Following a brief tease yesterday with a Japanese-inspired poster, a new matcha-tea-themed version of Sinstea, Poltchageist, has been revealed in the latest trailer for the first part of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet’s DLC, The Teal Mask.

Taking the form of an animated Raguko performance, the story of Poltchageist’s relationship with The Teal Mask’s Japan-inspired land of Kitakami details the myth of a neglected tea caddy, passed around from owner to owner for years until it eventually becomes the Pokémon Poltchageist.

In the story, Poltchageist is shown using its matcha powder to leech the life force of humans it feels anger towards for damaging a teacup. It then uses the same power to repair cracks in the teacup and other items. As a result of the Poltchageist story, matcha – even as flavouring – is apparently banned in Kitakami entirely.

Poltchageist is a Grass/Ghost type, and although many originally thought that it was a new form of Polteageist, given the name, it is, in fact, a convergent species of Sinistea.

Poltchageist also has a new ability, Hospitality, which will restore the health of allies when joining battle.

A gameplay trailer showing Poltchageist in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has also been released:

It will first be available in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet from the 13th September when the first Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC pack launches. It joins Dipplin, Fezandipiti, Munkidori, Okidogi and Ogerpon as new Pokémon launching with The Teal Mask.

Later this year, with a ‘Winter 2023’ release date, the second part of the DLC – The Indigo Disk – will also launch with the new Pokémon Terapagos, Archaludon, Raging Bolt and Iron Crown.

While purchasing the DLC for your copy of Pokémon Scarlet or Pokémon Violet will be necessary to explore the new locations of Kitakami and the Blueberry Academy where these Pokémon can be found, players without the DLC will still be able to receive these Pokémon in their games via trading or via Pokémon HOME.

Update: Later PR details have implied that Poltchageist is actually a new convergent species form of Sinistea, not Polteageist – despite the obvious similarity in name. While we still don’t have explicit confirmation of this, we’ve corrected the story based on the currently understood information.