Bio Shincha Classic 2026

Fresh spring shincha from Kagoshima in southern Japan, sourced from our partners at Keiko. This is a blend of cultivars—80% Yutaka Midori and 20% Saemidori—mixed to create a rich and complex flavor. The Yutaka Midori variety gives Shincha Classic its characteristic fresh, green aroma and rich color. The combination with the excellent Saemidori variety results in a full-bodied, delicate flavor with subtle umami, a hint of fruitiness, and a gentle astringency. Shincha—“new tea”—heralds the beginning of the tea year every spring. It is the first tea made from delicate, particularly aromatic tip leaves, which are harvested as early as mid-April in Kagoshima’s subtropical climate. To best preserve its fresh flavor, Shincha is dried slightly less intensely than usual during the final stage of processing.

How to brew Shincha

We recommend an infusion temperature of around 60–65 °C. Use about 5 grams of tea leaves. Let the first infusion steep for about 1 minute. After that, just a few seconds are enough for the flavor to be released from the leaves. For the final infusion, you can extend the steeping time again to extract all the flavor from the leaves. If the tea is still stronger than you’d like, you can slightly adjust the intensity by adding a little more water. Deeply steamed early harvests are particularly well-suited for cold brewing (mizudashi). Even in cold water, Shincha Classic develops a particularly silky texture and a refreshingly clean flavor after just 5 minutes of steeping. The sweet notes of theanine also come through especially well, as bitter compounds do not dissolve as readily in cold water.