02.23.07
When does shincha come out?
I’m starting to get this question a lot lately. For those new to green tea, one word you may want to become familiar with is the word “shincha”, which basically translates in English to “new tea.” The plant our green tea comes from, Camellia sinensis, is an evergreen bushy type of plant that grows year after year. In Japan, the tea plants are planted into long, rounded, hedge-like rows one after the other in vast fields. Typically there are 3-4 harvests per year and it is the first harvest from which the best Japanese green tea comes from. In each successive harvest, the quality goes down. Being that the first harvest is the best and thus most expensive product, it’s also where most of the year’s revenue will be generated. Growers put most of their time and energy into this first harvest (aka first flush.)
The first harvest usually occurs near the end of April or in early May, depending on the weather. Last year the winter was a bit long and cold so the harvest was about a week later than usual. This year so far the winter has been rather warm so it’s expected that this year’s new tea will come out a bit earlier. One way growers gauge when the harvest will come to base it on when cherry trees blossom.
Back to shincha. Even though the first harvest occurs around the end of April, first harvest green teas are available throughout the year as the bulk of these teas are put into cold storage for release throughout the year as needed. These green teas are referred to as “kura-dashi” sencha, or sencha pulled from store houses known as “kura.” However, a small portion of the first harvested green teas are immediately packaged and this is what is known as “shincha.” A first harvest green tea might be “shincha”, all shincha’s are first harvested teas, but not all first harvested green teas are “shincha”, if that makes any sense. Shincha is only available from around May through July at the latest, as supplies last.
Shincha has a somewhat bolder taste characteristic. Whereas you might brew your typical sencha for 2 minutes, when brewing shincha it’s better to brew it for a shorter period of time, say 1.5 minutes. One thing is for sure, shincha is the freshest green tea one can purchase.
So for those eagerly waiting for the 2007 shincha, we’ve still got some waiting to do.
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