TRFK 306 vs TRFK 31/8
Two Kenyan clonal cultivars that show what a research-led planting programme does to a national industry. One is the purple-leaf plant behind Kenya’s purple tea; the other is a workhorse selected for the brisk coloured liquor that CTC blending demands.
cultivar
What is being compared
Why these get confused
Purple tea is regularly presented as a new type of tea alongside the six categories. It is a cultivar whose leaf is purple, processed by ordinary methods.
Point by point
| Aspect | TRFK 306/1 | TRFK 31/8 |
|---|---|---|
| Leaf colour | Purple, from anthocyanin pigmentation — a breeding outcome rather than a processing one. | Conventional. |
| Selected for | The pigment and the novelty category built on it. | Yield, and bright brisk deeply coloured liquor. |
| How it is processed | As green or as black, like any other leaf. | Overwhelmingly CTC. |
| Where it ends up | Speciality lots sold on the colour. | The world’s teabags. |
| Category status | Purple tea is a cultivar, not a sixth category. | Not applicable. |
| What it explains | That leaf colour can be bred for and has no bearing on which of the six categories a tea belongs to. | That Kenya’s reputation for consistency rests on clonal planting of a small number of cultivars. |
The short answer
An agronomic decision taken at a research station is why so much of the world’s everyday tea tastes as it does. This record makes no claim about the purple pigment beyond what it is and where it comes from.
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