TeaHQ

Kangra jat

The seed-grown population of the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh, a small and often overlooked Indian tea district in the western Himalaya. It is a landrace rather than a cultivar: China-type stock planted in the nineteenth century and left to reproduce in place, adapted over generations to a cold, high, seasonal site. Kangra tea carries a geographical indication, and the population is part of what the indication protects.

Camellia sinensis var. sinensisIndiaAlso called Kangra seed stockAlso called Kangra population

Where it sits in the botany

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

Also transliterated as: kangra jat.

Where it came from

Descended from Chinese small-leaf stock planted in the Kangra valley in the nineteenth century and propagated locally by seed since.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The general history is consistently reported; the original stock’s provenance and the planting dates were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Small-leaf, cold-adapted, low-yielding and highly variable bush to bush. The district makes both green and black tea from it, which is unusual for an Indian origin and is partly a consequence of having no single dominant buyer to standardise for.

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'.
  • Green tea — Tea whose oxidation is halted early by heat, keeping the leaf green and the cup fresh, vegetal or marine in character.

Teas in the catalogue made from Kangra jat

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Guides covering this cultivar

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