Apr 28 2008

Shincha, and the arrival of Spring

Published by Brian at 10:12 pm under Blog

This past weekend in Edinburgh we had probably the most beautiful Spring day so far this year. The sun was so warm and the breeze so slight that it might even have been Summer. Jill and I sat in the Dean Gardens overlooking the Water of Leith—incidentally, where the photograph for my blog header was taken—and speculated on the start of Spring proper.

The Dean Bridge, from the Dean Gardens, Edinburgh

We thought that the extremes of weather we’ve had for months now were gone; that our extended Winter was over. Needless to say, this morning there were hailstones and rain and it had turned decidedly colder again.

To take my mind off this reversal of meteorological fortunes, I turned to thoughts of the arrival of Shincha. Shincha is the first tea harvest of the year in Japan, starting in the middle of April in Kagoshima, Shizuoka and a few of the other growing regions, and at the beginning of May in Uji in Kyoto.

I’ve ordered a number of packages from a couple of my favourite Japanese tea purveyors, namely:

? Uji Shincha Kirameki, from O-Cha.com;

? Shizuoka Sencha Hatsumi, from O-Cha.com;

? Shincha Traditional, from Hibiki-an;

? Farmers’ Shincha, from Hibiki-an

I’m very much looking forward to the arrival of these packages and am confident this should be enough sencha to keep me going for quite a while. The only temptation will be to try each one separately when it arrives, whereas I should really store some of the four packages to keep them as fresh as possible for as long as possible… We’ll see! In any event, I’ll post my thoughts here as I try each type.

3 responses so far

3 Responses to “Shincha, and the arrival of Spring”

  1. # Bamboo Foreston 28 Apr 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Your shincha selections are impeccable. I purchased three out of the four that you have. The only one I didn’t get this year is, “Shincha Traditional.” However, that one was a real winner last year, and I expect it will be again this year too.

    The marvels of the modern age. How nice that we can sip on the best Japan has to offer, no matter where we live. Cheers!

  2. # vlon 29 Apr 2008 at 9:34 am

    Like the picture, especially the light on the left…

    Know nothing about Japanese tea, so can’t comment on that… I always feel lost whenever I hear Snicha or Sencha :)

    -vl.

  3. # Brian Lavelleon 29 Apr 2008 at 9:24 pm

    Thanks for the vote of shincha confidence, Bamboo Forest – much appreciated! Yes, it’s wonderful to think that the we can enjoy the freshness of the tea harvest no matter where we are in the world.

    vl – thanks for your comment on the photograph. If anything, it was a lucky shot, as many of mine are… ;-)

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