Buy Japanese Hachiju-Hachiya Shincha Premium Green Tea
Japanese teas provide memorable flavors along with powerful health benefits. While the chlorophyll and “umami” flavors seem unusual to some, we recommend this top-grade Japanese tea to anyone who is on a tasting adventure – you will never find anything else quite like it!
Purchase now to get the freshest possible green tea flavors. We just replaced our 2019 batch with this brand new 2020 harvest!
“Hachiju-Hachiya” means “88th Night,” and refers to the 88th date after the traditional Japanese Lunar New Year, when tea buds are just beginning to unfold. In Japanese, these first-flush teas are called “shincha” and are regarded very highly – some claim that even a single cup of fresh Hachiju-Hachiya Shincha can promote health and vigor throughout the year!
The stunningly jade-colored leaves are tiny, precisely rolled, and very attractive. Carefully cultivated, hand-plucked, immediately and expertly processed by the most skilled tea masters, this exceptional tea is rare and very special, a flawless exemplar of season, regional terroir, cultivar and artisanal craft, brimming with uplifting spring energy, fantastically vibrant and classically “green.”
Kagoshima prefecture, at the southern tip of mainland Japan, is famous for balmy climate and numerous active volcanoes whose slopes hold some of the world’s finest tea plantations. The Okumidori (“Late Green”) cultivar is a late bloomer, making it ideal for first-flush harvests because it almost always appears after the frosts have ended. It is known for beautiful vivid lime green liquor and Japan’s preferred cup profile of sweet and mild yet profoundly complex and vegetal, with thick creamy body and powerful chlorophyll and umami tones especially.
These first-flush leaves were withered within hours of being harvested, a treatment that makes this tea one of the freshest and most lively we have ever tasted! “Deep Green” Okumidori is often used to make fancy specialty teas like Gyokuro, Tencha, and Matcha, and one sip will show you why – this batch is almost on par with the famous Gyokuro style even without the special chlorophyll-increasing cultivation methods used to make that top-of-the-line specialty green tea. In fact, you may find that this premium tea is in the same ballpark as the much more expensive and elusive Gyokuro – delicate and fragrant, with dancing floral, cured hay, and seaside aromas, it also has a lovely buttery mouthfeel, very low astringency and absolutely zero bitterness, with subtle chrysanthemum, vanilla, and barley notes rounding out the richly nuanced sweet/savory cup profile, and a long-lasting umami aftertaste.
We recommend blanching the leaves before steeping, as a quick rinse will wash away some of that unfamiliar umami flavor, and re-steeping several times, as it gets sweeter and milder with each round. Read this guide to learn about the best method for preparing green teas in the traditional Japanese way. Best steeped 4 or more times, share this extraordinary artisanal tea in small cups with friends in a peaceful unhurried setting.
Steeping Time: 30-60 seconds
Water Temp: 170-180 F
Finest young shincha tea leaves
Buy Japanese Hachiju-Hachiya Shincha Premium Green Tea
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