I’m finally nearing the end of my huge envelope of samples from Nio. It’s been fun trying these different Japanese green teas, which is something I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Genmaicha is a nice toasty tea for this cold, blustery weather, and it will be interesting to see if the gyokuro will make a noticeable difference in the flavour. I followed the vendor’s instructions and steeped 5 g of leaf in 150 ml of 203F water for 30, 60, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.
The dry aroma is of toasted rice, nuts, spinach, and umami. The first steep has notes of slightly charred toasted rice, spinach, grass, and umami. I can see why people compare genmaicha to popcorn! The second, one-minute steep produces a somewhat bitter infusion featuring roast, toasted rice, kale, spinach, grass, and umami. The third steep is similar, though the fourth mellows out into toasted rice, nuts, butter, and grass. The final two steeps are full of toasted rice, nuts, butter, and roast, with faint grass and spinach. All six steeps are pleasantly smooth and starchy, possibly from the rice.
As expected, this is a comforting winter tea. I’m not sure the gyokuro produced a noticeably different taste than sencha, though I’d have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure.
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Flavors: Butter, Char, Grass, Kale, Nutty, Roasted, Smooth, Spinach, Toasted Rice, Umami, Vegetal
