TeaHQ

Huang Gan

An older Taiwanese cultivar associated with the island’s black-tea production before the numbered series took over, and now grown in very small quantity. It belongs to the period when Taiwan was a black-tea exporter under Japanese administration rather than an oolong speciality producer, which is the part of the island’s tea history that its current marketing rarely mentions.

黃柑Camellia sinensis var. sinensisTaiwanAlso called Yellow Mandarin

Where it sits in the botany

Huang Gan 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.

Also transliterated as: huang gan, huanggan.

Where it came from

An older Taiwanese planting stock used in the period when the island produced black tea for export.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The historical association is consistently reported; the cultivar’s origin, introduction and dates were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Small planted area and largely of historical interest. Cultivars survive or vanish with the markets they were planted for, and this one outlived its market by a long way.

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.

  • Black tea — Tea taken deliberately through full enzymatic oxidation, giving the dark leaf, amber-to-red liquor and malty or brisk character most Western drinkers think of as simply 'tea'.

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