Yu Lan Xiang Dancong

Botanical profile in the 2001 national cultivar monograph#

《中国茶树品种志》 (2001, p. 228) records 玉兰香单枞 as an asexual small-arbor mid-leaf clone selected from the Fenghuang Shuixian population in Fenghuang Town, with a mother-tree history exceeding 200 years and roughly 70 ha (about 1,050 mu) planted across the Fenghuang tea zone at the turn of the century.

The plant has a tall, spreading crown (3.2 × 3.0 m), dark-green long-oval leaves (9.8 × 3.6 cm) with 9 pairs of lateral veins and 31 pairs of fine marginal teeth, and stout yellowish-green shoots averaging 130.1 g per 100 one-bud-three-leaf shoots. It sprouts in late March, reaches peak spring picking around 20 April, blooms in mid-November and sets sterile flowers (花而不实). Spring leaf contains 2.8% amino acids, 29.7% tea polyphenols, 15.8% catechins and 42.9% water extract.

Four documented bush lines in T/CZTTBZ 001—2021#

Appendix A.2 of the 2021 Chaozhou grading standard (T/CZTTBZ 001—2021, drawing on Qiu Taorui’s 2009 《潮州茶叶》 survey) documents four named mother bushes under 玉兰香型:

1. 官目石玉兰香 (alias 立民种): growing at 410 m in Guanmushi, Fengxi, aged over 200 years (3.24 m tall, 3.0 m crown, 5.1 kg peak yield); first propagated by cuttings in 1961 by Zhang Limin and now widely planted across the Fenghuang area. 2. 金玉兰: growing at ~720 m in Dongtou, Fengxi, aged ~50 years (4.24 m tall, 7.6 kg peak yield), named for golden-yellow dry leaf colour and magnolia aroma. 3. 字茅玉兰: growing at ~650 m in Zimao, Fengxi, aged ~200 years (4.16 m tall, 5.1 kg peak yield). 4. 娘仔伞: growing at ~1,130 m in Shitoujiao on Wudong Shan, aged ~160 years (3.44 m tall, 4.3 × 3.85 m umbrella-like crown, 7.5 kg peak yield), named for its parasol silhouette and yielding a clean magnolia-scented cup.

Distinguishing Yu Lan Xiang from Ba Xian’s white-magnolia note#

Both Yu Lan Xiang Dancong and Ba Xian Dancong are described in primary literature as showing magnolia-like aromatics: the 2001 cultivar monograph characterizes Ba Xian as having "natural white-magnolia floral aroma and honey rhyme" (自然白玉兰花香蜜韵), whereas the 2021 Chaozhou grading standard files Ba Xian under the Zhi Lan Xiang Dancong (orchid) family and reserves 玉兰香型 for the Guanmushi, Jin Yu Lan, Zimao and Niang Zai San lines. In the cup, Yu Lan Xiang is typically lighter-bodied, cooler and more linear in its white-blossom top-note, while Ba Xian carries denser bitter-sweet catechins and a more pungent mountain-orchid core.