Skip to content

China-type tea (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis) Photo: placeholder pending image-fill pass

China-type tea (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis)

Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze var. sinensis — the China-type or Chinary tea — is the small-leaved, cold-hardy variety that defines the muscatel character of Darjeeling and the green tea of Kangra. Originally brought to India from the Wuyi hills and Yunnan in the 1830s-40s, it is now planted across the high-elevation belt from Himachal Pradesh through Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh.

Botany and provenance

The China bush is a multi-stemmed shrub, 1-3 m tall in the wild, with small (4-8 cm), narrow, dark-green leaves and a slow growth habit. It tolerates winter frost down to −5 °C and dormant snow cover, traits the broad-leaved Tea Camellia Sinensis Assamica lacks. Botanically the two are now treated as varieties of the same species, but they are reproductively interfertile and most working Indian tea is a graded assamica × sinensis cline.

Key characteristics

  • Habitat: cool, misty hills 1000-2200 m; well-drained, slightly acidic (pH 4.5-5.5) hill soils
  • Bush type: small-leaf, multi-stemmed, slow-growing, long-lived (100+ years)
  • Liquor: light, fragrant, muscatel/flowery — ideal for orthodox whole-leaf and green tea
  • Plucking rounds: 10-14 day cycle in flush season (March-November)
  • Yield: 600-1200 kg made tea/ha — much lower than assamica, but quality premium offsets

Cultivation

Older Darjeeling sections (planted 1860-1900) are seed-grown "China jat" bushes; new plantings increasingly use Darjeeling vegetative (DV) clones such as B-157, AV-2, P-312, T-78 and Bannockburn-668. Field spacing is 1.05-1.20 × 0.60-0.75 m on contour. Permanent shade is provided by Albizia and Erythrina. Skiffing (5-10 cm above last prune) is done annually before the first flush; medium prune every 4-5 years restores frame.

Chinary leaf is low in catechins and high in volatile aroma precursors, giving the characteristic muscatel notes of Tea Darjeeling First Flush Gi and the grassy-floral profile of Tea Kangra Green Himachal. It is rarely processed CTC because the resulting liquor is too light for milk-tea blends; orthodox rolling and pan-firing (for green) are the typical routes (Tea Orthodox Vs Ctc Processing).

Pests and diseases

Tea Blister Blight Exobasidium is the dominant disease in Darjeeling, Kangra and Sikkim because of the cool, humid micro-climate. Helopeltis is rarer at altitude but red spider mite, thrips and shot-hole borer can be serious.

See also: Tea Camellia Sinensis Assamica, Tea Darjeeling First Flush Gi, Tea Kangra Green Himachal, Tea Orthodox Vs Ctc Processing, Tea Blister Blight Exobasidium.

References

  1. Darjeeling Tea Association — Bush profile. https://www.darjeelingtea.com/
  2. Tea Research Association Tocklai — Crop Profile. https://www.tocklai.org/