Monday, July 16, 2012

Breed of tea


“Yabukita”  Have you ever heard of that name?

There are many breeds of tea plant.  Each type has different characteristics.  Yabukita is the most popular breed of tea in Japan because of its excellent quality and really impressive yield.  Approximately 70-80% of tea fields in Japan produce Yabukita.

Do you ever consider the breeds when buying your green tea?  I honestly think that most people do not.  The tea sold in stores is usually blended with some different kinds of tea.  Blending helps supply excellent quality and stable taste of tea.  A single-breed tea is not a mainstream in the market.  The breeds are not mentioned on the package of most tea, so your chances of distinguishing or knowing the breed of tea are quite low.

The trend for Yabukita and the loss of uniqueness (due to the blending of one type with another) may encourage the demand for variety and distinctiveness.   I believe paying attention to the details on the breeds is given much importance by tea lovers these days.  It will be interesting to try the tea that is not perfect but unique.


I got some samples of different breeds to study them.


2 comments:

  1. I love tasring different breeds and always try to find a tea that represents the ultimate green tea taste. Other than yabukita i have tried gokou, yutakamidori and saemidori breeds, but so far the asatsuyu breed is my alltime favorite. Its not as sweet as saemidori with a more present astringency simular to yutakamidori, but withsomewhat more deepzh to it. I've tried three asatsuyus so far one organic one non orgabic as direct imports from japan, aswell as one through a major german importeur. Unfortunatly i like the mosz rxpensive one the best. The direct imports were about 20 €100g the other one about double that.

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    1. So, you have tried many different kinds. I love asatsuyu, too! 40€ is quite expensive tea. You must be very into Japanese tea (^-^)

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