Shincha

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in Japan. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Shizuoka — 20–800 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

• Chiran — 50–400 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

• Kagoshima — 50–500 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

• Tanegashima — 0–200 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

The plants it is made from

Cultivar is the level below the variety group: a named selection of the tea plant, propagated as clones from one parent. Most consumer writing stops at the country and the category, which leaves out the layer that decides how the leaf behaves before anyone picks it.

• Yabukita — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Balanced rather than distinctive: a dependable base for sencha, which is precisely why it was planted so widely.

• Harumidori — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Early bud break with a mild, sweet profile, planted alongside later cultivars to spread the harvest window.

• Sakimidori — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Early, soft and sweet, with low bitterness and a bright green infusion.

• Surugawase — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Early budding, and correspondingly exposed to late frost — the standing trade-off in every early cultivar, and the reason Japanese growers plant early and late cultivars in the same holding rather than concentrating on either.

• Kuritawase — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Very early bud break and correspondingly high frost exposure, with a mild cup. Planted in small blocks to stagger the harvest.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
2. 2. Kill-green (fixation) — Denatures polyphenol oxidase and related enzymes, arresting enzymatic oxidation.
3. 3. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
4. 4. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Japanese steamed green tea — Fixation by steam within hours of plucking, then a rolling sequence that dries and shapes at once — and then a second factory that turns one intake into four named teas.

  Where it is practised: Almost all Japanese green tea. Also the route for Chinese steamed greens such as Enshi Yu Lu, which use the same fixation and none of the refining tail.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Free amino acids, Green-leaf volatiles, L-theanine, Leaf lipids.

• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Kill-green (fixation)
  • locks 2-Phenylethanol
  • locks Anthocyanins
  • locks Catechins
  • locks cis-3-Hexenol
  • locks Green-leaf volatiles
  • locks L-theanine
  • locks Leaf lipids
  • locks Methylated catechins
  • locks Theogallin
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

The first-harvest tea of the year, sold within weeks of picking, and a seasonal event in Japan rather than a grade. The commercial category depends on modern logistics — before fast distribution, the distinction could not be sold.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1–1.5 g/100 ml · 65–75 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Kyusu brewing (Japanese style)

  3–5 g/100 ml · 65–75 °C · 3 authored infusions

  Needs: Kyusu

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Ice steeping (kōridashi)

  4–8 g/100 ml · 0–5 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Shiboridashi, Glass teapot, Houhin

  Open in the brew assistant

• Cold brew tea

  1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 3–8 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Glass teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

Vessels this tea suits

Recorded against the tea rather than against a brewing style, because the vessel does not always follow from the method — a whisk needs lateral room whatever the schedule says, and compressed leaf needs a pick before any method applies at all.

• Foil laminate pouch — The whole premium on the first picking is freshness, and it is the packaging that decides how long any of it survives.

Common mistakes

• Buying it out of season, when the character it is named for has already gone
• Storing an opened packet at room temperature for months

When the cup goes wrong

Written against green tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 37 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• I bought a big bag to save money and it was stale before I finished it — A large quantity bought at a good unit price faded well before it was drunk, so the saving turned into waste.
• I bought a water filter for my tea and it changed nothing — A filter jug or tap filter was bought specifically to improve the tea, and the cup tastes the same as it did before — with the same dullness, the same film and the same scale in the kettle.
• I have too many teas open and most of them are going stale — A dozen or more packets are open at once, three or four get drunk regularly, and the rest fade quietly on the shelf until they are thrown away.
• Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth — Fine leaf clings to the inside of the vessel, comes through into the cup, and ends up in the last mouthful.
• My bamboo whisk is losing tines — Fine bamboo tines snap off during whisking and turn up in the bowl, and the whisk feels stiff and splayed.
• My cold brew tastes like faintly flavoured water — After a night in the fridge the jug is pale and tastes of very little, with none of the sweetness cold brewing is supposed to give.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Shincha vs matcha — Two Japanese teas bought as seasonal indulgences, one defined by its harvest date and one by a process that takes months. Both reward buying in season, and both are more perishable than a buyer usually expects. Put the two side by side
• Shincha vs sencha — Shincha is sencha, picked first and sold immediately. The distinction is calendar rather than category, and it matters more than that sounds. Put the two side by side

Where this tea is drunk

Documented practices that name this tea. Each page describes what is done and by whom, and separates what is recorded from what is repeated.

• Chatsumi — the Japanese tea-picking season — The eighty-eighth night, the first flush, the song every Japanese schoolchild knows, and the modern reality of a harvest performed almost entirely by machine and celebrated with a hand-picking that is mostly for the cameras.

Guides covering this tea

• Rainfall, temperature and the dormant season
• Refrigerating and freezing tea: when it genuinely helps and when it is a mistake
• How much tea to buy at once, given everything storage cannot fix
• Harvest date against best-before date, and why only one of them is about the tea
• Why season and flush change the cup
• The tea clippers, and why the races stopped
• What a freezer actually does to tea, including the defrost cycle nobody mentions
• Kuradashi: the one Japanese green tea tradition built on keeping it
• Grading by picking date: the East Asian alternative to grading by appearance
• Tea subscriptions, sample clubs and advent calendars
• When tea is harvested, country by country