Yabukita Sencha Green Tea

Yabukita is the tea cultivar behind most Japanese sencha, and this sencha shows why: sweet grass, a slight tang, gentle umami and a nori finish, balanced rather than loud. Brewed in a kyusu at 80°C.

Origin & Story

Most people who have drunk Japanese green tea have tasted Yabukita, whether or not the label said so. In 1908 a tea grower named Sugiyama Hikosaburo picked out a few promising plants from a field in Shizuoka City that bordered a bamboo grove. He named his selections for where they stood: Yabukita, north of the bamboo grove, and Yabuminami, to the south.

Yabukita did better than its southern sibling. It was registered as an official cultivar in 1953, after Sugiyama's death, among the first fifteen listed, and it went on to cover roughly 70 percent of Japan's tea fields, depending on the count. Growers valued it because it is hardy against cold and dry weather, gives a high yield and grows quickly. The original mother tree still stands in Shizuoka, a prefectural natural monument more than a century old and still putting out leaves.

In the cup Yabukita is balanced: a slightly grassy sweetness, moderate astringency and a light, elegant umami. This sencha adds a slight tang and a nori finish, which makes it a good everyday tea and a good one to learn on.

Brew about 3 g of leaf in a 240 ml kyusu with water at 80°C and pour after a minute to a minute and a half. Because the tea is so even, small changes show up clearly: a cooler pour brings out sweetness and a hotter one more of the brisk edge.

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