Organic Genmaicha with Matcha

Sipdown! Bye bye bubby! You were a good friend. I’m lucky that you’re sold close by and for not-so-much-money!

This has been on my ‘to try’ list for a while, and what’s great is the fact that a local cafe carries it! So I can try it without having to get a full 2oz.

My taste buds aren’t working too well, as I have a bit of a cold, but this is awesome.
I think Den’s Tea should not only label their Organic Sencha and Genmaicha as “Organic” but also as a higher quality version of each. I’ve found the Organic Sencha to be excellent; one I could easily drink every day. This Organic Genmaicha is very similar. Yes, it is $3 more or so for 2oz compared to the non-organic version, but I think it would be worth it.

Even though my tastebuds (well I should say, my nose, I can’t smell much of anything) aren’t working properly, the sencha is fruity and delicious. I’ve found that genmaicha, especially with matcha, usually hides the sencha/bancha base, but not this one. It nicely balanced and the best genmaicha (w/ matcha) that I’ve had thus far.

The next time I’m looking for genmaicha, this will be on my shopping list.

Man this is tasty. Brewing it smells like popcorn, no surprise there, and I love how vibrantly green it is in the cup! It tastes delicious, like a toasty, buttery snack with a fresh-veggies element from the green tea. Yum! No bitterness nor any of that overt grassiness that tends to keep me away from green teas. I also like that it doesn’t require a finicky brewing temp (my thermometer method is clunky). I could easily see this becoming an afternoon “snack”.

This tea doesn’t have what I look for in a Genmaicha, which is the rich flavor of the roasted rice. Don’t get me wrong, as a tea, this is good stuff. It has a rich flavor with just a hint of sweetness. But I’m still looking for my favorite Genmaicha.

Note that I made the tea both according to the instructions on the website (1 rounded teaspoon per 4 oz at boiling) and also my preferred way (1 teaspoon per 8 oz at 165) and both tasted good. But it’s the flavor of the roasted rice that I’m looking for and didn’t find.

Last night I finally got around to try one of the samples that I got from the awesome Den’s Tea starter sampler pack (for $3!).

It was tasty and totally what I expected from this: green greenery, roasty roastiness. How eloquent. But you know what I mean, right? ;D Perhaps I thought I would taste more matcha in it but it wasn’t very noticeable. The roasted rice pieces were pretty big in size and they tasted delicious as a part of this concoction.

I like genmaichas a lot but the thing about them is that they are pretty sameyish no matter from where they are. In that case, having it with a few specks of matcha, might be a nice twist that adds a bit of grassiness to the taste as well as uber-cool neon green to the color of the steep. Nice!

This tasted weak to me. No matter how I brewed it, there was just not enough flavor.