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Trung Du

The seed-grown midland population of northern Vietnam — trung du means midland — and for a long time the country’s principal planting material. It is a landrace rather than a cultivar, and it is the plant behind the green tea of Thai Nguyen, which is the reference point for domestic tea drinking in Vietnam in roughly the way Longjing is in China.

Trung DuCamellia sinensis var. sinensisVietnamAlso called midland populationAlso called Trung Du xanh

Where it sits in the botany

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

Also transliterated as: trung du.

Where it came from

A long-established seed-grown population of the northern Vietnamese midlands, progressively supplemented and in places replaced by bred cultivars from the national research stations.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The population and its association with Thai Nguyen are consistently reported; its documented history was not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Small-leaf, variable, moderately yielding material giving the astringent, grassy, sweet-finishing green tea Vietnamese domestic drinkers expect. Distinct from the tall shan tuyet trees of the northern highlands, which are a different thing entirely.

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.

  • 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 Trung Du

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