The spring tea harvest is well under way. There are some places to pick fresh tea on scenic plantations and many teahouses in the city where you can savor cha. Chen Ye reports.

The first thing Li Shengrong does every morning after he gets up is walk to his glass cupboard and choose from dozens of teas, selecting his Tea of the Day.

Li has been a tea enthusiast for more than 30 years and runs a teahouse in Shanghai’s Xuhui District.

His wife complains in jest that the first thing he does in the morning is inhale his precious tea – before giving her a kiss.

Li says he likes black tea in the morning, green tea at midday and afternoon and dark tea, or post-fermented tea like Pu’er, in the evening.

When he isn’t running his tea house, 57-year-old Li spends most of his time with tea, which is an integral part of his life. He says he’s never been without tea.

"My wife teases, saying I love teas more than I love her because every morning instead of kissing her chin and saying good morning, I always move fast to my cupboard, choose a tea, open the tea caddy and take a deep breath of the fragrance. This puts me in a pleasurable mood all day."

After choosing his Tea of the Day, Li turns to his tea table and begins to boil water for kung fu tea, or a tea ceremony. This is how he treats friends.

The third floor of Li’s teahouse is filled with sunshine and a Maitreya Buddha reclines on his favorite marble tea table. Tea tables are usually made of wood, but he prefers marble surface with elaborate wood carving.

After washing each piece on the marble tea table including six small cups, he begins adding tea to the teapot.

"I love making kung fu tea in front of my friends. Usually I add hot water and fill the teapot until it overflows a little. I let the water stand for a few seconds to warm the pot before pouring it out. I like to see my friends’ faces and they think oh my god, the water is coming out," Li says with a laugh.

Then he starts washing tea leaves, and keeps an eye on the temperature of the electric kettle.

"Temperature is the key to kung fu tea," Li says, pouring a cup of hot and fragrant Dragon Well (Longjing) Tea.

The first cup is not perfect but the second and third cups are the best, with pronounced flavor and fragrance.

Long history

Tea drinking has a long history in China and is an integral part of the culture. Tea processing was underway in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Traditional Chinese medicine holds that each type of tea has different properties and benefits for the human body. Drinking black tea (often called red tea, or hong cha) in the morning can help rid the body of chill, and increase the circulation of blood, which is sluggish after sleeping. It sharpens mental faculties.

Drinking green tea at midday helps to suppress anger and control excessive "liver fire." Tea’s polyphenols are powerful antioxidants with many health benefits.

Additionally, drinking dark tea (hei cha) like Pu’er in the evening is good for digestion and dissolving fat. Pu-erh is famous for helping to metabolize fat.

"Chajing," also known as the "The Classic of Tea" is the world’s first monograph on tea, written by Lu Yu in 758. It’s a bible for tea enthusiasts.

"Drinking tea every day is my attitude for enjoying life," Li says. "’The Classic of Tea’ teaches that tea symbolizes harmony and the mysterious unity of the universe. For Buddhists, Taoists or Confucians, tea expresses something universal."

Surging prices

However in the past few decades, people have focused more on the price of fresh tea and what type of tea will become the next King of Tea, Tie Guanyin (a variety of Oolong tea), Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Tea or Pu-erh.

Reports on this year’s harvest show that the prime Dragon Well Tea from West Lake costs 180,000 yuan (US$28,567) for 500 grams. Some say the price is ridiculous, affordable only by wealthy connoisseurs or those presenting gifts to officials.

Still, just as some people believe fine red wine is part of French culture, so tea represents Chinese culture and the latest West Lake Dragon Well is considered the near equivalent of Chateau Lafite.

China has six kinds of teas:

Green tea, black tea, dark tea, Oolong tea, yellow tea and white tea. Here are 10 of China’s best teas

West Lake Dragon Well Tea (Longjing Tea)

Price: 350 yuan/100g

Type: Green tea

Yellow Mountain Maofeng Tea (Maofeng Tea)

Price: 100 yuan/100g

Type: Green tea

Tie Guanyin Tea

Price: 50-80 yuan/100g

Type: Oolong tea

Dongting Biluochun Tea

Price: 158 yuan/100g

Type: Green tea

Xinyang Maojian Tea

Price: 20 yuan/100g

Type: Green tea

Keemun Tea

Price: 66 yuan/100g

Type: Black tea

Da Hong Pao

Price: 75 yuan/100g

Type: Oolong tea

Lu’an Guapian Tea

Price: 98 yuan/100g

Type: Green tea

Taiping Houkui Tea

Price: 400-600 yuan/100g

Type: Green tea

Junshan Yinzhen Tea

Price: 50-130 yuan/100g

Type: Yellow tea

Tea retreats in Shanghai

Drinking cha in a teahouse and watching the passing scene is a good way to get a feel for the city. For example, peaceful, 150-year-old Huxin Ting in busy Yuyuan Garden is an ideal place for soaking up atmosphere.

