Green Tea Forum

Yunomi-no U don't · Uh, Can I Add Sugar? Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 10

Hello Admin,
Any chance that you will be getting any Gyokuro teas from the 2006 harvest, since 2006 is more than half over now.....??
Thanks,
Rich

Kevangogh · Forum God Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 928 Location: Japan

Gyokuro is aged so it doesn't really come out as a "shincha" like sencha. You can basically buy it anytime of the year. If you want 2006 harvested gyokuro, you need to wait until about September.

Photiou · Posted: May 05, 2007 4:14 am Post subject:

I have noticed that some japanese (online)stores do sell "shincha gyokuro".

Chip · Posted: May 05, 2007 4:35 am Post subject:

There are 2 things possibly going on then.
One, some vendors will sell kabusecha as gyokuro, which it is not. Sometimes I have heard this referred to as netto gyokuro. But on another site selling netto gyokuro, they claim it is authentic gyokuro. I honestly do not know what to make of all that.
Or two, they are selling the gyokuro unaged. But any reputable vendor such as our host, O-Cha, will sell properly aged gyokuro only. If a vendor was selling it unaged, they should certainly have some kind of notice to this effect.

Well, let the buyer beware...

I saw another vendor getting ready to sell gyokuro from Yame, that was to be available in just a week or so, yet there description clearly states that it is true gyokuro that is aged at least six months. But it seemed a little odd because it was in amoungst their Yame shincha...just very peculiar.

Photiou · Posted: May 05, 2007 5:34 am Post subject:

I think that most probably they are selling unaged gyokuro as 'shincha gyokuro'. I would not question their reputation for that - maybe some like their gyokuro 'fresh'.

Chip · Posted: May 05, 2007 5:57 am Post subject:

While I did not go so far as to directly question their reputation in my last post...

I simply stated that a reputable vendor would sell aged gyokuro, and if a vendor was not selling aged gyokro, they should clearly state that this is not aged as gyokuro traditionally is.

There should also be some additional commentary with the tea other than simply stating shincha gyokuro. If they are not doing this, to me, they are simply capitalizing on the whole shincha hype and carrying it over to gyokuro. I could have said, but I did not, that this was a clever way of not having to inventory and age gyokuro for 6 months.

Regardless, I am not buying into it. And I suppose you could extrapulate that I was questioning their reputation. However my main objective was to try to reason why they would offer shincha gyokuro.

Photiou · Posted: May 05, 2007 6:34 am Post subject:

Kevangogh · Forum God Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 928 Location: Japan

The hype on shincha is coming from overseas, not Japan. People get the idea that shincha is way better, I don't think it is really any better or worse. Yeah, it is definitely the freshest tea of the year, yeah it's good. It is often but not always a bit bolder. However, you can buy the same exact tea in October (provided it was packaged in October) and it absolutely will be just as good.

I have some customers who only buy shincha and that's it for the rest of the year which I think is kind of a shame. I run discounts in April on the previous year's green tea if I have too much stock. Even though the tea is as good as ever, I know that everyone will want to wait for shincha so I have to move it. Smart shoppers will use that opportunity to get some good deals on high quality green tea.

Over here, I never see shops hyping shicha-gyokuro and none of my suppliers have offered it to me. That doesn't mean it's not out there, but it's not really an issue. Our fukamushi sencha is a blend so that's not going to be offered as a shincha even though the leaves are new.