What is Yabukita (やぶきた)

There is clearly more to green tea than meets the eye. It is as diverse as most marketable crops are. While all tea plants belong to the same Camellia sinensis family, they still manifest differences in shape, color, taste, aroma, etc. That's because they come from different cultivars.

Beyond just influencing taste and aroma, cultivars also play a crucial role in determining how tea plants respond to environmental conditions such as climate, altitude, and soil type. Some cultivars are specifically developed to withstand colder temperatures, while others are prized for producing richer umami flavors or more delicate fragrances. This diversity allows tea farmers to select the most suitable plants for their region and desired tea style, ultimately shaping the unique characteristics found in every cup of green tea.

What is a cultivar?

In Japan, time came when the tea supply could no longer meet its demand. It even started importing tea from Taiwan due to the high demand, while laborers were in short supply due to their migration to neighboring countries. While it's pretty easy to get an idea of what it means from the word itself, it's better to know what it actually is. It is often defined as a plant variety produced during cultivation through selective breeding. It is basically a plant that was purposefully bred for specific traits. It does not produce true-to-seed; however, it can be reproduced through methods such as tissue culture and grafting. Seed production is possible, but under meticulous control.

In the context of tea cultivation, selecting the right cultivar is essential for both quality and efficiency. Different cultivars can influence not only the flavor profile of the tea—ranging from sweet and umami-rich to brisk and astringent—but also factors like growth rate, leaf size, and resistance to pests and diseases. Because of this, tea producers often rely on specific cultivars to maintain consistency in their products, especially for well-known teas like yabukita matcha, where consumers expect a familiar taste and aroma in every harvest.

Click here for my other blog post entirely about what a cultivar is.

What is the most common green tea cultivar?

Green tea mainly comes from China and Japan. Although Japan is more commonly associated with green tea, China is actually the biggest producer. Its most popular green tea is Longjing, or Dragon Well, and it comes from the Longjin No. 43 cultivar.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the most common green tea is sencha, and the cultivar mainly responsible for producing it is the Yabukita. It comprises about 85 percent of the country's entire tea production. Farmers favor it for large-scale production because of its high yield, frost resistance, and ability to thrive in various locations.

The dominance of Yabukita in Japan is not just due to its agricultural advantages but also its balanced and widely appealing flavor profile. It produces a harmonious combination of sweetness, umami, and slight astringency, making it ideal for everyday green tea like sencha. This consistency in both taste and yield has made Yabukita the standard choice for farmers and producers, ensuring that consumers across Japan and beyond can enjoy a reliable and recognizable green tea experience.

How did Yabukita originate?

The word "Yabukita" is a combination of two Japanese words: "Yabu"（藪） (bamboo grove) and Kita　（北） (north). The name was coined because, in 1908, tea breeder Sugiyama Hikosaburo, who came from a family of doctors but opted to be a farmer instead, took tea samples from seedlings of native Shizuoka species. Sugiyama planted two variations of his samples in an area originally for bamboo shoots, hence the term "Yabu" in its name. These two samples are the Yabukita, since the samples came from the north, and the Yabuminami（藪南） with "minami" meaning south, a similar cultivar that came from the southern side of the bamboo grove, to know which cultivar would perform better.

This experimentation was done to figure out which plant varieties work best, survive longer, and manifest better characteristics. Yabuminami was discarded when it was determined to be inferior to Yabukita.

A couple of years after registration, in 1927, Yabukita was tested by the Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute in Shizuoka Prefecture. In 1945, it was recommended to be cultivated and produced in the prefecture due to its most successful yield and high resilience.

Even though it had been around for decades, Yabukita wasn't registered as a tea cultivar until after the death of Sugiyama, somewhere between 1953 and 1957. However, it bore the registration identification of No. 6. A couple of years before its registration, it was tested and bred by the industrial tea laboratory in Shizuoka.

Shortly after that, the same recommendation was given throughout Japan. By the 1960s, farmers began to leave conventional tea cultivation and pick up the new cultivar. Yabukita's popularity shot up in the '70s, and by the '90s, it was being used by more than 93 percent of Japan's tea farms. Currently, it has covered almost 2/3 of all tea fields throughout Japan, about 90% of the tea fields in Shizuoka alone, and about 40% of the tea harvest in Kagoshima.

As Yabukita spread across Japan, it also became the foundation for many different types of green tea beyond just sencha. Its adaptable nature and consistent leaf quality made it suitable for shaded cultivation methods, which are essential for producing high-grade teas like gyokuro and yabukita matcha. This versatility further increased its value among farmers and tea producers, as a single cultivar could be used to create multiple premium tea products while maintaining reliable results.