Other recommended tea oases are Sijiaoting in Gulin Park, Delong Teahouse at Kangjian Road in Xuhui District and Tianyi Tea Plaza. There tea lovers can while away the time and buy good tea.

Here are a few tea retreats:

Jingyuan Tea Art House

Situated in downtown Shanghai, this tea house doubles as a small art gallery, with comfortable facilities and a relaxing atmosphere.

Address: 1 Wulumuqi Rd M.

Old Shanghai Teahouse

An ideal place for exotic teas.

Address: 385 Fangbang Rd M.

Delong Tea House

A traditional teahouse with a tranquil atmosphere, a friendly boss and an entire third floor devoted to tea drinking and a kung fu tea ceremony.

Address: 72 Kangjian Rd

Around Shanghai

Since fresh tea is coming onto the market, tea lovers can visit tea plantations, watch the harvest and buy tea on-site.

West Lake

This is the home of Dragon Well, one of China’s most famous teas. The best place to pick tea is in Longjing Village near Xiwen Mountain.

Taihu Lake

Famous for Biluochun Tea, another legendary tea, Taihu Lake near Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is an attractive destination in spring tea-picking season. Biluochun Tea was originally grown on Dongting Mountain near Taihu Lake.

Yellow Mountain

Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) is the best place for Huangshan Maofeng Tea, where people gather in May to pick tea and appreciate Hui-style architecture.

Lushan Mountain

Lushan Yunwu Tea, another legendary tea, is grown on Lushan Mountain where many important figures built vacation retreats.

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The remarks by Wang Jianhua, an expert on pesticide residue for the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau of Shandong province, came after the government conceded the long-term use of chemicals on other crops has resulted in widespread contamination of soil and water supplies.

Greenpeace released a report in April saying Chinese products available for the domestic market fall far short of the standard required in the European Union.

However, Wang dismissed public concern resulting from the report and insisted the products tested are safe.

"China’s standards on pesticide residue are reasonable, as the standards fully take into consideration the potential risks to public health," he said on Tuesday.

"What authorities should be paying serious attention to is the usage of highly toxic pesticides in agricultural production, which is ongoing. Some areas of production have no standards on pesticide residues at all."

Wang declined to name specific pesticides.

The Greenpeace report, released on April 23, said scientists had discovered residue from 17 pesticides, including methomyl, a pesticide banned in China, in some Lipton teas.

Seven of the pesticides are also prohibited in the EU, including endosulfan and bifenthrin, which according to EU health officials might jeopardize fetal health and men’s fertility, the NGO report said.

The test result was based on samples of Lipton’s black, green, jasmine and tieguanyin teas purchased randomly in Beijing in March.

Testing was conducted at a nationally qualified laboratory, although Greenpeace declined to disclose its name to "ensure its independence".

Another report from the environmental NGO in early April showed that at least three pesticides banned by the Ministry of Agriculture were detected in products from nine major tea companies, including Zhang Yiyuan and Wu Yutai.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health said at a news conference on Saturday that residues of illegal pesticides found on the tea may be caused by wind blowing over from other crops.

Long-term use of the pesticide on other crops may leave residue in the water and soil, said Dong Hongyan, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture.

"For instance, methomyl, which is banned on tea plants, can still be used on other agricultural products in China. It is inevitable that pesticides will travel through wind or the flow of air when the tea is planted next to some other crops," he said.

Also, he said, not all pesticides used in tea production in China have been registered in EU countries as they are not major tea producing regions.

"Many countries with vast amounts of imported agricultural products always adopt stricter standards on pesticide residues," Wang said. "But sometimes setting such standards has nothing to do with the products’ safety. It is a measure to guarantee their economic interests in world trade."

Last year, China banned 10 of its 22 highly toxic pesticides in response to growing concern about the safety of agricultural products because of the misuse of such chemicals.

