Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea

Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea

Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea is a protected geographical indication product.

　　  Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea is produced at Fanglu Tea Farm in Jintan City, Jiangsu Province, and was first created in 1983. The tea gardens are located at the foot of Maoshan Mountain. This entry provides a brief introduction to the tea garden environment and the quality characteristics of Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea, and concludes with a detailed explanation of the tea-making process — including the handcrafted steps of picking, pan-firing, removing from the wok, shaping, and storage — as well as the key procedures of mechanical tea production: fixation, shaping, and drying.

　　　    The finished tea features uniform, neatly twisted leaves shaped like sparrow’s tongues, with a glossy green color, flat and straight appearance; it boasts a high and clear aroma, a fresh and brisk taste, and a bright liquor; the leaf base is tender, even, and intact.

　　　    Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea has received widespread acclaim for its delicate sparrow’s tongue shape, emerald green color, and refreshing tender aroma. To meet market demand and support development, Jintan City introduced high-quality tea machinery to conduct mechanized production trials for Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea, overcoming the drawbacks of manual pan-firing such as high labor intensity, high cost, and unstable quality. The trials also identified suitable tea cultivars for mechanized production and the optimal temperatures for each stage of pan-firing.

　　    The mechanized production process for Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea is as follows: fresh leaf withering → fixation → shaping and sorting → cooling → drying. The key points of the mechanized process suitable for Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea are:

　　    1. Variety Selection: Longjing 43, Qimen Zhuye, and Jiukeng are suitable cultivars for mechanically producing Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea. The dry tea has a small, sparrow’s tongue-like shape.

　　    2. Process Key Points:

　　    Fixation: A 6CSF-30D roller fixation machine is used, with an input rate of 15 kg/h and temperature controlled around 100°C. Fixation at 100°C yields the best quality, with even fixation and no scorched edges.

　　    Shaping: A 6CDM-42 multi-function machine is used, with an input rate of 1.25–1.50 kg per batch and groove temperature controlled around 90°C. Processing at 90°C yields the highest quality shaped leaves: flat, emerald green in color, with a pure aroma.

　　    Drying: Adjust the oscillation frequency of the 6CDM-42 multi-function machine to 130 times/min, and control the groove temperature around 80°C. The resulting Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea has a glossy emerald green color, a fresh and tender aroma, and excellent quality.

　　    The production area of Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea includes the administrative regions of four towns in Jintan City, Jiangsu Province: Xuebu Town, Zhiqian Town, Zhulin Town, and Zhixi Town.

　　  I. Tea Cultivar

　　  Suitable cultivars for processing Jintan Sparrow’s Tongue Tea include Zhuye, Jiukeng, and Zhenong 113 — all small- to medium-leaf tea varieties that are hairy, have stout buds, medium-sized leaves, and high amino acid content.

　　  II. Growing Conditions

　　  Low mountain and hilly areas with red-yellow soil type, soil pH value between 4.5 and 6, soil depth over 1 meter, no hardpan subsoil; groundwater level below 1.5 meters; soil organic matter content ≥1.5%.

　　  III. Cultivation and Management

　　  1. Tea Planting: Spring planting from late February to mid-March; autumn planting from late October to mid-November. Planting density is 35,000 to 55,000 plants per hectare.

　　  2. Fertilization: Implement balanced fertilization in tea gardens to prevent deficiencies or over-fertilization. Use mainly well-rotted organic fertilizer supplemented with appropriate chemical fertilizer. Base fertilizer is primarily organic, applied in furrows in autumn with a depth of over 20 cm — 1,500 to 3,000 kg of cake fertilizer or commercial organic fertilizer, or over 15,000 kg of farmyard organic fertilizer per hectare.

　　     3. Environmental and Safety Requirements: The use of pesticides, fertilizers, etc., must comply with national regulations and must not cause environmental pollution.

　　     IV. Picking and Processing Techniques

　　  1. Fresh Leaf Picking:

　　  (1) Picking Time: Late March to mid-April

　　  (2) Picking Standard: Pick single buds to one bud with one initial leaf according to standards. Do not pick purple buds or leaves damaged by pests or diseases.

　　  2. Processing Flow: Fresh leaf withering → fixation → cooling → sorting and shaping → drying

　　  3. Technical Requirements:

　　  (1) Fresh Leaf Withering: Upon arrival at the factory, leaves are inspected, graded, and then spread out separately by grade, variety, and plot.

　　  During withering, leaves must not come into direct contact with the ground. The withering area should be cool, clean, dry, and well-ventilated. Withering thickness is 3 cm to 5 cm, and duration is 4 h to 7 h. The desired outcome is soft leaves, darkening green color, disappearance of grassy smell, emergence of a fresh aroma with slight floral notes, and a 15% to 20% weight loss.

　　(2) Fixation: The fixation temperature should be between 120°C and 160°C, lasting for 2 to 3 minutes. The fixation must be thorough and even, achieving leaves that are soft in texture, can be hand-squeezed into a clump and slowly loosen, with no red stems or leaves, no scorched edges or burnt spots, the grassy smell disappearing, and a fresh aroma emerging—this indicates proper fixation.

　　(3) Cooling: The fixed leaves should be promptly spread out to cool down, dissipate heat and moisture, and allow the internal moisture to redistribute evenly. The cooling time should be controlled between 15 to 25 minutes.

　　(4) Straightening and Shaping: For straightening, the wok temperature should be between 90°C and 100°C. The goal is to achieve straight tea strips that do not stick when pinched by hand, after which they are removed from the wok and cooled. For shaping, the wok temperature should be between 70°C and 80°C. The shaping process aims for flat and straight tea strips that are mostly shaped, about 70–80% dry, and then removed from the wok and cooled.

　　(5) Drying (Firing): The wok temperature should be between 65°C and 75°C. Stir-fry until the tea strips break easily when lightly bent, can be rubbed into powder by hand, and the moisture content reaches 5.5% to 6%, at which point they are removed from the wok and cooled.

　　V. Quality Characteristics

　　1. Sensory Characteristics: Flat and slender appearance resembling a sparrow’s tongue, with uniform tea strips and a glossy green color; the internal quality features a high and clear aroma, distinct and lasting chestnut fragrance, bright liquor color, fresh and brisk taste, and tender, even leaf base.

　　2. Physicochemical Indicators: Moisture ≤6.5%, water extract ≥35.0%.

　　3. Safety and Other Quality Technical Requirements: The product’s safety and other quality technical requirements must comply with relevant national regulations.