TeaHQ

Surugawase

An early-budding Shizuoka cultivar — wase means early-season — planted to open the picking calendar a few days before Yabukita. Those few days are worth a great deal: the first sencha of the year sells at a premium that falls sharply within weeks, so a cultivar that does nothing but arrive early has a clear commercial case even if its cup is ordinary.

するがわせCamellia sinensis var. sinensisJapan

Where it sits in the botany

Surugawase 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: surugawase, suruga wase.

Where it came from

An early-season selection from the Shizuoka district, propagated to extend the front of the harvest.

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

Early budding, and correspondingly exposed to late frost — the standing trade-off in every early cultivar, and the reason Japanese growers plant early and late cultivars in the same holding rather than concentrating on either.

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 Surugawase

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