Compared with Fujian, Zhejiang and Anhui, Henan has lesser varieties of tea produced on the market. In fact, even seasoned tea drinkers would have difficulty naming another variety of Henan tea besides the Xinyang Maojian.
Don’t sleep on Henan though.
Overview
In terms of quality, it’s a different picture though.
In China there’s a distinction between 大宗茶 dazongcha or mass market tea versus名优茶 mingyoucha or specialty/ quality tea. The former refers to teas like supermarket teas, gunpowder and ‘chun mei’ or exported black teas and Chinese sencha and are machine produced and often machine picked.
Based on that same set of statistics, Xinyang has one of the highest weightage of mingyoucha to the total volume at 56% compared with the national average of 40% and 11.5% in Jiangxi which apart from the Lushan Yunwu, predominantly produces supermarket and export grade teas collectively known as Ninghong (Jiangxi Black) and WuLv (Wuyuan Green) and RaoLv (Shangrao Green).
If you skip over any mention of statistics, what it simply means is that Henan’s tea focuses on value over volume.
Xinyang Maojian
The Song Dynasty scholar and tea addict Su Shi aka Su Dongpo has once said “淮南茶 ，信阳第一。。。。 品不在浙闽之下” which means “among HuaiNan (1 of the 8 tea producing regions identified by Lu Yu) teas, Xinyang is the best. Its quality is not below Zhejiang and Fujian teas.”
Many years on, this sentiment remains echoed by the industry. Xinyang Maojian is a perennial offering on most Chinese Top 10 Famous Tea lists and is favored for its lingering sweetness and refreshing aftertaste.
Others
As mentioned, among Henan teas, Xinyang Maojian is the best known but in (relatively) recent years, other varieties have emerged.
In the nearby town of Gu Shi (固始), 2 different types of green teas have emerged in the past 30 years. The Shibapan Yinfeng (十八盘银峰) and Yangtian Xuelv(仰天雪绿) have been fast gaining some popularity in northern China.
Also near to Xinyang is the town of Guangshan. In 1986, the Saishan Yulian was created by a local company. It went on to obtain a ‘Golden Dragon Cup’ in 1994 and another award in 1995, cementing its place on the Chinese tea map.
As seen from the map, the main tea producing regions of Henan are found in the South where climate conditions are closer to sub-tropical and hence more suited for tea production.
It must be said that apart from the Xinyang Maojian- which is available in our stores- I have not tasted the other 3 green teas.
Information on those teas has been obtained from Chen Zong Mao et al’s excellent Pin Cha Tu Jian published by Zhe Lin Chu Ban Se.
See here for other tea provinces of China
