Sae-midori

The name, Saemidori, means "clear green" and is certainly a nod to its liquor color. Saemidori has a very high content of amino acids and lower astringency creating the pinnacle matcha experience. We found Saemidori to be one of the smoothest matcha we’ve tried. It lends itself perfectly for koicha, a method of preparing the drink with a high amount of matcha powder to water ratio resulting in a thicker consistency. Only the very best can be drunk in this style.

Though developed in the late ‘60s, this cultivar did not attain official recognition until the 1990s and we are glad that it did! The history of how Saemidori was developed is quite interesting for it being a hybrid cultivar between the highest quality cultivar in all of Japan–Asatsuyu and one of the most popular Japanese cultivars–Yabukita. Despite being the highest quality, Asatsuyu does have some disadvantages. The harvesting quantity is quite low due to it being susceptible to diseases and frost damage. This restricts its availability and prevents consumers from being able to fully enjoy its taste and flavor. To fix these problems, Asatsuyu was crossed with Yabukita in 1969, giving us Saemidori that we have today.

Saemidori is an early budding cultivar. This allows farmers to start harvesting 4-7 days before the busy season of its parent–Yabukita. Originally, Saemidori was intended for Sencha production, but now it’s also grown for gyokoro and matcha. Thriving best in warm climates, Saemidori was initially grown around the southern Kyushu region of Japan, especially in the famed tea province of Kagoshima. Nowadays, it is widespread in some areas of Shizuoka Prefecture and the Kinki Region where warmer temperatures are in place.