Green Tea Processing Craftsmanship

Ⅷ-148Traditional CraftsmanshipHuangshanshihuizhou, AnhuiBatch 2 (2008)Newly Added ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

Tea culture flourished greatly in the Tang dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong changed the character "tu" to "cha" in the Kaiyuan Wenzi Yinyi, and afterwards Lu Yu's Classic of Tea (Cha Jing) also appeared. Before the Song dynasty, the tea consumed was mostly compressed tea—the leaves were steamed, pounded, and formed into lumps or cakes, then boiled in water for drinking, sometimes with dried fruits such as melon seeds and pine nuts added. In the Qing dynasty this changed to brewing with boiling water, a practice that continues to this day. In the Tang dynasty it was already popular to pluck the tiny newly sprouted tea buds; these tender buds were sharp like spears, with small leaves shaped like banners growing beside them, and so they were called "banner-spear" (qiqiang), a name that has endured to the present. In the first year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1875), Xie Zheng'an, a native of Caoxi in Huizhou, founded the "Xie Yu Da Tea House" locally. In 1955, Huangshan Maofeng was named one of the nation's ten famous teas; in 1982 it received the "Famous Tea" title from the Ministry of Commerce, and in 1986 it was selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a gift tea. Since the reform and opening up, Xie Zheng'an's great-great-grandson has inherited the family enterprise; in 1993 he established the Caoxi Tea Factory in Caoxi, the birthplace of Huangshan Maofeng, registered the "Caoxi" trademark in 1995, and obtained origin-mark registration certification in 2002.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

China's tea-making craft has a long history. More than three thousand years ago, tea used as an accompaniment to drinking already appeared in the ritual ceremonies of the Western Zhou dynasty. In ancient times tea was called "tu," a name that appears in the Book of Songs (Shijing). By the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin periods, tea drinking had become a common custom in the Jiangnan region. Green tea is a type of tea that is fixed (kill-green) at high temperature without oxidation or fermentation, also known as "non-fermented tea." Its production process mainly includes plucking fresh leaves, fixation (kill-green), rolling, and drying. Top-grade green tea is made from the delicate young buds that first emerge, generally plucked before the Qingming or Grain Rain solar terms; the finished tea is commonly called "pre-Qingming" or "pre-Grain Rain." Fixation uses high-temperature processes such as steaming or pan-firing to enhance the green tea's bright color and clear fragrance, and can be divided into steaming fixation and pan-firing fixation. In ancient China, high-temperature steam was used for fixation, called "steam fixation"; in modern times this changed to pan-firing in an iron wok, giving rise to "pan-fired fixation." Fixation makes the leaves soft, and gently rolling them between the fingers twists them into tight, slender strips—this is called "rolling." Rolling helps the brewed tea release its infusion and also reduces the leaves' volume, making storage and transport easier. Mount Huangshan in Anhui Province has since ancient times been a production base for famous and fine teas. Huangshan Maofeng has a history of over one hundred years to the present. Its fine natural quality and exquisite hand-making craft gradually made it a leader among baked green teas, and greatly influenced the subsequent development of baked green teas. Drawing on years of experience in planting, plucking, and processing tea, he led his family to pick plump tender buds and leaves around the Qingming period, and with a set of skills—"pan-fry in the wok (fixation), lightly roll (rolling), bake the raw cake (light fire), cover with a round winnowing tray and re-bake (full fire)"—carefully processed them into a new tea whose shape resembles a sparrow's beak, with clear liquor and a flavor that refreshes the heart. Because the tea has "white down covering its body and bud tips like peaks," it was named "Maofeng" (fuzzy peak). When the Maofeng tea was shipped to Shanghai, it immediately won praise from British tea merchants then in China; it became famous not only in Shanghai but also was exported to Britain, renowned across Europe. Later, Maofeng planting expanded to the northern and southern foothills of Mount Huangshan, and the tea produced was accordingly renamed "Huangshan Maofeng." The Maofeng tea produced by the Caoxi Tea Factory has repeatedly won gold awards at domestic and international tea expos, earning fame at home and abroad.

Kill-green, roll lightly, bake, then re-bake under the round sieve

Four steps from Xie Zheng'an: kill-green, light rolling, an initial bake and a final high bake under a round sieve tray.

Regulating heat with an ash poker

A poker is used to push back the charcoal ash so the fire can be raised or lowered by hand.

Sifting, shaking and air-separating the refined tea

Rough tea is refined by round sieving, shaking, air separation and machine picking to keep only intact buds.

Picking fresh shoots before Qingming

In 1994 the traditional picking calendar was broken, harvesting fresh shoots before Qingming to beat the rains.

Sparrow-bill shape and the white down

The name rests on a peak-like tip and a body covered in white down, set by rolling pressure and baking heat.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The core of Huangshan Maofeng lies in the Caoxi area of Huizhou District, Huangshan City—where Xie Zheng'an opened his tea house. Tea gardens spread along the northern and southern foothills of Mount Huangshan; only after planting expanded did the tea change its name from Maofeng to Huangshan Maofeng. Tea of the same name can also be made in neighboring districts and counties, but only tea made by the old Caoxi-line method yields the kind with bud tips like peaks, white down covering the body, and clear liquor.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Green tea is currently mainly produced in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Sichuan, and other places, among which the most famous are West Lake Longjing of Hangzhou and Wuzhou Juyan of Jinhua in Zhejiang; Huangshan Maofeng, Taiping Houkui, and Lu'an Guapian in Anhui; and Dongshan Biluochun of Suzhou in Jiangsu. Xie Sishi (per the official archive records of the related inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1956, a native of Shicheng County, Jiangxi Province. Representative inheritor of the third batch of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item "Green Tea Making Technique (Huangshan Maofeng)." Huangshan Maofeng green tea-making technician. Influenced by his ancestors from childhood, he became a tea farmer right after high school and learned the traditional Huangshan Maofeng making craft from his elders; after several years of study and practice he mastered the essentials of firing—such as the method of raking ashes to adjust temperature with a fire stick and the method of controlling moisture content—and became thoroughly familiar with firing temperatures and fixation heat, comprehensively and completely inheriting the traditional Huangshan Maofeng making craft. In 1987 he founded the Huangshan Guangming Tea Factory, processing the rough tea into refined Huangshan Maofeng through processes such as round sieving, shaking sieving, winnowing, and machine sorting. In 1994 he was the first to break the traditional plucking pattern, mobilizing tea farmers to pluck fresh buds and leaves before the Qingming Festival, and producing on the basis of inheriting the ancient method; the products sold well across more than twenty provinces and municipalities as well as countries such as France and Japan.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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