Sakimidori Tea Cultivar: Miyazaki's Bright-Green Sencha

by Christian Mauerer, founder of One with Tea

Sakimidori tea (さきみどり) comes from a Japanese sencha cultivar bred by Miyazaki Prefecture and registered nationally as Cha Norin No. 47 on 19 August 1997. Its breeders named it for two things: the vivid green of its new leaves, and the fact that it can be picked a little earlier than Yabukita, Japan's standard tea plant. In trials across Japan it out-yielded Yabukita everywhere but Nara, and its finished sencha tested higher in amino acids and lower in catechins.

You may see it sold as a deep-steamed, or fukamushi, sencha, or described as an early cultivar. Both need a qualifier, and this piece explains why. Our guide to Japanese tea cultivars maps the family it belongs to.

Key Takeaways

• Bred in Miyazaki, crossed in 1979. The Miyazaki Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station's tea branch crossed Chamoto F1NN27 with a Miyazaki native plant, ME52, and trialed the result as Miyazaki No. 15.
• Early, but only slightly. At the breeding station it budded 3 days and was picked 2 days ahead of Yabukita. The breeders recommend it, especially in warm districts, for the slot between the early cultivars and Yabukita.
• Heavy cropper. Across the main trial sites its average yield index was 136 in the first flush and 146 in the second, with Yabukita at 100.
• Fukamushi is a factory choice. The breeding paper never mentions steaming depth. It is sold as regular sencha, as fukamushi, and as black tea.
• A parent of newer cultivars. Miyazaki has since crossed it with Saemidori, in both directions, to make Kirari 31 and Haruto 34.

What is Sakimidori tea?

Sakimidori is a registered Japanese tea cultivar bred for sencha. Its breeders published the registration paper in the Tea Research Journal in 1999 and called it a "new cultivar for green tea." They summed it up in five points: a vigorous plant, slightly early budding, a higher yield than Yabukita, good cold hardiness, and a bright green, fresh-smelling, mild sencha.

The name is the breeders' own summary. The 1999 paper says it comes from the vivid new-leaf green and from its being a green tea cultivar that can be harvested slightly early. Midori means green. Given the breeders' explanation, saki carries roughly the sense of "ahead." Japan's national agriculture research organization, NARO, gives the same explanation in its 2022 tea cultivar handbook.

Sakimidori at a glance

Attribute	Detail
Written form	さきみどり
National registration	Cha Norin No. 47 (茶農林47号), 19 August 1997
Plant variety registration	No. 9203, 16 August 2001
Line names during trials	'Mi84-117', then 'Miyazaki No. 15' (宮崎15号)
Bred by	Miyazaki Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station, Tea Branch, Kawaminami
Cross	Chamoto F1NN27 (seed parent) × ME52 (pollen parent), 1979
Harvest timing	Picked with Yabukita or up to about 2 days earlier (NARO); buds about 3 days earlier at the breeding station
Yield	20 to 40% above Yabukita, first and second flush (NARO)
Used for	Sencha, including fukamushi; also made into black tea

Where Sakimidori came from

Sakimidori was crossed in 1979 at the tea branch of the Miyazaki Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station in Kawaminami, on the Miyazaki coast. The station was one of the tea breeding sites designated by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. According to the 1999 paper by Tsuruyoshi Furuno and six colleagues, individual seedlings were selected from 1981, and the best one entered a clonal comparison trial in 1984 as 'Mi84-117'.

The two parents were picked for opposite strengths:

• Chamoto F1NN27, the mother, was chosen for strong vigor and good growing traits. It was bred at the National Tea Research Station from Yabukita crossed with Shizuzai 16 (静在16), a seedling selected from Shizuoka's native tea. The Cha Norin register lists Okumidori (Cha Norin No. 32, line F1NN29) from the same Yabukita × Shizuzai 16 cross, a point Ricardo Caicedo at My Japanese Green Tea also makes.
• ME52, the father, was chosen for earliness and high quality. NARO's pedigree tables list it as a Miyazaki native plant.

In 1988 the line went out as 'Miyazaki No. 15' to five national trial sites, in Ibaraki, Mie, Kyoto, Kochi and Kumamoto. Two more stations tested single traits: Shizuoka for blister blight and Kagoshima for bark-splitting frost. Nine prefectural stations joined in 1989. By the final year, 10 prefectures rated it promising or fairly promising: Ibaraki, Mie, Kyoto, Kumamoto, Shizuoka, Shiga, Kagawa, Oita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima.

