Origin of Jinxuan

‘Jinxuan’ (金萱) is a tea cultivar successfully developed and released by the Taiwan Provincial Tea Improvement Station (now the Tea and Beverage Improvement Station, Ministry of Agriculture) in 1981. Its official name is ‘TRES No. 12’. The name originates from Mr. Wu Jenduo, who is renowned as the ‘Father of Post-War Taiwanese Tea’. He named this new cultivar ‘Jinxuan’ after his grandmother to express his gratitude for her upbringing. 1. Breeding Background The creation of Jinxuan tea was a long-term agricultural breeding project spanning decades. • Historical Origins: Its history dates back to the Japanese colonial era. After World War II, Mr. Wu Jenduo selected and trial-cultivated from nearly 5,000 tea seedlings left behind by the Japanese. • Parentage: Jinxuan was created through artificial hybridization between the maternal parent ‘Tainong No. 8’ and the paternal parent ‘Yingzhi Hongxin’ (Hard Stem Red Heart). Its experimental code during the breeding process was 2027, which is why tea farmers and elders in the tea industry still affectionately refer to Jinxuan as ‘Ertzi’ (二七仔, jī-tsit-á). 2. The Story Behind the Name In 1981, the Tea Improvement Station successfully released two famous tea cultivars concurrently: • TRES No. 12 (Jinxuan): Named by Mr. Wu Jenduo after his grandmother. • TRES No. 13 (Cuiyu): Named by Mr. Wu Jenduo after his mother. These two highly representative Taiwanese tea varieties are thus imbued with a warm humanistic sentiment and filial piety.