Okuyutaka

A late-budding cultivar grown mainly in Kyushu, and a good illustration of why a producer plants more than one plant. A field entirely of early cultivars has to be harvested all at once, which needs a peak of labour and factory capacity that then sits idle; adding a late cultivar spreads the same crop over more days. The oku- prefix in Japanese cultivar names marks exactly this — it means late, and Okumidori, Okuhikari and Okuyutaka are all doing that scheduling job.

おくゆたかCamellia sinensis var. sinensisJapan

Where it sits in the botany

Okuyutaka 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: okuyutaka, oku yutaka.

Where it came from

A late-season selection propagated in southern Japan to extend the picking period beyond the early Kagoshima cultivars.

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

What the plant is like

Late budding, which is its whole purpose, and correspondingly less exposed to a late spring frost than the early cultivars planted alongside it.

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