Shincha 2024 & Kumpu Sencha Set

Each spring, as the weather starts to warm, the tea fields in the mountains south of Kyoto begin to awaken. The tea plants that huddled up, storing their energy and nutrients over the cold, long winter, begin to put out tiny green buds. Over the next month, these buds will begin to grow, reaching up and up for the wide blue sky. When the time is right, tea farmers will get busy harvesting the spry new leaves.

At Ippodo, we blend selected fresh new sencha harvests to produce our Shincha tea each year.

Up in the mountains, small changes in the weather day-to-day affect the nuances that develop in the tea leaves. As a result, the distinctive character of this year’s Shincha will never be repeated.

Every release of Shincha shares the vibrancy and energy of just-picked tea leaves, and we are excited for what the harvest of 2024 Shincha will bring.

Deepen your appreciation of Shincha’s vibrancy and Ippodo regular sencha’s mellow depths with this comparison set.

For the set, we selected our standard sencha Kumpu, which is a different sencha blend at a similar price point to Shincha. In Kumpu, we enjoy a classic balance of light astringency, pleasant umami, and an elegant finish.

Compared to a standard sencha like Kumpu, Shincha has a powerful flavor, aroma, and aftertaste. Its youthful strength is refreshing, like a splash of ice-cold water on the face in the morning.

Like Shincha, Kumpu is also harvested once per year in late spring. We allow it and all other regular senchas to rest until they develop a relaxed, mature flavor. We then blend them with previous harvests to produce a consistent product sold throughout the year.

We love Kumpu for its calm and mature character. We love Shincha for its fleeting, energetic character that invigorates us at the start of summer.

This bundle set includes both items shipped together as in a regular order.