Ryokucha

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Brisk, Clean, Freshly Cut Grass, Grassy, Green, Kale, Nutty, Ocean Air, Silky, Toasted Rice
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Jason
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 45 sec

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

59 Want it Want it

  • +44

55 Own it Own it

  • +40

79 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I went for a couple of weeks without this holding court on my tea shelf and those two weeks have taught me that I’m not going to be able to let that happen again. I’ve been waking up with black tea...” Read full tasting note
    97
  • “This stuff must have crack in it. There is no other reason that I would wind up craving what is, basically, a genmaicha. I don’t really like genmaicha. But this? SO GOOD. All it takes is for...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “Well…alright, then. This is going to be a long one. I have finally had my cup of Ryokucha. It was one of the first tea tasting notes I saw passingly (before I even knew what a takgoti WAS ;) ) that...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “So this is the Takgoti tea I’ve been waiting to try. Now I’ve finally been given the chance to see if Samovar lives up to its lofty reputation or not. ;) The dry tea smells mostly of matcha, a...” Read full tasting note
    88

From Samovar

Origin: Organic Sencha, Matcha powder, and Toasted Brown Rice from Japan. Blended in San Francisco.

Flavor Profile: Forward notes of toasted brown rice crisps met with sweet green flavors that suggest grass and kelp. This tea is roasty delicious, full bodied, milky, and slightly malty.

Tea Story:Our version of the classic Japanese Genmaicha. This tea is a converter. It converts non-tea drinkers into devoted followers. Check out this infusion and you will be mesmerized and delighted. A stunning green color, this brew is like a meal in itself, a quintessential breakfast green tea.

House blended, we make this grassy, milky, roasty, malty, sweet, and smooth tea by blending organic matcha powder, organic toasted brown rice, and organic asamushi sencha.

Samovarian Poetry: Genmaicha, Samovar Tea Lounge-style. Japanese matcha powder blended with roasted brown rice & sencha. A meal in itself, nutty, grassy. Ideal for breakfast.

Food Pairing: This tea is like a meal in itself! Try using this brew like we do at Samovar when we make ochazuke, tea soup. Pour it over some seasoned steamed rice, and add some steamed veggies, and a baked piece of terriyaki salmon or tofu… yummy! Drink the Ryokucha with your morning bagel and lox for a ideal pairing of flavors of baked bread and sea.

About Samovar View company

Samovar's is dedicated to preserving the simplicity and integrity of the tea traditions and inspiring people to practice peace through drinking tea.

79 Tasting Notes

97
260 tasting notes

I went for a couple of weeks without this holding court on my tea shelf and those two weeks have taught me that I’m not going to be able to let that happen again. I’ve been waking up with black tea in the hiatus, and while I enjoy a good black tea, it just doesn’t cut the mustard for me in the morning. [Where the hell did that saying come from, anyway? I could probably look it up…]

To be honest, it’s probably not entirely fair. Ryokucha is going to hold a special place in my heart for numerous reasons. A big one is because I credit it for being one of the first teas that really woke up my palate. A second one is the fact that it just spikes my energy in such a good way.

When this is combined with the fact that I can’t get enough of its vegetal sweetness with the toasted grainy taste of breakfast cereal and just a splash of creaminess rounding everything together into a little bubble of wake up and smile!

Happy sigh.

Ryokucha for me is the feeling of waking up in bed feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep. It’s stretching out under the coolness of the sheets and the heavy fluffiness of the comforter and being ready to tackle the day.

And now, bonus. I hope that someday we’ll be able to review teaware and such things so that I don’t have to keep hiding these little things in my reviews and hoping that you Steepsterites stumble upon it, but in a recent order I picked up Samovar’s new travel tumbler. http://bit.ly/9SRrJt

I love it. I love it more than I was expecting to. It’s double-walled, so that the outside doesn’t burn your hand, the lid screws down to prevent leakage and keep things hot. And let me tell you guys – I drank some Ryokucha this morning as I was getting ready for class and set aside a second steep in this tumbler so I could take some to class. And then I realized that I left it on my desk when I got to the building. [It was one of those mornings.] Well, I got home and forgot that I had it at my desk, fell asleep because I was exhausted, woke up, had some other tea, did some work, and then had to get ready for physics. As I was getting ready to leave, I then remembered the tumbler. After half a second of debating whether I should bring it, I nipped downstairs and grabbed it, figuring I just wouldn’t drink anything caffeinated when I got home.

