GB/T 18665-2008Product of geographical indication - Mengshan tea (English PDF)

3 Protected area and terminology

3 The protected area of Mengshan tea is limited to the area approved by the administrative authority for quality supervision, inspection and quarantine under the Provisions on the Protection of Geographical Indication Products, and is shown in Annex A. The note to Annex A states that the area covers the whole of Mingshan County in Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, and in addition Houyan village of Bifengxia town and Longxi and Mengquan villages of Longxi township in the Yucheng district of Ya'an City.

4.1 Mengshan tea is tea grown inside the approved protected area of the geographical indication product, processed by a combination of traditional craft and modern technique, and having a defined quality.

5 Product classification

5.1 Speciality famous teas: Mengding Huangya, Mengding Shihua, Mengding Ganlu, Mengshan Maofeng and Mengshan Chunlu.

5.2 Green teas: Mengshan baked green tea, Mengshan pan-fired green tea and Mengshan steamed green tea.

5.3 Scented teas: Mengding Ganlu jasmine tea, Mengshan Maofeng jasmine tea, Mengshan Xiangming jasmine tea and the graded jasmine teas.

6 Requirements

6.1 Geographical environment. The growing area is enclosed by hills on three sides in the shape of a U, with a watershed inside it dividing it between the Min river basin and the Qingyi river basin. Flats and ridges alternate with streams and valleys, and the ground is one of the old alluvial areas of western Sichuan. The landform is mainly plain and hill, with low mountains only at the edges. The rivers all rise inside the area and are short with small flows. The soil layer is deep, acid and slightly acid soils make up more than 70 %, and forest cover reaches more than 44 %. The environment of the growing area meets NY 5020.

6.2 Climate. The area has a mid-latitude subtropical humid climate. The mean annual temperature is 15.5 °C, the annual accumulated temperature at or above 10 °C is 4772.5 °C, the frost-free period is 298 d, mean annual rainfall is 1519.9 mm, evaporation 1029.6 mm and mean annual relative humidity 82 %. The source text then gives an annual mean of 1035.5 h under a heading that reads as date rather than sunshine, and describes the area as one of low light radiation, with mild climate, plentiful rain and four distinct seasons.

6.3 Cultivation. Cultivars meet GB 11767; the main cultivars are national and provincial selections bred from the Mengshan population, among them Mingshan Baihao 131, Mingshan Zao 311, Mingshan Tezaoya 213, Mengshan No. 9, Mengshan No. 11, Mengshan No. 16 and Mengshan No. 23. The soil is a loam of medium sand and clay content, more than 35 cm deep, with a pH between 4.0 and 6.5, organic matter above 1.5 %, total nitrogen above 0.10 %, hydrolysable nitrogen above 100 mg/kg, available phosphorus above 10 mg/kg and available potassium above 80 mg/kg, its heavy metal content meeting NY 5020. Cultivation technique meets NY/T 5018 and plucking technique is given in Annex B.

6.4 Process flows are given for each product line. Mengding Huangya: spreading of the fresh leaf, fixation, cooling, second firing, yellowing in wrapping, third firing, yellowing in heaps, fourth firing, drying with hair raising, drying, sorting, blending, baking for aroma, weighing into cases and storage. Mengding Shihua drops the yellowing steps. Mengding Ganlu, with Mengshan Maofeng and Mengshan Chunlu, adds a first rolling, a second firing or baking, cooling, a second rolling, drying by pan or oven and shaping with hair raising. Baked green tea and pan-fired green tea run through fixation, cooling, first rolling, lump breaking, second baking, cooling, second rolling, lump breaking and then either first and second baking or pan drying with colour finishing, followed by refining, winnowing, stalk picking, blending and a final bake or pan dry. Steamed green tea runs from steam fixation and cooling through primary drying and rolling, coarse, flat, middle and fine rolling, drying, shaking sieve, round sieve, stalk picking, winnowing, inspection, blending and packing. Clause 6.4.7, the process flow for jasmine tea, carries its heading only; no flow is present in the source and none is supplied here.

6.5 Sensory quality. 6.5.1 requires the products to be clean, free of any additive, not coloured, free of non-tea matter, off-odour or deterioration. Tables 1 to 6 then set the sensory quality of, in order, the speciality famous teas, the speciality jasmine teas, the baked green teas, the pan-fired green teas, the steamed green teas and the Mengshan jasmine teas. Each table is read across eight descriptive columns, four for appearance and four for the liquor: for the leaf teas these are shape, colour, tenderness or evenness, cleanness, aroma, liquor colour, taste and infused leaf. Mengding Huangya, for example, is flat and straight, tender yellow and glossy, whole buds with down, clean, with a sweet rich aroma, a pale apricot-green bright liquor, a fresh brisk mellow taste and a yellow bright lively infused leaf.

