Shincha Kunpu

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Butter, Grass, Marine, Peas, Seaweed
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Shinobi_cha
Average preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 1 min, 30 sec 10 oz / 309 ml

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11 Tasting Notes View all

  • “WOW. I’m the first to log!? Surprising… This is a no non-sense type tasting green. It’s fairly strong and sweet but almost on the verge of grassy towards the end of the sip onto the aftertaste. ...” Read full tasting note
    77
  • “I don’t often drink green teas, but I have a fondness for Senchas, especially these first flush ones from Den’s tea. The broth looks like lemon-lime Gatorade and smells like fresh grass, Miso and...” Read full tasting note
    98
  • “Yay for 2011 Shincha! I was surprised by the leaf of this asamushi (light-steamed) shincha; I mean, I assume it is light steamed. There were some extremely long, beautiful needles, but also a lot...” Read full tasting note
    98
  • “Nice sweetness and vegetable character. Not a great deal of intensity, just some restrained sweet and grassy flavour notes. Good but not especially memorable. Buy Again: Probably not” Read full tasting note
    81

From Den's Tea

Origin: Honyama, Shizuoka

Shincha Kunpu is an Eighty-Eighth (88th) Night Shincha that is lightly steamed. It has a great woodsy aroma and a natural sweetness like very fresh green vegetables.

Eighty-Eighth (88th) Night Shincha refers to Shincha picked on the 88th day after the first day of spring in the traditional Japanese calendar. It is around May 2nd. The Eighty-Eighth (88th) Night – “Hachijuhachiya” in Japanese – is a special day in Japanese agriculture since it is considered about the time all the plants and vegetation begin to sprout.

Den’s Preferred Brewing:
Water: 2oz @ 160F
Leaves: 2 grams or 1 rounded teaspoon
Steep: 90 sec
2nd Cup: Water @ 180F; Steep 30 sec

About Den's Tea View company

Company description not available.

11 Tasting Notes

77
6768 tasting notes

WOW. I’m the first to log!? Surprising…

This is a no non-sense type tasting green. It’s fairly strong and sweet but almost on the verge of grassy towards the end of the sip onto the aftertaste. Mostly it reminds me of buttered veggies…broccoli, maybe!? Or Asparagus!? Regardless…pretty good.

Shinobi_cha

Yay…finally someone tried this! If you have any more thoughts on it later, share them! Did you just get a sample?

malomorgen

16 left. looks like today is the day :D

TeaEqualsBliss

I got a sample…but have enough for another cup or two…

Shinobi_cha

Oh ok. I want to try a sample of this tea, but since you just have a sample no worries. When I order from them again I can probably ask for a sample of it, they are usually really cool like that. :-)

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98
189 tasting notes

I don’t often drink green teas, but I have a fondness for Senchas, especially these first flush ones from Den’s tea. The broth looks like lemon-lime Gatorade and smells like fresh grass, Miso and seaweed. I probably brewed this a little hot; nonetheless, this is such a pure, essential tea, so reminiscent of the terroir from which it springs; drinking it is akin to hauling oysters out of the cold Gulf of Maine, shucking them and pouring the icy cold meat down your throat. There are some elemental tastes that should never be diluted. This tremendously fresh and energizing tea is one of them.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec
TheTeaFairy

Oh my! I will now forever see Gatorade in my Sencha because of you!! That phosphorescent yellow -green colour, so true!
I love the imagery of this review…it takes just a few words, spot on.

Doug F

Thanks! I love the tea. When I drink it I feels like I’m chewing on the newest shoots of spring.

I ♥ NewYorkCiTEA

I um really want an oyster now.

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98
280 tasting notes

Yay for 2011 Shincha!

I was surprised by the leaf of this asamushi (light-steamed) shincha; I mean, I assume it is light steamed. There were some extremely long, beautiful needles, but also a lot of smaller, broken-up bits. To me, that suggests this is perhaps not just lightly steamed, but maybe mid-steamed (chumushi) or between asa and chu…
So that surprised me a little, as I was expecting to find mostly needles.

I also brewed this a little lower than the suggested 160F (it wasn’t intentional, but I knew it was happening and just went with it). However, the color came out to a beautiful greenish-yellow, just like the color of the smiley face you see when you rate a tea (the one without the tongue sticking out). The color of the liquor, however, (for all 1st-4th infusions) confirmed that this is definitely not a deep-steamed tea.

Upon first sip, I was reminded of the first time I had shincha, one year ago. A very fun memory, and cool that even though I had forgotten the way it tasted, one sip was all it took to bring back the moment!

The flavor, that I can say after this one brewing, was a nice balance of bitter, sweet, and steamed veggies (very much like fresh snap peas) – Den’s Tea describes it as “a sweetness like very fresh green vegetables”, and I’d say that is very accurate.

I look forward to having more/experimenting with different ways of brewing it. Glad that it is shincha season again; even though our modern-day storage methods keep tea just as fresh for a year or more as the stuff that is newly harvested, there is still something special about drinking a tea that was harvested just last week!

Preparation
150 °F / 65 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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81
26 tasting notes

Nice sweetness and vegetable character. Not a great deal of intensity, just some restrained sweet and grassy flavour notes. Good but not especially memorable.

Buy Again: Probably not

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Shinobi_cha

Just remember, this year was particularly hard on the Shizuoka harvest (early frosts). You probably wouldn’t want to buy it again (if I were in your shoes I probably wouldn’t), but if you get the opportunity to sample a better harvest year, do so. At least, I get the impression his Shincha Kunpu is very good, but this year was nothing special because of the weather.

camw

Thanks for the comment. Will keep it in mind when drawing up the list to order next time around!

Shinobi_cha

One cool thing about Den’s tea – you can request for a free 10g sample of any of their teas. Obviously they kind of hope you will order something, but if next year you planned on buying a shincha from Den’s and wanted to try the Kunpu, I’m sure you could request a sample. I highly recommend his Hashiri Shincha (I didn’t get to try the Kunpu, but I did get the Houryoku, and the Hashiri was even better). I’m planning on buying or at least sampling the Kunpu next time around.

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82
2036 tasting notes

I love the fine leaves of shinchas, like green, fragrant iron filings. They make a chartreuse colored liquor with a sweet, vegetal fragrance like sweet peas. The flavor is similar, though it’s not just a single note, and it dances back and forth a bit between sweet and something just short of bitter but not enough to be unpleasant, with some marine, seaweed notes and some grassy green ones.

Not my favorite of those I’ve had, but still quite good.

Flavors: Butter, Grass, Marine, Peas, Seaweed

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 17 OZ / 500 ML

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83
4170 tasting notes

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #51
The first and second steeps were completely different. The first cup was like a light nutty green tea. The second steep was like drinking a cup of matcha! It was too strange. The matcha like quality could be explained by it being the last of the sample. But that doesn’t really explain why the first cup was much different. It’s a unique green with either steep! I think I’m getting burned out on tasting notes but I think they will slow down soon… I’ll be sipping the old favorites again!

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90
2816 tasting notes

First tea of the afternoon. :)

My BF and I are having a very lazy morning so far, had coffee and breakfast and are still trying to get out the door.

This is such a wonderful shincha. It tastes very fresh and sweet, with no real bitterness in sight. The flavor is very vegetal and reminds me of spinach and peas. Den’s shincha is really amazing, I highly recommend you try it at least once. Compared to a lot of senchas I’ve had it’s quite delicate. Somehow you just feel revived after drinking this.

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