S'mores Genmaicha

Honestly, I have been scared of genmaicha since I started my tea drinking journey. I am not really a fan of green tea to begin with, and then add in rice??? That just sounds too weird to me. I even got the best sellers sampler with marshmallow treat genmaicha which has good ratings, but I have been too scared to try it.

And then I scratched today’s tea…..hmmm….genmaicha. “Stop being such a stubborn tea person and just try it” the tea seemed to say to me.

So here it goes….. It is….different. I am getting rice first, then a hint of smoke, with subtle hints of marshmallow and chocolate. It is kinda weird, and I am not quite sure how I feel about it yet.

Hey! I love it! I’m so excited! And kind of mad because I didn’t think I’d love it so I only bought one package.

See, I was worried about this one because although I liked Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha OK, I thought it basically tasted like Super Golden Crisp, which is a sweetened breakfast cereal that I don’t really like, so I traded it away. I bought this one on curiosity alone, prepared to trade it as well, especially since I’m not that fond of smoky teas.

So this tea has that Super Golden Crisp scent when brewed. I sweetened my 8-oz. cup with two Splenda packets. And I was in love at sip #1. I could taste the marshmallows, the graham crackers, the chocolate, and it wasn’t really smoky in my opinion. I even loved the sweet roasted rice taste that reminds me of that rice cereal.

This one is a winner. I’m going to buy more when/if it’s reblended.

This one is kind of a let down, as it misses the S’mores mark (at least for me).

I get an extra toasty genmaicha (and it’s a pretty solid genmaicha, honestly) with a tiny bit of marshmallow that comes through at the end, but I don’t get graham cracker or chocolate.

“Another Traveling Tea Box?!?!”

Mmmm… fresh, toasty rice cakes! I’m honestly not getting marshmallow or chocolate, which is weird because I’m eating a VERY chocolate-y Sunbutter bar with this for my afternoon work tea-time break.

Ok… as it cools, I’m picking up a little bit of marshmallow flavor, but still not really getting much chocolate. This decent as a genmaicha, but I’m disappointed in it as a S’mores-flavored tea.

1.25 tbsp for 375 ml

Thin-tasting. Slight chocolate flavour. Sweetness. Not enough genmaicha flavour coming through. Overall, bland tasting. Slight odd bleach-like note that I think is associated with the chocolate taste.

This was an interesting tea. I likes the sweetness to the genmaicha, but I am not sure I really got s’mores from it. I love genmaicha, so I enjoyed this tea, but I would enjoy a lot of genmaicha teas. I am going to try to sweeten this a bit more and see if I get a little more s’mores out of it.

On the fourth day of Christmas, 52 Teas gave to me…S’Mores Genmaicha!

Yaaaay! One I’ve not tried before, and don’t have lurking in my stash! I’ve had one cup of S’Mores Chai, as far as I can recall, but I’ve not as yet tried this. The dry leaf is encouraging, and smells very chocolatey, and there are pieces of rice, popcorn, chocolate and marshmallow among the green tea base. Should be good!

In practice, this isn’t quite as great as I wanted it to be. The toasty, almost burnt flavour of the genmaicha comes over first, and then the chocolate slowly starts to develop. The green tea emerges in the aftertaste, but that’s about all there is to the flavour. I’m not getting much of a sweet kick, or any marshmallow, and so I’m not put particularly in mind of a s’more. In this respect, S’Mores Chai did a better job. It’s by no means bad – I just wanted more of the ingerdients to come over in the flavour, and probably less strength on the genmaicha front. I’m getting toasty, like a s’more, but there just not enough follow up flavour to really convince me. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to try this, though, because I’d always have wondered.

Backlog:

I love this! This may be my favorite Genmaicha blend that I’ve had from 52teas thus far. I love the way the natural toasty flavors of the genmaicha meld with the marshmallow notes to give it a roasted marshmellow taste. The hint of Lapsang Souchong really ties it all together very well.

I wouldn’t have complained if there was more chocolate flavor. Then again, I say something like that with just about every chocolate tea I try, right? More chocolate = better. Always. :)

The best part of this tea is definitely the marshmallow, though. I just love how this all comes together. A really, really good Genmaicha blend from 52Teas!

Just got back from a month long trip on the road and three days of driving to get home. It’s good to be home! I arrive with a new arsenal of tea purchased on my trip and find some 52teas waiting for me in my mailbox. Feeling a little road weary, I’m hoping some tea will pick me up and cut through my stuffy nose a little.

I have been reading Tea Sipper’s notes on short steeping 52teas, so I’m going to give that a go. At first I steeped this for 30 seconds, but decided to give it an extra 30 in an attempt to bring out more flavors. I can taste the genmaicha, it’s toasty rice and a little bit of butteriness, but I’m not picking up on much more than that. It’s a nice comforting welcome home, but I’ll have to try it again when my nose clears up.

Tea lament: I swear I am becoming a tea hoarder. I ordered some more 52 teas, even though I still have a lot of samples of other teas left to go threw. Sigh at least when I am out of school I will have more time to drink and log in tea.

I have had this tea for a while and been waiting to rate it, since I have been messing around with it. But I have figured out weather or not I like this tea….. I do.

Ok the first time I smelled the dry leaf it wasn’t the best thing. It smelled like chocolate liquor, but in a meh way. However, when I bought the tea Frank had just made it and he also mention to other people talking about the smell that he might not have let them air out as long as they should have, and that it would disparate over time. Needless to say he was right. When I went to smell my tea today it was great. It smelled so toasty, gooey sweet and chocolaty. YUM!

The taste is pretty good. You got the gooey sweet from the marshmallow, a lot of chocolate flavor, and a toasty butteryness coming from the genmaicha. However, there was one flavor I wasn’t getting that is part of a s’more…… gram cracker. Luckily I figured out that if I put a small (very small) piece of cinnamon stick in my tea pot it helped add that cinnamon gram cracker flavor that it was missing. I do kinda wish it had more lapsang souchoung so it could be a bit more smoky though. Then again I am the kind of person that either roast there marshmallow to perfection OR get it on fire and let it burn a nice crispy shell around it. Hmmm burnt sugar…..

Overall S’mores Genmaicha is a very tasty tea. If you are looking for a good sweetly flavored Genmaicha or something a bit different to try, pick this one up.

You can read more at my blog here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/tea-smores-genmaicha/