Basic Introduction to Renhua White-Haired Tea
Renhua White-Haired Tea is a specialty tea native to Guangdong Province, primarily divided into black and green teas based on processing techniques. Historically known as White Margosa Tea, its production dates back to the Ming Dynasty and became a tribute during the Qing Jiaqing era. The best quality comes from the “Qingming Tea,” harvested around the Qingming Festival, which was once a tribute to the imperial court. Renhua White-Haired Tea contains a particularly rich array of compounds, imparting it with strong, mellow, fresh, refreshing, and fragrant qualities.
Nutritional Value
As measured by the Guangdong Tea Research Institute, Renhua White-Haired Tea has high levels of tea polyphenols, with green tea varieties at ≥23% and black tea varieties at ≥13%; amino acids at 1.98%, chlorophyll at 1.44%, water-soluble extracts over 38%, along with various vitamins (C, B, E, P) and minerals, providing significant nutritional and health benefits. Regular consumption can aid in weight loss, prevent cancer, promote beauty and longevity.
Product Characteristics
Renhua White-Haired Tea is renowned for its clear and bright liquor, delicate and fragrant aroma, fresh and mellow taste, and excellent brewing endurance. It also has a special effect in tonifying the stomach, aiding digestion, and relieving diarrhea. Quality grades are divided into Special Grade, First Grade, and Second Grade. Green tea has a plump appearance, a green and lustrous color, visible downy hairs, a fresh and fragrant aroma, a tender green liquor, and a fresh and sweet taste. Black tea has a tight and elegant shape, visible downy hairs, a ruddy color, a rich floral fragrance, a red and bright liquor, a mellow taste, and tender, even leaves that are ruddy in color.
Historical Folklore
The cultivation history of Renhua White-Haired Tea can be roughly divided into three phases: prior to the 1970s, a traditional period characterized by transplanting wild tea trees, backward technology, and extremely low yields; from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, a period focused on developing seedling direct seeding tea gardens, resulting in rapid expansion of production areas and yields but a decline in variety quality; from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century, a period emphasizing the development of high-quality single-variety strains. Through the promotion of superior tea strain selection, grafting, asexual propagation, and high-yield cultivation techniques, the rate of Renhua's superior tea strains increased from virtually zero to 34.6%, exceeding the national average. By 2010, yield per mu had reached about 35 kilograms, nearly double what it was in the mid-1980s. In 1998, the “Comprehensive Agricultural Standards for Renhua White-Haired Tea” passed provincial review, becoming the first agricultural standardization document in Renhua County, marking the gradual transition of Renhua's tea production to standardized practices.
Awards and Honors for Renhua White-Haired Tea
Renhua White-Haired Tea won the gold award at the 1994 Forestry Department's Famous, Premium, Special, and New Products Expo and was consecutively recognized as a high-quality tea in Guangdong Province from 1988 to 1996. The Xishan brand Gao Ping Silver Tip and Renhua Silver Hair were awarded the titles of “Guangdong Famous Tea” and “Provincial Famous Tea in the Downy Tea Category” in provincial competitions in 1992 and 1996, respectively. They also won the gold award at the 1994 National Forestry Famous, Special, and Superior New Products Expo and the recommended product award at the 1998 International China Famous Tea, Tea Products, and Tea Culture Exhibition.