Chunmee green tea, famous for its slender, curved eyebrow-shaped strips, is a representative traditional roasted green tea in China with a heritage spanning over 800 years.
Its technical origin can be traced back to the Southern Song Dynasty, when Chinese tea craftsmanship underwent a revolutionary transformation from steamed green tea to roasted green tea and from compressed cake tea to loose leaf tea. This historic reform laid the fundamental processing logic for modern strip-shaped green tea.
In the Ming Dynasty (1567–1573), Songluo tea produced in Xiuning, Huizhou, matured into a standardized roasted green tea system, officially becoming the direct ancestor of modern Tunxi Chunmee tea. During the Qing Dynasty, Chunmee tea entered its golden export era, widely known as Tunlv (Tunxi Green Tea) and hailed as "green gold" in global trade.
After the founding of New China, Chunmee tea was repeatedly rated as a national premium tea. In 1959, it was recognized as a world tea treasure, consolidating its long-standing status as China's core export green tea variety.
