Camellia chrysantha

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Aug 16th, '15, 10:58
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Camellia chrysantha

by Frisbeehead » Aug 16th, '15, 10:58

Hey people.

I'm watching a documentary on CCTV about a Taiwanese man's search for the camellia chrysantha plant, known as the "golden camellia". There is a short wiki article on it, and Google shows some results, but I wanted to see if anyone on here has ever heard of it or even came across it. Apparently it's really hard to find due to habitat loss.

I wonder if it makes good tea? And if so, how many varietals could there be with totally different flavor profiles than sinensis? Are there any other unknown species in the camellia family that could be made into a delicious tea? It's interesting to think about.

If anyone has any knowledge about this subject, please share!

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Aug 16th, '15, 11:30
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Re: Camellia chrysantha

by debunix » Aug 16th, '15, 11:30

I don't know about that particular variety of Camellia, but I've had a few lovely teas from 'wild' tea plants from Yunnan Sourcing, and I have to believe that there may be other lovely tastes out there. I'd expect, though, that anything that looked much like C sinensis would have been tried by someone, somewhere, at sometime....although maybe not given the kind of processing that brings out the best of the leaf. Maybe there are lots of treasures yet unknown.

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