Fengqing Da Ye vs Yinghong No. 9
Two large-leaf Chinese cultivars grown for black tea in two provinces, one a long-standing Yunnan stock and the other created deliberately for a state project in Guangdong. They are the plants behind Dian Hong and Ying De Hong respectively.
cultivar
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Fengqing Da Ye | Yinghong No. 9 |
|---|---|---|
| Province | Yunnan. | Guangdong, in the warm lowlands around Yingde. |
| Bud character | Abundant golden-downed buds — the visual signature of Dian Hong. | Thick leaf with high extract; less bud-led. |
| Liquor | Sweet and full, with the body the golden-tip style is bought for. | Dark and heavy, leaning towards cocoa. |
| Cold tolerance | Better; Yunnan gardens run to considerable altitude. | Frost-tender, and confined to the warm lowlands. |
| Origin of the planting | Long-established local stock. | Planted from the late 1950s as a deliberate state project, using large-leaf material rather than the local small-leaf population. |
| How it takes milk | Better than most Chinese black tea, though it is usually drunk plain. | Well — the weight and cocoa character survive it. |
The short answer
Both answer the question of what Chinese black tea looks like when it is built on large-leaf material rather than on the small-leaf stock behind Keemun. The Yunnan version leads with sweetness and gold tips, the Guangdong version with weight, and neither behaves like the delicate Fujian gongfu blacks a drinker may be expecting.
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