and my whole body relax. I thought to myself: What a beautiful girl, what fragrant and sweet green tea — this must be the renowned “Girls’ Tea.” Oh, perhaps it’s called “Girls’ Tea” because it’s served by the girls. When handed a second cup, I eagerly tried to show off my “sharpness” to the host, who only gave me a slight smile and a gentle shake of the head in denial.

Dixu tea has long been famous. Originally, its most celebrated product was compressed tea cakes, made by steaming spring tip tea to remove its raw edge, then pressing it into square shapes using wooden molds engraved with patterns. Once shaped, they were removed, dried, trimmed of edges and scraps, and then packaged for sale elsewhere. The trimming and packaging process, requiring fine skills and nimble fingers, was perfectly suited to the deft hands of the young women. Though the tea cakes fetched high prices when sold outside the region, locals loved drinking tea but found the cakes too expensive to buy regularly, so they often purchased the leftover broken pieces accumulated from the tea cake production done by the girls. Over time, people began referring to these high-quality loose teas collected and sold by the girls as “Girls’ Tea.” On one occasion, a tea farmer from Longzhang Village in Dixu happened to steam glutinous rice in a freshly woven bamboo basket and then used the same basket, still warm, to steam tea. The resulting brew had an enticing fragrance, carrying the fresh scent of both glutinous rice and bamboo. When brewed, the tea was bright yellowish-green, richly aromatic, mellow in taste, refreshing to the eye, and had a long-lasting aftertaste. This discovery inspired a new method: steaming tea over a base of glutinous rice, then packing it tightly into freshly cut golden bamboo tubes. The open ends were coated with incense, sealed with Guanyin clay or paper, and then placed in a roasting trench — heated by bricks and tiles and pre-warmed with charcoal — where the residual heat would further dry and enhance the tea. And thus, a new generation of Dixu tea — bamboo tube tea — was born. Later, during the Zhuang “Third Month Festival,” when young men and women sang love songs to each other, the girls often presented this tea as a treasured gift to their lovers and relatives. Henceforth, bamboo tube tea rightfully earned the name “Girls’ Tea.”