Picking in the Taishanghuang tea fields.

On April 14, the exclusively produced Taishanghuang early spring tea in Shangzhaiyang Village, Guihu Town, Taishun County was harvested and gradually picked for market. This type of yellow tea, rich in strontium and other nutrients, has been welcomed in the market since its debut at the first Yellow Tea Culture Festival and Taishanghuang Tasting Event in the county last year, with the highest selling price reaching over 10,000 yuan per kg.

The Taishanghuang tea plants are golden-yellow throughout with a rich tea aroma. This kind of variety is rare and currently only surviving in Shangzhaiyang Village. Ten years ago, a local villager accidentally discovered this type of yellow tea. After picking and roasting its leaves and then tasting the tea, he found that its taste was different from ordinary green tea, and it had a particularly good refreshing effect. Seizing the opportunity, the Villagers Committee and the CPC Party Committee of the village, with the support of their superiors, took samples of the yellow tea to the Tea Research Institute of Zhejiang University for preliminary testing that it was confirmed as a variant of yellow tea, whose amino acid and other nutrient contents were several times higher than those of other teas, making it more suitable for consumption. With the help of Prof Wang Ziqiang, a scientific envoy from ZJU, the mutant yellow tea was registered as a trademark in the name of Taishanghuang (literally means the yellow tea of Taishun, but also a pun for “Grand Emperor”).

Shangzhaiyang Village is located in the southeast of Guihu Town, where the altitude is above 500m. It is shrouded in mist all year round, making it suitable for tea growth. After the Taishanghuang tea plants were named and the trademark registered, hundreds of the tea plants were transplanted to other places for cultivation, but none of them have survived.

An industry is formed from a kind of leaf. Currently, the core area of the Taishanghuang yellow tea base covers an area of 300 mu, and the planted area in Shangzhaiyang Village reaches 500 mu. This year’s yield is slightly higher than last year’s, with an expected total annual output value of 3.5 million yuan. The collective operating income of the village is expected to exceed 200,000 yuan, with an increase in per capita income for farmers of over 2,800 yuan.

“The Taishanghuang yellow tea is very ‘particular’ about its growing environment. While other tea leaves can be picked in two years, it takes at least three years for it to be harvested, and the picking period is also about 20 days later than other teas,” said the person in charge of Guihu Town. In recent years, Guihu Town has focused on expanding and strengthening characteristic agriculture, continuously improving modern agricultural infrastructure, and has now achieved the integration of Taishanghuang tea cultivation, production, and sales.

Sci-tech and talent have further empowered the Taishanghuang tea. According to Dr Guo Jian from Zhejiang Ocean University, at the end of 2021, she led a team to settle in the Taishanghuang yellow tea base in Shangzhaiyang Village, innovatively developing strontium-rich tea leaves that help prevent cardiovascular diseases. The team used soil conditioner made from strontium-rich shells of mussels from Zhoushan City to cultivate the soil for planting Taishanghuang tea trees, making strontium accumulated in the trees’ roots. As confirmed by research institutions, the tea leaves produced and the tea soup brewed from these leaves were all rich in strontium.

To further promote the brand awareness of Taishanghuang and amplify its shared prosperity effect, Guihu Town has organized a yellow tea production management team. In the 6th “Mengding Mountain Cup” China Yellow Tea Competition, the Taishanghuang Compressed Yellow Tea won the Special Gold Award. The town has also completed the tourism planning and design of Taishanghuang tea gardens and initiated the shared prosperity project for the integration of the three sectors of industry, actively creating a series of supporting facilities for the tea tourism complex such as the yellow tea mother tree protection, Skyland, and landscape leisure platforms. The Shangzhaiyang Village Yellow Tea Garden Trail and the Xinhu Ethnic Minority Village Tea Trading Leisure Corridor have also been built.