6.6 Physical and chemical requirements. Table 7 covers the speciality famous teas and the speciality jasmine teas with four columns, moisture, total ash, powder and flower content, all as a percentage and all upper limits: the speciality famous teas at 6.5, 6.5 and 0.5 with no flower content requirement, and the speciality jasmine teas at 8.0, 6.5, 0.8 and 0.5. Table 8 covers the baked, pan-fired and steamed green teas with three columns: superior grade at 7.0, 6.5 and 1.0, grades 1 to 3 at 7.0, 6.5 and 1.5, and grades 4 to 5 at 7.0, 6.5 and 1.5. Table 9 covers the Mengshan jasmine teas with four columns: superior grade at 8.5, 6.5, 1.2 and 1.0, grades 1 to 2 at 8.5, 6.5, 1.5 and 1.2, and grades 3 to 5 at 8.5, 6.5, 1.5 and 1.5.

6.7 Hygiene requirements meet GB 2762 and GB 2763.

7 Test methods

7.1 Sensory quality is judged according to NY/T 787 and against the physical reference samples of Mengshan tea.

7.2 Moisture is determined according to GB/T 8304, powder according to GB/T 8311 and total ash according to GB/T 8306.

7.3 Hygiene indices are determined according to GB 2762 and GB 2763.

8 Inspection rules

8.1 A batch is the tea of one blending lot.

8.2 Sampling follows GB/T 8302, the sample taken being 400 g.

8.3 Factory inspection covers the label, the packaging, the sensory indices and the physical and chemical indices against the requirements of the document; the product leaves the factory only where it passes and carries a certificate of conformity. Type inspection is carried out where the source of the raw material changes considerably, where the process changes considerably, after one year of normal production, and on national supervisory sampling.

8.4 Where one or more items of a type or factory inspection fail, the batch is judged non-conforming. A failed batch is re-inspected on the retained sample, or a new sample is drawn from the same batch according to GB/T 8302 and the failed items are re-tested, the re-test result being decisive.

9 Marking, labelling, packaging, transport and storage

9.1 The pictorial marking on the transport case meets GB/T 191.

9.2 The label meets GB 7718; a producer qualified to use the special mark of the geographical indication product also carries that mark on the protected product.

10.1 Packaging material in contact with the tea meets SB/T 10035. Containers are clean, dry, free of off-odour and non-toxic and do not affect the quality of the tea; the packaging is firm and tidy, keeps out moisture, protects the quality and suits loading, storage and transport. Net content of the small packages and the metrological deviation of the whole packed unit follow Order No. 75 of 2005 of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on the metrological supervision of prepackaged goods.

10.2 The vehicles used are clean, hygienic, dry and free of off-odour; the load is protected from rain, damp and direct sun, and mixed loading or carriage with toxic or contaminating goods is forbidden.

10.3 Finished tea is stored in a clean, dry, damp-proof, odour-free warehouse. Speciality famous teas and speciality scented teas are kept in a cold store held between 0 °C and 5 °C at a relative humidity below 50 %, and the condition of the tea is checked periodically.

Annex B Plucking practice

B.1 Speciality famous teas. Plucking starts when 3 % to 5 % of the shoots on the surface of the bush meet the plucking standard. Huangya and superior grade Shihua are plucked as single buds; the Shihua, Ganlu and Maofeng lines and Chunlu tea are plucked as one bud with one leaf and one bud with two leaves just opening. Table B.1 grades the fresh leaf for the speciality famous teas, with five leaf compositions, single bud, one bud and one just opening leaf, one bud and two just opening leaves, one bud and two leaves, and single and fish-leaf pairs of the same tenderness, each read as a pair of columns for weight and count, in per cent. The row for superior grade Mengding Ganlu carries eight values where ten columns are expected and cannot be paired, so it is not reported here.

B.2 Green teas are plucked as one bud with two or three leaves together with single and fish-leaf pairs of the same tenderness, and the fresh leaf is graded from superior to grade five according to its tenderness. Table B.2 has three composition columns in per cent by weight, one bud with one or two leaves, one bud with two or three leaves, and single and fish-leaf pairs of the same tenderness, plus a sensory description. Superior grade is at 40 % or more, 55 % or more and 5 % to 10 %, described as fresh tender bud and leaf, soft leaf texture and bright fresh leaf colour. Grade one is 30 % to 39 %, 45 % to 54 % and 11 % to 18 %. Grade two is 20 % to 29 %, 35 % to 45 % and 19 % to 26 %. Grade three is 10 % to 19 %, 25 % to 36 % and 27 % to 44 %. Grade four is 1 % to 9 %, 20 % to 30 % and 45 % to 65 %. Grade five is 0 % to 5 %, 5 % to 20 % and 65 % to 75 %.