TeaHQ

Harumidori

An early-budding cultivar grown mainly in Kyushu and used to extend the front of the shincha season, when the first tea of the year commands its highest price. Its practical value is scheduling: staggering cultivars by bud-break date lets a factory spread its picking and processing load across weeks rather than days.

はるみどりCamellia sinensis var. sinensisJapan

Where it sits in the botany

Harumidori 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: harumidori, haru midori.

Where it came from

An early-season selection propagated principally in southern Japan.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. Date and parentage were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Early bud break with a mild, sweet profile, planted alongside later cultivars to spread the harvest window.

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.

Teas in the catalogue made from Harumidori

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

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this cultivar against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.

  • Harumidori vs Okuhikari — Early and late, planted on the same farm for the same reason. A tea garden cannot pick everything at once, so cultivars are chosen partly for when they bud, and this pair shows what that agronomic decision does to the cup at each end.