Abstract: The current situation and tendency of the development for Chinese premium teas were investigated in analyzing the results of 3948 tea samples in nine “Zhongcha Cup” country wide premium tea competitions during 1994~2011. All the six types of Chinese tea developed well. Among them, green tea was the main tea, Oolong tea and dark tea increased steadily, black, white and yellow teas were in recovery growth. In the four tea growing areas, the Jiangnan (south Yangtze River) tea area developed strongly and has the highest prize awarded ratio. The premium tea in Zhejiang Province is leading its development in China, the quality of Jiangsu premium tea is at the top, Shandong province, a north tea area, has strong marketing and competition consciousness. And Fujian, Sichuan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangdong, Anhui are also important premium tea producing provinces. The ratio of tea sample made by clonal tea cultivars increased continuously. ‘Fuding Dabaicha’, ‘Baiye 1’, ‘Fuding Dahaocha’, Longjing series clones are main clonal tea cultivars. The quality of premium tea increased steadily. Nevertheless, the tea appearance is becoming similar. Hygian safety (the situation of heavy metal, pesticide residues) was satisfactory, and organic tea developed rather fast. The ratios of machinery processing, producing according to standard, and trade mark increased year by year and reached a higher level.

Key words: premium teas, current situation, tendency