Shui Jin Gui

Shui Jin Gui (水金龟, “Water Golden Turtle”) is one of Wuyi’s traditional “Four Famous Bushes” (四大名丛), a grouping that also includes Da Hong Pao, Tie Luohan and Bai Jiguan. Under China’s current national standard for Wuyi Rock Tea, though, Da Hong Pao stands as its own separate product category, while Shui Jin Gui is classified together with Tie Luohan and Bai Jiguan under a broader “Mingcong” (名枞, “famous cultivars”) category. So Shui Jin Gui is a genuine, standard-recognized Wuyi Yancha style — just not one with its own dedicated national grading table the way Da Hong Pao, Rougui and Shuixian have.

According to a traditional story, the original Shui Jin Gui bush once grew on Tianxin Rock, until a heavy rainstorm washed it downhill into a gully near Niulankeng and Dugezhai Peak. Two temples reportedly disputed ownership of the relocated bush, and the resulting legal argument became known as “lawsuit tea” (官司茶) — one of the more distinctive origin stories among Chinese famous-cultivar teas. The name itself is said to come from the bush’s leaves taking on a golden sheen after being washed by the rain. This is tea folklore passed down through retellings, not a documented historical record, and it should be read as color, not proof of where any specific batch of tea actually came from.

Processing follows the same general Wuyi Yancha pattern as Da Hong Pao: sun withering, the bruising-and-resting stage (做青, zuoqing) that partially oxidizes the leaf edges, kill-green, rolling, and one or more roasting passes. Source material describes Shui Jin Gui’s resulting cup as plum-like in aroma and notably smooth — staying sweet and low in astringency even when brewed strongly, which is a more forgiving profile than some other Wuyi rock teas offer to a beginner still learning to judge steeping time.

The biggest beginner trap with Shui Jin Gui is the same one that applies across Wuyi’s famous-bush teas: a cultivar name and a good legend are not proof of a specific cliff, garden or lineage. “Shui Jin Gui” tells you which cultivar the leaves came from and, broadly, how they were processed — it does not by itself confirm that the tea grew anywhere near Niulankeng, or that it descends from a single storied bush. Ask about producer and batch traceability, and treat the lawsuit-tea story as a reason to enjoy the cup, not as a certificate of origin.

See Tie Luohan and Bai Jiguan for the other two Mingcong-category teas in the same Four Famous Bushes group.

Look · Dry leaf

Tight, heavy twisted strips, in the same general strip-shaped Wuyi Yancha style as Da Hong Pao and Rougui. Roast level varies by producer, so color and darkness alone do not identify the cultivar or confirm origin.

Smell & taste

Typical aroma: plum, roasted, mineral. Flavor tendencies: sweet, smooth, mineral. Body: medium-full. These vary by batch, storage and brewing.

Brew · A starting point

Try 5 g in 150 ml water at 95–100°C for 20–40 seconds. Fully decant before tasting.

Read the wet leaves

Wet leaves are typically thick, dark and twisted like other Wuyi Yancha, sometimes carrying the plum-like aroma through into the spent leaf. Leaf appearance suggests style but cannot confirm cultivar identity or origin.

Sources & review status

• DeepSeek candidate draft — Shui Jin Gui — SCNet DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-Event (structured draft). AI-drafted structured data; core facts (name/pinyin/origin/type/processing/GI status) cross-checked by Claude against reliable general knowledge and, where flagged, web search on 2026-09-24. Full uncertain_facts audit trail kept in data/tea-knowledge-database.json.
• ChinaTea101_Content_Library_Part_A.md Shui Jin Gui profile (pp.52-53); ChinaTea101_Content_Library_Part_B.md Four Famous Bushes / Northern Fujian oolong classification; 《中国乌龙茶标准研究资料库》.md Section 8 (GB/T 18745-2006 five-category classification) — ChinaTea101 owner-supplied Source Library. Used for the Niulankeng/Dugezhai Peak growing-site association, the "lawsuit tea" (官司茶) legend and the name's "washed golden by water" origin story (both flagged in the source itself as an unverified traditional story), the plum-like aroma and low-astringency sensory notes, the Four Famous Bushes grouping, and the confirmation that Shui Jin Gui sits under the GB/T 18745-2006 standard's "Mingcong" category rather than the "Da Hong Pao" category.

Imported from data/tea-knowledge-database.json (DeepSeek candidate draft, 2026-09-24). Updated 2026-09-24. Last reviewed 2026-09-25