TV25
A Tocklai clone from the same programme as TV23, planted across north-east India for its yield and drought tolerance. Its interest is less in the cup than in what the series represents: a research institute deliberately narrowing a genetically diverse seed-grown crop to a handful of tested clones, with the gains in productivity and the losses in variability that follow.
Where it sits in the botany
TV25 is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. assamica, 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: TV25. 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: tv25, tocklai vegetative 25.
Where it came from
Released by the Tocklai Tea Research Institute in Assam as part of its numbered vegetative clone series.
How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The clone designation is genuine; the release year and parentage were not verified against a primary source.
What the plant is like
Vigorous, high-yielding and comparatively drought-tolerant, giving a full-bodied black tea for CTC and orthodox manufacture.
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 TV25
Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. assamica
- Assam indigenous jat
- Benifuji
- Benihikari
- Benihomare
- Benikaori
- Betjan
- Camellia sinensis var. assamica
- East African seedling tea
- Fengqing Da Ye
- GMB 7
- Kiara 8
- Lingyun Baihao
- Manipuri jat
- Menghai Da Ye
- Mengku Da Ye
- Miang landrace
- PH1
- Shan Tuyết
- Sri Lankan seedling tea
- Tai Cha No. 8
- TRFK 301/4
- TRFK 303/577
- TRFK 306/1
- TRFK 31/8
- TRFK 6/8
- TV1
- TV23
- Yinghong No. 9
- Yunkang 10
- Yunkang 14
- Yunnan Da Ye Zhong
- Zi Juan
- Zi Ya
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.
- TV23 vs TV25 — Two high-yielding Assam clones that between them supply an enormous quantity of blended black tea. They are close relatives in purpose and differ in the trade-offs each makes between drought tolerance, body and the manufacture it suits.