Cherry Almond Genmaicha

Wow, I love dried cherries, and the scent here is 100% dried cherry, so I was pretty excited to give it a try. As usual, the main flavor is the toasted rice. I got a bit of cherry at the end of the sip. It was fun because it was authentic tasting dried cherry flavor instead of the really artificial tasting flavoring you see so often. I never tasted any almond, and I did think the flavors should be pumped up more because the toasted rice really took over.

2023 sipdown no. 54

The last 52Teas blend from Kelmishka, sadly! Thank you so much for sending so many along!

I loved the cherry pieces in this blend — such a vibrant red. The cherry and almond both came through in a straightforward and delightful way. I really enjoyed them against a genmaicha base as well. A great cuppa!

Lately I’ve been a bit disenchanted with genmaicha. Something about the way it smells has become off-putting to me. Not enough to not drink it, but enough so that I find myself not reaaalllyyyy enjoying it when I do.

So I was a little apprehensive about this one. Plus, cherry-almond can go so wrong so quickly. Happily, though, the cherry and almond are both pretty subtle (yet distinct!) and they end up cutting some of the whateverness about genmaicha that’s been rubbing me the wrong way. And then the toasted rice prevents the cherry and almond from becoming cloying or overwhelming. So it’s a nice balance, all things considered!

I’ve hit a point where I’ve already drained my cupboard of caffeine-free options from my oldest teas, while I still have tons of caffeinated tea from 2018 that is becoming harder and harder to get through since I cut off caffeine intake after 6 p.m. So, I’m going to experiment and see if there aren’t any teas that don’t give me enough of a jolt to affect my sleep… houjicha tends to be okay, so tonight I’m going to try a genmaicha. I’m hoping the way the tea is cut with lots of brown rice will make it subtle enough for evening drinking…

Has a lovely nutty aroma. I was smelling sort of an almondy/marizan sort of scent from the dry leaf, but I’m not getting that in the steeped cup… the nutty taste is the satisfying toasty roasted rice, but I’m not tasting almond. I get a little cherry in the background, but it is subtle. The dry leaf smells spot on for a cherry and almond dessert, but this brew is mostly just the grassy/toasty notes of genmaicha with a little cherry aftertaste. I’m guessing age was harsher on this one than some of my other 2018 teas… at least the green tea doesn’t have that dry, stale lawn clipping taste, and is a nice, vegetal grassy taste.

This blend didn’t work for me. I think it was because I couldn’t make out the cherry and almond very well. The genmaicha really over powered the other ingredients. Even with milk it was very green tea + toasted rice flavour with only a faint hint of nuttiness. I never got any cherry or marzipan/distinctly almond tasting notes at all. I also found it a bit astringent and too “green tea-ish” (like a culinary grade matcha – it is heavily grassy and green tea flavoured but also a bit bitter and astringent). I’m not sure if it was the green base or maybe because I never got any actual cherries in my pouch, but I felt like this was just a slightly more astringent version of normal genmaicha.

Another flavoured 52Teas Genmaicha blend! You can never have too many of those.

The dry leaf for this one smells quite nice; very sweet and robust with distinct notes of almond/amaretto and maraschino cherry. It actually surprised me a little bit how distinct the two notes were/are – I had sort of theorized that they’d sort of merge together into one very strong almond/marzipan/amaretto or cherry note given how similar the two profiles are…

Taste wise it’s not as strong/robust as the dry leaf smells, but the distinctness of both the almond and cherry does still come through. The almond seems stronger to me, possibly because the roasted quality/toasted rice notes sort of emphasize its nuttiness. You know, a roasted nut sort of flavour quality overall, with softer cherry undertones. It’s very smooth, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I mean, I expected to like it even if I thought it would be one strong, single note flavour – and I like it just as much as anticipated, the profile is just not exactly what I’d expected.

There is one thing I love more than a good Genmaicha, and that is a good flavored Genmaicha. I purchased a taster version of the Cherry Almond Genmaicha to see if I loved the 52 Teas Genmaicha as much as I used to. For what it’s worth, one of my favorite flavored tea flavors is cherry, so I was really looking forward to this one.

When I opened the envelope, the aroma was so fresh and full of cherry/almond scent. I dumped most of the 30 g package into my Breville and brewed about three cups’ worth, using the standard settings for green tea.

I don’t know if I should have put the entire envelope of tea into the basket instead of keeping about a tea spoon for later. I could taste the Genmaicha, and it was just as good as it always is from 52 Teas. As a matter of fact, I still have delicious flavored Genmaicha in my tea drawer that I purchased well before Frank stopped selling it.

Anyway, when I smelled the brewed tea, I could smell the toasted rice, but that’s about it. When I drank it, I got no cherry and no almond at all. Just the Genmaicha. As I mentioned before, the tea was on the weak side, in my opinion, and I’m wondering if I should have used the whole packet instead of holding back a teaspoon of it.

So I wouldn’t count it out just yet, but I don’t know if I want to spend another $4 on just one pot of tea when I’m not even sure that the problem is with the brew time and not the tea. It might be worth a try. I’ll change my review if I do that and will reset the ratings.

Delicious and interesting tea. I am not a huge fan of genmaicha, although I want to be. BUT, if I am going to drink one of these teas, this would be the one. I enjoy the toasted rice flavor as the background with cherries and green tea, it is very good.