TeaHQ

Izumi

A cultivar grown in the Kyoto district for tencha, the shaded unrolled leaf that becomes matcha. Like the other covered-garden cultivars it is selected for how it behaves under shade rather than for open-field performance, and its planted area is correspondingly small and concentrated.

いずみCamellia sinensis var. sinensisJapan

Where it sits in the botany

Izumi 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: izumi.

Where it came from

A selection propagated for shaded tencha cultivation in the Uji district.

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

Fine soft leaf under shade, used for tencha and ground matcha rather than for rolled sencha.

Why a grower plants it

Yield, hardiness, when it buds, what it resists and whether a machine can cut it. This is the half of a cultivar’s identity that decides what is actually in the ground, and it is usually left out of writing aimed at drinkers.

A covered-garden cultivar, selected for behaviour under weeks of shade rather than for open-field performance, with the small concentrated planted area that follows from covered cultivation being a small share of the crop. Shading is a deliberate stress applied at the plant's most productive moment, and a cultivar for it needs to tolerate that.

What it does in the cup

Reported as giving fine soft leaf under shade suited to tencha and to grinding rather than to rolled sencha.

How much of this is really the cultivar?

As with every covered cultivar, the shading does most of the work and the plant supplies a stronger response to it. What a tencha cultivar genuinely decides is how the leaf behaves in the mill — thin soft leaf grinds differently from thick leaf, and matcha is the one category where the physical behaviour of the leaf after processing is part of the product rather than a step on the way to it.

Cultivar, growing site and processing all shape a cup, and the cultivar is very often the smallest of the three. It is also the one that fits on a label, so almost every commercial incentive runs toward overstating it. This section is on every cultivar page that has been reviewed for it, including the ones where the honest answer is “less than you would think”.

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 Izumi

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