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Camellia sinensis var. assamica. While Assam plants are generally found in areas producing black teas for strength, briskness and body (for example, India, Africa and Sri Lanka), exquisitely flavorful black teas can be produced from Chinese plants as well. A third tea variety, Camellia sinensis var. cambodiensis—also known as the "Java bush"—originated in Southeast Asia. This variety is less commonly known because it is not typically produced outside of Indonesia, but instead used in agricultural settings for the development of new cultivars. VARIATIONS ON VARIETY From these three principal varieties of Camellia sinensis, thousands of cultivars have been developed in tea gardens and agricultural research stations around the world. A cultivar is a "cultivated variety" and is developed to exhibit particular traits such as hardiness, yield, flavor, disease and drought resistance, and compatibility with a specific terroir. Just like Japan's Fuji apples have characteristics that differ from New Zealand's Braeburn apples, an AV2 from Darjeeling is quite a different plant than an Asanoka from Japan. Both have proven characteristics that make them commercially viable. Cultivars are generally reproduced using a method called vegetative propagation. Rather than planting seeds, vegetative propagation calls for taking a stem or leaf cutting from a mother bush that has been selected for desirable traits, rooting it in a nursery and then planting it in a field. The resulting plants are clones and, in the tea industry, known as "jats." They have very specific attributes and the exact genetic makeup of the mother bush. Because plants originating from seeds are "wild cards"— you never know exactly what you're going to get—vegetative propagation offers modern tea planters uniformity, reliability, control and, eventually, profitability. The very first tea clone was introduced less than 70 years ago. Today, the majority of new plantings are clonal, making the tea in your cup significantly different from that in Shen Nung's and, as tea plant development continues, equally different from the one that will be in future generations' cups. Modern times are changing the taste of tea. BRED TO SURVIVE, TASTE GREAT AND MORE Just as in the coffee world, climate change is threatening the sustainability of the tea industry, and plant scientists are being called on to offer solutions. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture recently revealed that tea production in Africa could disappear completely by 2050. To help fight this, the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya has developed a promising cultivar, TRFK 306/1, known as "purple tea," that is drought, disease, frost and pest resistant. Its unusually high levels of antioxidants lend it added pharmacological implications. Japan's relatively new clone, Benifuuki, was also created continued on page 58 freshcup.com September 2013 57