Shincha Marashi, Japanese green tea, 50g pack

Marishi, named after the buddhist saint Marishiten is a new rare tea cultivar that was developed by year 1996 by researcher Yamamori Miyoshi together with his daughter by crossing Sugiyama tea cultivar plants with wild trees. It started out with just 10 plants and by now there are more than 6000 plants growing in Tara, Saga prefecture, in the northern part of Kyushu island. Nevertheless, there has been only a handful harvests produced so far, making it exceedingly rare. The tea is already known for its sweet, elegant, light vegetal taste and for strong umami, that is emphasised in this tea by shading the bushes for two weeks before harvest (kabuse). Harvested in first days of April, this is a wonderful treat.

Shincha, literally "new tea" is the very early first harvest of the season, usually plucked a week or more before the regular harvest. For this style of tea, only the youngest buds and leaves are carefully selected and the tea typically undergoes a very short steaming process, preserving the raw essence of the leaf. Most of shincha is consumed up locally within Japan and very little is sold abroad.

Quantity: 50g