Tea cultivars
Tea Cultivars
All true tea comes from Camellia sinensis, but within that species hundreds of named cultivars produce wildly different teas. Here are the 41 most important cultivars worldwide.
Camellia sinensis var. sinensis
The small-leaf Chinese variety.
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Yabukita
Yabukita is the single most important tea cultivar in Japan, accounting for roughly 75% of all Japanese tea acreage and effectively defining the modern taste of Japanese green tea. Selected by Hikosab…
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Saemidori
Saemidori is a prized early-budding cultivar bred by crossing Yabukita with Asatsuyu at the Makurazaki tea research station and registered in 1990. It was developed specifically to combine Yabukita's …
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Okumidori
Okumidori is a late-budding sinensis cultivar bred from Yabukita and a Shizuoka native selection (Shizuoka 16), registered in 1974. It has become one of the most important matcha cultivars in Japan, e…
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Asatsuyu
Asatsuyu, whose name means 'morning dew,' is one of the original modern Japanese cultivars, registered the same year as Yabukita. It is sometimes called 'natural gyokuro' because its sun-grown sencha …
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Sayamakaori
Sayamakaori is a cold-hardy cultivar selected from Yabukita open-pollinated seedlings at the Saitama Tea Experiment Station and registered in 1971. It is the signature cultivar of Sayama tea in Saitam…
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Yutakamidori
Yutakamidori is the second-most-planted cultivar in Japan after Yabukita, dominating Kagoshima Prefecture in particular, where it accounts for roughly a third of all acreage. Bred from a Princess Asan…
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Goko
Goko is a classic Uji cultivar registered in 1953 and used almost exclusively for high-grade tencha and gyokuro. It is one of the foundational matcha cultivars and remains a favorite of traditional Ky…
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Samidori
Samidori, registered in 1953, is one of the great Uji matcha cultivars, selected from a native Uji seed population for its outstanding color, sweetness, and tencha yield. Alongside Asahi and Goko, it …
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Asahi
Asahi - 'morning sun' - is the most prestigious of the traditional Uji matcha cultivars, often used as the dominant component in the highest grades of ceremonial matcha. Selected from native Uji seedl…
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Da Bai Hao
Da Bai Hao, literally 'big white down,' is the foundational cultivar of Chinese white tea, providing the plump, silvery-haired buds that define Bai Hao Yin Zhen (Silver Needle) and Bai Mu Dan (White P…
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Tieguanyin
Tieguanyin is both the name of a famous oolong tea and the cultivar from which it is made - a foundational Chinese oolong cultivar native to the Anxi region of southern Fujian. It is one of China's te…
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Da Hong Pao
Da Hong Pao is the most famous of the Wuyi rock oolongs (yancha) and one of China's most legendary teas. The name refers both to a specific cultivar - propagated from six mother bushes growing on a cl…
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Rou Gui
Rou Gui - 'cassia bark' or 'cinnamon' - is one of the four most famous Wuyi rock oolong cultivars, alongside Shui Xian, Da Hong Pao, and Tie Luo Han. It was selected from native Wuyi populations and r…
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Shui Xian
Shui Xian is the most widely planted Wuyi rock oolong cultivar and the workhorse of the yancha trade - by volume it accounts for more Wuyi oolong than any other variety. Originally selected in Jianyan…
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Long Jing #43
Long Jing #43 is a clonal cultivar bred specifically for Long Jing (Dragon Well) production by the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Hangzhou. Selected from hei…
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Long Jing Qun Ti
Long Jing Qun Ti Zhong - literally 'population cultivar Long Jing' - is the heirloom, seed-propagated population of native tea plants that has grown around West Lake in Hangzhou for centuries. Unlike …
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Fuding Da Bai
Fuding Da Bai is one of the two foundational Fuding white tea cultivars (alongside Fuding Da Hao / Da Bai Hao) and is sometimes treated as the broader category encompassing both. Native to the Tai Lao…
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Zhenghe Da Bai
Zhenghe Da Bai is the sister cultivar to Fuding Da Bai and the second of the two great Chinese white tea cultivars granted national-grade status in 1985. Native to Zhenghe County in northern Fujian, i…
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Qing Xin
Qing Xin - also romanized Chin Shin - is the single most important Taiwanese oolong cultivar and the genetic foundation of nearly all of Taiwan's most prestigious teas, including Dong Ding, Ali Shan, …
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Jin Xuan
Jin Xuan, officially designated TTES #12, is a Taiwanese oolong cultivar bred at the Taiwan Tea Experiment Station and released in 1981. It is famous worldwide as the basis of so-called 'milk oolong' …
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Si Ji Chun
