Inzatsu 131
A Japanese selection from Indian-hybrid parentage — the name is literally an abbreviation of Indian cross — made when Japan was still trying to build a black-tea industry. It survives in small plantings and is used by wakoucha producers and, unusually, by some makers of Japanese oolong-style teas, because assamica-derived material behaves differently under withering than the country’s green-tea cultivars do.
Where it sits in the botany
Inzatsu 131 is recorded under Hybrid, 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.
Registration code: Inzatsu 131. A breeding or registration code identifies the selection in an institutional register and is often the name a grower uses when the trade name is not.
Also transliterated as: inzatsu 131, in zatsu 131.
Where it came from
Selected in Japan from crosses involving Indian assamica material as part of the black-tea breeding effort.
How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The Indian-hybrid ancestry is what the name records; the specific parentage and the selection year were not verified against a primary source.
What the plant is like
Large-leaf hybrid material that oxidises readily and gives a fruity, sometimes markedly aromatic black tea. Frost-tender relative to Japan’s standard cultivars.
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.
Teas in the catalogue made from Inzatsu 131
Other cultivars in Hybrid
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.