Japanese Green Tea

• Shincha News Flash!
• Shincha Availability Update
• A Tip to Enjoy Shincha
• What is Shincha?
  

Shincha News Flash!

We have been following the green tea sprouts from early spring when the tea trees put out their first new buds to the harvest of Shincha, the first tea of the year. Now, we bring you the latest breaking news and information from Hibiki-an's tea farm in Ujitawara in Kyoto!

Kyoto Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association Trade Show	Tea leaves waiting to be bid upon	Inside the trade show
Buying and selling tea	Natural sunlight from north side is best to appreciate tea leaves. Therefore, windows in tendering room are north-facing.	Refrigerator site at the Kyoto Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association, where hundreds of tons of tea leaves are stored
Organic tea farm as of May 8	Organic tea spouts just before harvest
Aracha is green tea that has been processed by the farmer, but is not finally finished. It is either sold directly to the wholesale house or bid on at the Kyoto Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association (Kyoto Prefecture Headquarters of the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations). At the Kyoto Japan Agricultural Corporative Association, over half of the tea at the show is grown in Uji. These events are held three times every week throughout the harvest season at the Kyoto Japan Agricultural Cooperative Association. At the peak, over one hundred tons of tea leaves are collected and dealt on one day. Buyers consider the breed, location of the tea farm, farm or family name, tea quantity, and so on. They also thoroughly test the quality of the tea when they tender a bid. To appreciate the quality of the tea, they carefully check the water color and clarity as well as the brightness of the appearance of the tea leaves. They will not accept defective leaves which do not have enough brilliance or cloudy water color. To judge them, unfailing discriminating technique is required. (Our litmited edition Farmers' Shincha is "Aracha" Shincha. You can enjoy the natural taste and refreshing aroma of this "Aracha" Shincha at an affordable price.) And the Organic Shincha (Sencha) Harvest started just a few days ago at last. It was about 7 days later than conventionally grown teas as usual. The feature of Organic Sencha's flavor is very simple and traditional. We imagine that the Shincha flavor enjoyed hundreds of years ago in historical Japan was just like this. Would you enjoy the simple flavor that was enjoyed long, long ago? (Our Organic Sencha Premium is now available.)

Now is the time for the Shincha (Sencha) harvest that we have all been waiting for! Shincha harvest started in the Uji region a few days ago. Today most tea leaves are trimmed by machine and traditional hand picked Sencha is rarely grown and is therefore very precious. The flavor and aroma of hand picked Sencha is much more mellow and refreshing than tea trimmed by machine. Even a skilled tea harvester can hand pick just up to 6 to 8kg of fresh tea leaves all through the day. The picked fresh tea leaves are processed and finished, at which point the total weight of the tea leaves is only about 18% of the fresh tea leaves. Even if about 20 skilled tea harvesters pick all through the day, we can only gather around 25 kg of finished precious hand picked Sencha. From the time the sprouts appear to the time the leaves become too large to harvest is just a few days. So tea leaves for Shincha (Sencha) must be harvested as quickly as possible in one long stretch. Therefore it is never easy to pick large amounts of tea leaves by skilled hands in just a few days. Top grade tea, hand picked Sencha is grown only in quite a small amount, because there is only one small place in all of the world perfect for farming this special tea - a tiny area of land located right here in the Uji region of Japan. Therefore, hand picked Sencha is very precious. At last, we can celebrate the first tea harvest of the year with Shincha and enjoy its wonderful fresh flavor! (The tea leaves for our Sencha Pinnacle and Sencha Super Premium are grown in the Obuku area, the birth place of Uji tea, and picked by skilled hands.)

Tree sprouts for hand picked as of May 3	Tree sprouts for machine trimmed as of May 3	Tea trees flooded sunlight just before harvest
Finally, the Shincha harvest is about to begin tomorrow or the day after tomorrow in Ujitawara! Therefore, our Shincha teas will be available in just a few days. You can pre-order Shincha now and it will ship as soon as it is available. Tea sprouts and trees just before the Shincha harvest are a beautiful sight! Flooded in sunlight and full of nutrients, they are bright, lush, and vivid green. The green color has changed from yellowish green to bright green during the past few days. It is a sign of the best timing for harvest. Farmers have made great efforts throughout the year to prepare the tea trees for this harvest. Since April, the sun has been getting stronger every day. Especially in the last two weeks, there were many warm days as if it were early summer. The tea sprouts have been growing well, very quickly. Please wait and see this year's Shincha, which will be available in just a few days.

Conventionally grown tea tree sprouts as of April 26	Conventionally grown tea trees	Organic tea tree sprouts as of April 26. They have been growing a little more slowly than conventionally grown tea sprouts.
Organically grown tea trees. The brown portions of tea leaves have been eaten by bugs in last summer and autumn.	Tea sprouts for hand picked, too have been growing very quickly for last some days.	Tea trees for hand picked
Organic tea has a simple and traditional flavor similar to teas grown many years ago in ancient Japan. With organic tea, you can taste the natural features of the type of tea, soil, climate, and efforts by the farmer. All of our organic teas are certified by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Japan. They are grown with only natural organic fertilizers and no agricultural chemicals or pesticides. Organic fertilizer works slowly. In contrast, chemical fertilizer works quickly and efficiently in about a month, while organic fertilizer works slowly for 3 to 9 months. Therefore organic Shincha tea is generally harvested 7 to 10 days later than conventionally grown teas. The simple and traditional flavor of organic tea must be very close to the Shincha flavor which people enjoyed and celebrated a long time ago. Organic Sencha Premium is now taken for pre-orders for Shincha. Now the sun is getting stronger every day and especially after April 20, the tea sprouts have been growing very quickly. There are only around 10 days left until the Shincha (Sencha) harvest, which is the busiest season of the year for our tea farmers! And at organic tea farm Shincha (Sencha) harvest will start about 10 days later than conventionally grown teas.

