Made teas and typical tea-grown soils in Sichuan and Chongqing were collected to investigate soil nutrients, related soil properties and tea quality. The tea-grown soils in Sichuan and Chongqing are distributed mainly in mountainous areas. The high annual precipitation (over 1100 mm), precipitous soil slopes, low cohesion among soil particles and high soil porosity suggested that intensive erosion and leaching might occur in these soils. Moreover, they were very acidic and poor in mineral nutrients such as N, P, K, Ca and Mg except S. The average content of total S was 20.40 g kg-1, much higher than that of organic matter in these soils, revealing that S in the tea-grown soils existed mainly in inorganic forms and very little in organic forms. Water-extractable S accounted for only a small amount of total S, which showed that most parts of sulfur in these soils were insoluble in W8ter. K and S varied greatly in made teas. The concentrations of N and P, however, varied little in these teas even though they differentiated significantly in the tea-grown soils. The high concentration of nitrogen in made teas could result in the high free amino acids and low polyphenol of teas. Significantly positive correlation was established between potassium and polyphenol in made teas. Teas with high ratio of phenol to free amino acids were usually good in taste and appearance.
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