Camellia sinensis var. assamica
Camellia sinensis var. assamica is the large-leaf, tropical tea variety of Assam and Yunnan, used for most Assam, Ceylon, Kenyan and pu'er teas.
Definition
Camellia sinensis var. assamica is the large-leaf variety of the tea plant. Left alone it grows into a single-trunked tree, and its leaves are broad, thin and glossy. It needs warmth and humidity and does poorly in frost, so it dominates tropical and subtropical tea regions. The variety grows wild in the hills of Yunnan and in northeast India. In 1823 the Scottish trader Robert Bruce was shown tea plants growing in Assam by Singpho people, and British planters went on to build the Assam industry largely on native assamica. Today it, or hybrids with it, supplies most tea from Assam, Sri Lanka, Kenya and much of the global teabag market. In Yunnan the same variety is called da ye zhong (大叶种, large-leaf variety) and is the required raw material for pu'er. Its leaves contain more polyphenols and caffeine than typical sinensis leaves, which gives strong, brisk black teas and the bitterness and long aging potential of sheng pu'er. Some old Yunnan trees are several hundred years old.
In Depth
Assamica leaves often reach 15-20 cm in length, about twice the size of typical sinensis leaves. In the cup, assamica-based black teas are malty, full and brisk, and take milk and sugar well, which is why breakfast blends rely on them.
Pu'er rules require large-leaf Yunnan material, so authentic pu'er is assamica. A cake with small, narrow leaves in the wet leaf is a reason to question its origin.
Dian Hong (Yunnan black) shows how processing interacts with the variety: the large, downy buds turn gold during oxidation and give a sweeter, rounder cup than lowland Assam. In Sri Lanka and Kenya, most planted material is clonal assamica or hybrids chosen for yield and CTC processing. Because assamica is frost-sensitive, it is rarely grown commercially where winters freeze; cold-hardy hybrids are used at the margins.
See Also
- Tea Botany
- Yunnan Large-Leaf Tea
- History of Indian Tea