Hand-picking Japanese Green Tea (shin-cha)

The best Japanese green tea is shin-cha or "new tea" which is the year's first harvest. May is the tea harvest season throughout most of Japan and many farmers take special care to select the best leaves for use in making shin-cha. While hiking in the hills near our home we met a nice family who were spending the day picking shin-cha the old fashioned way, by hand. Most Japanese farmers use machines to harvest the tea and it was a real treat for us to have a chance to watch this family bring in the harvest the old fashioned way. This friendly family were quick to invite us to join them and our daughter Emily received special instructions from the grandmother on how to properly pick green tea by hand. We were invited to share summer oranges as they took their break and they told us of how the people of their village had slowly reclaimed land from the river bed over several centuries to produce the tea fields they were now working in. Their large farmhouse stood at the top of a nearby hill overlooking the beautiful valley. They even gave us their cards which they made themselves and which proudly featured photos of their tea fields and their lovely village.

At the end of this video you will see the extend of this family's tea field which they told us would provide them with enough tea for their own consumption for a single year.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Japan
• Green
• Tea
• Shincha
• Shizuoka
• Tokaido
• Softypapa

[skawik]

thats my dream field ohh my god is so wide and GREEN

i like it

its true than the shincha only at the year rare is? like only 2009 become the picking from 2009?

[softypapa]

@skawik I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the video. I think that you are correct in noting that shin-cha is usually sold in the year it was harvested. After that it would no longer be "new" (though likely still quite good). ~Kurt :-)

[toukab]

nice video . is lipton green tea healthy too ?

[softypapa]

Hello toukab, Thanks for letting me know you liked the video. I'm afraid that I do not know much about commercial green teas and am not sure of the health value of these. Perhaps someone more knowledgably will chime in with an answer. -Kurt

[HinataLuver1]

so beautiful! japanese culture is very beautiful!

[xLacey]

*japanese

[grittygreenhorn]

Why aren't there more people in those fields? Children used to get a week off from school to work in the potato fields. Need to find a way to reduce unemployment? Look to yon tea fields for an answer!

[fuckMEturtles]

@softypapa the only word in the green tea in the title i know is CHAim chinese and cha means tea :DDD

[jameswray50]

I'm pissed, I've gone to such great lengths to learn how to grow and proses matcha green tea and I'm not getting shit! Could you recommend a good book on it? I would greatly appreciate it u would make my life much easier

[Zu3sUK]

Im jealous of your life! :P Well done! beautiful country

[Kaminix]

@croconna Thank you!

[croconna]

@Kaminix

She says:「...熱湯を（ざーっと）やってね、飲むと美味しい­ですって」

*ざーっ*

As you may know, this is an onomatopoeia to express the sound of heavily flowing or pouring water.

"雨がざーっと降る" = It rains heavily. (rather a brief rainfall)

It can also refer to action taken in a rushed manner.

"本をざーっと読む”　=　read a book hurriedly

So "infusing unprocessed leaves (with a dash of hot water)" is correct.

[shahzadalinsr]

lolz, shin cha in pashto means Green tea.

[Kaminix]

What is the old lady saying about drinking something good (、、、入ってやって、飲むと美味しいですって、、、) as she hands over the leaves? :-) Infusing the unprocessed leaves?

[Megasromanos]

Nice upload do you live their ?

Can you upload something about the samurai ?

Or the japanese philosophy ?

[TalentedFilms]

wow, i just drank green tea but I really want to try the fresh kind :)