No. 008 Why are there so many tea cultivars?

Two young shoots.

They both belong to the species Camellia sinensis.

They grow in the same garden, under the same light, receive the same rain and will be picked the same morning.

At first glance, they look almost identical.

And yet, one may bud earlier in spring.

The other may resist the cold or a disease better.

One may produce leaves particularly suited to a mild and bright green tea.

The other may offer, after processing, a more structured cup or a different aroma.

In Tsuru No. 007, dedicated to the terroir of tea, we discovered how climate, altitude, soil, season and expertise contribute to the identity of a tea.

But the tea plant does not passively receive the influence of its environment.

Each plant responds to it according to what it is.

According to its heritage.

According to the characteristics it carries.

This is where a word found discreetly on some labels, but essential for understanding the diversity of tea, comes into play:

the cultivar.

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What is a cultivar?

The word comes from the English cultivated variety, which can be translated as "cultivated variety".

In rigorous botanical language, however, a cultivar is not the same thing as a botanical variety.

A botanical variety is a category used to describe a variation that has appeared and been recognized in nature within a species.

A cultivar is a group of plants selected by humans for one or more characteristics, sufficiently distinct and stable to be maintained when the plant is propagated appropriately.

These characteristics may concern:

• the shape or color of the leaves;
• the earliness of growth;
• yield;
• resistance to cold, drought, diseases or pests;
• the composition of the young shoots;
• suitability for certain processing methods;
• or the qualities sought in the cup.

In other words:

The species tells us what plant it is. The cultivar tells us about the particular identity of a cultivated lineage.

There are thus many cultivars within Camellia sinensis, such as ‘Yabukita’, ‘Saemidori’, ‘Tieguanyin’ or ‘TTES No. 18’.

Their names do not refer to a terroir, a family of tea, or a recipe.

They refer to selected plants.

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1. Why is it not enough to sow seeds?

A seed is not a photocopy of the plant that bore it.

It results from sexual reproduction and brings together a new assortment of genetic characteristics.

This diversity is valuable.

It is what allows populations to evolve and breeders to discover new interesting combinations.

But it also poses a very practical problem.

If a plant has exactly the desired qualities—good vigor, early harvest, particular resistance, or a promising profile for the cup—its seeds will not necessarily reproduce all of these characteristics identically.

Furthermore, the tea plant is predominantly allogamous: cross-fertilization between different individuals is favored, notably by self-incompatibility mechanisms present in most studied tea plants.

Descendants from seeds can therefore differ significantly from one another and from their parent plant.

An old garden planted from seeds can thus contain a true population of tea plants with varied characteristics.

This diversity can be its strength.

But when you want to faithfully preserve a selected individual, another way is needed.

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2. Cuttings: propagating without repeating the lottery

To faithfully reproduce many tea cultivars, vegetative propagation is used, most often by cuttings.

The principle is simple to understand.

A part of a selected parent plant is taken, and then it is allowed to produce its own roots.

The new plant does not come from a seed.

It comes from the same individual.

It is therefore a clone in the botanical sense: a plant propagated asexually from common parent material.

The word may sound futuristic.

In a garden, however, it describes a very old and very practical horticultural practice.

This method allows for a much more faithful preservation of the characteristics of the chosen tea plant and results in a more uniform garden in terms of growth date, leaf shape, or agronomic behavior.

But two precautions are essential.

First, clone and cultivar are not perfect synonyms.

A clone describes a method of propagation and a common origin. A cultivar refers to a cultivated group defined by selected and maintained characteristics. In tea, many commercial cultivars are clonal, but the two concepts do not have exactly the same definition.

Second, genetically very similar plants will not produce absolutely identical cups everywhere.

Climate, soil, season, farming practices, and processing will continue to have an effect.

A cutting preserves potential. It does not freeze the garden, the harvest, or the flavor.

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3. How is a new cultivar created?

There is no single story.

Some cultivars come from an outstanding tea plant identified in an old population.

Others are born from a planned cross between two chosen parents.

In this second case, the work begins long before the cultivar receives a name.

Breeders choose parents for their complementary qualities.

They perform the cross.

