Cultivated Varieties of Japanese Tea - Yabukita
Yabukita | やぶきた
- Registered as an official cultivar in 1953.
- Native to Shizuoka Prefecture.
- Yabukita is the most commonly found cultivated variety in Japan, with approximately 75% of the tea plantations across Japan being of the Yabukita cultivar.
Native to Shizuoka Prefecture, yabukita is the most common cultivar in Japan.
Yabukita is popular among Japanese customers for its well-balanced and clean flavour profile. This cultivar is also resistant to the cold and numerous diseases, which makes it easy to propogate.
As approximately 75% of the tea produced in Japan is of the yabukita cultivar, it is often used as a benchmark when it comes to the timing of harvests and other aspects of tea cultivation.
Handpicking young yabukita tea sprouts during the first flush of the year.
As the cultivar yabukita is resistant to the cold, it grows well in tea fields that are located at a high altitude level.
At d:matcha Kyoto, our yabukita from our tea fields in Harayama are grown completely naturally, without the use of pesticide or fertiliser. This allows for the natural taste of yabukita to shine when brewed.
The consistency of yabukita also allows us to experiment with new methods of cultivation.
In 2020, prior to the first flush of the year we shaded one of our yabukita tea fields with three layers of the black gauze cloth.
The result was our White Leaf Tea, which has a flavour profile similar to asparagus.
The distinct difference in colour between our yabukita tea fields that were shaded with three layers of the black gauze cloth (on the left), and with only one layer (on the right).
