Yabukita

Yabukita is the dominant Japanese tea cultivar — accounting for roughly 75-85% of all Japanese tea production and about 90% of Shizuoka Prefecture's plantings. It was selected from a wild field by Sugiyama Hikosaburō around 1908 in Shizuoka City; samples taken from the kita (north) side of a bamboo grove (yabu) gave the cultivar its name. Registered as Tea Cultivar No. 6 in 1956 by the Shizuoka Tea Industrial Laboratory. Selected for high yield, frost resistance, and broad climatic adaptability. The default cultivar of Japanese sencha.