Brown Rice Green Tea

I was feeling a little bit nauseous this morning and reached for this tea. Still not feeling great, but it did help settle a little bit by getting something in my stomach. I didn’t even finish my cup, which normally I do. When my boyfriend comes into my office and I have this tea, he always asks if I am eating toast or popcorn. To sum it up, it’s toasty ;)

I steeped this for far too long this morning, causing it to be a little strong for my liking.

This tea is a mixed bag (pun intended?). I’ve drank a lot of cups of this tea, and sometimes it tastes fantastic and fresh, and other times it’s weak and stale. I guess it depends on how long ago the store stocked it. I find that steeping it on the longer side (around 3 mins) tends to be a good idea.

I tried this tea before I knew what tea was. It came off burnt and sour. I didn’t buy another genmaicha for years b/c of it. I think it was too toasty, coming off smoky. I did like Yamamotoyama teas years ago, but now, they are just mediocre to me.

Of the gen mai cha teas in bags I have tried, this one has the strongest toasted rice note and weakest tea flavors. The dry tea bags have the aroma of green tea and toasted rice in balance. The steeped cup has a light yellow color and nice toasty aroma. The rice flavors come through strongly, and it is hard to taste the tea. Still, the toasted rice on its own is pleasant.

I tried another one with a 8-ish minute steeping at the same temperature. That brought out the bitter of the green tea, and it was too bitter for me.

I’ve never had a genmaicha that I didn’t like. This one is thoroughly decent and drinkable. The green tea is pretty standard bagged quality, so it probably won’t knock the socks off of seasoned tea drinkers. It’s greatly improved by the brown rice, though, so the drink as a lovely toasted earthiness—kind of like popcorn. Sometimes that hits the spot better than anything else!

Price is definitely another factor this has going for it. I got a box for around 2 bucks, so it’s affordable to drink every day if I wanted. And actually… sometimes I do. :)

This one is my favourite for fighting the urge to eat something sugary at 4pm. It certainly has got me through the day today.

I like the water boiling and I leave the bag in whilst I drink but I think with green tea it’s down to personal preference.

I’ve been wanting to try Genmai-cha. This is a box I got at the Korean grocery store, H-mart. “Genmai-cha Green Tea with Roasted Rice”. I was actually a little nervous after smelling the bag. The roasted rice is not a joke! I wasn’t sure how i’d like it in tea, but I’d say it’s pleasant overall. I expected more vegetal green tea flavor though. All I really notice is the roasted rice smell and taste – which is nice, just not as complex as i was expecting. Will definitely drink it again and see how i like it. Not bad for what was probably around $3 for a box of tea bags.

Great alternative to Genmaicha tea from Ujinotsuyu (http://steepster.com/teas/ujinotsuyu/3511-genmaicha) when travelling or when loose tea is not an option.

I buy this in 16 count boxes of well sealed individual pouches from my (more or less) local Asian supermarket. It’s amazingly inexpensive, dependable, and it reminds me of Honey Smacks. I get that smacks are puffed wheat instead of rice but tell that to my brain.

When I’m not looking for an adventure of some kind and just want to idle on tasty, I pick this green tea and enjoy the toasty goodness. The tea itself is rather mild and vegetable, perfect for when you’re looking to simply hydrate and stay tea-headed all day while doing something else but you also have a sweet-toothed craving for all-day carbs.

Had this tea at a restaurant today, one of my favourite sushi places, though it’s not terribly authentic. I was cold so I ordered this as a hot tea. Sweetener got interesting because the restaurant was completely out of white sugar so I put some brown sugar in instead (sacreligious I know, I don’t care). It was..interesting and not awful. Which is about what I expect from restaurant bagged tea where I have no idea what any of the parameters are.