September is the time when the first crop of rice is harvested. In Japanese, the first crop rice is called “Shinmai”  (新米).

If you are visiting Japan in September or October, then you will have a good chance of tasting the Japanese first crop rice.

Shinmai - firts crop rice

You can immediately notice the difference in texture and flavour compared to normal crop rice .

A photo posted by mjr_takafin (@ragga_takafin) on

Shinmai is at its best when enjoeyd plain. Japanese also like to enjoy it with Umeboshi or Gomashio.

And is there anything better than Onigiri made from Shinmai!

A photo posted by akane (@akaneko215) on

(Article featured image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jetalone/21674942686)

The post Shinmai – Japanese First Crop Rice appeared first on YUNOMI.

How to choose Japanese tea

By partnering with a hundred plus artisanal Japanese tea farms and factories, we offer hundreds of green teas, and dozens of matcha, black tea, oolong tea, etc. Where do you start?

We recomend starting with Sampler Sets!