Benifuuki Kagoshima

About This Tea

  The Benifuuki Tea Cultivar   Most countries commonly use Camellia sinensis var. assamica for black tea and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis for green tea. The Japanese, though known for green tea, did grow assamica in addition to sinensis at one time, mainly for export to Europe and the U.S. They also developed hybrids of the two, some specifically geared toward black tea production. The first important cultivar was Benihomare, registered in 1953, followed by Benihikari (1969) and Benifuki, developed in 1965 (as a hybrid of Benihomare and Darjeeling var. Makura cd86) but not registered until 1993. This lag between development and registration reflects the lack of interest in black tea in Japan’s domestic market. https://itsmorethantea.wordpress.com/2021/06/10/what-is-benifuki-tea/ Kagoshima, a prefecture on the southern tip of Japan’s Kyushu island, runs along the Kagoshima Bay coast and includes a chain of smaller islands to the southwest.