They grow many descendants, all slightly different.

Then they observe.

Year after year.

They eliminate the plants that do not meet the objectives, keep the most promising ones, propagate them, and compare them under different conditions.

They evaluate, in particular:

• vigor;
• the dates of budding and harvest;
• yield;
• resistance to constraints;
• uniformity;
• the composition of the shoots;
• quality after processing;
• and adaptability to several regions.

This work can take a very long time, because the tea plant is a perennial. The candidates must be given time to grow, go through several seasons, and show whether their qualities are truly stable.

The Japanese example of ‘Seimei’ makes this process very concrete: the cross between ‘Fushun’ and ‘Saemidori’ was performed in 1992, and then the selected lineage was tested before the application for registration was published in 2017.

Between the cross and the name, there are therefore sometimes decades of observation.

A cultivar is not an idea placed on a label. It is a selection tested by time.

How is a tea cultivar created?

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4. What are we trying to select?

When talking about selection, flavor naturally attracts all the attention.

But a tea plant must first live in a garden.

A cultivar may be chosen because it buds early and allows the first harvest to be brought forward.

Another because it withstands the cold better.

Another still because it resists a disease more effectively, offers a more consistent yield, or adapts better to mechanical harvesting.

These agronomic qualities are not secondary.

They can reduce losses, limit certain treatments, spread out harvesting periods, and make production more resilient.

The Japanese cultivar ‘Nanmei’, for example, was selected using a genetic marker associated with resistance to the white peach scale, a tea plant pest. The cultivar ‘Saeakari’, meanwhile, was developed notably to combine earliness, yield, quality, and resistance to several diseases better than the reference ‘Yabukita’ in the trials concerned.

But all selection involves choices.

Great earliness can expose young shoots to certain late frosts.

Excellent adaptability in one region does not guarantee the same behavior elsewhere.

High uniformity makes the producer's work easier, but a crop too heavily dominated by a single cultivar can also concentrate risks from diseases or climate changes.

There is therefore no perfect cultivar.

There are cultivars suited to specific objectives and conditions.

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5. Does a cultivar really have a flavor?

This is the most delicate question.

Cultivars may show differences in amino acids, polyphenols, caffeine, pigments, and many precursors that will contribute to the flavor or aromas after processing.

Studies comparing several cultivars, processed according to common protocols, do indeed find chemical and sensory differences in the finished teas.

The cultivar therefore does matter.

But to say that it has a fixed flavor would be misleading.

A leaf never arrives in the cup alone.

Its expression also depends on:

• where it grew;
• the season;
• its age at the time of harvest;
• any shading;
• withering, oxidation, heating, and drying;
• storage;
• then the water and brewing parameters.

A cultivar provides a raw material and a set of possibilities.

Processing reveals some and modifies others.

The cultivar does not write the flavor of the tea alone. It contributes to the vocabulary the producer has available to write it.

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6. A cultivar is not a family of tea

In Tsuru No. 002, dedicated to Camellia sinensis, we saw how the actions performed after harvest allow the same plant to become white, green, oolong, black, or dark tea.

The cultivar is at another level.

It describes the plant material.

The family of tea describes mainly how the leaves were processed.

Some cultivars are considered particularly suited to a certain processing method. This is the result of their composition, the structure of their leaves, their behavior during processing, and local history.

But this does not mean that a cultivar is biologically destined to produce only one family.

The Taiwanese cultivar ‘TTES No. 24’, for example, is officially indicated as suited for the production of green tea and black tea.

Conversely, ‘TTES No. 18’, also known as Hong Yu or Ruby, was selected and described for black tea, with an aromatic profile where the Taiwanese institute notes nuances reminiscent of cinnamon and mint.

These examples show the proper way to read a statement of “suitability”:

it refers to an observed potential and a preferred use.

Not an absolute boundary.

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7. Four names, four stories

‘Yabukita’: the reference that became dominant

‘Yabukita’ became the major reference for tea cultivation in Japan during the second half of the 20th century.

Its quality, yield, and adaptability to many regions favored its spread to the point that it occupied, for decades, a considerable share of Japanese acreage.