Fifty-thousand tons of the 22 highly toxic types of pesticides are produced each year, accounting for 2.5 percent of the country’s annual total pesticide production, official figures showed.

"Government authorities should set up residue standards for all the highly toxic pesticides and conduct further research on substitutes for the other 12 types and ban them as soon as possible," Wang said.

Source: China Daily

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Jian Qiu, a researcher from the ministry’s pesticide examination office, made the commentsSaturday after a recent report revealed that some products manufactured by a foreign teacompany and sold in China have higher levels of several types of pesticide residue.

Some of the residues were said to be within China’s standards, while European standardscompletely ban their use. The report triggered public concern about the double standard, aswell as China’s food safety threshold.

"China’s standards for pesticide residue levels were made in full accordance with principles setdown by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the food consumption habits of Chinesepeople," Jian said.

Jian said that since different countries have different consumption capacities, climates, plantdiseases and insect pests, it is impossible to compare one country’s pesticide residuestandards with those of another country.

Dong Hongyan, a senior official from the ministry’s supervision bureau for agricultural productquality, said the ministry has banned several types of pesticides from use in tea harvesting andhas also promoted uniform criteria for tea plantations to reduce possible harm from theirregular use of pesticide.

According to Dong, the ministry will make more efforts to encourage planters to use moreefficient and low-toxicity pesticides and further improve the country’s regulations for pesticideresidue in line with the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

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The latest scandal popped up on Tuesday, when Greenpeace, an environmental protection organization, said three types of Unilever NV’s Lipton-branded tea bags were found to contain banned pesticide residue that could be harmful to the human endocrine system or male reproduction.

Greenpeace said it had tested four types of Lipton tea bags bought randomly from supermarkets in Beijing, and sent samples to a third-party certified laboratory for tests.

The test results found that Lipton-branded jasmine, green and oolong tea samples contained methomyl, a pesticide banned from use in tea planting.

Unilever’s Shanghai office issued a statement following Greenpeace’s announcement, dismissing the accusations and saying that all their products meet China’s quality standards and have passed the relevant tests.

One Greenpeace official said the pesticide residues were not left unintentionally, but rather on purpose.

"We did find some tea planters using banned pesticide during our previous investigations," another Greenpeace member was cited as saying by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Earlier this month, tea produced by some of China’s top companies was also found by Greenpeace to contain residue of banned pesticides. The environmental organization tested nine brands of 18 types of tea sold in Beijing, Sichuan and Hainan, including green tea, oolong tea and jasmine tea.

This latest news is yet another story in the seemingly never ending stream of food safety issues facing the world’s most populous nation.

In mid-April, a report run by the official China Central Television station revealed that several commonly used drugs were packed into capsules made from industrial gelatin, which contains a much higher level of chromium than edible gelatin.

And prior to that, an unconfirmed report said that industrial gelatin may have been used in the production of solid yogurt and puddings, chipping further away at the already scarred reputation of China’s dairy industry.

China introduced a far-reaching food safety law in 2009 after a major scandal the previous year involving melamine-tainted infant formula, in which 6 babies died and 300,000 others were make sick.

Despite China’s growing efforts to create a modern food inspection system, food safety remains a major public concern.

Inefficient inspection methods — an issue partly attributed to supervisory powers being shared between different government organs — have been widely cited as a main cause.

Law enforcement officials have also reported that penalties listed for food-related irregularities remain light, and profiting from unsafe practices is cost-effective in an increasingly cutthroat environment.

"China needs to further streamline food laws and inspection methods in terms of efficiency for guarding food safety, and food businesses should be primarily responsible for quality control," Luo Yunbo, a food science expert at China Agricultural University, was cited as saying by Xinhua.

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"Unilever China has always upheld high quality standards and the protection of consumers’ rights. All the Lipton tea products we make are completely in line with national standards on pesticide residue, and are safe and up-to-standard goods," the company wrote on its micro blog.

According to a report by the environmental protection organization Greenpeace, however, methomyl, a pesticide banned in China, has been detected in some Lipton teas.

"Despite their statement that their pesticides comply with national standards and that they are determined to minimize the amount of chemicals, the facts prove it is nothing but empty promises," said Wang Jing, a Greenpeace executive in charge of food and agriculture in Beijing, who was involved in the investigation.

In addition to methomyl, residue from 17 other pesticides was detected, according to the Greenpeace report.

