P312

A Darjeeling clonal cultivar selected at Phoobsering, valued for a heavier body and more pronounced muscatel character in the second flush than AV2 delivers.

Camellia sinensis var. sinensisP312IndiaAlso called Phoobsering 312

Where it sits in the botany

P312 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.

Registration code: P312. 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: phoobsering 312.

What the plant is like

Where AV2 is planted for first-flush aroma, P312 is planted for second-flush weight. Estates commonly grow both and pick them separately.

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.

An estate selection made on a Darjeeling hillside rather than issued by a research institute, which is how nearly all of the district's clonal material arrived. It is planted for second-flush performance: a heavier crop in the summer picking than the aromatic first-flush clones give, on a plant that stands up to the district's monsoon exposure. Estates commonly grow it alongside AV2 and pick the two separately, which is a scheduling decision as much as a flavour one.

What it does in the cup

Reported as giving a heavier body and a more pronounced muscatel character in the second flush than AV2 delivers, with less of the high floral aroma that first-flush buyers look for.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

Muscatel is the word Darjeeling is sold on and it is not a cultivar property. It is associated with jassid feeding on second-flush leaf, which is a seasonal and biological event rather than a genetic one, and a clone can be more or less suited to expressing it without producing it. Nearly all Darjeeling is a blend of clonal and seed-grown material picked across a garden on one day, so the cultivar variable is averaged out before the tea reaches a chest — flush first, then oxidation, then garden and elevation.

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.

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 P312

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.

AV2 vs P312 — The two Darjeeling clonals that between them explain why the district’s first and second flushes now taste as they do. Estates commonly grow both and pick them separately, because they were selected for different halves of the season.