Chinese black tea grades: Keemun, Dianhong and Lapsang

Chinese black tea grades are set by GB/T 13738, a national standard in three parts: broken black tea (2017), congou (2017) and souchong (2012). Congou is graded from special grade (特级) down to grade 6, and Zhengshan xiaozhong, the Lapsang souchong of Wuyishan, from special grade to grade 3; every grade is capped at 7.0% moisture, and none carries an export code. Keemun (祁门红茶) follows its own Anhui standard, revised in 2026, while Lapsang souchong is protected as a geographical indication in China and the EU.

China’s black tea standard, GB/T 13738

Black tea is hongcha (红茶, “red tea”) in Chinese, one of the six Chinese tea types. Its national standard, GB/T 13738 (红茶), has one part per style. Each part was reviewed on 24 March 2021 with the conclusion that it should be revised, but China’s national standards platform still listed all three editions as in force in October 2026.

GB/T 13738, black tea: the three parts (official records, checked October 2026)

The 2017 editions of Parts 1 and 2 replaced those of 2008. Part 1 is a modified adoption of ISO 3720:2011, Black tea — Definition and basic requirements, and Part 2 draws on it. In Parts 2 and 3, each grade has a physical reference sample, renewed every three years. No part attaches an export code to a grade, unlike China’s standards for gunpowder and chunmee green tea.

Congou tea grades in GB/T 13738.2-2017

Congou (工夫红茶, gongfu hongcha) is whole-leaf black tea made by withering, rolling, fermentation, drying and refining. The standard divides it by tea variety into large-leaf congou (大叶种工夫红茶) and medium and small-leaf congou (中小叶种工夫红茶), and grades each in seven steps: special grade (特级), then grades 1 to 6 (一级 to 六级). Down the scale, the leaf gets looser and stalkier, the tips disappear, the liquor dulls and the taste coarsens.

Sensory requirements, large-leaf congou (GB/T 13738.2-2017, Table 1)

Medium and small-leaf congou runs the same seven steps, from fine, tight, glossy black leaf with many tips and a fresh, sweet aroma to fairly coarse, loose leaf with a coarse, thin taste.

Physical and chemical requirements, congou (GB/T 13738.2-2017, Table 3, % by mass)

Tea polyphenols (at least 9.0% for large-leaf, 7.0% for medium and small-leaf congou), crude fibre (at most 16.5%), acid-insoluble ash and water-soluble ash (at least 45% of total ash) are reference values only. Every batch needs a factory release check on sensory quality, moisture, dust and net content. China’s jasmine tea standard, GB/T 22292-2017, sets the same four checks.

Source: China’s national standard GB/T 13738.2-2017, Tables 1 and 3 (2017)

Broken black tea: sizes, not grades

Broken black tea (红碎茶) is withered, rolled and cut (揉切), fermented and dried. GB/T 13738.1-2017 also splits it into large-leaf and medium and small-leaf tea, but sorts it by size (规格) rather than grade: broken nos. 1 to 5 (碎茶1号 to 5号), fannings (片茶) and dust (末茶) for large-leaf tea; broken nos. 1 to 3, fannings and dust for medium and small-leaf tea. China’s older trade standard samples used the abbreviations OP (leaf), FBOP and BOP (broken), BOPF and F (fannings) and D (dust); the national standard does not.

Physical and chemical requirements, broken black tea (GB/T 13738.1-2017, Table 3, % by mass)

These figures match ISO 3720:2011 (at least 32% water extract, 4% to 8% total ash, at least 9% total polyphenols), except for the 34% water extract of large-leaf tea. The ISO text sets no moisture or dust limit; China added both.

Souchong grades: Zhengshan xiaozhong (Lapsang) and smoked xiaozhong

Souchong (小种红茶) is black tea withered and dried over pinewood smoke (熏松烟), in the words of the scope of GB/T 13738.3-2012. The standard splits it by origin and process into two products:

• Zhengshan xiaozhong (正山小种), from leaf grown in Tongmu village (桐木村), Xingcun town, Wuyishan city, and within the Wuyishan nature reserve, made by the local traditional method, with an aroma of dried longan and pine smoke. Four grades: special grade and grades 1 to 3.
• Smoked xiaozhong (烟小种), from leaf grown outside the nature reserve, made like congou and smoked over pinewood at the end. Five grades: special grade and grades 1 to 4.

Physical and chemical requirements, souchong (GB/T 13738.3-2012, Table 3, % by mass)

Special-grade Zhengshan xiaozhong must have a sturdy, tight, glossy black leaf, a clear dried-longan or pine-smoke aroma, a mellow, full taste with a “high-mountain” character (高山韵) and an orange-red liquor. Smoked xiaozhong is judged mainly on its pine-smoke aroma, from “strong and lasting” (special grade) to “light, with a coarse green note” (grade 4). Additives are banned.

Zhengshan xiaozhong is also a protected name: registered in China as a certification mark (证明商标), No. 7430842, on 14 January 2010, and one of the 100 Chinese names protected in the EU since the EU–China agreement on geographical indications took effect on 1 March 2021, with “Lapsang Souchong” as its translation. A footnote to its entry in the agreement (Annex III, No. 23) set a five-year transition from the agreement’s entry into force: tea placed on the EU market before 3 June 2017 could keep the name “Lapsang Souchong”, provided it did not mislead consumers and its real origin was clearly shown. Counted from 1 March 2021, that transition ended in March 2026 (our calculation). The definitions do not match: GB/T 13738.3 limits Zhengshan xiaozhong to Tongmu village and the nature reserve, while the specification filed for the EU listing covers towns, streets and farms across Wuyishan city, smoked and unsmoked tea alike.

