Okumidori: a cultivar that waited for its moment

There are cultivars that attract attention immediately. And then there are those that needed time to achieve fame. Okumidori belongs to the second group. A cultivar that Japanese authorities registered as early as 1974, yet it waited more than twenty years for its real breakthrough. Today, it is the third most cultivated cultivar in Shizuoka and Aichi, and the second in Kyoto.

What "oku" means

The Japanese oku (奥) in the name refers to late budding, midori (緑) to greenery. Literally, "late greenery." And that was precisely the goal of the breeding.

Okumidori buds approximately 8 to 11 days after the Yabukita cultivar and is harvested 6 to 8 days later. It sounds like a detail. But for farmers, it is a crucial matter: the first tea harvest is a matter of a few tense weeks of the year when everything must be picked, transported, and processed. If a farmer has only Yabukita in the field, everything comes at once and the processing lines get overwhelmed. A cultivar that matures a week later stretches the entire window.

A twenty-year-long journey

The history of Okumidori is a textbook example of how slow tea breeding is. The tea plant is a perennial woody species — it takes years before it even begins to flower and can be crossed.

The crossing took place in October 1953 at the research institute in Kanaya, Shizuoka. Yabukita served as the mother plant, and Shizuoka Zairai No.16 as the pollinator. Seeds were collected a year later, and went to the nursery in April 1955. Individual seedling selection began only in 1959. This was followed by selection rounds in 1960, 1961, and 1962 — first by appearance, then by rooting ability from cuttings, and finally by growth in the nursery. The selected bushes were planted in the field in March 1963, and comparative studies continued for another ten years.

From 1969, other prefectures joined with their own tests. In February 1974, the cultivar was submitted to a national meeting of the tea industry as a candidate for a high-yielding late sencha. In June of that year, it was registered as Cha Norin No.32 — tea cultivar number 32.

Other names were also considered: Okufuji, Kunimidori, Makimidori, Okujishi, and Bansui.

Note for the meticulous: a 2021 pedigree analysis (Kubo et al.) did not unequivocally confirm that Shizai 16 is indeed the paternal line. Historical records and genetics do not entirely align here — which is not unusual for cultivars from that era.

Why it took so long

Okumidori was recognized as an excellent cultivar. And yet, for years it was hardly cultivated at all. There were several reasons, and all are quite human.

Economics. In the 1970s, tea prices depended mainly on how early it came to market. The first harvest of a late cultivar sold for a lower price — and farmers didn't care how good the tea would be.

Yabukita. In the 1970s, Japan was undergoing a massive conversion of fields from seed-propagated zairai plantings to Yabukita. New cultivars are propagated by cuttings, so the available quantity is initially small. At the time Okumidori was registered, there simply wasn't enough material to interrupt the ongoing wave.

Tea plant characteristics. The self-incompatibility of the tea plant long made it impossible to understand how individual traits are inherited. Selection was therefore inefficient. Only modern methods — QTL analysis and DNA markers linked to specific traits — have accelerated the entire process.

The turning point came around 1990. The market transformed: quality late tea began to sell for decent prices, while low-quality early tea remained cheap. At the same time, demand grew for bottled teas in PET (so-called RTD, ready-to-drink), for which manufacturers seek a mild flavor and reasonable price. Growers began planting late cultivars.

Data from 2022 ranks it third in Shizuoka and Aichi and second in Kyoto. Today, it is grown in 21 prefectures.

How Okumidori grows

The bush is vigorous, with an upright habit, slightly shorter than Yabukita with a more spreading growth. In the nursery, it shows higher seedling survival — 90% compared to 84% for Yabukita.

Fresh leaf yield is high in all three harvests; in most tested locations, it reached double that of Yabukita. New shoots grow vigorously and are bright green. The finished tea retains this luminous color.

It tolerates cold and heat, is resistant to leaf fall, but in areas with large temperature fluctuations, it needs protection from frost. Beware of late autumn fertilization — the bush grows late into autumn, and young shoots may then freeze. It is weaker against anthracnose, but resistant to ring spot (Pestalotiopsis longiseta). Otherwise, the farmer cares for it similarly to Yabukita.

Flavor: 

A 1973 chemical analysis showed Okumidori had similar tannin and water-soluble extract values to Yabukita. In sencha taste evaluations, Okumidori achieved comparable results. The resulting tea has a fresh aroma, clean flavor, and neutral character that blends excellently with other cultivars — which is why it is widely used as a component of blends, where it does not overpower the characteristics of others.

However, when Okumidori is shaded, the situation changes. For tencha (the raw material for matcha) and gyokuro, it is a highly prized cultivar. And especially as matcha, it has a beautiful liquor body. Neither light nor heavy — balanced. — unfortunately, there is no data to support this. Sometimes taste is quicker than science.

Okumidori in our offer

Sencha Okumidori Yasue — At Mr. Hirotake Yasue's farm in the village of Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, I came across an Okumidori sencha that meets my requirements for cultivation methods and immediately won me over.

Gyokuro Okumaru — classically processed gyokuro from an organic farm in Shizuoka. The bushes are shaded for 20 days before harvest, which gives the tea a deep, almost buttery flavor with subtly grassy notes and intense umami. Ideal for shiboridashi.

Place them side by side and you have one of the most interesting tastings you can arrange with a single cultivar. The same genetic foundation, two completely different expressions.

What can be read from Okumidori

The history of this cultivar is not just about botany. It is about how long it sometimes takes for a good thing to succeed.

Which, when you think about it, is a pretty good description of how tea itself works.

#presence · #discoveryourteaself

Sources:

• Katsuo, Kiyoshi, et al. "A Newly Registered Tea Variety 'Okumidori' Suitable for Green Tea". Chagyo Kenkyu Hokoku, vol. 1975, no. 43, 1975, pp. 1–12.
• The tea breeding group 'Saemidori' and 'Okumidori' (Yoshiyuki Takeda). "Breeding of the Early Budding Cultivar 'Saemidori' and the Late Budding Cultivar 'Okumidori'". Breeding Research, vol. 8, no. 3, 2006, pp. 113–17.
• Kubo et al., pedigree analysis of Japanese tea cultivars, 2021.