Why is Taoyuan Large-leaf Tea so popular among tea farmers?

At the Hunan Provincial Tea Work Conference held on March 26-27, participants frequently mentioned a distinctive tea variety - Taoyuan Large-leaf.

It is understood that "Taoyuan Large-leaf" evolved from wild large-leaf tea in the deep mountains of Lujiachong, Taipingpu Township, Taoyuan County. In 1969, senior agronomist Lu Wanjun and others carried out selection, breeding and experimental demonstration of wild large-leaf tea. The selected variety passed scientific and technological achievement appraisal in 1989 and passed the approval of the Hunan Provincial Crop Variety Approval Committee in 1992. This variety has thick and large leaves, high yield, high quality, strong stress resistance, and is rich in compounds such as tea polyphenols and catechins, hence it was named "Taoyuan Large-leaf".

"Taoyuan Large-leaf is the only large-leaf tea variety in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region that can grow normally and shows excellent comprehensive traits. It is a good raw material for making green tea, dark tea and many other types of tea," commented Yang Yang, a researcher at the Provincial Tea Research Institute.

In the tea garden of Songyangping Village, Cha'anpu Town, Taoyuan County, village party secretary Tang Honghe told reporters that the village planted the Taoyuan Large-leaf variety and could begin production in the 3rd year. Farmers could sell fresh leaves for 70-100 yuan/kg, the labor wage during tea picking was 50 yuan/day, 1 mu could produce 400 kg of dried tea, and the annual per capita tea income could reach 5,000 yuan.

Tao Dacheng, president of the Taoyuan County Tea Industry Association, said: "Taoyuan Large-leaf has good cold resistance and was basically unaffected in this year's severe ice disaster, so it is deeply loved by Taoyuan tea farmers."

At present, the promoted area of Taoyuan Large-leaf in the province has reached more than 50,000 mu, distributed in Changsha, Shimen, Anhua, Pingjiang, Guzhang and other counties. Cao Wencheng, president of the Provincial Tea Association, estimates that if all of the province's existing 1.4 million mu of tea gardens were planted with Taoyuan Large-leaf, then output would increase by at least more than 1 times.

It is reported that in December 2005, "Taoyuan Wild Tea King" made from Taoyuan Large-leaf as a raw material obtained national geographical indication product protection.