Japan Genmaicha

I want to not like this tea. Firstly, its green. I don’t like green teas. Secondly, it has mouse turds in it. Ok, its really toasted rice, but I looked first, and read second. But on a cold, rainy afternoon, slaving away for my own portion of bread, it strikes a note with me. Toasted starchy cereal grains with the green vegetable underlying just works. Thumbs up for trying something new and having my expectations blown away (in a good sense, since I expected to hate it).

Roasty toasty goodness. Anyone who has roasted nuts in the oven, this tea has that taste. I got this iced at my local TG shop. A little sencha astringency. I think this is as good as SpecialTea’s genmaicha, but not as good as Den’s, which I think is truly the best.

Very nice strong flavored tea.

One of the worst Genmaichas I tried. Very grassy and vegetal, with little to no rice flavor. Increased water temperature / steep time only brings out more grassiness and does nothing to improve the rice taste. I like my Genmaicha on the sweeter side and full of roasted rice goodness, this one definitely falls short on both counts.

This is my first time having the Genmaicha. After having many Japanese teas, I finally decided to give it a try. The story of how it started reminds me a lot of the legend of the Lapsang Souchong and its origins (they both were never intended to become the worldwide success they are). This is a mild tea with a light body, lingering little on the palate. It’s light enough that the lingering is very hard to tell and dissipates quickly (as it spreads across the palate). The sencha is concealed by the toasted rice; however, not to the point that it’s gone. You miss out on some of the less popular subtleties of the fine Sencha—e.g., briskness—and are able to enjoy a little extra something alongside the roasted rice. At first sip, I thought it was like a toasted piece of thinly sliced whole grain toast. After further savoring, it’s easily distinguishable from that. The Sencha provides a “green” flavor to it, giving you a simple, flat vegetal flavor to round out with the starch. I recommend this tea. It’s a good afternoon snack for sure!

smells toasty and has a nice nutty flavor.

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.

One of my favourites! The smell is like a field full of wheat, a little nutty and grassy.
Specially as cold brew this tea is a great player for a hot day or afternoon.
A brilliant yellow cup with a taste of roasted rice, bread and nuts.

This is my first Japanese tea so I don’t have a lot of experience with them yet, however it’s a really nice tea. At first I thought that rice and tea wouldn’t work out as a flavour but it really does. The smell of the dry leaves is nothing special so at first I was concerned it won’t taste of rice at all, but it does. This tea has a very strong rice aroma and taste when brewed which doesn’t fade away to quickly. In the first few steepings, the rice flavour is dominent, but after a while the green tea flavour comes through

I only bought enough for one sample, but it was a great experience. It smells wonderful, with a decent pan-fried taste.

This is my go-to accompaniment to any Asian meal; sushi, yakisoba, udon soup, even pad thai. I prefer the grassiness of this to other genmai I’ve tried, and the boldness of the rice is just where it needs to be.