I was excited to get this as a sample with my order from Aiya. I love matcha, I love rice and I like green tea, so I thought this tea would be a smash hit for me. I ended up not really liking it, which disappointed me greatly.
The tea itself was excellent quality, with a generous portion of rice well coated in matcha. Tea leaves were thin, tightly rolled, vibrant dark green.
Once the water hit the tea, the scent of the toasted rice was so strong it put me off. It seemed almost burnt smelling, although the rice was not burned; that was just my impression of the scent.
The matcha blended nicely in the water and the green tea had a very pleasant rich taste , but the taste/scent of the toasted rice just overwhelmed me. After drinking, it also left a very strong aftertaste of toasted rice, which I disliked.
I tried a second tasting with some food instead of by itself and that helped a bit; but I still found the toasted rice flavor aggressive and unappealing. This was my first try at Genmaicha, and I’ll probably try it again to give it another chance but as of now it’s not something I’d seek out.
I did rate this tea highly because it was obviously very good quality, well blended and flavorful, I just didn’t like the flavor!
