Large-, Medium-, and Small-Leaf Varieties and Modern Bred Cultivars

The words "large-leaf variety" appear more often than almost any others in writing about pu'er. But how big is large-leaf, exactly? Is Taiwanese oolong small-leaf or medium-leaf? And what are the "Yunkang" and "Zijuan" in modern tea gardens? These questions share a common yardstick.

How Large, Medium, and Small Leaves Are Classified

Tea plant leaf size has a standard calculation in the descriptive standards for tea germplasm resources: take a fully developed mature leaf from the middle of a shoot, measure its length and width, and

Leaf area (cm²) = leaf length × leaf width × 0.7

Then classify into four grades by leaf area:

For example, a leaf 13 centimeters long and 5 centimeters wide has an area of about 45.5 square centimeters, falling in the large-leaf range. Mature leaves of Yunnan large-leaf tea are commonly 12–18 centimeters long, so most are large or even extra-large leaf.

Leaf-size grades describe a variety's average characteristics; leaves on the same tree vary in size, so you can't draw a conclusion from a single leaf.

Can Small-Leaf Tea Be Made into Pu'er?

Under pu'er's national standard, the raw material must be "sun-dried tea of Yunnan large-leaf varieties," so compressed tea made from small-leaf varieties doesn't meet the definition of pu'er and is usually classed as other dark tea or compressed tea. Yunnan does have local medium- and small-leaf population varieties too; Yibang, one of the Six Ancient Tea Mountains, is famous for its small-leaf variety, where large and small leaves grow together and are traditionally picked and processed together.

Is Leaf Size Related to Taste?

Yes, but it's not the only factor. Large-leaf varieties have thicker leaf flesh and richer inner substance, so the liquor is usually stronger, more noticeably bitter and astringent, and longer-lasting; small-leaf varieties have a finer aroma and a lighter texture. Still, within the same leaf type, differences caused by altitude, tree age, season, and processing are often more obvious than leaf size. Pu'er made from Yibang's small-leaf variety is known precisely for its delicacy and sweet smoothness.

Yunnan's Modern Bred Cultivars

From the 1980s on, the Tea Research Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and others selected high-performing individual plants from large-leaf populations and propagated them by cuttings into "clonal cultivars," so that every plant shares the mother tree's traits. A few names you'll hear often:

• Yunkang No. 10: A clonal cultivar selected from a single plant in a large-leaf population by the Tea Research Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, recognized as a national-level improved variety in 1987 as Huacha No. 50. Tree-form, large-leaf, and early-budding, it's suited to Dianhong, pu'er, and Yunnan green tea, and is one of the cultivars planted most widely in terrace gardens.
• Zijuan: A cultivar with purple buds, leaves, and tender stems, made a clonal cultivar in 1985 and granted plant variety rights in 2005; see Purple Bud and Zijuan: Purple Tea.
• Mengku, Menghai, and Fengqing large-leaf: These three are sexually propagated local population varieties, listed among the first national-level improved varieties in the 1980s; see Mengku, Menghai, Fengqing: Yunnan's Three National Large-Leaf Varieties.

Which Cultivars Are Common in Terrace Gardens?

Terrace gardens opened from the 1960s and 70s onward were mostly direct-seeded early on with seeds of population varieties like Mengku, Menghai, and Fengqing; from the 1980s, clonal cuttings like the Yunkang series became increasingly common. The advantage of clonal cultivars is uniformity, stable yields, and a consistent picking window; with population varieties, every plant is a little different, and the flavor layers are more varied.

Is There a Difference Between Pu'er from New and Old Cultivars?

Tea drinkers' experience is that clonal terrace tea has a direct aroma and is easy to drink young, but its flavor is more one-dimensional; tea from population varieties and old gardens has more layers. This results from cultivation methods, tree age, and cultivar together, and it's hard to attribute to cultivar alone. Blends often use both to balance each other's strengths and weaknesses; see Blending: The Art of the Recipe.

What Leaf Type Are Taiwan's Tea Plants?

Taiwan's common Qingxin Oolong, Four Seasons Spring, Jin Xuan, and others are mostly small- or medium-leaf varieties suited to oolong and baozhong. Taiwan also has large-leaf varieties: Assam tea imported from India in the 1920s was planted around Sun Moon Lake in Yuchi to make black tea, and TTES No. 18 "Ruby," bred by the Yuchi Branch of the Tea Research and Extension Station from Burmese large-leaf tea and Taiwanese wild mountain tea, was released in 1999. These large-leaf varieties are mainly used for black tea in Taiwan, and they're not quite the same family as Yunnan large-leaf; see The Botany of the Tea Plant.

FAQ

How big are large-leaf variety leaves? By the descriptive standards for tea germplasm resources, a leaf area (length × width × 0.7) of 40–60 square centimeters is large-leaf, and 60 square centimeters or more is extra-large leaf.

What is Yunkang No. 10? A large-leaf clonal cultivar bred by the Tea Research Institute of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, recognized as a national-level improved variety in 1987 (Huacha No. 50), and common in terrace gardens.

Are Taiwan's tea plants large-leaf? Taiwan's oolong and baozhong tea plants are mostly small- or medium-leaf varieties; the Sun Moon Lake area has imported Assam large-leaf tea and TTES No. 18, mainly used for black tea.

Can small-leaf tea be made into pu'er? The national standard specifies sun-dried tea of Yunnan large-leaf varieties as the raw material; Yunnan's local small-leaf population varieties are often picked together with large-leaf ones, and Yibang is a famous example.