Objective To explore the relationship between Wuyishan cliff tea and esophageal cancer,and make integrated measures to prevent and control esophageal cancer.Methods A case-control study was conducted with a ratio of 1 to 1 and a health survey was conducted on objects which included 92 cases with histologically confirmed diagnoses of squamous-cell carcinoma of the esophagus and 92 controls matched by age,sex and resident.The analysis method of conditional logistic regression was used to analyze the influence of cliff tea on the development of esophageal cancer. Results The frequency of cliff tea drinking was 73.91% in cases with esophageal cancer compared with 84.78% in controls. As compared with subjects without tea drinking,subjects with cliff tea drinking significantly decreased the risk for developing esophageal cancer (P<0.05),and its OR were 0.60.The risk of esophageal cancer significantly reduced with increasing frequency of cliff tea drinking per week. Furthermore, we also found that the risk of esophageal cancer significantly reduced with the duration of cliff tea drinking and the early of beginning to drink cliff tea.Conclusion Wuyishan cliff tea drinking may protect against the risk of esophageal cancer.