GenmaiCHAI

Additional notes: Sipdown! I mixed the rest of this and some 52Teas Browncoat Genmaicha. Chocolate chai genmaicha! Sadly, not very much chocolate and not very spicy. But I really love 52Teas genmaicha base anyway! Sipdown one of many, hopefully…

Hm, thought I logged this one already. Guess not! I love genmaicha, I love chai, and I love the one genmaicha chai mix I’ve tried (Yogic’s with lemongrass) so I was pretty sure from the moment this was announced that it would be a winner for me.

Simmering on the stovetop, this makes my whole kitchen smell amazing. It’s a particularly fragrant chai blend, with tons of chunky spices in the mix. With the toasty aspect of the genmaicha, it smells like I am making chai-flavored rice krispie bars! Which of course now I am dying to do.

The spices in this are a bit unique. I mean, yeah, they’re standard enough but the ratios make this blend stand apart. It’s pretty heavy on the cardamom, ginger and clove while the cinnamon is only a hint in the background. I don’t like very cinnamon-y chais and I adore cardamom so this is right up my alley!

With the genmaicha base I decided to go sugarless, even though I almost always add honey/agave/etc to chais made on the stovetop. Genmaicha + sugar is just not a thing that works in my head, so this ended up being almost savory! Well, I guess as savory as a chai can be. It seems much lighter than other chais because of the green base, this is definitely a winner!

Day 10 of 52 teas 12 days of Christmas.

First of all, I am really surprised there are not more reviews on this one.

This one is quite well done. It smells similar to other 52 teas chai blends. But after brewing it smells like a delicious gingerbread cookie. No jokes here. The chai spices mix with the popcorn flavours and you get a delicious cake like drink. There is a slightly salty, seaweedy green tea base, but it is also sweet, not overpowering, and works really well with the chai spices. I would describe this as a very “light” genmaicha. I think anyone interested in trying genmaicha should try this one. It’s definitely a winner.

On a side note, I hope that there is lemon merengue chai in the last of these 12 days of Christmas. Fingers crossed.

Backlog:

YUM! I’ve had at least one or two different chai blends made with Genmaicha as the base, but I think that this one is the best that I’ve had. I like the level of spice here, it’s spicy, but not so spicy that it overwhelms the gentler base of green tea and toasty rice.

It has a nice, peppery taste – again, not overly peppered – and it’s just … really nicely flavored. Just the right amount of spice. Sweet, toasty, lush and “green” with warm spice.

On the tenth day of Christmas, 52 Teas gave to me…GenmaiCHAI!

This is another one I’ve been curious about for a while, although not quite enough to spring for a whole pouch. I like chai, but genmaicha is something I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with, along with green tea generally. Still, I’m glad I found it here, because it’ll let me satisfy my curiosity.

A good thing, because it’s actually a nicer combination that I would have thought. The genmaicha provides a wonderfully nutty background, while the chai spices provide the majority of the initial flavour. I do like 52 Teas Chai blends, so it’s perhaps not surprising that I really like the balance of spices here. This is one I’ll be glad to have in my stash well into the new year — perfect for cold days when I want something a little different to drink!

So I drank this during a meeting at work so I’m going by memory on it rather than writing this during the drinking like I normally do. So here it goes.

This is a surprisingly good tea for me considering that individually I don’t like more than half of the ingredients. I’m not a big fan of chai, but it seems that this is a good entry into the chai branch of tea, I rarely come across a green chai and the toasted rice adds an interesting dimension to the flavour.

Unfortunately, I still don’t like it. I’m extremely sensitive to ginger and cinnamon so while this nominally tasted okay, I had a burning sensation in my mouth after every swallow that lingered unpleasantly. But I doubt that anyone else has this sensation so the steepster community as a whole will probably like this tea.

Garrrrrrr… sad sipdown. I’m bummed to see this stuff go. It is weird and I love it. I have been saving the last of it, not wanting to face the fact that it would be gone. Fact now faced. :/

I’m honestly surprised that no one has thought to combine these two teas before. Genmaichas are generally robust enough to not get drowned out by the bold flavours of the chai spices and the toasty, malty flavours of the toasted rice is an excellent compliment. This ends up being a distinctly gingery chai – not surprising as there were huge chunks of gingeroot in my sampler packet. The whole thing has a surprising smoothness to it almost as if it were a latté. Very enjoyable.

In a word – WOW! This has to be hands down the best tea blend I have tried from 52teas (or any other company for that matter) to date. I am very partial to both green and Chai tea which already makes this a winner for me. With this said, using Genmaicha as a base for what I can only rave as a perfect Chai blend is pure genius! The nutty roasted flavoring from the Genmaicha creates a creamy ‘milk-like’ note to this blend that gives it a Chai latte finish – without any milk or calories! If you are a fan of Chai or spice teas this is a definite MUST try! Well done, Frank, well done.

As expected, I just adored this tea. The roasted rice flavor complimented the chai spices in a delicious way that I didn’t expect. And the chai spice blend was perfect. Sometimes I find a chai to be too sharp. This one was mellow, but not so mellow that you couldn’t tell it was a chai. It was perfect. I’m hoping Frank keeps mixing this one up.