Hong Yun
The less famous sibling of Ruby 18, crossing Kyang assamica with an Indian Jaipuri plant. It gives a rounder, fruitier black tea without the menthol signature, and is planted far less widely.
Where it sits in the botany
Hong Yun is recorded under Hybrid, 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: hong yun, hongyun.
What the plant is like
Worth knowing mainly because it is the honest answer to 'is there Taiwanese black tea that does not taste of mint'.
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 Hybrid
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.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this cultivar against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Hong Yu (Ruby 18) vs Hong Yun (Ruby 21) — Taiwanese black tea became distinctive rather than derivative because of one cross, and that cross produces a natural menthol-and-cinnamon aroma nobody believes is natural. Its less famous sibling is the answer for anyone who does not want it.