I’m going through a toasted/roasted tea thing right now so I was excited to try this. I am thoroughly enjoying my sample package from TeaFrog, which arrived yesterday.
This tea definitely has an overtone of roastiness from the rice that takes me back to my Puffed Rice cereal/rice cakes days. While those two foods annoy the heck out of me (as Styrofoam should) the rice in this tea doesn’t. Instead, it adds an interesting dimension of aroma and flavor, along with a pleasant lingering aftertaste.
I was thinking this tea came along because someone, long ago, wanted roasted green tea without roasting the actual tea leaves, but the story I’ve read is that it was accidentally created when monks roasting tea leaves in cauldrons that already had rice in them ended up liking the combo. I like it too. Time for cup #2.