TeaHQ

Shizu 7132

A Shizuoka experiment-station selection that never received a registered name and is known instead by its selection number, which is why it looks like a code rather than a cultivar. It is grown almost entirely by small producers for a single reason: its aroma is widely described as resembling sakura or cherry leaf, a note nothing else in the Japanese cultivar stock produces, and it is one of the clearest cases in tea of a plant selling on smell alone.

静7132Camellia sinensis var. sinensisShizu 7132JapanAlso called Shizu-7132Also called Sakura-scented cultivar

Where it sits in the botany

Shizu 7132 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.

Registration code: Shizu 7132. 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: shizu 7132, shizu nana ichi san ni.

Where it came from

A numbered selection from the Shizuoka prefectural tea research station that entered small-scale commercial planting without a formal registered name.

How firm this is: Inferred rather than taken from a primary breeding or registration record. The station origin and the number are consistently reported; the selection year and parentage were not verified against a primary source.

What the plant is like

Low yield, small planted area, and an aroma that survives light steaming and is buried by heavy steaming. Its number is its name, which is a useful reminder that a great deal of planted material never gets one.

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 Shizu 7132

Other cultivars in Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Guides covering this cultivar

  • Reading a cultivar code: TV1, TRI 2043, TRFK 31/8, Taicha No. 18 — Half the world’s tea plants are known by codes rather than names, and the codes are not arbitrary. Each one records which institution made the selection and, often, where in its programme the plant sits.
  • Cultivars bred for smell — Most tea cultivars were selected for yield, hardiness and budding date. A small and growing group was selected for aroma, and the teas made from them are the clearest evidence available that a plant contributes something processing cannot supply.

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