Si Ji Chun - 'Four Seasons Spring' - is a Taiwanese oolong cultivar discovered as a natural seedling on a tea farm in Muzha (Wenshan district, Taipei) in the late 1970s and propagated cuttingwise rath…
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Cuiyu
Cuiyu, officially TTES #13, is the sister release to Jin Xuan from the Taiwan Tea Experiment Station's breakthrough 1981 cultivar program. While Jin Xuan became famous abroad as 'milk oolong,' Cuiyu r…
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Sukcha
Sukcha refers to the Korean indigenous tea population descended from seeds traditionally believed to have been brought from China during the Silla dynasty (9th century) and naturalized over more than …
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Saimidori (Korean)
Saimidori is a Korean cultivar selected at the Boseong Tea Experiment Station and registered in the mid-1990s as part of a national program to develop earlier-budding, higher-yielding alternatives to …
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Jukro
Jukro - literally 'bamboo dew' - is less a single registered cultivar than a regional Hadong selection from old seed-propagated tea gardens that grow naturally interspersed with bamboo groves along th…
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Asanoka
Asanoka - literally 'morning fragrance' - is a Japanese cultivar bred at the Kagoshima Prefectural Tea Experiment Station and registered with MAFF in 1996. Despite its southern origin, it has proven u…
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Huangguanyin
Huangguanyin is a Chinese oolong cultivar bred at the Fujian Tea Research Institute by crossing Tieguanyin (mother) with Huangdan (father, also called Huangjingui). Registered as a national-class supe…
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Mei Zhan
Mei Zhan is an old Fujian cultivar with a documented history of at least 100 to 150 years, originating in the Lutian area of Anxi county. Although best known as one of the classic 'four famous bushes'…
Camellia sinensis var. assamica
The large-leaf assamica variety.
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TV-1
TV-1 (Tocklai Vegetative 1) was the first clonal tea cultivar released by the Tocklai Tea Research Institute in Jorhat, Assam, in 1949, and the first commercially deployed clonal assamica anywhere in …
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TV-23
TV-23 is one of the most successful of the Tocklai Tea Research Institute's vegetatively propagated assamica cultivars, released in 1982 and now planted across hundreds of thousands of hectares in Ass…
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Da Ye Zhong
Da Ye Zhong - 'large-leaf variety' - is the umbrella term for the broad-leafed Camellia sinensis var. assamica populations native to southern Yunnan and the foundational raw material for all true puer…
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Bingdao Landrace
The Bingdao landrace is the seed-propagated da-ye-zhong tea population native to Bingdao Lao Zhai (old village) in Mengku township, Shuangjiang county, Lincang prefecture. Over the past two decades it…
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Mengku Da Ye Zhong
Mengku Da Ye Zhong is one of three Yunnan large-leaf cultivars (alongside Menghai Da Ye Zhong and Fengqing Da Ye Zhong) officially recognized by China's national crop variety committee in 1984 as a 'n…
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TRFK 6/8
TRFK 6/8 is a vegetatively propagated clonal cultivar released by the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya (now the Tea Research Institute, a KALRO institute) at its Timbilil research station in Kericho. …
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TRFK 31/8
TRFK 31/8 is a second-generation Kenyan clone released by the Tea Research Foundation to complement and partially replace the dominant 6/8. It was selected for improved drought tolerance, better recov…
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TRFK 306/1
TRFK 306/1 is the famous 'purple tea' clone released to Kenyan farmers in 2011 after more than two decades of selection work at the Tea Research Foundation. It was developed by screening assamica seed…
Hybrid cultivars
Crosses between sinensis and assamica.
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B/5/63
B/5/63 is one of the most celebrated Darjeeling clonal cultivars, originally selected from the Bannockburn Tea Estate in the Darjeeling hills. The name follows the standard Darjeeling clonal nomenclat…
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Cy9
Cy9 is one of the foundational clonal cultivars released by the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka at St. Coombs, Talawakelle. Selected and stabilized in the mid-20th century from the genetically div…
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Benifuuki
Benifuuki is a Japanese hybrid cultivar developed at the National Vegetable and Tea Science Institute in Makurazaki by crossing the Indian-derived black-tea cultivar Benihomare with a Darjeeling-type …
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AV2
AV2 - Ambari Vegetative 2 - is a clonal cultivar selected at Ambari Tea Estate in Darjeeling from a remarkable individual seedling identified for its exceptional aromatic quality. Released to other Da…
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P-126
P-126 is a clonal cultivar selected at Phoobsering Tea Estate in the Darjeeling hills and propagated widely from the late 20th century onward as a reliable, higher-yielding companion to the famously a…