It was still hot. Not room temperature warm, definitely not cooled, but that nice drinkable temperature that’s levitating between hot and lukewarm. And did I mention that this was eight hours later? Eight hours later.

Tonight, I’m going to do an experiment. I’m going to make some Ryokucha before I go to bed and leave it in the tumbler and have it on my nightstand for the morning and see how it goes, because if this means that non-functional-me can have hot tea in the morning without having to do crap… FEAR ME, MORNINGTIME.

[All right, I looked up “cut the mustard,” and it appears that no one knows for sure. First literary reference was back in 1902. The more popular theories are that it either alludes to an old cowboy saying or the fact that mustard seed is very difficult to cut.]

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 15 sec
Meghann M

Here’s to hoping your Ryokucha is drinkably warm and your morning is awesome!

sophistre

Excellent! I am digging my vacuum-lid travel tumbler that I got when that Teafrog thing was the select, but…it’s hard to go wrong with more access to tea. Gonna be curious to see if it…well…cuts the mustard, overnight.

teaplz

Yeahhh, I’m definitely thinking of investing in a travel tumbler for work. I tend to drink my tea in the afternoon at work, so it’d be nice to have it still warm by the time I got to it.

Also, did you have to shake the Ryokucha, tak? Did all the matcha settle out?

AmazonV

ok wrong comment, deleted, let’s do the right one this time…..wow 8 hours?!?! i can’t wait to see how this test goes as i am always in a rush in the AM

Ricky

That’s the one I have. Mine’s the Nissan unbranded one. It does a great job and holds it hot, but my only complaint was the plastic retained the smell of your tea. I stopped using the drinking lid and I just uncap the whole thing now when I drink it.

Meghann M

Okay, stupid sleep coma induced question, but do you steep your tea in the mug leaving the leaves in overnight, or just pour your tea in once steeped, or just remove the leaves? (sititng here thinking 8 hours is a REALLY long steep!). Don’t mind my mind fog this morning!

mlc

Yes, mustard seed would be very difficult to cut, but why in the world would anyone want to do so? It can be crushed relatively easily if that’s your aim. Perfect half-mustard-seeds just don’t seem like a goal worthy of an idiom.

sophistre

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cut-the-mustard.html

Some good thoughts there, but nothing conclusive. Just thought I would chime in.

takgoti

Success! I even slept a little bit longer this morning [like 9.5 hours; I was exhausted] and it was still pleasantly warm, so this is how I’m rocking from now on. EXCELLENT.

@Meghann M Thank you! And I steep it in the tumbler and then remove the leaves. They have a little basket strainer that the tumbler comes with, but I’ve discovered that my Finum basket fits in it perfectly and it’s much finer, so I use it. I can’t imagine what 8-hour-steeped anything would taste like. Not good, I think!

@sophistre Ah, the JoeMo thing? [Is that right? Am I making that up?] Carolyn really likes hers. I meant to check it out. Also, thanks for the link. I guess the world will never know for sure. I’ll file it in my brain under how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop.

@teaplz Nope. I actually enjoy drinking a lot of it at the end. I like that grainy, powdery, gritty texture. I was kind of afraid it would get stuck on the lid or on the sides of the tumbler, but I opened it up to check when I was done and it was virtually matcha-less.

@AmazonV It’s seriously worth a look. I love it, though I haven’t had it for long so I can’t vouch for its longevity yet.

@Ricky Good to know. I’ll watch out for that.

@mlc Good point, though I find it questionable as to why people feel the need to do or focus on so many other things, too. Cutting mustard seeds ultimately doesn’t seem quite so bizarre.

Grinnyguy

Wow that is brilliant. I have considered a Teasmade for a while, but ready-made and brewed tea would be even better really. My Dad used a Teasmade and it was his little routine to have tea with a Kitkat in bed every morning. I’d love to do something like that one day. When I’m a grown-up (I love using that phrase even though I’m too old for it really) I’ll do that and so many other things

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93
911 tasting notes

This stuff must have crack in it.

