Fukumidori

A cold-tolerant cultivar planted in the northern Honshu tea districts, where the practical question about any plant is whether it comes through the winter rather than what it yields in a good year. Cultivars of this group are rarely seen on export packaging because the districts that grow them are small, but they are the reason tea is grown at those latitudes at all.

ふくみどりCamellia sinensis var. sinensisJapan

Where it sits in the botany

Fukumidori is recorded under Camellia sinensis var. sinensis, the variety group one level above cultivar. It is associated with Japan, which is where it was selected or is most widely planted rather than the only place it grows.

Also transliterated as: fukumidori, fuku midori.

Where it came from

A selection propagated in the cooler tea districts of eastern and northern Honshu.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The cold-district association is consistently reported; the breeding date and parentage were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Winter-hardy and moderate in yield. Selected against a constraint — surviving cold — rather than for a flavour target, which is typical of northern-district cultivars everywhere tea is grown.

What it is usually made into

The categories this cultivar is typically processed into. It is a statement about common practice, not a limit — processing decides the category, and a cultivar can be taken down more than one route.

Green tea — Tea whose oxidation is halted early by heat, keeping the leaf green and the cup fresh, vegetal or marine in character.

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Sources

TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ

This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No breeding register or institutional record stands behind the account above, which is why the origin note carries its confidence in the open rather than reading as a citation.

How TeaHQ handles sources