Jin Jun Mei

Jin Jun Mei is a modern Wuyi black tea with an unusually strict definition. GH/T 1118—2015 does not use the name for every “golden-bud black tea.” It specifically limits the raw material to single buds from high-mountain tea plants within the 565 km² Wuyishan National Nature Reserve centered on Tongmu Village. Origin, single-bud material and a defined processing method together form the standard identity of Jin Jun Mei.

Its appearance also differs from the “all-golden bud” black teas often seen in the market. The standard requires tight, elegant, weighty strands with upright tips and only a slight showing of golden hairs, with an overall interwoven gold, yellow and black coloration. The brewed liquor is not deep red but clear, bright golden with a golden ring. Aroma combines floral, fruity, honeyed and other notes including the sweet-potato-like character recorded in the standard, while the taste emphasizes liveliness and sweet briskness rather than heavy astringency.

Another easily overlooked point is that the Jin Jun Mei industry standard explicitly states that the product has no grades. Labels such as “Special Grade Jin Jun Mei” or “Grade 1 Jin Jun Mei” may be company-specific commercial classifications, but they are not official quality grades in GH/T 1118—2015. For an encyclopedia-style page, distinguishing standard terminology from market language is especially important.

Jin Jun Mei does not have an ancient history, but its development is clearly rooted within the Wuyi black-tea tradition. Public information from Fujian's agricultural authorities records that in 2005, a team inheriting Zhengshan Xiaozhong craft in Tongmu Village within the Wuyishan National Nature Reserve experimented with local high-mountain tea buds and innovated on the basis of traditional Zhengshan Xiaozhong black-tea knowledge. The result became the new black tea later known as Jin Jun Mei.

The tea then went through continued refinement. Further trials and comparisons were conducted in 2006, the process was optimized again in 2007 based on tasting feedback, and the product entered the market around 2008. It both inherits from and differs sharply from Zhengshan Xiaozhong: the raw material shifts from bud-and-leaf shoots to extremely tender single buds, while production moves away from traditional smoky style toward an unsmoked profile centered on floral, fruity and honeyed aroma, fresh sweetness and golden liquor. The result is a very different modern black-tea drinking experience.

In 2015, the supply-and-marketing industry standard GH/T 1118—2015 was issued, formally defining for the first time what counts as Jin Jun Mei. It wrote the 565 km² protected area, high-mountain single buds, four core processing stages and the idea of “golden liquor, sweetness in the cup, aroma within the sweetness” into the product definition. From the first innovative trials in 2005 to an industry standard a decade later, Jin Jun Mei offers an unusually clear example of how a new tea can rapidly develop tradition, market identity and formal standards.

One of the least replaceable conditions of Jin Jun Mei is that its raw-material area is written directly into the product definition. The Wuyishan National Nature Reserve lies in the northern Wuyi Mountains and covers about 565 km². It contains overlapping ridges, deeply cut stream valleys, an overall average elevation of roughly 1,200 m and Huanggang Mountain rising above 2,100 m. Large areas of mid-subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest remain intact, and forest cover is exceptionally high.

The reserve also has a very clear humid high-mountain climate. Official materials record an annual mean temperature of about 13°C, annual rainfall around 2,000 mm, locally above 3,000 mm, and relative humidity around 78%–84%. Strong elevation differences create pronounced vertical climate, so valleys, slopes, forest edges and traditional-use zones at different heights experience different combinations of temperature, moisture and sunlight.

Soils shift with elevation from red and yellow-red soils to yellow soils and higher mountain soils. For Jin Jun Mei, it is more useful to understand forests, high mountains, streams, humidity and vertical climate at the scale of the entire reserve than to attach a single altitude number to a “mountain site.” This is why the standard refers to “single buds from high-mountain tea plants within the reserve” rather than specifying one elevation point.

The core Jin Jun Mei process can be summarized in four words: withering, rolling, oxidation and drying. That looks similar to ordinary black tea, but because the raw material consists entirely of fine single buds, the margin for error at every step is smaller. Single buds contain abundant moisture and have delicate tissues. Withering must soften them and remove enough water without dissipating too much of their fresh aromatic character.

Rolling needs to break cells sufficiently for later enzymatic oxidation while still preserving the buds and their tight, elegant shape. During the stage traditionally called “fermentation,” polyphenols continue oxidizing under enzyme action, leaf color and aroma gradually shift, and layered floral, fruity and honeyed notes begin to form. Too little oxidation leaves green odor and astringency; too much can reduce liveliness and delicate fragrance.

Once the desired oxidation is reached, prompt drying stops further change and fixes aroma and taste. Unlike traditional smoked Zhengshan Xiaozhong, the dedicated Jin Jun Mei standard does not include a pine-smoke firing requirement. Its identity instead comes from the high-mountain single buds and unsmoked process, which produce clear golden liquor, a fresh-sweet mouthfeel and delicate layered aroma.

Jin Jun Mei is well suited to a tasting approach of “correct the color first, then discuss the aroma.” Standard Jin Jun Mei dry tea is not uniformly golden. It should be interwoven gold, yellow and black, tight and weighty with upright tips and only a slight showing of golden hairs. Dry tea covered entirely in loose yellow fuzz and looking excessively golden is actually less consistent with the typical appearance described by the industry standard.

The liquor should be golden, clear and bright, with a distinct golden ring. T/CTMA 045—2022 further describes the aroma as an integrated floral, fruity and honeyed profile and emphasizes persistence. The taste should be lively, sweet and brisk, with aroma carried into the liquor and a delicate, clean sweetness that lasts. This style differs from many black teas that aim for deep red liquor and strong astringency.

The infused leaf gives another check on raw material. Jin Jun Mei that truly meets the definition is made from single buds, so the brewed leaf should show plump, full, lively and even buds in bright copper tones. If the infused leaf contains many one-bud-one-leaf shoots, larger leaves or stems, it differs visibly from the single-bud raw-material definition in GH/T 1118—2015.

Jin Jun Mei is an unusual case: rather than slowly emerging from vague ancient legends, it made a rapid leap from innovative product to nationally known famous tea within the contemporary tea industry. Fujian's official materials place its creation inside more than four centuries of Zhengshan Xiaozhong black-tea tradition while clearly identifying it as a new product developed through innovation after 2005.

This innovation in turn changed the market and cultural image of Tongmu black tea. Jin Jun Mei renewed consumer attention to high-mountain Wuyi black tea, bud-based raw materials and unsweetened straight drinking, while also bringing traditional teas such as Zhengshan Xiaozhong back into wider public view. Wuyishan National Park today still places ecological protection first while promoting ecological tea gardens and Tongmu black-tea branding in traditional-use areas, requiring tea production and national-park management to continually negotiate their boundaries.

One distinction is especially important: Jin Jun Mei is not currently listed as an independent national intangible-cultural-heritage project. Its innovation grew out of the traditional craft of Zhengshan Xiaozhong, while “Zhengshan Xiaozhong Black Tea Making Craft” is currently a representative intangible-cultural-heritage project at the Fujian provincial level. Jin Jun Mei's cultural value is therefore more accurately described as a modern innovation built on traditional black-tea craft, rather than as a separate national or UNESCO heritage project.