TeaHQ

Cui Yu

Released alongside Jin Xuan by Taiwan’s Tea Research and Extension Station, and its counterpart in character: where Jin Xuan is creamy, Cui Yu is sharply floral and slightly herbaceous.

翠玉Camellia sinensis var. sinensisTRES No. 13TaiwanAlso called Jade OolongAlso called TRES No. 13

Where it sits in the botany

Cui Yu is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with Taiwan, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.

Registration code: TRES No. 13. A breeding or registration code identifies the selection in an institutional register and is often the name a grower uses when the trade name is not.

Also transliterated as: cui yu, cuiyu.

What the plant is like

The two are routinely sold as a pair because they were bred as one. A reader who dislikes Jin Xuan’s milkiness usually likes Cui Yu.

Why a grower plants it

Yield, hardiness, when it buds, what it resists and whether a machine can cut it. This is the half of a cultivar’s identity that decides what is actually in the ground, and it is usually left out of writing aimed at drinkers.

Released alongside Jin Xuan out of the same programme and planted for the same reason — better vigour, better yield and better disease tolerance than Qing Xin on ground where Qing Xin struggles. Taiwan's tea area has been contracting while its labour has become scarce and expensive, and a cultivar that survives with less intervention has a commercial argument that a merely fragrant one does not.

What it does in the cup

Reported as sharply floral and slightly herbaceous, and consistently described as the counterpart to Jin Xuan's creaminess. The trade sells the two as a pair because they were bred as one.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

The pairing is genuinely informative and worth keeping: a drinker who dislikes Jin Xuan's milkiness usually likes Cui Yu, and that is a cultivar-level preference rather than a quality judgement. What neither cultivar decides is elevation, and elevation is what most Taiwanese oolong is actually priced on — the same plant at 300 metres and at 1,500 metres produces teas that no cultivar difference would bridge.

Cultivar, growing site and processing all shape a cup, and the cultivar is very often the smallest of the three. It is also the one that fits on a label, so almost every commercial incentive runs toward overstating it. This section is on every cultivar page that has been reviewed for it, including the ones where the honest answer is “less than you would think”.

What it is usually made into

The categories this cultivar is typically processed into. It is a statement about common practice, not a limit — processing decides the category, and a cultivar can be taken down more than one route.

  • Oolong — Partially oxidised teas, bruised deliberately and often roasted — the widest-ranging category in tea.

Teas in the catalogue made from Cui Yu

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Sources

  • TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ

This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No breeding register or institutional record stands behind the account above, which is why the origin note carries its confidence in the open rather than reading as a citation.

How TeaHQ handles sources

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this cultivar against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.

  • Jin Xuan vs Cui Yu — Two Taiwanese cultivars released together by the same breeding station and sold together ever since, because they were designed as a pair. They differ on the single axis a drinker cares about: creamy against sharply floral.