I’m not sure what happened last week but I was down with a sore throat and a bad cough (not covid!) for a few days and didn’t have time to write this post until now. But, the okuharuka cultivar is a very interesting one (albeit one I don’t know what much about) and I’m excited to talk to you about it!

What is the Okuharuka cultivar?

The Okuharuka was developed in 1975 from the Saitama 20 and Saitama 7 cultivars. What those parent cultivars are, I have no idea. But the okuharuka was tested at 14 prefectural tea stations from 2002 to 2011 and registered in 2013.

I found a paper from the Saitama prefecture on the test results of the okuharuka: this is a cultivar that is supposed to produce more tea (raw tea leaves harvested) than the yabukita, though the quality of the first flush tea isn’t as good as the yabukita. Interestingly, the quality of the second flush tea is better than the yabukita. It’s slightly more resistant to Anthrax (炭疽病), ring spot disease (輪斑病) and the Pseudaulacaspis pentagonal (クワシロカイガラムシ), a type of scaled insect.

According to a different paper on the cultivation of Okuharuka, this is a late-harvest cultivar (it’s harvested 6 days later than the yabukita) and it’s resistant against cold drought damage and bark split frost injury. The tea is supposed to have the same scent as the sakura leaves used in sakura mochi, and this scent is stronger when the steaming time is shorter.

Tasting Notes

I found the Okuharuka this time to be a really mild tea, but it was rather “thick” in terms of texture. I know I’ve learnt a word to say that it means there’s lots of dissolved components from the tea that make it feel heavier rather than like water, but I’m afraid that I forgot. In terms of what it tasted like, I got floral and vegetal notes. I personally found this to be a rather ladylike tea – it’s not going to demand your attention, but if you sit down with it and pay attention, the floral notes are very pleasant to have.

My first review of the Okuharuka sencha

Conclusion

I remember being somewhat worried that I would miss the floral notes of this tea the first time I had it. But now that I’ve had the opportunity to drink a lot more Japanese tea, including other sencha that had floral notes, I’ve found it easier to discern. And I guess that’s really the whole tea journey summarised: the more tea you drink, the easier it is to find certain notes you didn’t think you’d be able to find.

As always, I’ll link to my sources:

Cultivation of New extremely late budding green tea ‘Okuharuka’ with cold resistance

緑茶用晩生品種「おくはるか」の特性