The breeders concluded from all this that it could be grown in almost every tea district in Japan. It was registered as Cha Norin No. 47 in August 1997, and NARO's handbook records its plant variety registration as No. 9203, granted on 16 August 2001. Another Miyazaki sencha cultivar I have written about, Minamisayaka, was bred at the same station and also has Chamoto F1NN27 as a parent.

How early is Sakimidori?

Only slightly. The breeders call it a yaya wase, a slightly early cultivar. At the Miyazaki station, over eight years, its first-flush buds broke around 2 April, three days before Yabukita on average. It was picked around 1 May, two days ahead. NARO's 2022 handbook puts the picking date at the same as Yabukita or about two days earlier.

Away from Miyazaki the gap moves. In the regional trials, the breeders report, it budded on the same day as Yabukita in Ibaraki, Kyoto, Shiga, Okayama and Nagasaki, and one to two days later in Nara and Oita. Elsewhere, and in Kyushu especially, it ran one to seven days early.

So why call it early at all? Because of what it was bred to do. The paper opens by explaining that bigger farms and bigger factories need cultivars that spread the harvest, and above all ones that do not compete with Yabukita for the same few days.

Its conclusion names the slot: in warm districts, Sakimidori can be picked between Yabukita and the earlier cultivars Yutakamidori and Saemidori. It is a bridge in the harvest calendar. Racing to the first shincha was never its job.

The earliness has a cost the breeders flag plainly. A plant that buds early gets caught by cold snaps and late frost somewhat more often, and growers are told to watch for it.

Why growers plant it: yield and hardiness

Sakimidori's strongest selling point to a farmer is its crop. Setting Yabukita at 100, its first-flush yield averaged 120 at the national trial sites and 144 at the prefectural ones. Averaged across the main sites, the index was 136 in the first flush and 146 in the second. Nara was the one site where it cropped badly. NARO's handbook summarizes it as 20 to 40% more than Yabukita in both flushes.

The extra weight comes from bigger shoots, not more of them. The breeders counted about the same number of new shoots per area as Yabukita, but 100 shoots of Sakimidori weighed slightly more, which makes it what Japanese growers call a slightly bud-weight type. The bush itself is intermediate in shape, fairly vigorous, and spreads wider than Yabukita, with slightly large, elliptical leaves.

It also holds up well in the cold. In tests for winter leaf browning and for the bark-splitting frost of early winter and early spring, it beat Yabukita and Yutakamidori. It came in level with, or just behind, Sayamakaori, the hardy cultivar the breeders used as their benchmark. Their verdict was that cold would cause it almost no trouble in the field.

Its disease record is mixed, and worth stating accurately:

• Anthracnose: medium resistance, stronger than Yabukita and Sayamakaori, though heavy outbreaks can still need control.
• Gray blight: fairly strong resistance in inoculation tests.
• Blister blight: fewer lesions than Yabukita and Kurasawa at the Shizuoka test station, but not immune.
• Bacterial shoot blight: NARO rates it weak here. The disease appears in spring and needs control.

NARO adds two growing notes. The leaf layer can turn thin, so pruning needs care. And because the plant is vigorous, damage from mulberry scale and anthracnose is reduced, though growers in affected districts still have to manage both.

Is Sakimidori a fukamushi tea?

Sometimes, but not by design. Sakimidori is registered as a sencha cultivar, and nothing in the 1999 breeding paper or NARO's handbook links it to deep steaming. The steaming time is a factory decision made after the leaf is picked. You can read how that decision changes the cup in our guide to fukamushi sencha.

In practice it is made more than one way. One Japanese shop that specializes in single-cultivar teas lists Sakimidori three ways: as a regular-steamed sencha, as a fukamushi sencha, and as a black tea. So the deep-steamed version exists, but it is one of three.

The one processing instruction NARO does give is about timing. Sakimidori has wide, slightly large leaves, and to keep the vivid green it is bred for, it must not be picked late. For quality, picking on time is the one thing NARO singles out, and it follows from the whole reason the cultivar exists.

