Harvest: Late
Okumidori
A late cultivar. Because it can be picked later, it also spreads a region's workload — and it stands up well to shading.
Where it came from
Yabukita × Shizuoka Zairai 16, registered as No. 32 in 1974.
Character
Ready roughly a week after Yabukita. Mild astringency, good aroma, and it takes shading well. Its lateness is the practical point: mixed into a Yabukita-only field, it stops the whole harvest arriving at once.
What it suits
Sencha, tencha and gyokuro. Increasingly used for matcha.