Yunkang 14

Another of the Yunkang series of Yunnan large-leaf selections, developed at the province’s tea research institute and planted widely across the terrace plantings of Xishuangbanna and Lincang. The name means Yunnan-resistant: the series was selected substantially for disease resistance and yield, which is why it dominates the terrace area and why the pu-erh market’s premium material comes from the older seed-grown stands instead.

雲抗14號Camellia sinensis var. assamicaYunkang 14ChinaAlso called Yunkang No. 14

Where it sits in the botany

Yunkang 14 is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. assamica, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with China, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.

Registration code: Yunkang 14. 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: yunkang 14, yun kang shi si hao.

Where it came from

Selected at the Yunnan provincial tea research institute from large-leaf material and propagated across the province’s modern terrace plantings, alongside Yunkang 10.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The series, the institute and the planting pattern are consistently reported; release year and parentage were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Vigorous, high-yielding large-leaf material. Its ubiquity in terrace plantings is precisely why gu shu and da shu claims exist as a market category — the contrast being drawn is usually against a Yunkang field.

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.

Selected substantially for disease resistance and yield — the name records the resistance — and planted across the terraced ground of Xishuangbanna and Lincang for those properties. A terrace field is picked frequently on a short cycle by a fixed workforce, so what a grower needs is steady shoot production and a plant that does not fail in a wet year; premium character is not what the selection was for and not what the field is managed for.

What it does in the cup

Reported as vigorous, high-extract large-leaf material giving a sound rather than distinguished sheng, and a competent shou. It is the material most modern plantation pu-erh is made from.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

Its ubiquity is precisely why gu shu and da shu exist as market categories: the contrast being drawn is nearly always against a Yunkang field, whether or not the seller says so. That makes this cultivar the invisible reference point for the whole pu-erh premium structure, which is a more useful thing to know about it than any tasting note. It also means the premium is being paid for management, spacing and provenance as much as for genetics.

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.

Dark tea and pu-erh — Teas changed after processing by microbial activity — either deliberate wet-piling or long, slow ageing.
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 Yunkang 14

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