In March, random samples of Lipton’s black, green, jasmine and tieguanyin teas were tested in Beijing. No pesticide residues were found in the black tea, but residue from 13 pesticides was found in the green and tieguanyin tea and residue from nine in the jasmine tea, according to Greenpeace.

Wang said the tests were conducted by an independent, nationally qualified laboratory, but she declined to disclose its name to "ensure its independence".

Seven of the 17 pesticides that were found are prohibited in the European Union, including endosulfan and bifenthrin, which according to EU health officials might jeopardize men’s fertility and fetal health.

"Lipton must immediately stop using highly toxic pesticides and must reduce the amount of pesticides used in tea fields," Wang said. "The company should also improve its source-tracing system to better follow the tracking of the tea and better guarantee food safety."

Unilever’s statement said all of the raw materials for Lipton black tea products sold on the Chinese mainland are 100 percent imported.

Wang said that although some of the products comply with Chinese standards, they fail to meet EU standards.

"Such products would definitely be turned down by European markets," Wang said. "It’s unfair that products that fall short of EU standards are sold to unknowing Chinese customers."

In November, Lipton’s tieguanyin tea was found to contain unsafe levels of rare earth, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the country’s top quality watchdog.

The company later recalled and destroyed those products, according to a statement posted on its Chinese micro blog.

Lipton is not the only tea brand whose products have recently been called into question.

According to a Greenpeace report on April 11, at least three pesticides banned by the Ministry of Agriculture were detected in products from nine major tea companies, including Zhang Yiyuan and Wu Yutai.

Those two companies later responded that they were not using the banned pesticides in their tea fields, but that did not mean they were totally free from such chemicals.

According to Wang Jianhua, an expert on pesticide residues at Shandong entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau, pesticide residues can be discovered long after the chemical is used. "For some pesticides, it takes years for them to degrade," said Wang.

He added that the residue does not necessarily indicate that the product is not fit for the market.

Source: China Daily

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Tea Ware Category Winner

1660 Tasting Cups, by 1660 London

These cups are each shaped to enhance the drinking experience of green, black and fragrant teas. The concept is similar to connoisseur glasses that help certain wines release their maximum potential.

Innovation Winner

Slim Steeper Cold Brew Tea Infuser by The Tea Spot

The eco-friendly Slim Steeper works with disposable water bottles and loose leaf teas to make fresh tea on-the-go. Cold brew and drink tea in just 10 minutes; add more water and resteep.

Tea as an Ingredient Winner (tie)

Swirl Green Tea – Cold-Brewed On The Go!, by Breezy Spring LLC

Swirl is a trendy new concept that combines premium green tea with convenience. It’s unique, slender tea bag goes into a water bottle for brewing anywhere.

Tea as an Ingredient Winner (tie)

Indie Tea’s arTEAsan Magic Mushroom Spice Rub, by Indie Tea

This delicious, organic blend of roasted yerba mate porcini mushroom is infused with gourmet salt and savory spices like cumin, fennel, coriander, garlic, onions and more.

Tea Accessory Winner (tie)

Tea Traveler Tasting Collection, by Teas Etc.

The popular Tea Traveler, by Tea’s Etc., revolutionized premium loose-leaf tea on the go, and it’s now available in a fashionable gift collection, featuring traveler size and pre-measured packets of premium loose leaf tea.

Tea Accessory Winner (tie)

Tea-Themed Greeting Card Line, by Love and Scandal Tea Company

This new greeting card line features vintage photo images, contemporary, traditional and sometimes cheeky warm wishes, along with a bagged tea samples from renowned tea vendors.Baked Goods Winner

Farmhouse English Biscuits, by Imported direct by Tri-Connect, Inc.

Farmhouse English Biscuits is a family-owned and operated bakery located in the northern countryside of England. Their biscuits are made with grandma’s original recipe, traditionally baked with the finest ingredients.

Publication Winner

The User’s Guide To Scone Making and Scone Mixes by Victorian House Scones, fromThe Tea House Times

This concise guide is complete with photos, detailing the how-tos of scone making in general as well as flavor creation.

Open Class Winner

Indie Tea Tee-Tins…Mad Party, by Indie Tea

These lively tins depict the famous Alice in Wonderland tea party and they include a "tea shirt." The Tee-Tins tees are a sustainable line of tea-inspired apparel.

Packaging Winner

Convenience Packaging for Puer Teas, by Wild Tea Qi

The award-winning Puer Teas are now available in 100-percent recyclable, convenient packaging for single-serving ease – for tea on the go.

