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Meiryoku: The Tea Cultivar Whose Weakness Became the Point

Meiryoku: The Tea Cultivar Whose Weakness Became the Point

Meiryoku is Chanorin No. 35, bred at Kanaya in Shizuoka from Yabukita and a line called Z1. Judged thin when it was bred, it is now valued for exactly that.

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Kanayamidori: The Shizuoka Cultivar That Found Its Home in Kyushu

Kanayamidori: The Shizuoka Cultivar That Found Its Home in Kyushu

Kanayamidori was bred at Kanaya in Shizuoka and registered in 1970 as Cha Norin No. 30. Today it covers 0.5% of Shizuoka and 4% of Miyazaki and Fukuoka.

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Harumidori: The Japanese Tea Cultivar Whose Name Gets It Backwards

Harumidori: The Japanese Tea Cultivar Whose Name Gets It Backwards

Harumidori means "spring green", but it is a late cultivar, plucked 3 to 6 days after Yabukita. What NARO's records actually say about it.

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Soufuu: The Japanese Tea Cultivar That Smells Like Jasmine

Soufuu: The Japanese Tea Cultivar That Smells Like Jasmine

Soufuu is a Japanese tea cultivar whose jasmine aroma comes from methyl anthranilate, a compound NARO found absent from Yabukita sencha. Not a matcha cultivar.

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Asatsuyu: Japan's "Natural Gyokuro" Tea Cultivar

Asatsuyu: Japan's "Natural Gyokuro" Tea Cultivar

Asatsuyu is Chanorin No. 2, selected from Uji native stock with a 1953 breeding year. Rare now, but parent to Yutakamidori, Saemidori and Tsuyuhikari.

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Yutakamidori: Japan's Second Cultivar and Kagoshima's Backbone

Yutakamidori: Japan's Second Cultivar and Kagoshima's Backbone

Yutakamidori is Japan's second most planted tea cultivar, 6.3% of tea garden area in MAFF's 2019 survey. Bred in Shizuoka as Y-2, named by Kagoshima in 1966.

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Rare Japanese Teas: Kamairicha, Tamaryokucha, and Japan's Fermented Banchas

Rare Japanese Teas: Kamairicha, Tamaryokucha, and Japan's Fermented Banchas

Kamairicha is pan-fired, tamaryokucha skips the shaping roll, and four Japanese teas are fermented by living microbes. A sourced guide to the exceptions.

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Decaf Matcha: Does It Exist, and What Does It Cost the Tea?

Decaf Matcha: Does It Exist, and What Does It Cost the Tea?

Decaf matcha is real but rare. What the process strips along with the caffeine, from 6.2% to 87.2% of catechins by method, and the honest alternatives.

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Blue Matcha Is Not Matcha: What Butterfly Pea Powder Really Is

Blue Matcha Is Not Matcha: What Butterfly Pea Powder Really Is

Blue matcha is powdered butterfly pea flower, not tea. What it actually is, why it turns pink with lemon, why it has no caffeine, and how to read the label.

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