Okumidori Cultivar

Okumidori is the late-budding cultivar: "oku" means late. Registered in 1974 at the Kanaya research station from a Yabukita cross, it opens its buds about a week after Japan's standard cultivar, and the slower start builds deep jade colour and rounded umami with very little bitterness. Right now it is the fastest-growing cultivar name in matcha search worldwide.

This shelf is built for comparison: the same plant from two regions (Okumidori matcha from Nishio and from Kagoshima) plus a Hoshino sencha from the same cultivar. Because tea cultivars are propagated from cuttings, the genetics are identical. What changes between the tins is soil, climate and shading. More Okumidori lots join the shelf in autumn.

The full story of the cultivar (parentage, the disputed father, how it reads against Yabukita and Saemidori) is in our Okumidori matcha guide. The wider family is mapped in the cultivar guide. All single-cultivar teas across cultivars: here.

If you want the matcha only, the Okumidori matcha collection holds the Nishio and Kagoshima tins.