2023 Shincha Harvest tea recommendations?

[chillian12]

For anyone planning to purchase from Thes-Du-Japon, make sure you change the language to Japanese (top right corner of the webpage). It will convert the currency to Japanese Yen, and with current USDJPY exchange rates, you'd be saving some money even with credit card conversion fees. I believe you could use Revolut, Wise or any similar card to pay and that would generally give you slightly better rates (especially on weekdays).

I've placed some orders and I'm particularly excited for the Honyama Sencha Tamagawa Sofu! I bought 2022's harvest 2 months ago and boy was it amazing! One of the best senchas I've had in a while - The Sofu cultivar was floral and grape-like, nothing like your usual Yabukita.

[chillian12]

Honestly I tend to just brew in whatever kyusu I am in the mood to use. I really don't think my taste buds are discerning enough to start distinguishing between clay types.

Same boat here, there is a difference but I can't really discern myself. The tea should speak for itself, better quality leaves will still taste good regardless of the teapot. Though there must be a difference, but I'm not at that level yet.

[greywolf]

I've just been brewing my tea in a glass beaker. It's fun to watch the leaves unfurl as they steep. I always thought that by using glass, I would not be colouring the flavour of the tea. Am I missing out on a lot by not using a kyusu or some other kind of tea pot?

[faj]

I've just been brewing my tea in a glass beaker. It's fun to watch the leaves unfurl as they steep. I always thought that by using glass, I would not be colouring the flavour of the tea. Am I missing out on a lot by not using a kyusu or some other kind of tea pot?

I am not a teaware expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a fair number of (mostly) Japanese clay pots. I also regularly use glass teaware for all kinds of teas. It would be fair to say the (borosilicate) glass items I use generally preserve aromatics better than clay. They sometimes yield interesting results, even for teas that are often mentioned as candidates for more muting teapots.

Are you missing on a lot? Probably not. Maybe, with some teas, a well-chosen clay teapot could yield something you would prefer, but with glass you are not likely to destroy tea that is decent. You are more likely to kill your tea with infusion parameters, water selection, or the wrong clay teapot. In my opinion, clay teapots are not a requirement to enjoy tea.

[GG_]

I have a friend in Japan ATM, he sent me this pic, is this new 2024 tea?

Just local supermarket stuff....but curious if it's fresh or last year.

[pizzapotamus]

I highly suspect last year, I'm not seeing a specific NEW!/Shincha(新茶 ) label and it's from Ise where it really seems too early in the season for this years tea.

[chillian12]

For anyone planning to purchase from Thes-Du-Japon, make sure you change the language to Japanese (top right corner of the webpage). It will convert the currency to Japanese Yen, and with current USDJPY exchange rates, you'd be saving some money even with credit card conversion fees. I believe you could use Revolut, Wise or any similar card to pay and that would generally give you slightly better rates (especially on weekdays).

I've placed some orders and I'm particularly excited for the Honyama Sencha Tamagawa Sofu! I bought 2022's harvest 2 months ago and boy was it amazing! One of the best senchas I've had in a while - The Sofu cultivar was floral and grape-like, nothing like your usual Yabukita.

2024 Update: It seems that Thes-Du-Japon has since removed the ability to change your currency to Japanese Yen (you can't checkout unless its being sent to a Japanese address), which is understandable given how the JPY rates have gotten worse over the past year.

However, I would still recommend giving some of TDJ's shincha a try, I've already ordered some of the 2024 Shincha and can't wait to brew some this year!

The shincha for 2023 was fantastic, I particularly enjoyed the Gokoh cultivar from Wazuka, Uji which is usually used for gyokuro, but in this case was not shaded to the requirements of gyokuro - nevertheless it was still a great tea at the price point, much cheaper than gyokuro. It had all the trappings of a gyokuro, minus the intense umami that would usually be accompanied. A very interesting sencha.

For this year, I'm most looking forward to testing the Shoju cultivar from Tanegashima from TDJ, I have never tried this cultivar which must be some sort of crossbreed.