81
drank Japan Genmaicha by TeaGschwendner
676 tasting notes

I got a sample of this tea from my dad of all people. He’s a big fan of Tea Geschwender’s Irish breakfast blend and that’s pretty much all he buys from there. Whenever he visits, he comes back with random tea samples which often get passed on to me.

I finally pulled this one out of the cupboard after nearly 6 months. No idea of when the tea was harvested or how long it sat in storage. Appearance wise, there was a higher ratio of brown rice kernels to leaves as compared to the genmaicha I buy which made me suspect this wasn’t top-shelf. The tea brewed up pale green and had the familiar nutty, toasted rice aroma and taste. I couldn’t taste anything from the underlying green tea, but that’s not surprising considering the paltry amount of actual tea in this blend. Not a big deal though because that can easily be remedied by adding sencha leaves or a pinch of matcha.

This reminded of the bagged genmaicha from the Asian supermarket I used to drink many moons ago. It’s a serviceable, unfussy tea but not as remarkable as the stuff I get now from online shops.

Flavors: Toasted Rice

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 0 sec 2 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
Mastress Alita

That reminds me of some genmaicha I bought from an American shop that had added actual popcorn to make it “look” more genmaicha-like just because so few rice kernals actually pop during the roasting process in authentic genmaicha these days. I couldn’t believe they were adding popcorn to genmaicha. Now I order my genmaicha directly from Japan…

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Mastress Alita

That reminds me of some genmaicha I bought from an American shop that had added actual popcorn to make it “look” more genmaicha-like just because so few rice kernals actually pop during the roasting process in authentic genmaicha these days. I couldn’t believe they were adding popcorn to genmaicha. Now I order my genmaicha directly from Japan…

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My Rating Criteria:

95 to 100: Top shelf stuff. Loved this tea and highly recommend it

90 to 94: Excellent. Enjoyed this tea and would likely repurchase

80 to 89: Good but not great. I liked it though it may be lacking in some aspects. I’ll finish it but probably won’t buy again

70 to 79: Average at best. Not terrible but wouldn’t willingly drink again

60 to 69: Sub-par. Low quality tea, barely palatable

59 and below: Bleh

Fell into tea many years ago and for a long time my experience was limited to Japanese greens and flavored Teavana teas. My tea epiphany happened when I discovered jade oolongs. That was my gateway drug to the world of high quality tea and teaware.

For the most part, I drink straight tea but do appreciate a good flavored tea on occasion. I love fresh green and floral flavors and as such, green tea and Taiwanese oolongs will always have a place in my cupboard. After avoiding black tea forever, Chinese blacks have started to grow on me. I’m less enthusiastic about puerh though. I also enjoy white tea and tisanes but reach for them less frequently.

Other non-tea interests include: cooking, reading, nature, philosophy, MMA, traveling when I can, and of course putzing around on the interwebs.

IG: https://www.instagram.com/melucky

Location

around Chicago

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