Shui Jin Gui
Shui Jin Gui ('golden water turtle') is one of the four famous Wuyi bushes (si da ming cong), alongside Da Hong Pao, Tie Luo Han and Bai Ji Guan. Among the four it is the floral one: a single-cultivar yancha that carries a distinctive sweet, almost orchid-like fragrance over the usual Wuyi mineral base. As with all rock tea, the variables that matter most are growing zone (zhengyan versus outer) and roast craft.
Dark, twisted strip-style leaf with the standard Wuyi roast color. The signature is a clear floral fragrance, often likened to plum blossom or orchid, sitting above the mineral rock rhyme; this lift is what separates Shui Jin Gui from the heavier ming cong. The roast should support, not bury, that aroma, so very dark or scorched lots are missing the point. Yan yun (mineral aftertaste persistence) should be present and is the test of real zhengyan origin. As a named single cultivar it is less blended and less faked than Da Hong Pao, but the same zone-based price logic applies.
Wuyishan, northern Fujian, with the usual zhengyan core-zone premium over banyan and outer-zone leaf. Shui Jin Gui is one of the historic ming cong cultivars native to the Wuyi rock-tea area, made by standard yancha processing: withering, bruising, partial oxidation, fixing, rolling and charcoal roasting. Roast level is the main stylistic variable and, with this cultivar, restraint preserves the defining florality.
Gongfu: 6-8 g per 100 ml in a gaiwan or Yixing clay, 95-100°C, a brief rinse, 15-30 seconds for the first steep and ascending; 6-8 infusions. Western: 4 g per 200 ml, 95-100°C, 2-3 minutes.
€20-50 (about $22-54) per 100 g for banyan and outer-zone Shui Jin Gui, with named zhengyan core-zone material reaching €60-120 (about $65-130) per 100 g.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Tie Luo Han
A fellow member of the four famous ming cong; Tie Luo Han is herbal and robust, Shui Jin Gui lighter and more floral.
Bai Ji Guan
The fourth ming cong and the odd one out: Bai Ji Guan is pale and lightly roasted, Shui Jin Gui darker and more conventionally yancha.
Da Hong Pao
The most famous of the four bushes; DHP is usually a blend, Shui Jin Gui a single named cultivar.
Wuyi Yancha (Rock)
The parent style page covering the rock-tea GI geography and the quality logic shared by every yancha.
The four famous bushes (si da ming cong) are Da Hong Pao, Tie Luo Han, Bai Ji Guan and Shui Jin Gui, each a named cultivar with its own legend. Shui Jin Gui's name, 'golden water turtle,' is tied to a folk tale of a prized tea bush washed down a hillside in the rain, and of the four it is the one most often singled out for floral aroma.