What’s Shincha?

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Shincha is a type of green tea that is made from the first tea leaves that emerge every spring. These leaves are typically harvested immediately, meaning they are very small and the overall harvest is usually extremely small. They are prized for their highly concentrated flavor and high nutrient content. This type of tea is harvested exclusively in Japan and, unlike many other green tea varieties, is often hard to find outside that country.

In Japanese, the word shincha literally translates to “new tea.” It is applied only to the first green tea crop of each season – the newest leaves after winter. Tea plants are usually dormant in winter. The first leaves that emerge in spring are usually the beneficiaries of months of stored nutrients, which gives them a unique flavor that can’t easily be replicated later in the season. These leaves are prized for the smoothest, most delicate taste of any green tea variety.

Harvest dates vary slightly from year to year but generally begin in mid-April and last for only a few weeks. Tea farmers almost always pick the leaves by hand and usually sell them immediately. Many of the more popular tea estates have waiting lists every year for customers who reserve plenty of shincha long before winter closes.

Shincha is one of the finest types of tea in Japan. It’s also one of the most expensive. The high cost usually has to do with the effort required to collect the leaves and the necessary attention of the collectors. Overall production is also necessarily limited, which increases demand in many places.

Quality also affects the price. Even though the shincha designation is reserved for only certain teas, there is no guarantee that all leaves will lead to a similar tea. Tea absorbs many of the characteristics of its location, and its quality depends on many things, including the health of the soil, the harshness of the winter months, and the number of days of sunlight. Some years are inevitably better than others and even teas from a single farm are rarely identical when compared across the seasons.

Depending on the ownership, this type of tea might also be marketed as ichibancha, meaning “first harvested tea.” The ichibancha tea designation can also apply to the first full green tea harvest of the summer season, which can lead to confusion. Leaves harvested after a full season’s growth usually have a much fuller flavor than is typically associated with shincha.

Aside from the circumstances of its harvest, there is little that separates shincha from other Japanese green tea varieties. It is stored and dried in the same way – that is, dried on wooden boards and kept in airtight boxes or in sealed containers – and is only prepared for a moment before serving. Shincha aficionados usually advocate producing fresh crops shortly after drying, because the flavors tend to dissipate and diminish over time, no matter how carefully the leaves are stored.

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