Jiuqu Hongmei

Jiuqu Hongmei is a gongfu black tea whose appearance and temperament feel distinctly Jiangnan. GH/T 1116—2015 defines it as a curled gongfu black tea made from suitable tea-plant buds and leaves grown within Hangzhou's West Lake District and processed locally through withering, rolling, oxidation and drying. “West Lake District,” “curled form” and “local processing” are three conditions that together establish its standard identity.

Visually, it differs clearly from robust large-leaf black teas. Higher-grade Jiuqu Hongmei is fine, tight and curled, often compared to a bent hook or fishhook, with a glossy dark surface and some visible fine hairs. The liquor ranges from bright orange-red to vivid red. Aroma centers on clean sweetness and floral notes, while traditional tasting language often uses “plum fragrance” to describe the elegant, restrained aromatic impression.

The current industry standard further divides the tea into six grades, from Special Grade through Grade 5. Jiuqu Hongmei is therefore not a single style of “pre-Qingming bud tea,” but a complete product system built from different raw-material tenderness and sensory quality levels.

The tradition of Jiuqu Hongmei took shape in the middle to late Qing dynasty. Public materials from Zhejiang's social-science institutions and China's intangible-cultural-heritage portal both note that generations of Hangzhou tea farmers gradually formed a distinctive black-tea craft through cultivation and processing improvements. Historical names included “Jiuqu Wulong” and “Jiuqu Mei,” before the name “Jiuqu Hongmei” became established as its vivid red liquor and elegant aroma came to define the tea.

By the late Qing and early Republican period, this Hangzhou black tea had entered a wider market. Republican-era Hangzhou tea-industry records and later local cultural narratives often place it beside West Lake Longjing: one green, one black, representing two entirely different processing paths within the same West Lake tea region. Jiuqu Hongmei also experienced decline through war, industrial change and the growing dominance of the green-tea market.

From the late 20th century onward, local branding, heritage protection and standardization helped revive it. Its craft entered Hangzhou's intangible cultural heritage list in 2006 and Zhejiang's provincial list in 2009. The GH/T 1116 industry standard followed in 2015, and Hangzhou implemented a new processing technical specification in 2023. Traditional skill thus moved from oral transmission into a system where intangible heritage and modern standards coexist.

In standard terms, Jiuqu Hongmei can be produced across Hangzhou's West Lake District, but its classic terroir is best understood through Shuangpu. Shuangpu lies along the Qiantang River, with the historical core around Hubu, Lingshan and nearby villages. This is not a high-altitude mountain region like Wuyishan, but a southern Hangzhou tea landscape where river, hills, sheltered valleys and slopes meet.

Hubu's Dawushan and the Dawu basin are among the most frequently mentioned traditional core areas. Hills and woodland enclose the valley and create a relatively sheltered microclimate, while proximity to the Qiantang River adds humidity. Hangzhou itself lies in a humid subtropical monsoon zone, with warm, rainy spring conditions favorable to tea growth. In 2026, population tea trees over a century old were still being protected locally, showing that traditional tea-plant resources remain part of the living landscape rather than merely historical memory.

The industry standard does not set a single altitude, temperature or soil-pH threshold for Jiuqu Hongmei. It is therefore more accurate to describe the overall terroir as “beside the Qiantang River, low hills, sheltered valleys and humid conditions” than to force data from one Dawushan garden across all of West Lake District.

The core logic of Jiuqu Hongmei remains the four classic black-tea steps: withering, rolling, oxidation and drying. One valuable feature of DB3301/T 1122—2023 is that it regulates both traditional and modern processing, preserving distinctive local practices while allowing contemporary production methods.

In traditional processing, fresh leaves are spread and sun-withered before rolling. Rolling not only brings tea juice to the surface and creates the conditions for enzymatic oxidation, but is also crucial to the tea's fine, tight, curled hook-like form. After rolling, the leaves are loosened and traditionally oxidized in bags, with the maker judging degree from changes in color, veins and aroma. The disappearance of raw grassy odor and the emergence of floral and sweet notes are important signs that oxidation has progressed appropriately.

After oxidation, the traditional method may use sun drying to reduce moisture before baking completes drying and aroma-setting, followed by screening and refining. Modern production may instead use withering troughs, mechanical rolling and more controllable oxidation and drying equipment. Whatever the tools, the goal remains the same: fine, tightly curved strands, bright orange-red liquor and a clean sweet aroma.

Tasting Jiuqu Hongmei begins with its “curve.” The dry leaf should not be thick and straight, but fine, tight and curled, with an obvious hooked or bent appearance. Higher grades are glossy dark, relatively even and may show fine hairs. This delicate curve is the first visual cue that separates the tea from many other gongfu black teas.

The liquor should remain bright. Across the grades in the current standard, color shifts from vivid red and bright orange-red at higher levels, but brightness rather than dullness is the consistent expectation. The standard uses terms such as sweet fragrance, while local culture often describes high-grade tea with phrases such as “a fragrance clear as red plum” or “plum aroma.” This “plum” idea is best understood as a traditional flavor image for elegant floral-sweet aroma, not as added plum-blossom flavoring.

The taste should combine black tea's sweet mellowness with the freshness and lightness associated with tender local material. The infused leaf should be bright red, tender, even and soft. A tea that has only intense caramel sweetness but loses the curled form, bright liquor and delicate fresh quality does not fully express the classic Jiuqu Hongmei style.

Hangzhou tea culture is visually dominated by West Lake Longjing, and that is exactly why Jiuqu Hongmei has a distinct cultural role: the same West Lake tea region can travel from tender green freshness to red liquor and sweet aroma through a completely different processing path. Local descriptions therefore often speak of Longjing and Jiuqu Hongmei as “one green, one red.”

In 2009, the making of Jiuqu Hongmei entered Zhejiang's provincial list of representative intangible cultural heritage projects. Shuangpu today still has heritage practitioners, experience centers, tea museums and traditional gardens involved in transmitting the craft. West Lake District's 2026 government work arrangements also called for using the local science-and-technology courtyard and actively applying for national intangible-heritage status. That means the tea should still be accurately described as provincial-level heritage at present rather than prematurely labeled national heritage.

This condition is representative of the tea itself: Jiuqu Hongmei is both a local craft continuing from the Qing dynasty and a tea being reshaped by science, standards, old-tree protection and brand rebuilding. It is not an appendage of West Lake Longjing, but an independent red line within Hangzhou tea culture.