Zhongcha 108

A radiation-bred Longjing 43 derivative, selected for earlier budding and better disease resistance while keeping the flat-leaf character. It is now one of the most planted cultivars in the Longjing producing area.

中茶108Camellia sinensis var. sinensisZhongcha 108ChinaAlso called Zhong Cha 108

Where it sits in the botany

Zhongcha 108 is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, 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: Zhongcha 108. 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: zhong cha 108.

What the plant is like

Close enough to Longjing 43 in the cup that most drinkers will not separate them; the difference matters to growers rather than to readers.

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.

A radiation-bred derivative selected for earlier budding and better disease resistance while keeping the flat-leaf character the Longjing style requires. Both properties matter to a grower and neither is visible to a drinker: earliness buys a place in the premium window, and resistance lowers the cost of holding a field through a wet spring.

What it does in the cup

Reported as close enough to its parent in the cup that most drinkers will not separate them, which the trade regards as the point rather than as a shortcoming.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

This record exists to make a point about who cultivar differences are for. The difference between this plant and Longjing 43 is real, commercially significant and worth a great deal of money to a grower — and it is essentially invisible to the person drinking the tea. A great deal of cultivar breeding is like this, and reading a cultivar name on a package as a flavour promise assumes a purpose the plant was not selected for.

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.

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 Zhongcha 108

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

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

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this cultivar against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.

Longjing 43 vs Zhongcha 108 — A widely planted Longjing cultivar and the radiation-bred derivative that now sits beside it in the same gardens. The differences are real for a grower and close to invisible for a drinker, which is worth saying plainly.