This success also revealed the fragility of a strong dependence on a single cultivar: concentrated harvest periods, shared sensitivity to certain diseases, and reduced diversity in gardens.

‘Yabukita’ therefore tells two stories at once.

The story of a remarkably effective selection.

And the story of the need to preserve and develop other genetic resources.

‘Saemidori’: seeking another expression of green tea

‘Saemidori’ is an early Japanese cultivar recognized for the quality of its green teas, notably their liquor color and flavor in official Japanese evaluations.

It also appears in the pedigree of newer cultivars, proof that a cultivar can in turn become a resource for selection.

Its name, however, does not guarantee an exceptional cup on its own.

The garden, shading, harvest, and processing remain decisive.

‘Tieguanyin’: when the name of a cultivar becomes that of a tea

‘Tieguanyin’ is a Chinese cultivar historically associated with Anxi, in Fujian, and with the oolongs that bear the same name.

This is precisely what can create confusion.

Depending on the commercial context, “Tieguanyin” can refer to the cultivar, the style of tea, its traditional origin, or a combination of these elements.

To be precise, one must therefore ask:

was the tea actually produced with the ‘Tieguanyin’ cultivar?

Where did the leaves grow?

And how were they processed?

The name alone does not always answer these three questions.

‘TTES No. 18’: a documented creation for black tea

The Taiwanese cultivar ‘TTES No. 18’ comes from a cross between a lineage of large-leaf tea plants from Burma and a wild Taiwanese tea plant.

Officially named in 1999, it is also known as Hong Yu or Ruby.

The Taiwanese institute describes it as vigorous, suited for black tea, and associated, after processing, with notes reminiscent of cinnamon and mint.

Here, the genetic origin, the selection objective, and the use are clearly documented.

This is what cultivar information can provide when it is precise.

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How to read a cultivar name on a tea sheet?

The name of a cultivar is valuable information.

But it should never be read as an automatic promise.

It allows you to ask better questions:

• Is this tea monovarietal or from a blend of cultivars?
• Does the name refer to the plant itself or only to a commercial style?
• Where was this cultivar grown?
• In what season were the leaves harvested?
• What processing was applied to them?

A very precise sheet can thus indicate:

Species: Camellia sinensis
Cultivar: ‘Saemidori’
Origin: region and garden
Harvest: date or season
Processing: sencha, gyokuro, black tea, oolong…

Each piece of information answers a different question.

Together, they tell the story of the cup much better.

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The Tsuru experience

To feel the influence of the cultivar, the ideal would be to compare two teas that differ only by it.

In reality, this perfect comparison is rare.

Two lots can also differ by the plot, the harvest date, or small processing choices.

But you can get close.

Choose two teas:

• from the same family;
• produced in a nearby region;
• harvested at a comparable time;
• and prepared using a similar method;
• but from different cultivars.

Use the same water—the one whose role we studied in Tsuru No. 005—then start with the same proportions.

As we saw in Tsuru No. 006 on temperature and steeping time, these parameters can change the balance of the infusion: adjust them if one of the two teas clearly requires a different preparation, but note your changes.

Observe:

• the aroma of the dry leaves;
• the shape and color of the steeped leaves;
• the texture;
• the sweetness;
• the bitterness and astringency;
• the length on the palate;
• and the aromas that emerge as the cup cools.

Do not try to guess the cultivar blindly.

Instead, try to understand what this information adds to your reading of the tea.

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What the name cannot guarantee

A famous cultivar is not a certificate of quality.

A prestigious cutting that is poorly cultivated or poorly processed will not necessarily produce a great tea.

Conversely, a lesser-known cultivar can offer a remarkable cup when it is suited to its environment and handled with precision.

The cultivar's name does not guarantee geographical authenticity either.

The same plant can be grown far from its place of origin.

Finally, two teas made from the same cultivar can remain very different.

Tsuru No. 007 showed us this: the place and the season influence the leaf.

Tsuru No. 002 showed us that processing determines the family.

And Tsuru No. 005 and No. 006 reminded us that water, time, and temperature continue the story all the way to your cup.

The cultivar is an essential piece.

Never the only piece.