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.