My own reading, and it is only a reading: a cultivar whose selling point is a bright, deep green leaf and liquor sits comfortably with the deep-steamed style, which pushes a sencha toward a darker, cloudier green cup. That may be why some sellers make it as fukamushi. It does not make it a fukamushi cultivar.

What does Sakimidori taste like?

Mild, fresh and clean. The breeders' tasting panel described its sencha as vivid green in the leaf, with a deep green, clear liquor, a fresh aroma and a mild taste. NARO's handbook says the flavor is gentle, with no quirks, and that the leaf keeps its vivid green even when picked early. At the Miyazaki station its first and second flush sencha scored about level with Yabukita. Across the regional sites the first-flush totals split: 7 prefectures rated it equal or better, and 8 slightly lower.

The item scores show where it differs. At many sites Sakimidori scored below Yabukita on leaf shape and liquor color, and above it on leaf color, aroma and taste. So the dry leaf looked greener and the cup smelled fresher and tasted softer, even where leaf shape and liquor color scored lower.

The lab numbers agree with the panel. Near-infrared analysis of the crude tea found more total nitrogen and amino acids, and fewer catechins, than in Yabukita, Yutakamidori and Kanayamidori. Amino acids carry tea's savory, brothy side, and catechins its bitterness and grip, so the numbers match the panel's word "mild." Our explainer on L-theanine covers the best-known of those amino acids.

Tasters outside the lab vary more than the paper does. Caicedo describes a deep green leaf, a golden liquor and a balanced taste. The listing for a Sakimidori sencha grown by Niikawa Tea Factory in Ukiha, Fukuoka, names fresh green leaf, jasmine and astringency. Liquor color in particular depends on steaming and brewing, which may be why "deep green" and "golden" both turn up.

How to brew Sakimidori

Start cooler than you think. The retailer selling Niikawa's Sakimidori sencha suggests this:

1. Use about 4 g of leaf.
2. Pour water at about 60°C and steep for 2 minutes.
3. Re-steep two or three times at about 70°C, for 30 to 45 seconds each.

If yours is deep-steamed, shorten every step. Fukamushi leaf is broken finer and gives up its flavor fast, which the fukamushi guide linked above covers in detail. For a general starting point on temperatures and ratios, see how to brew green tea.

Sakimidori's family: siblings and children

Sakimidori has turned out to be as useful as a parent as it is in the field. NARO's pedigree tables show that Miyazaki has crossed it with Saemidori, a NARO cultivar bred from Yabukita and Asatsuyu, in both directions:

• Kirari 31: Sakimidori as the mother, Saemidori as the father. Bred by Miyazaki Prefecture and registered in March 2016, plant variety No. 25105.
• Haruto 34: Saemidori as the mother, Sakimidori as the father. Bred by Miyazaki Prefecture and registered in March 2020, plant variety No. 27873.

It also has a full sibling. Harumoegi, bred by Miyazaki and registered in February 2006 (plant variety No. 13755), comes from the same parent pair, Chamoto F1NN27 and ME52. Where Sakimidori is picked on the same day as Yabukita or up to two days before, NARO puts Harumoegi two to three days after it. Same parents, opposite sides of the harvest. Minamisayaka is a half-sibling: its mother is a Miyazaki line called Miyazaki A6, and its father is Chamoto F1NN27.

Where can you find the plant itself? NARO's handbook lists seedling suppliers for Sakimidori in Miyazaki, Shizuoka and Kagoshima, and the Niikawa sencha shows it growing in Fukuoka too. Southern Kyushu, with its big flat fields and machine harvesting, is exactly the kind of place a high-yield, harvest-spreading cultivar was bred for. Our profile of the Kagoshima tea region shows what that farming looks like.

A note from me

Our planning note for this article called Sakimidori "an early fukamushi-sencha cultivar." It is a fair one-line summary of one way the tea is sold. It is not what the people who bred it wrote. They wrote "slightly early," put picking about two days ahead of Yabukita, and never mentioned steaming at all.

I find the real story more useful than the label. Sakimidori was bred partly to solve a scheduling problem. Bigger farms and bigger factories needed their harvest spread out, and above all needed plants that did not ripen in the same few days as Yabukita.

A plant that crops heavily, holds its green, and ripens just ahead of the crowd is a quiet answer to that. Many of the cultivar decisions that end up in your cup, matcha included, start on a farm calendar as much as at a tasting table.