SOURCE 2012 World Tea Expo

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The environmental organization tested nine brands of 18 types of tea sold in Beijing, Sichuan and Hainan, including green tea, oolong tea and jasmine tea. Prices ranged from 120 yuan (US$19) to 2,000 yuan per kilogram. Some brands tested, such as Wuyutai and Zhangyiyuan, are among the most popular in China.

The tests showed that all the samples contained at least three types of pesticide residue from a total of 29 pesticides identified.

One type of oolong tea, bearing the Richun brand, contained 17 types, Greenpeace said.

Some of the pesticides found are banned for use in tea production in China.

Eleven of the teas, including jasmine tea produced by Wuyutai and Zhangyiyuan and green tea produced by Ten Fu Tea, were found to contain methomyl. Four types of oolong tea from Richun and Bama contained endosulfan, while the green tea produced by Hainan Nongken contained fenvalerate. All are banned from use in tea production because of the risk to health.

Wang Jing, a Greenpeace official, said that, compared to small tea farms, large companies should have the resources to establish a tracing system and thus control pesticide use from the early stages of growth. "The problem lies with whether the companies are concerned about consumers’ health," Wang said.

The report also said that the high amount of pesticide residue in tea grown in China had affected exports. In February and March, the European Union reported that tea from Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province contained excessive pesticide residue.

Some of the brands mentioned in the report, such as Wuyutai and Richun, are available in Shanghai.

Food safety authorities in the city said they could not comment yesterday as they had not seen the report. The Shanghai Tea Trade Association also wouldn’t comment.

Last year, food quality monitoring in Shanghai showed that tea products had the lowest pass rate, and pesticide residue was the biggest problem. Fewer than 78 percent of tea products sold in the city passed tests for pesticide residue last year, the Shanghai Food Safety Office said.

SOURCE: Shanghai Daily

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"A relatively long winter will help the tea shrubs to accumulate more nutrition, and curb sicknesses and worms, therefore improving quality," says Huang Li, publicity manager atWuyutai, a major chain tea store in Beijing.

On March 21, the tea store received the first batch of 2.5 kilograms of biluochun (emerald spring spiral) green tea from Suzhou’s Xishan, West Hill. The tea was priced at a record high5,800 yuan ($922) per 500 grams, but sold out soon after it arrived.

Longjing (dragon well) and biluochun are top Chinese green teas, especially due to the fact that they are picked only in spring, from late March to early May.

The first batch of Hangzhou’s prized Xihu Longjing, for example, contains mostly tender buds,and very tender "one bud with one leaf", the first of spring.

Gong Xiangtao, manager of Yupin’ge Teahouse in Beijing says professional tea brewers like herself call the longjing one-bud tea lianxin (heart of lotus seed), because of its shape. One bud with one leaf is called "flag spear". When the tea grows to one bud with two leaves in early summer, it is called "bird tongue".

Mingqian biluochun, on the other hand, contains only tiny, tender buds. Zhang Lanlan, member of the tea buying department at Wuyutai, says the first batch of biluochun sold at the tea store has more than 70,000 buds per 500 grams.

"To collect fresh leaves for that 2.5 kg of Mingqian biluochun, more than 40 workers spent two days picking at our base in Suzhou," says Zhang.

In the recent years, Wuyutai has been selling the first batches of longjing and biluochun at record prices. This year, the 2.5 kg of biluochun costs 5,800 yuan ($922) per 500 grams, 200yuan more than last year.

Last year, the first batch of Xihu Longjing green tea was priced at 7,600 yuan ($1,208). The first batch of Xihu Longjing just arrived on March 30 at Wuyutai, priced at 8,200 yuan ($1,302)for 500 grams. The tea store said all 150 kg were sold out or booked out.

I was lucky enough to get a sip of the 5,800-yuan biluochun at the Beixinqiao branch ofWuyutai, which the tea store prepared for a media photo event. Even when the buds have extended fully after absorbing water, they measure less than one centimeter.

The dry tea is curly and has a lot of white downy fibers, a sign of good quality. When brewed,the tea recovers its shape on the shrub – neat, complete and tender buds in a lovely yellowish green. After drinking, the mouth is full of a flowery and fruity aroma that lingers long on the palate.

Wuyutai’s Mingqian tea has recently made headlines in Chinese newspapers. The publicity certainly has worked. One middle-aged saleswoman was answering a phone call inquiring about the tea. She was telling the caller teas at this time cost more than 5,000 yuan or 7,000yuan. "Call back in late April," she says to the phone.

