Description

All Kabusecha Shincha Teas 2015 of our Kagoshima producer partner in ONE box, freshly packed in spring 2015, cool-stored and kept for later in the year, when Shincha teas are usually gone. The ‘Shincha Selection 2015’ of our Kabusecha expert in Kagoshima, Japan, contains 10g each of five different teas of the year’s early Shincha harvest, from the delicately steamed, light as a feather Shincha Yakushima via the Aracha raw teas to their top Shincha tea, the full-bodied Shincha Yume.  The set it packed in a decoratvive gift box and includes information and preparation instructions for each of the teas:

• 1 x 10g Shincha Yakushima
• 1 x 10g Yakushima Aracha
• 1 x 10g Shincha Classic
• 1 x 10g Shincha Yume
• 1 x 10g Yume Aracha 10g

Fresh from the year’s first spring harvest! The fresh Shincha Kabusecha from the first spring harvest from the island of Kyushu, offshore southern Japan. Starting from June 1, 2015, we annually offer you these Shincha teas, picked and immediately processed and vacuum-packaged on site. Please notice that due to extremely limited availibility, Shincha Yakushimaha (Kabusecha) is only available for a short time each year, with a small amount being cool-stored and kept for the Christmas box. Therefore, secure your Shincha Selection gift box now!

The term Shincha in Japan refers to the fresh teas from the first days of the spring harvest. However, in order to qualify as a Shincha tea in the narrower sense, the green tea doesn’t only have to meet this condition, but also needs to be processed and vacuum-sealed immediately upon picking and be sent to the end consumer on the quickest possible way. Due to their exceptionally fresh and exhilerant taste and fragrance, Shincha teas enjoy highest popularity both in Japan and among green tea lovers worldwide.

For how long a Shincha tea can be called Shincha depends solely on its freshness. This is why the producer of our Kagoshima Shincha teas processes and vacuum-packages the freshly harvested tea leaves on site immediately upon picking and instantaneously ships it to the distributor in Germany, who in turn forwards our “contingent” to us without any delay. Due to the extremely limited yield of this picking and the high freshness requirement, this tea is only available for a very short time.

All Shincha teas in the Shincha Selection box are Kabusecha teas. Kabusecha tea (also: “Kabuse Sencha”) is a typical Japanese (half-shaded) green tea, characterized by the half-shading of the tea gardens by means of so-called “Kabuse” nets during the days/weeks before the harvest. The shading period is also responsible for the time delay, with which Shincha Yakushima makes it to the market in each year, compared to the several weeks earlier harvested unshaded Shincha (“Shincha Sencha”). In favor of a higher quality of the tea,  the tea bushes are cultivated under Kabuse nets (jap: net = kabuse) during the last (up to 3) weeks before the harvest. Unlike Gyokuro Tea, for which the tea plants are shaded for several weeks before the harvest, the Kabusecha shading method (up to 3 weeks of shading for our Kabusecha Tenko) comprises a half-shading, with ca. 50% of the sunlight being filtered out (compared to ca. 90% for Gyokuro). Therefore, Kabusecha tea is also commonly referred to as half-shaded tea. The idea behind the Kabusecha method is that of the recreation of natural conditions, i. e. a part-shading of the tea bushes as it would take place through trees and larger bushes in natural environments. The ca. 50% withdrawal of light during this period triggers activities in the tea plant that are leading to an altered composition of the ingredients with increased amounts of amino acids (e.g. Theanine) and alkaloids (e.g. Caffeine, Theophyllin) and a reduction of bitterns (e.g. Catechine), among others resulting in a higher sweetness of the tea. Also the aromatic fragrance and the deep green color of the tea are enhanced through the shading.

In order to achieve an optimal exploitation of the active ingredients and to prevent oxidation processes, the freshly picked deep green tea leaves are steamed, cooled, rolled and dried according to the characteristic procedure of Japanese green tea processing. The producer of this Kabusecha green tea, who is health and environment-friendly-certified to both Japanese and EU standards, vacuum-packages the tea immediately upon completion of the processing cycle, so that the active substances, the aromatic fragrance and the intensive taste remain preserved throughout the tea’s streamlined way to distant shores and right up to your tea cup.