TeaHQ

Ying Zhi Hong Xin

The fourth of Taiwan’s four traditional oolong cultivars, alongside Qing Xin Oolong, Qing Xin Da Mao and Da Ye Oolong, and the one used for Muzha-style Tie Guan Yin in the hills south of Taipei. That is a case worth pausing on: Muzha Tie Guan Yin is made in the Tie Guan Yin manner — heavily rolled, roasted, repeatedly baked — from a plant that is not the Anxi Tie Guan Yin cultivar at all. The tea is named for its process, not its plant.

硬枝紅心Camellia sinensis var. sinensisTaiwanAlso called Hard Stem Red Heart

Where it sits in the botany

Ying Zhi Hong Xin is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, 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: ying zhi hong xin, yingzhihongxin.

Where it came from

One of the older Taiwanese planting stocks, established well before the numbered Taicha series began and named descriptively for its hard stems and reddish shoot.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. Its status as one of the four traditional cultivars is consistently reported; its introduction date and provenance from mainland stock were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Hard-stemmed and hardy with a reddish young shoot, which is what the name describes. It stands up to the heavy repeated roasting the Muzha style applies, where a more delicate plant would be flattened by it.

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.

  • Oolong — Partially oxidised teas, bruised deliberately and often roasted — the widest-ranging category in tea.

Teas in the catalogue made from Ying Zhi Hong Xin

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Guides covering this cultivar

  • When the tea and the plant share a name — Tie Guan Yin, Da Hong Pao, Shui Xian, Rou Gui, Fo Shou, Bai Ji Guan: each is the name of a cultivar and the name of a tea, and the two do not reliably travel together. This is the most common single confusion in Chinese and Taiwanese tea.

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