That’s when early summer tea will arrive at the tea store. By then customers will be able to belonging and biluochun teas at normal prices, such as 500 yuan ($80) per 500 grams.

March to April is the busiest time for tea collecting and trade in China. The biggest batch of Chinese green tea in the year will go on the market in April, lasting until end of May. The teas will be classified into different quality grades.

With its vast territory, China is very diversified in terms of tea production. Teas are produced as early as in late December in Hainan. February sees the marketing of new teas in Yunnan. In middle and late March, Sichuan starts to produce spring teas. The teas can be processed into green, black, or pu’er teas, depending on the process. Spring production is deemed the best for any of these varietals.

At the counters of Wuyutai, there are not just teas from Suzhou and Hangzhou, but also from Hainan, Yunnan and Sichuan. In fact, the concept Mingqian tea has been changing, as more Chinese tea-producing regions realized its market potential.

"Traditionally Mingqian tea refers to teas only in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, but now the concept is becoming wider to include green teas from other parts of the country," says Wu Xiduan,secretary-general with China Tea Marketing Association.

Some other famous green teas are Anhui Huangshan’s maofeng, Yellow Mountain hairy mountain peak; bamboo leaf green tea from E’mei Mountain of Sichuan; Duyun maojian, furry tip from Guizhou’s Duyun; and Yunnan’s pu’er, which is made from sun-dried Yunnan green tea.

Zhang Lanlan says customers of Wuyutai are offered Mingqian tea at a reservation basis.

"Some drink themselves, some buy to give it as a gift," she says. "More and more Chinese people are looking for good teas, as people get a higher income, and because of its health benefits."

But Jiang Hong, a Beijing based tea drinker, says Mingqian teas are too expensive.

"It is not necessary to spend so much money on it, because the price is too high for that kind of taste," he says. "With five or six thousand yuan I can buy a rather good dahongpao (bright red gown), a north Fujian oolong."

Green teas are considered best to consume in the year of production. The quality will deteriorate fast if not consumed within a year. They do not have an aging potential, like pu’er or heavily baked oolong.

Nonetheless, Jiang likes the idea of trying the freshest produce of the season, for "a feel offspring".

"The tendered the tea is, the more refreshing and gratifying it can be," he says. "Teas with a large percentage of buds have a specially uplifting aroma."

While Wuyutai just got its first batch of Xihu Longjing, Beijing’s famous Lao She Teahouse got the first batch of this year’s Mingqian longjing Xinchang of Hangzhou on March 10. The variety,called Dafo (big Buddha) Longjing, is a different varietal from Xihu Longjing traditionally picked early because of its microenvironment. It costs 2,800 yuan ($445) per 500 grams. Yu Jing,manager with Lao She, says the teahouse has already asked for restocking several times.

Gong Xiangtao just received the first batch of 5 kg of longjing from her tea farmer friend at Meijiawu of Hangzhou, and shared it with her closest friends in Beijing. The tea is priced at6,000 yuan ($953) per 500 grams in her teahouse. She is set for an annual tour to Hangzhou and Suzhou’s tea producing regions right after April 4.

"I heard teas are becoming very expensive this year. But my teahouse needs it," she says. She said she would get more teas at a lower price level.

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Senior Huangshan municipal government officials, the media and over 100 tea technicians from Xieyuda, Guangming and Zixia tea companies attended the ceremony.

Fuxi is recognized as the source of Huangshan Maofeng, one of the top 10 tea brands in the country.

All local tea gardens have passed certification for organic tea and green tea production.

They spread into the regional mountains and valleys, with 90 percent forest coverage, ideal for tea planting.

The inaugural ceremony, decorated with tea-leaves-picking talent competition, tea art performance, photography and Huizhou tea Q&A, publicized Huizhou as the cradle of Huangshan Maofeng tea.

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The findings, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, showed that green tea trimmed 5 to 6 points more from people’s total cholesterol and "bad" LDL cholesterol levels than dummy capsules or other treatments.

The trials tested either green tea itself or capsules containing green-tea compounds called catechins, which are thought to decrease cholesterol absorption in the gut.

Green tea in a cup was more consistently effective than capsules, though the benefits overall were fairly small, notes senior researcher Olivia Phung, an assistant professor of pharmacy at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California.

Reuters

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