What Ujimidori identifies
Ujimidori is a tea cultivar selected by the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute from an Uji local population. Its former line name was Kyoken 307, and Kyoto records its naming year as 1983. It joined the prefecture’s recommended cultivar list in 1983.
This evidence defines a plant variety and its official use. It does not mean every Ujimidori harvest becomes matcha, and it does not allow gyokuro evaluation notes to be copied directly into a description of finished matcha.
Kyoto’s documented purpose: gyokuro
Kyoto’s official cultivar guide places Ujimidori in the gyokuro section. Gyokuro is a covered green tea whose leaves are steamed, rolled, and dried for infusion. Matcha follows a different route through tencha, which is made without rolling before refinement and milling.
The concise cultivar guide presents Ujimidori primarily for gyokuro. Kyoto’s detailed research history also reports that it performed well in machine-harvest tencha comparisons conducted from 1995 to 2000. This supplies direct tencha research relevance alongside the gyokuro identity, without proving the characteristics of every commercial matcha.
Growth, timing, and yield
The Kyoto guide classifies Ujimidori as mid-early, with harvest approximately two days before Yabukita in the stated comparison. It describes an intermediate plant form and vigorous early growth. New shoots are green and medium in size, while yield is reported as high and comparable with Yabukita.
These traits are useful for distinguishing Ujimidori from neighboring Uji cultivar pages. Ujihikari is mid-season and officially detailed for tencha and gyokuro, while Houshun is extremely early. Timing is relative to documented trial conditions, not a fixed calendar date across all farms and years.
Official quality description
For gyokuro, Kyoto reports that Ujimidori is strong in both appearance and internal quality. This is a bounded evaluation of leaf tea made through the gyokuro process. It does not establish a universal “refreshing aroma,” matcha flavor, sweetness, umami level, or color for every product labeled Ujimidori.
Product-wide sensory language needs an independently defined sample and method. A finished tea producer can provide lot-specific sensory notes or analysis; the glossary should preserve the distinction between the cultivar authority’s evaluation and commercial tasting copy.
Place in Kyoto’s breeding history
Kyoto’s research history records Ujimidori as a later addition to the recommended cultivar set, following the locally named cultivars of the early postwar period. It joined the list in 1983. That timeline differentiates it from Komakage and Ujihikari, named in 1953, and from Houshun, registered in 2006.
Ujimidori also appears in Kyoto’s current definition of the Uji cultivar group. The Uji Tea Cultivars page explains the collective breeding and regional story; Ujimidori is distinguished by its lineage, date, official gyokuro role, and documented cultivation traits.
Can Ujimidori be used for matcha?
Yes, there is direct official tencha research context. Kyoto’s history describes 1995–2000 comparisons of machine-harvest tencha under single-layer and staged double-layer covering. Samidori was judged most suitable; Ujimidori was among the other cultivars reported to perform well. This trial result is more specific than simply assuming matcha use from an Uji association, but it is not a universal sensory or grade guarantee. A credible Ujimidori matcha should identify the grower or processor, leaf origin, covered cultivation, tencha manufacture, milling, and whether the product is single-cultivar or blended.
This is the same evidence standard applied through the matcha authenticity guide. The cultivar name is meaningful, but it should not replace the processing and origin information required to understand the finished powder.
Why this page is distinct
Ujimidori answers a precise question: what does Kyoto officially document about the cultivar named in 1983? The answer is a mid-early, productive Uji-derived cultivar recognized for gyokuro quality and also documented in machine-harvest tencha research. It is not a duplicate of the general Uji cultivar page and not a generic explanation of matcha cultivars.
Keeping that boundary is useful to readers. It shows that a cultivar may be important to covered tea without every official record making the same tencha or matcha claim, and it prevents marketing language from flattening different cultivars into one supposed Uji flavor.
