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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Shincha Vs. Sencha

Okitsugawa Miyabi

It is a common misconception that Shincha is "First flush" and sencha comes from later flushes. I am far a fluent Japanese speaker, so I will not even dare to quote direct translations, and what they mean. Shincha most certainly is unique, some view it as a celebration of the new harvest, and others view it as a bit of a gimmick. In that sense it is quite like the Beaujolais Nouveau of the Japanese tea world.

But Shincha and Sencha both come from the first pickings of tea in Japan. Though both are processed differently, which lead to their different tastes. I personally am a bit more fond of Sencha, as Shincha in my opinion has always been a bit of a kick in the mouth. I liken Sencha to eating lightly cooked vegetables, and raw baby carrots, sweet with lots of other nice flavors. Shincha to me is like eating raw broccoli (without any sort of dip). Some people enjoy it, for others its a bitter mess that must be enjoyed in moderation.

For me to reduce the strong flavor profile of Shincha to one I find more enjoyable I often brew cooler than I would for Sencha, and much shorter especially after the first infusion. Its something like this that makes me like tea so much, with most other beverages their taste profiles can not be customized to taste without actually putting in some sort of other ingredient, with tea you can just brew it slightly differently, to tune it to your tastes.

8 comments:

Split/Gender said...

Thank you for clarifying this misconception. I am in the process of finishing my "Shincha" and have been referring to it as a first flush.
Disappointingly my Japanese is not as good as I would like (Studying hard to get there), but shincha does translate to true-tea, does it not? I have not seen kanji nor hirigana for it so I can not translate it myself from what knowledge I have thus far.

Unknown said...

Kat,

I do not know Kanji well enough either, and I also have not seen the Kanji recently enough to pick it out of a Japanese-English dictionary. I have actually heard several different translations which is why I didn't want to touch that.

Anonymous said...

Without being 100% sure I'd say your translation is not correct.
Hiragana: しんちゃ
Note that the last syllable is small which means it is a combination of the prior syllable with the following one. Shi-n-ti-(ya). The combination of ti-(ya) is pronounced cha. The Kanji for Shincha is 新茶. The first one is shin the latter one cha (tea). Shin in that regard (this kanji) should be translated as "new" - this makes Shincha the "New Tea" (of the season) or new harvest, whatever...

Anonymous said...

The shin in shincha is actually one of the pronunciations for the kanji for "new", also read as atarashi. So, "new tea."

Alex Zorach said...

Hmm...this is interesting...so to clarify, would these teas not be shincha?

Unknown said...

Alex,

They could honestly be either, Shincha or Sencha. Even some vendors are confusing Shincha as a term for First flush Sencha. But at the same time labeling something as First Flush Sencha, wouldn't be lying as Most (if not all ) sencha is first flush.

Patrick said...

that is one beautiful chawan! very interesting post and yea the kanji is 新茶 as thoroughly explained by the anonymous posts earlier... at least thats what ive gathered from two semesters of Japanese haha.

Alex Zorach said...

Thanks! I have definitely seen some vendors use the terms interchangeably too.

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