"energetic" qualities of shincha?

[kongni]

Hey everyone,
So I just got my first bit of shincha in the mail yesterday and sat down with a fine cup this am.

After drinking this tea, I feel that it has 'energetic' qualities that are not present in older tea. I remember someone mentioning a specific word that describes the "chi" present in tea. What was that word? I can't remember for the life of me.

[olivierco]

Tasting a new tea can give you unexpected results.
There is also a psychological effect: when you are drinking a special tea the special effect you are expecting happens.
It is the same with teaware: some people actually reported that drinking gyokuro from an expensive porcelain teacup actually improved the taste of the tea.

[Oni]

That is true, generally expencieve porcelain is made of good quality caolin, and it is much thiner than other teacups and gyokuro cups are smaller, and the heat retention is diffrent from a 100 ml large heavy ceramic cup for example, and with shincha my experience is that it is stronger than regular sencha, and the drying is kept to a minimum, so it is not finished as regular sencha, I think it is more lively than regular sencha, more intensive, I can hardly wait for my packages, unfortunately I all my packs are shipped after may 7th.

[olivierco]

That is true, generally expencieve porcelain is made of good quality caolin, and it is much thiner than other teacups and gyokuro cups are smaller, and the heat retention is different from a 100 ml large heavy ceramic cup for example.

Perhaps but heat loss is way more important when you actually pour the tea from the brewing vessel and more influenced by room temperature and exchanges with air anyway.
Moreover as it is advised for gyokuro to preheat the teacups I don't see how porcelain (which is neutral to taste) could improve the taste of the tea, except psychologically.

[Oni]

My experience with thin porcelain is that even with the method where the you pour water from cups into houhin, after 2 minutes those little cups come back to almost room temperature, and with the second infusion, I pour water from the kettle directly into the yuzamashi, when my guests return their cups it is right back to room temperature, and the same thing happens with gong fu porcelain cups, I do not yet own ceramic small cups, but I hope at least for gong fu cha that they have better heat retention.

[Chip]

I cannot say I feel any different after drinking shincha than regular sencha. I would say if there is any difference, it is minimal IMHO.

[kongni]

Interesting. Thanks.

It must have been the excitement of having such fresh tea

Chip- Have you tried your organic shincha yet? What do you think of it?