Hometown of Chinese Dark Tea — Anhua, Hunan

Anhua County is renowned as the hometown of Chinese dark tea. With a long history of producing dark tea, Anhua has been a major supplier to the northwest Chinese tea market for centuries. As an indispensable daily necessity for farmers and herdsmen in border areas, dark tea has long been favored by the people of ethnic minority regions in northwest China, making significant contributions to maintaining border stability and promoting national unity.

The unique genetic code of Anhua dark tea originates from the large-leaf variety found on Yuntai Mountain in Anhua. The rare moraine area and moderate selenium-rich zone on Yuntai Mountain are irreplaceable, providing the tea plants with a unique geographical and climatic environment where they can grow naturally without cultivation.

Anhua dark tea boasts a rich product line, featuring a dark brown appearance, orange-yellow or bright orange-red liquor color, pure aroma, and excellent resistance to multiple infusions. Properly stored Anhua dark tea improves in quality over the years, enhancing its health benefits, so it is well-loved by consumers.

Since 2005, Yiyang City has united its efforts to build the “Anhua Dark Tea” public brand. In recent years, the tea industry has been prioritized as a pillar of agriculture, with extensive work done in tea garden construction, deep processing, brand building, market expansion, standard formulation, and cultural exploration. Currently, the tea garden area within the region reaches 496,000 mu (approx. 330,667 hectares), and the dark tea output in 2023 amounted to 120,000 tons.

With the continuous development of the Anhua dark tea industry, its brand influence has steadily grown. Presently, Anhua dark tea has been granted the status of National Geographic indication protection products and a well-known Chinese trademark. It is also listed in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage protection, and boasts five well-known Chinese trademarks for tea (Anhua Dark Tea, Baishaxi, Hualaijian, China Tea, Yiqingyuan), 14 famous trademarks in Hunan Province, one China Time-honored Brand (China Tea), and nine Hunan Time-honored Brands. It has become one of the first geographical indication products from Hunan Province to be included in the “China-EU 100+100” list of mutually recognized and protected geographical indication products.

Anhua dark tea exemplifies the legend of “a single leaf fostering an industry and enriching the local people.” Each tea leaf here bears the imprint of Anhua’s culture and history. Looking forward, Anhua will continue to write the legendary story of the hometown of dark tea, “with tea as the foundation, tourism as the medium, culture as the connotation, and health as the extension.”