One loose end. Caicedo mentions a study finding that Sakimidori makes a good powdered tea because it keeps its intense green. I could not find that study, so I am passing it on as a lead rather than a finding. We don't sell a Sakimidori tea. If you grow it or have seen that research, I would like to hear from you.

Buying tea for a shop, cafe or studio? We supply organic Japanese tea at wholesale, with the same attention to where each lot comes from. See our wholesale program, or get in touch and tell us what you're pouring.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sakimidori an early tea cultivar?

Slightly. Its breeders classed it as slightly early: at the Miyazaki breeding station it budded 3 days and was picked 2 days ahead of Yabukita. NARO's 2022 handbook says it is picked on the same day as Yabukita or about two days earlier. The breeders recommend it, especially in warm districts, for picking between the early cultivars, such as Yutakamidori and Saemidori, and Yabukita.

Is Sakimidori a fukamushi tea?

Not by design. It is registered as a sencha cultivar, and neither the 1999 breeding paper nor NARO's handbook mentions steaming depth. It is sold as regular sencha, as deep-steamed fukamushi sencha, and as black tea. NARO's processing advice is to avoid picking it late, so the leaf keeps its vivid green.

What is Sakimidori a cross of?

Chamoto F1NN27 crossed with ME52, in 1979. Chamoto F1NN27 was bred at the National Tea Research Station from Yabukita and Shizuzai 16, a Shizuoka native seedling. ME52 is a Miyazaki native plant, chosen for earliness and quality. The same parent pair also produced the later-picking cultivar Harumoegi.

What is the difference between Sakimidori and Saemidori?

They are different cultivars with similar names. Sakimidori was bred by Miyazaki Prefecture from Chamoto F1NN27 and ME52, and registered as Cha Norin No. 47 in 1997. Saemidori is a NARO cultivar bred from Yabukita and Asatsuyu, and it is picked earlier. Miyazaki has crossed the two to make Kirari 31 and Haruto 34.

Where is Sakimidori grown?

Across Japan: NARO says it can be grown nationwide, and its breeders recommend it especially for warm districts. It was bred in Miyazaki, and 10 prefectures rated it promising or fairly promising in the regional trials, including Kagoshima, Shizuoka and Kumamoto. NARO lists seedling suppliers in Miyazaki, Shizuoka and Kagoshima, and a Fukuoka grower sells a Sakimidori sencha.

How do you brew Sakimidori?

Cool and short. One retailer's listing suggests about 4 g of leaf in water at about 60°C for 2 minutes, then two or three re-steeps at about 70°C for 30 to 45 seconds each. If the tea is deep-steamed fukamushi, shorten each steep, because the finer leaf gives up its flavor faster.

Sources

• Furuno, Yoshidome, Maso, Sato, Ueno, Hirakawa and Abe, "A New Cultivar 'Sakimidori' for Green Tea" (煎茶用品種'さきみどり'の育成), Tea Research Journal 87 (1999): 67 to 76, DOI 10.5979/cha.1999.67: J-STAGE. Breeding history, parents, line names, trial sites, harvest timing, yield, cold and disease tests, quality, chemistry, name.
• NARO (National Agriculture and Food Research Organization), Tea Cultivar Handbook (茶品種ハンドブック), 6th ed., version 2, August 2022: PDF. Sakimidori page (p. 15), plant variety registration No. 9203, pedigree tables for Sakimidori, Kirari 31, Haruto 34 and Harumoegi, seedling suppliers.
• Cha Norin registered cultivar list (茶農林登録品種一覧): minorien.jp. Cha Norin No. 47, line name Miyazaki No. 15, cross, 1997, Miyazaki, sencha; Okumidori (No. 32) and Minamisayaka (No. 42) lineages.
• Ricardo Caicedo, "The Sakimidori Tea Cultivar," My Japanese Green Tea. Okumidori lineage, tasting notes, powdered tea study mention.
• Japanese single-cultivar tea shop, Sakimidori product page (in Japanese): product page. Regular-steamed, fukamushi and black tea versions.
• Sakimidori sencha from Niikawa Tea Factory, Ukiha, Fukuoka, retailer listing: product listing. Grown in Fukuoka, tasting notes, brewing parameters.