Suichuan Gougunao Tea

When it comes to green tea,most people first think of Longjing,Biluochun.But right next to Jiangsu and Zhejiang in Jiangxi,there is also a very famous green tea,called"Gougunao Tea".Gougunao Tea is one of Jiangxi’s famous teas, historically served as tribute, and has won numerous awards at provincial, national, and international levels.

The name Gougunao Tea sounds quite curious,but actually, it’s the name of the place where this tea is produced.Gougunao Tea is produced in Gougunao Mountain, Tanghu Town, Suichuan County, Jiangxi Province. The mountain is shaped like a dog, hence the name"Gougunao," and it was once also referred to as Yushan Tea. Gougunao Tea originated during the Qing Dynasty, and it has a history of nearly200years.

Gougunao Mountain stands at the southern foot of the Luoxiao Mountain Range, with an altitude of over800-1000meters. To the north and south of the mountain are Wuzhi Peak and Tiger Rock standing opposite each other, and about5kilometers northeast lies the famous Tanghu Hot Springs. Here, lush pines and strong bamboos thrive, birds sing loudly, clear springs flow endlessly, clouds and mist linger year-round, and there is fertile black sandy soil with significant day-night temperature differences — truly a perfect environment for growing tea trees.

The picking and processing of this tea are done with great precision. Harvesting generally begins in early4, and the fresh leaves used for premium Gougunao Tea must be one bud with one leaf just beginning to unfold. The picking must avoid dew-covered leaves, rain-soaked leaves, and those picked at noon on sunny days. The picked fresh leaves are further selected to remove purple buds, single leaves, and fish leaves. The processing of this tea includes: fixation, rolling, shaping, baking, stir-frying, and packaging —6steps in total.

According to historical records,,in the first year of the Jiaqing reign during the Qing Dynasty (1796around the year)), Liang Weiyi (also referred to as Liang Weiyi or Liang Jianwan), a native of Tanghu, was hired to transport timber rafts (moving lumber via waterways for sale). While transporting a batch of timber from the Zuoxi River in Tanghu through Quanjiang and down the Yangtze River to Nanjing for sale, he encountered a flood that scattered the timber, leaving him stranded in Nanjing. He was rescued by a woman surnamed Yang from Taihu, Jiangsu, and later married her. Yang was skilled in tea cultivation and later brought tea seeds back home. She selected the Gougunao Mountain (named for its resemblance to a dog’s head) to plant them and devoted herself to developing a unique tea-making technique, producing high-quality green tea. The tea was named after the mountain and was soon chosen as an imperial tribute. The Liang family treated the tea-making technique as a closely guarded secret, establishing the ancestral rule of “passing it down only within the family, and only to sons, not daughters,” and designated February 29th each year as Tea God Festival. The *Longquan County Annals* (Longquan being the ancient name of Suichuan) recorded: 【Gougunao tea initially covered a small area and was produced in limited quantities, considered a rare delicacy and historically served as an imperial tribute for emperors’ enjoyment】, and it remains a special national tea variety to this day.

Therefore,,don’t let the unrefined name of this tea fool you—,its flavor and aroma are no less remarkable than those of many famous green teas.