TeaHQ

Jin Mu Dan

One of the aromatic Fujian hybrids from the same breeding line as Jin Guan Yin and Huang Guan Yin, and among the most intensely floral cultivars in commercial use. It is planted across Fujian and made into everything from Anxi-style rolled oolong to Wuyi rock tea to downy black tea, and its aroma is strong enough that a Jin Mu Dan is usually identifiable regardless of which of those it has become.

金牡丹Camellia sinensis var. sinensisChinaAlso called Golden Peony

Where it sits in the botany

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

Also transliterated as: jin mu dan, jinmudan.

Where it came from

One of a series of aromatic cultivars bred at a Fujian tea research institute from Tie Guan Yin and Huang Dan parentage.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The breeding line is consistently reported in Chinese tea writing; the release year was not verified against a primary registration record.

What the plant is like

Very high aromatic intensity, good vigour and wide processing tolerance. Its fragrance is the reason it turns up in black tea as often as in oolong.

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.
  • 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'.

Teas in the catalogue made from Jin Mu Dan

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 Mu Dan vs Rui Xiang — Two bred Fujian cultivars planted for aroma and volume rather than for lineage, and the pair that shows what modern Chinese cultivar breeding is actually optimising for. They are frequently sold without the cultivar named at all, inside a regional description.