Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha

Sip Down!

This tea was a hit and miss for me. Sometimes it was not bad, other times the flavoring fell flat for me.

I sipped a small pot of this tea while I sewed up the loose end of my Star Blanket of Boring I crocheted. Then I drank the cold leftovers while I wrote up my blog entry on my crafty blog http://awkwardsoul.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/blanket-achievement-unlocked/

This last pot was meh. I got a bit of cherry taste, wishing there was more. I preferred this tea mixed with a little flavored matcha.

This tea smells almost identical to the marshmallow treat genmaicha blend. I’m a big fan of that one, so I’m even more excited to see the addition of cheesecake and cherry! I do get a little whiff of the cherry in the background. A plus, the cherry doesn’t smell like medicine!

Sipping… the first thing I taste is the genmaicha. It’s not really toasty, but more burnt. It’s almost a little bit jarring because I was expecting more creamy cheesecake and sweet cherry. The flavor does mellow out into a tiny bit of fruitiness. It sort of morphs in and out of being cherry and a generalized fruit flavor. As far as the cheesecake note is concerned, it’s just a whisper. If I didn’t know that cheesecake was in this blend, I wouldn’t have even detected it. A bit bummed as I typically love 52Teas cheesecake teas. I’ll make a few more cups of this to see if I can bring out more cherry and cheesecake, but for now I’m not all that impressed.

I tried this for the first time a few days ago, so forgive me if I’m not perfectly eloquent today!

First of all, the smell of the dry leaf is ricey and sweet and fun. It definitely begins to evoke the concept of a cherry cheesecake. I’m pretty fond of a genmaicha, but haven’t had a ton of experience with them. I was first introduced to genmaicha by a friend of mine I used to work with. She was allergic to just about everything except for rice and green tea (I think you see where I’m going with this). She was even unable to drink black teas. I’m not quite sure why, but somehow that was the case.

In any case, I had a small amount of genmaicha with her a while back and enjoyed it, but wasn’t blown away. To be fair, I wasn’t exactly blown away by much green tea at all. I’m pretty sure it stems from the fact that everytime I had green tea for a very long time, it was prepared improperly, usually with too hot of water.

So when I saw the Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha, I knew that I wanted to try it. After heating my water, I allowed it to set and cool for a few minutes to get water temperature more along the lines of what is needed for this kind of tea. I allowed it to steep a couple of minutes and poured myself a cup.

I wasn’t fond of the smell of the wet leaf, it was a bit too heavy on the rice aroma. But the liquor itself, well… that just smelled delicious! The tea itself was nice a lightly flavored. It was like a nice green tea with a hint of the rice (almost simulating the taste of a crust if you keep entirely in cheesecake terms) and a very mild sweetness. I think my favorite part was how mild the cherry flavor was. It was definitely present, but just sort of interlaced itself with the rest of the flavors to enhance the overall product.

Not listing my preparation details as I can’t remember them that precisely, but I definitely enjoyed this and may have to get one of the other remaining bags of it to ensure I have some on hand for a while!

This came today after I had the Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, so I figured I would keep the Genmaicha train a-rollin’ and dig right into it. I liked this one better than the Marshmallow, but I like cheesecake more than marshmallow. I added a teaspoon of sugar and a teeny, tiny splash of milk. Nice mild tea. I could not really taste the cherry cheesecake initially, but the aftertaste of it was there. Glad I grabbed a bag.

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: 500ml 175F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cherry cheese danish
Steeped Tea Smell: genmaicha (vegetal, rice)
Flavor: bitter green
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: bitter
Liquor: translucent honey green-yellow

Next time less temp? less leaves?

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: 500ml 175F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: cherry cheese danish
Steeped Tea Smell: genmaicha (vegetal, rice)
Flavor: green, rice
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: vegetal
Liquor: translucent honey green-yellow

Much better at 2 min, cherry is still mostly in smell, but smooth genmaicha this time.

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2012/02/52teas-loose-leaf-green-tea-cherry.html

I want to love this…really I do. But…I can bake and have prize winning bakers in the family…and this…well…is flat. Hard to taste cherry at all. I even doubled the amount of tea. Steeped a long, long time-tic-toc-tic-toc…finally…because I’m a waste not kind of woman I poured the last of a cooled down brew at about 15 minutes steeping with some sweetening but no milk…and at last some flav…not flavor but flav…got some cherry notes and the toastiness of rice to add crust to the cheesecake and a bit of creaminess. It could be that the green tea is not the best vehicle for my taste. A wheatier tea may be better. I’ll give this a second go. Not a great bouquet either. Why, Why,Why! I wanted a great dessert!

i did not like this one.. i seem to be the only one.. i don’t know what i didn’t like.. i like genmaicha.. i like cherry cheesecake.. i didn’t get a strong cherry cheesecake taste at all.. maybe i steeped too long.. i’m not sure.. i’ll try it again and see!

Mixed feelings here. I’m glad I’m going through my obscene amounts of tea, but it sucks when I come to an end of a tea that I am going to miss. I dumped the rest of this tea in a mason jar with some sugar and let it cold brew in the fridge for a few days. SO. DAMN. GOOD. It was a little grainy since all the dust from the bottom of the bag was in the jar and didn’t filter out, but I don’t care. I get the gemaicha taste very clearly, but the cherry is a little hard to pick out as cherry in this cup. It is definitely a fruity flavor, but the distinction of cherry is escaping me today. Genmaicha is amazingly refreshing cold! Kinda blows my mind.

This is really tasty however, I feel it needs more… I feel like the cheesecake flavor is a little lacking in this one. I don’t know if maybe it is the Genmaicha that is overpowering the flavor of the cheesecake. I need to mess around with this one more see if I can get the cheesecake flavor to come out more. It’s in there but the flavor is a little weak for me. Still very tasty otherwise.

This was very tasty. I got a cherry syrup taste upon first tiny sip but not in an overpowering way. There is that roasty toasty genmaicha tea taste backing it. I like this one more than the browncoat genmaicha I had before from 52teas. I’m finishing up my thermos and kind of wishing I had more leaf to brew up some more.