WTP, Ep.6: Who's That Cultivar?
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It’s a Podcast TEAm-up!
This week on the World Tea Podcast I'm looking into tea cultivars with fellow Japanese tea enthusiast Ricardo Caicedo from My Japanese Green Tea! If you haven’t listened to his podcasts I encourage you to lend them an ear. There’s some great content brewing! Also head over to his shop kyusuteas.com, to taste some of the cultivars we discuss today!
For those unaware of what exactly a tea cultivar is it’s a tea plant with specific characteristics resulting from human guidance during propagation. During the many years of growing tea, farmers noticed how different tea plants either resisted insects or tolerated droughts more than others. By cross-breeding these tea plants the farmer could propagate a plant with both traits. Do this enough and you can have some very strong tea plants. Of course if you want more of the same plant, you have to grow them by clipping off a branch and planting it (called a “cutting”), thereby retaining the same genes. Suffice it to say the cultivar of a tea plays a huge role in the yield, budding time, temperature tolerance, insect/disease resistance, and of course taste of the tea.
When a tea farmer decides to plant his crop, you can bet that considerable thought has gone into choosing which cultivar to use. Often it is integral to the tea’s survival and the farmer’s profit. It’s therefore very surprising how little the subject comes up when I talk tea with others. But that’s why Ricardo and I have teamed up today! We’re cultivating curious queries!
We discuss several Japanese cultivars during the podcast: Yabukita, Benifuuki, Sayamakaori, & Okumidori. However chances are you've only had Japanese tea from the Yabukita cultivar as it dominates the Japanese landscape. Something with inherent benefits and consequences.
So brew yourself a cup and listen in. There’s plenty of drink for thought!
LEEET’S BREW IT!
More episodes of the World Tea Podcast here!