The tea sprouts continue their daily growth, and now have two to three leaves. The harvest of Shincha (Sencha) is just around the corner! In contrast to Sencha, tea trees for Gyokuro and Matcha are now being covered with curtains. Tea leaves for Gyokuro and Matcha are carefully grown under diffused sunlight for twenty to thirty days before harvesting, creating Theanine, which gives the tea a wonderfully sweet taste. Tea leaves for Gyokuro or Matcha are grown under diffused sunlight in three steps, (1) we cover only over the top of the tea trees, (2) we cover the sides, and (3) we put an additional covering over the top to create more shade. It enables us to adjust the level of shade and sunlight. It is difficult to assess the timing and takes skill and practice to grow perfect green tea. If covered using inappropriate timing, tea sprouts don't grow enough or create enough Theanine, which gives the tea its characteristic sweetness. Tea spouts for Gyokuro and Matcha will start to be harvested around on and after the middle to end of May. Meanwhile, the tea leaves for Sencha (Shincha) are being generously flooded with light. There is only about ten days or more left until the Shincha (Sencha) harvest!

Tea sprouts for machine trimmed as of April 19	Tea sprouts as of April 19 for hand picked. Tea sprouts harvested by hand appear differently than those harvested by machine.	Tea trees for machine trimmed.
Tea trees for hand picked. You can tell the difference of both tea trees.	Tiny streams running at Obuku area, birth place of Uji tea.	Obuku area is surrounded by mountain ravines.
Tea trees harvested by hand grow differently than those harvested by machine. In the case of tea trees trimmed by machine, tea sprouts grow from the previously trimmed stubble. By contrast, in the case of tea trees picked by hand, tea sprouts shoot from the natural forks in the branches. The flavor and aroma of hand picked tea is much more mellow and smooth than tea trimmed by machine and the leaves are of higher quality. Tea leaves that are picked by hand can generally be harvested some days earlier than tea leaves trimmed by machine. Obuku is the first place where tea trees were planted in the Uji region of Japan. They were planted by Kohken, a Buddhist monk, around A.D.1271, after Eisai popularized the idea of tea drinking in Japan around A.D.1191. Obuku is a small area of land with a diameter of less than one mile (600 meters). Even today, Obuku is known for producing very rare, highest grade Sencha. In Japan, there are only a few places where top grade Sencha is produced, and the Obuku area in Ujitawara is one of them. Obuku is located in mountain ravines, where tiny streams run, and the soil is full of minerals. The misty climate, sloping hills, warm days and cool nights provide a very ideal setting to grow the highest grade tea. Indeed, Sencha produced in the Obuku area was presented to the Japanese Emperors for many years. The tea leaves for our Sencha Pinnacle and Sencha Super Premium are grown in the Obuku area, the birth place of Uji tea, and picked by skilled hands. We have been arranging to add Sencha Super Premium to our line of 2008 Shincha teas, and hopefully soon we can start accepting pre-orders. Please wait and see.

At this time, it is possible for the cold weather to return, but it rarely frosts. A frost in spring is devastating because it completely ruins any tea sprouts. Electric fans are strategically placed around the tea trees to stir the air during March and April to avoid 'spring frost.' We must pay attention to the lowest temperature of each day until the end of April. Though this winter was cold and snowy for the first time in some years, the relatively warm weather has been experiencing since mid-March in Kyoto. Judging from the tea sprout growth and weather in the last few weeks, this year's harvest will likely come not earlier nor later but at the usual time. It is about three weeks until the Shincha harvest.

Many brooks run in and around our tea farms. All of them are pure, calm and clear. As you may know, high grade and quality tea grows in mountainous regions, specifically in lush valleys surrounded by mountains. Our tea farms are located upstream in the mountains, so all of the brooks in and around our tea farms are quite clean, pure and untouched as they come straight out from the mountain rocks and earth. Mist is another geographical feature essential for growing high grade and quality tea. These brooks and the difference in temperatures between day and night work to create mist, which keeps the air and earth moist and perfect for growing green tea. And this is cherry blossom season in Japan. The beautiful pink blossoms can be seen at parks which are filled with so many cherry trees, as well as scattered throughout famous temples and shrines. Kyoto's cherry blossoms were at their best this week. We took photos of the cherry trees at our tea farm. At last, the cherry blossoms at our farm in the lush valley surrounded by mountains will be in full bloom in a few days. Like the cherry trees, the tea sprouts have been steadily growing day by day. It is about a month until the Shincha harvest.

Our tea trees were fed a generous amount of fertilizer last Autumn. Then they were fed fertilizer again at the end of February to the middle of March. The old tea leaves have become a deep burnished green color. This is proof that the tea trees are absorbing enough nutrients from the fertilizer. It takes a few weeks to a month after being fertilized for the tea trees to fully absorb and then begin utilizing the nutrients. If new buds grow before the tea tree has finished fully absorbing the nutrients, then the taste of the tea leaves becomes less smooth and mellow. The buds of cherry blossom, too have been steadily growing day by day.

The weather has begun to warm up just a little and the sky has changed from winter's heavy and dark gray to spring's light and clear blue here in Ujitawara, Kyoto. Little birds have started whispering, insects have come out of hiding and started acting up, and the babbling of a brook melts your heart. This winter was cold and snowy for the first time in some years. It is said that it will serve the tea trees and new sprouts well. In Japan, it is said that spring really comes after the week of the equinox (March 20th). The cherry trees start to swell buds. Tea sprouts, too have now been starting to appear after March 20th.

Shincha Availability Update

(visit to Shincha shopping category)

A Tip to Enjoy Shincha

What is Shincha?