Basic Introduction to Linglong Tea
Linglong Tea is a specialty product of Linglong Village, Guidong County, Hunan Province. Linglong Tea is crafted by the tea farmers of Guidong County over a long period through the integration of unique local conditions, including soil, climate, cultivation techniques, and processing methods, resulting in a distinctively exquisite agricultural product.
Linglong Tea from Guidong, a high-altitude cloud-veiled tea produced in Qingquan Town, Guidong County, Hunan, has a history of more than 300 years of cultivation. It is of exceptional quality and appearance. The tea leaves are tightly curled into ring-like shapes, with a lustrous green color and Silver down fully exposed. Once brewed, the tea liquor is clear and bright, with a rich and mellow taste. Linglong Tea contains amino acids, polyphenols, catechins, caffeine, and other beneficial substances at the most reasonable levels among famous teas in Hunan.
Linglong Tea has a refreshing and cool aftertaste that lingers on the palate. Those who have tasted it cannot help but praise it. The tea leaves are shaped like tiny hooks, delicately curved, and since they are produced in Linglong Village, they are elegantly known as “Linglong Tea.”
Product Features
1. Sensory Characteristics:
The tea leaves are tightly curled, resembling ring-like shapes, with a vibrant green color and visible silver down. They have a rich, fresh, and sweet aftertaste, a lasting tender fragrance, and a clear green liquor.
2. Physical and Chemical Indicators:
The content of water-soluble extracts is ≥39.0%.
Historical and Folklore
The production of tea in Linglong Village, Guidong, has a long history. According to legend, during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a mountain goddess on Mount Linglong who pitied travelers passing by in search of sustenance. One night, she personally rode to the village to impart the secret method of tea making, teaching each household three times. By dawn, she had no time to feed her horse before ascending into the clouds; even today, there remains a place atop Mount Linglong called “Horse Feeding Trough,” which looks like a horse trough and is always filled with water.
Guidong's tea production can be traced back to ancient times. The Han Dynasty's “Shen Nong's Herbal Classic” records that “Shen Nong tasted hundreds of herbs and encountered seventy-two poisons in a single day, but he was cured by Drinking Tea.” Shen Nong, also known as Yan Di, has his mausoleum near Guidong. Based on the distribution characteristics of plant communities, it can be deduced that there were tea trees growing in Guidong during the Neolithic Age.
During the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the county magistrate offered Linglong Tea as tribute. The “Guidong County Gazetteer” compiled during the Qing Dynasty records: “Among the goods produced here is the native tea of Guidong.”
The book “Chinese Tea Bible” describes: “Fine Linglong tea grows in the southern part of Hunan, amidst mountains, amidst verdant pines and bamboo, shrouded in mist and fog, where the gardens of Linglong tea are located.” Numerous works such as “Encyclopedia of Chinese Agriculture” and “A Grand View of Hunan Teas” also contain descriptions and accounts of Linglong Tea.
In 1929, “Notes on the Specialties of Various Counties in Hunan” recorded: “Tea is a natural product of Bamei Mountain, and drinking it brings a cool sensation to both sides of the body, capable of relieving anxiety and purifying the mind.”
In 1981, the Hunan Provincial Tea Plant Variety Resources Survey Team discovered relatively primitive tea varieties in Guidong.
In July 1965, Wang Yanchun, then Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, visited Guidong and named the tea after the place where it was first produced, the Linglong Group of Tongluo Village: Linglong Tea.
In 1980, Linglong Tea participated in its first national tea competition and won a gold medal from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Fisheries.
The “Guidong County Gazetteer” records that in 1949, the county's tea garden area was 400 mu, with an annual tea output of 350 kilograms.
In 1965, the tea plantation area in Guidong County reached 3,933 mu, with an annual tea production of 6,100 kilograms.
After the start of the “Cultural Revolution,” tea production suffered. It wasn't until after 1970 that it gradually recovered.
Since 1991, the Guidong County Party Committee and the county government have accelerated the pace of poverty alleviation in mountainous areas by developing the tea industry as a pillar industry. By 2000, the area of tea gardens had expanded significantly, and the industrialization of the tea sector had taken shape.
By 2012, Guidong County had 60,000 mu of tea gardens, producing over 1,500 tons of premium Linglong Tea annually, with a value of 180 million yuan.
Manufacturing Method
Manufacturing Process:
Linglong Tea is made using the initial shoots of one bud and one leaf. It goes through eight processes: selection, spreading, fixation, cooling, kneading, preliminary drying, shaping and fluffing, re-spreading for moisture recovery, and final baking.
After picking, the fresh leaves are slightly spread out before undergoing fixation. After fixation, the leaves go through “cooling and heat dissipation” before kneading.
After the initial drying process, when the tea dough is no longer sticky, and the white down begins to appear, it is transferred to a reshaping and kneading process. The method involves lightly holding the tea dough with both hands and slowly rotating them in opposite directions. Then, the balled tea dough is gently scattered. This process is repeated several times. When the tea dough reaches 80% dryness, the process transitions to the fluffing step. This is done by cupping the tea and slowly turning it, allowing the tea strips to rub against each other, causing the white down to gradually become visible.
Finally, the tea is thoroughly baked until it is sufficiently dry. It is then packed in rough paper, with each package weighing one catty, and sealed in jars for storage.
Awards and Honors of Linglong Tea
In 1980, it was selected as a high-quality and famous tea in Hunan Province.
In 1985, it won the Quality Product Award from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Fisheries.
In 1988, it received a medal at the First China Food Expo.
In 1989, it won the National Ministry-Level Superior Product Award.
In 1991, it won the Excellent New Product Award at the First Decade Achievement Exhibition of China's Food Industry.
In 1994, it won the Gold Medal at the First “Hunan Tea Cup” Competition.
In 1994, it won the Gold Medal at the Fifth Asia-Pacific International Trade Fair.
In 1996, it won the Gold Medal at the Third “Hunan Tea Cup” Competition.
In 2005, it won the Gold Medal at the 12th Shanghai International Tea culture Festival, China's Famous Tea Competition.
In 2007, the Linglong King Tea Development Co., Ltd. was established.
In 2008, it won the Gold Medal at the Third China (Changsha) International Food Expo.
In 2009, it won the Gold Medal at the Tenth China (Hunan) International Agricultural Expo.
On September 13, 2012, Linglong Tea successfully became a “National Geographical Indication Product.”