Another reason for Yabukita’s widespread adoption was its role in modernizing Japan’s tea industry. With the shift toward mechanized harvesting and large-scale production, farmers needed a cultivar that could grow uniformly and respond well to standardized farming techniques. Yabukita met these requirements perfectly, allowing for more efficient harvesting and processing. As a result, it not only preserved traditional tea quality but also supported the industry’s transition into a more scalable and commercially viable system.

What is Yabukita's profile?

Yabukita is a green tea cultivar originally crossed in Abe, Shizuoka, with its parents being seedlings of native Shizuoka species. It is harvested in the spring, between April and mid-May.

Most probably because of Yabukita’s resilience to all types of factors for cultivation, it has become one of the most prominent tea cultivars in Japan, which has a wide variety of climates and land slopes all over the nation. With the long number of years for farmers to take time to cultivate, this has been the long-time favorite among all cultivars as it can continuously be harvested without worrying about any kind of climate, be it blazing hot or sizzling cold that leads to frost damage. Considering the high propagation of Yabukita and the quality that it could produce, it is no wonder that farmers and manufacturers would favor this cultivar to produce high-profit tea leaves.

The plant grows upright, with its branches reaching skyward. It is of medium vigor, but its yield is high. While it can withstand the cold, it is susceptible to some fungi, including diseases like anthracnose and gray blight. However, it could be cultivated on whatever kind of land or soil and in whatever climate. It has bright green leaves that are also very aromatic and tasty; they are usually covered for seven days before harvesting to produce that distinct umami flavor.

It is imperative to harvest Yabukita at the right time since its quality deteriorates when leaves are picked past the harvest season. This can be harvested only for a short time during the spring. Thus, the farmers must pick up the leaves at the right time to make the most of the highest qualities of the Yabukita. Farmers and manufacturers also have to make sure that there are enough pickers to harvest; therefore, without such, farmers and manufacturers may tend to breed new cultivars or older varieties.

In terms of flavor profile, Yabukita is widely appreciated for its well-balanced taste, which combines a pleasant umami richness with mild sweetness and a subtle astringent finish. This balance makes it suitable for both everyday consumption and premium tea products. When processed under shaded conditions, the leaves develop deeper chlorophyll content and enhanced amino acids, making them ideal for producing high-quality yabukita matcha with a vibrant green color and smooth, rich taste.

Another notable characteristic of Yabukita is its uniform growth pattern, which makes it highly compatible with modern harvesting techniques, including machine picking. This uniformity ensures consistent leaf size and quality, which is essential for large-scale tea production. Additionally, its adaptability allows farmers to experiment with different processing styles, enabling the creation of a wide range of teas from a single cultivar while maintaining reliable results year after year.

Why Yabukita Continues to Dominate Modern Tea Production

Despite the introduction of many new tea cultivars in Japan, Yabukita continues to dominate the industry due to its unmatched balance of quality, reliability, and adaptability. Modern tea production demands consistency, especially for large-scale distribution, and Yabukita delivers exactly that. Its uniform growth pattern allows farmers to use mechanical harvesting efficiently, reducing labor costs while maintaining leaf quality. This is particularly important in today’s tea industry, where labor shortages remain a challenge.

In addition to its agricultural advantages, Yabukita meets the expectations of consumers who seek a familiar and dependable flavor in their tea. Whether it is used for everyday sencha or processed into high-quality yabukita matcha, the cultivar consistently produces a taste profile that appeals to a wide audience. Its ability to perform well under different cultivation techniques, including shaded and unshaded methods, further enhances its versatility.

As global demand for Japanese green tea continues to rise, Yabukita’s role becomes even more significant. It not only represents tradition but also supports innovation in tea production, ensuring that Japanese green tea remains competitive and respected in international markets.

Final Thoughts

Since it is high-yielding, cold- and drought-resistant, as well as compatible with a range of climates and soils, Yabukita is deemed the most practical and profitable Japanese green tea cultivar.

To prove its resistance, the very first tree of the Yabukita cultivar has been transferred from its original place in Shizuoka to the Shizuoka Prefectural Art Museum to be declared a prefectural natural museum, and even up to now, it has continued to bear leaves.

So it's understandable why Japanese tea farmers choose to plant it. Considering Yabukita's popularity, there is a good chance that the next cup of sencha you enjoy has tea leaves from this cultivar.

Other than Sencha, there are other types of green tea that use Yabukita as their cultivar. Matcha is a green tea that uses this kind of tea bush. To learn more about the difference between these two types of green tea, you may check out  this link.

As global interest in Japanese green tea continues to grow, Yabukita remains at the center of this expansion due to its reliability and consistent quality. Whether enjoyed as a refreshing daily sencha or in the form of premium yabukita matcha, this cultivar continues to define the standard for Japanese tea worldwide. Its legacy is not just rooted in tradition but also in its ability to adapt to modern demands, making it a timeless choice for both tea farmers and tea lovers alike.