Tagged: clone
TV1 to TV31: The Clones That Built Modern Assam
Almost no Assam garden grows tea from seed anymore. Since 1949, Tocklai's breeding station has released a numbered line of clones, TV1 to TV31, and they now cover most of the valley. Here is what a clone is, why the industry switched, and what got lost along the way.
TS 397 and the Middle Path: A Seed Cross Between Two Clones
Not every Assam bush is a clone or a seedling. A third category, the biclonal seed variety, crosses two proven clones on purpose and plants the resulting seed. Here is how it works and why Tocklai still makes it.
Assam Grew the Purple Tea Everyone Else Is Selling
Kenya built a global purple tea business on a clone traced back to Assam seed exported early last century. Assam itself still has no commercial purple tea plant, only wild finds in Karbi Anglong and a germplasm bank holding the chemistry that could change that.
Assam Tea Has a Third Parent Most Drinkers Never Hear About
China type and Assam type get all the credit, but a third botanical type, the Cambod line, shipped in from Indochina in 1917, sits behind clones like TV23 and the theaflavin-rich color they put in the cup.