Keemun grades: four types in Anhui’s standard

Keemun has no national standard of its own. Its reference is Anhui’s provincial standard DB34/T 1086—2026, Quality requirements for product of geographical indication — Keemun black tea, in force since 3 July 2026, which replaced the 2009 edition. It reserves the name for tea grown in listed townships of Qimen and Yi counties (Huangshan city) and of Shitai, Guichi and Dongzhi (Chizhou city), from the local Qimen cultivar or varieties bred from it, with a “Qimen aroma” (祁门香) that it likens to flowers, fruit and honey.

Keemun types and grades (DB34/T 1086—2026)

Every type is capped at 7.0% moisture, 6.5% total ash and 1.0% dust, except congou grade 5 (1.5% dust). Crude fibre (at most 13.0%) and water-soluble ash (at least 50% of total ash) are full limits here, stricter than the national congou standard’s reference values. The 2026 edition added the Jinzhen type and, above the other congou grades, 礼茶, literally “gift tea”. Its production area follows a 2022 provincial approval to apply for a geographical-indication certification mark; whether a mark was registered could not be confirmed on an official register. A sector standard, GH/T 1178-2019, also covers Keemun congou.

Dianhong grades: Yunnan’s rules

Dianhong (滇红) is the collective name for Yunnan black tea, covering traditional congou, broken tea and newer congou styles, with its home in Fengqing county, Lincang; traditional Dianhong congou is made from Yunnan large-leaf tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica), according to a 2023 paper in the journal Science and Technology of Food Industry. In GB/T 13738 terms, that puts it among the large-leaf grades.

We found no national or Yunnan provincial standard that carries the name Dianhong on China’s national standards information platform (searched October 2026). Yunnan’s processing code DB53/T 1351-2025, in force since 8 April 2025, covers all congou made in the province without naming Dianhong; its grades apply to fresh leaf, from 100% single buds (special grade) to one bud with three or four leaves (grade 4). A group standard of the China Tea Science Society, T/CTSS 38-2021, Dianhong congou black tea, covers strip-shaped black tea made in Yunnan. Yunnan’s agriculture department lists Fengqing Dianhong (凤庆滇红) among the province’s registered geographical-indication trademarks (2021).

Chinese black teas in the EU–China GI agreement

Chinese black teas in the EU–China agreement on geographical indications

The Annex III names have been protected in the EU since 1 March 2021; work on the second list was still in progress in December 2025, according to China’s intellectual property office (CNIPA). Keemun and Dianhong appear in neither list of the agreement as signed. Among white teas, Fuding Bai Cha is on the first list and Zhenghe Bai Cha on the second; see our guide to white tea grades.

Grade names on export documents

GB/T 13738 names grades in words, with no codes: a lot is, for example, 大叶种工夫红茶 特级 (large-leaf congou, special grade), or 碎茶2号 (broken no. 2) for broken tea. Numbers belonged to China’s older trade standard samples: according to a Chinese agricultural reference, each place-name congou was graded by number, Keemun’s grades 3, 4 and 5 being 80304, 80403 and 80504, and “China congou” was a blend of place-name congous graded in four steps under three regional sets of standards.

Some names that sound like trade labels are now official: “Keemun Maofeng” is a type in DB34/T 1086—2026 with three grades of its own, not a grade of Keemun congou. Others, such as Hao Ya (毫芽), do not appear in that standard, which therefore gives them no definition. A contract should tie any such label to a sealed sample.

Black tea in China’s exports

China exported 25,868 tonnes of black tea in 2025, worth US$136.0 million, according to MOFCOM: 6.2% of its tea export volume, at an average of US$5.26 per kg. Volume rose 4.5% on 2024, but value fell 20.9% as the average price dropped 24.3% (see China’s tea exports in 2025). Exports are a small outlet: China produced about 570,000 tonnes of black crude tea in 2025 (our calculation: 15.65% of 3.64 million tonnes, CTMA) and imported 49,100 tonnes of black tea, nearly twice what it exported (CTMA).

In MOFCOM’s code list, black tea means two Chinese customs lines: 0902.3090, under HS subheading 0902.30 (immediate packings of 3 kg or less), and 0902.4090, under 0902.40 (larger packings); our guide to tea HS codes explains the structure. MOFCOM does not publish the split between them, and the six-digit figures China reports to UN Comtrade also include oolong, ripe pu-erh and other dark tea: in 2025, 7,142 tonnes (US$67.7 million) left under 0902.30 and 34,496 tonnes (US$171.6 million) under 0902.40, Malaysia being the first buyer by value under both. In 2025, Japan was the only one of China’s 20 largest tea markets by volume where black and partly fermented tea outweighed green tea (see our guide to Chinese tea export markets).

What to put in a black tea purchase specification

• Standard and product: the part of GB/T 13738 (or DB34/T 1086 for Keemun) and its year, the product and the grade in Chinese and English, for example 特级, special grade.
• Reference sample: the number of the sealed contract sample.
• Limits: moisture ≤7.0% (method GB/T 8304), dust and water extract for the grade (GB/T 8311, GB/T 8305), total ash.
• Origin: for Keemun, Dianhong or Zhengshan xiaozhong, the production area and, for souchong, smoked or unsmoked.
• Residues: the limits of the destination country, with a test report per lot. For the EU, see our guide to EU pesticide limits for tea.
• Packing and HS code: 0902.30 for immediate packings of 3 kg or less, 0902.40 above; net weight and liner.
• Disputes: a retained sample; GB/T 13738 settles disputes by retesting it or a double sample from the same lot.