Experience the first green of spring with Shincha!

The harvest trip to Japan during shincha seasone is a highlight for us every time: the forays through the tea gardens with the many tender green tips stretching towards the sky or under the shade nets once again giving their all for that very special Kabuse aroma. The scent of the freshly steamed tea leaves, and the tasting of the Aracha raw teas, when the Shincha aroma of the new tea year reveals itself.

But this year, too, everything is a little different and once again we had to follow along from afar while our partners in Japan kept us up to date with reports and photos until we were finally allowed to taste the first cup of Shincha at the KEIKO teahouse in Diepholz.

Due to a particularly mild spring, the tea harvest throughout Japan was very early this year. Due to the rapid growth, the plants have less time to develop their full aroma, so that the duration of shading, the precise timing for the harvest and careful further processing are all the more important in order to get the best out of the tea. Our team in Japan has done a great job and once again created four different varieties of Shincha, each with its own fine aromas and intense fragrances.

This year's Shincha Classic is a single variety tea from the cultivar Yutaka Midori, one of the early cultivars that were harvested first. We took the opportunity to have it delivered in advance and were able to offer the first Shincha as early as never before. The other varieties will follow by the end of May!

Why are we so enthusiastic about Shincha?

The special freshness, the trademark of KEIKO teas, is even more pronounced with Shincha, as it is at its highest shortly after harvest. To capture this freshness, KEIKO Shincha is first steamed and, during the final drying process, fired slightly less than the other early pickings.

The variety of flavours that nature conjures up through light, water and weather surprises with new nuances of taste every year.

Enjoy KEIKO Shincha to the full!

Especially with high-quality green tea, the aroma can be influenced by even small variations in the preparation. For the early pickings, a higher dosage often brings out the different flavours more clearly. If the tea is stronger than desired, the flavour intensity can be easily adjusted by adding a little more water.

For Shincha, we recommend an infusion temperature of 60 -70°C. If you want to bring out the fresh Scent of Shincha, the infusion temperature can be set a little higher at 70°C - especially for Shincha Aracha with its original, wild and grassy aroma a whiff of the freshly infused leaves takes you straight to the tea fields of Kagoshima.

The sweet aromas that the high theanine content imparts to the early pluckings come out best in the Mizudashi cold infusion - this year we were particularly impressed by the Shincha Yume, which unfolds an unbelievably fruity, intense-sweet aroma when brewed cold, and at the same time has a very refreshing and invigorating effect.