Tea Details
Harvest: Spring 2025 (Pre-Qingming) — Premium: picked earlier and more tender; Classic: slightly later within the same pre-Qingming window
Region: Huluzhen, Baojing County, Xiangxi Prefecture, Hunan, China
Elevation: 600–800 meters above sea level
Cultivar: Golden No. 1
Crafting Highlight: Handmade shaping
Storage Tips: Store in an airtight container away from heat and light
Shelf Life: 12 months at room temperature; 2 years refrigerated
Net Weight: 30g / 1.06oz
From Mountain to Teacup
Nestled in the remote hills of Huluzhen, Baojing County in western Hunan, this tea is picked at elevations of 600–800 meters, where mountain mists nourish the leaves and rivers carve through layered green terraces.
Here, many tea pickers still wear traditional Miao ethnic (苗族) clothing, a living expression of the region’s heritage. Hand-picking remains a central part of the harvest, connecting every cup of Golden Green Tea to the people and landscape it comes from.
Cultivar: Golden No. 1
Golden No. 1 is the special tea cultivar behind our Baojing Huangjincha.
- Very early sprouting – harvested up to 10 days earlier than standard teas.
- Naturally sweet & umami – thanks to its high amino acid content (5.3%, compared to the typical 2.5–4% in most green teas).
- Straight, spear-like buds – perfect for premium green tea.
- Strong & stable – resistant to pests, adaptable to different altitudes.
First developed in 2010 by the Hunan Tea Research Institute, this cultivar was selected from native Baojing tea plants to bring out the region’s finest qualities.
Refined by Hand, Powered by Machines
This tea is crafted with a semi-mechanized process: modern machinery handles key steps like withering, fixing, and drying to ensure color, aroma, and consistency — while skilled hands still play a vital role in shaping (做形) the leaves. The tender bud-and-leaf raw materials are ideal for this method, as machine processing helps preserve the tea’s bright green color and smooth strands, while hand-finished shaping ensures the signature spear-like appearance of top-grade Baojing Huangjincha.
Autumn in the tea hills of Baojing.
Local farmers are tending the tea bushes with compost and care — a backbreaking task I remember vividly from my own tea science training. After one day of this fieldwork, my back ached for days.
But it’s this quiet, off-season labor that makes spring growth possible.
Every tender bud harvested in early spring begins with effort like this — invisible, unglamorous, but essential.
