Orchid-Fragrant Oolong Tea (Zhang Ping Shui Xian)

Why This Tea Was Curated 

Featuring a unique square-pressed form, this Light-Aroma Zhangping Shui Xian is a rare Fujian Oolong prized for its captivating floral fragrance.

It offers a bright, refreshing taste with a clean, smooth finish—the perfect choice for those seeking a high-aroma and visually stunning oolong tea experience.

Flavor Profile of Zhangping Shui Xian

Aroma: Orchid, floral, with a light creamy note

Taste: Sweet and mellow with delicate floral and milk notes.

Mouthfeel: Graceful  and gentle finish.

Flavor Ratings

How to Brew Zhangping Shui Xian

Mug Brewing

For best results, we recommend gongfu-style brewing and tea–water separation is required. Without a separation tool, it’s easy to over-steep this tea and lose its clean floral aroma.

Gongfu Brewing

Zhangping Shui Xian Details & Specifications

Origin & Terroir of Zhang Ping Shui Xian

Tea Origin (Zhangping, Fujian)

This Light-Aroma Zhangping Shuixian comes from Nanyang Town and Shuangyang Town in Zhangping City, Fujian, China. Shuangyang is widely recognized as the birthplace of Zhangping Shuixian, while Nanyang is considered its core producing area and the main industry hub today.

Zhangping Shuixian is a truly distinctive member of the oolong family, best known for its unique square pressed tea cake shape—often called a “Shuixian tea cake” or “four-square tea.” Combined with its elegant orchid-like, this tradition was included in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022 as part of China’s traditional tea-making techniques and related social practices.

Our Sourcing Method

We do not rely on hard-to-verify stories about “one specific tea farmer” or “one tea master.” With weather and processing variables, quality from a single source can be difficult to control year after year.

Instead, we choose our materials through a market-based selection process. Each tea season, our sourcing manager goes directly to the Zhangping producing areas (Nanyang and Shuangyang, Fujian) and collects samples through multiple channels—including tea farmers, tea factories, and family farms—then repeatedly tests, screens, and tastes them. We remove any batches with quality issues and ultimately select the best-performing version to present to you as a carefully chosen Chinese tea.

History of Zhangping Shui Xian

Zhangping Shuixian is a classic Chinese oolong tea with a simple origin story. In the early 1900s, a local tea farmer, Liu Yongfa, brought Shuixian tea plants to Zhangping and began making oolong tea there—his tea quickly became popular for its steady, pleasing flavor.

Back then, loose-leaf tea was hard to ship long distances without losing aroma. To solve this, he pressed the finished tea into a square tea cake, wrapped it tightly in white paper with a stamped mark, then gently dried it to lock in fragrance. This created Zhangping Shuixian’s signature style: a paper-wrapped oolong tea cake.

That practical idea spread quickly, and Zhangping Shuixian moved from mountain villages to wider markets. Today, it’s still best known for its square oolong tea cake shape and paper wrap—one of the most recognizable styles of Chinese oolong tea.

Zhang Ping Shui Xian FAQs