The very first harvest of the year which is directly packaged and put up for immediate sale without ever going into cold storage. While first harvest green tea is available throughout the year, shincha (a special type of first harvest green tea) is only available from late April thru about the middle of July. Now is your chance to obtain the freshest green tea one can purchase at any time of the year!

Regarding "shincha" gyokuro and matcha. Gyokuro and matcha leaf is usually harvested in May just like regular first harvest sencha. However, the normal procedure is to age the leaf of these products for a few months for optimum taste. This is why they are normally released in the fall and not spring. Although you can enjoy them earlier, until they are aged properly they will have a somewhat "green" taste to them. During the summer the current year's gyokuro is often blended with the previous year's leaf when supplies or the previous year's tea are in low supply and won't last until fall. There is nothing wrong with these teas, even though they are not at their peak quality. However, they are not really "shincha".

We have seen instances of companies selling products labeled as "shincha" in February of the following year.

It is the policy of O-Cha.com to not market "shincha matcha", "shincha gyokuro", or especially "shincha bancha" (a second or third harvest tea).

2020 Shincha Notes

All teas listed below are currently classified as shincha , even if they are labeled as sencha

To be notified when a shincha comes in stock, navigate to the item you are interested in, click the "Notify Me When Back In Stock" button, enter your email address, and you will receive an email as soon as that item comes into stock.