There is no other reason that I would wind up craving what is, basically, a genmaicha. I don’t really like genmaicha. But this? SO GOOD. All it takes is for someone to mention it and suddenly I’m thinking, “Mmm, that sounds good. I need to make some.” And then I’m turning the Zojirushi down and pulling this out.

While it brews I think, “It can’t possibly be as good as I remember. It’s a genmaicha. Sure, with matcha but that’s never improved the experience for me before.” By the time I’ve pretty much determined that this is really just a standard tea and no, I must have been nuts the previous times, my little timer goes off and it’s time to go have some tea.

So I take the first sip. “Popcorn-y. Yep, normal. But wait… Ooo, that end taste is sweet and delicious. Need more of that.” Second sip. “Mmm, that’s creamy. And what is that aftertaste? YUM.” Third sip. “Mmm, milky. Sweet and toasty and creamy. And sweet. Ooh, and milky. This is sooo good.” And suddenly I’m holding my saucer because the side table is too far away for my cup to go in between sips. If I didn’t look at this tea I would swear it had been made with milk, not water. It is that milky/creamy.

And now my cup is empty and I am revealing in the joy of the afterwarmth for a few before I go get a second steep ready.

See, crack. There is no other explanation.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

Crack lol! I’m thinking the same thing about matcha and mecha.:)

Ricky

Trying this again…

<3 genmaicha. This is definitely not something you can keep drinking. I mean on a daily basis (at least for me). Samovar needs free shipping so I can just purchase a tin of this!

teaplz

evil grin Well, Ricky, Samovar DOES have free shipping if you buy one of their gift sets!

Ricky

Aww, we’re exchanging holiday gifts?!?! Thanks teaplz! ;) I promise I’ll act surprised when I receive it in the mail.

Auggy

Weeeeell…. There is free shipping for orders over $99. But it’d probably be take a lot of Ryokucha to get to that point.

Cofftea

Teaplz- you haven’t tempted me… til now. I’d never been on Samovar’s site before so I went looking. And found the matcha mill! must have.=P

sophistre

I can’t believe my order won’t get to me before I’m gone south for the holidays. This will be sitting here at my building in Boston for 3 weeks. It is to weep.

MH_Bonham

Oh dear, it must have crack in it ;-) Sounds like something way too addictive. Must. Stay. Away.

takgoti

Oh crap. The crack was supposed to go in the other package. The OTHER package! Stupid stupid stupid!

Micah

Oooh! You make this sound so amazing. Genmaicha is actually my favorite Japanese tea. I love it! And I’ve had it with matcha mixed in before but I don’t remember it being as good as you say this stuff is.

Gah!! The next payday I have… after I find a job, that is… at least half that check is probably going to Samovar. Such rampant irresponsibility! Although I can’t say that’s in conflict with my character. =\

Auggy

I’m honestly not a big genmaicha fan, with or without matcha. But this? Love. Crave even. Crack. So good. And creamy. And now I want some but it is much too late.

Ricky

Just have some, it’s worth it. Bouncing off walls for hours? Totally worth it :D

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
158 tasting notes

Well…alright, then.

This is going to be a long one.

I have finally had my cup of Ryokucha. It was one of the first tea tasting notes I saw passingly (before I even knew what a takgoti WAS ;) ) that interested me, and for the longest time they were out of stock, so my curiosity had to remain unassuaged.

I will admit that the instructions on the tin (which is pretty slick-looking, actually; it’s not fancy but it is black and fully labeled and why I expected it to be anything else I don’t know, exactly, but there you have it) made me quirk an eyebrow. A tablespoon? A whole one? The leaves were such tiny little slips of greenery, there seemed to be so much matcha…that was going to be one dense tablespoon. A whole lot different from a tablespoon of wiry, fat-leafed black or white tea. It occurs to me as I write this that my skepticism is probably symptomatic of the real problem here, which is that at this point I may need a scale instead of a tablespoon.

The brine scent was silvery and at the forefront of the smell of the dry mixture, shining high and not quite sharp on top of a foundation of toasted carbohydrates. It made for a strange mix. I admit that the smell of the brewing wet leaves was cause for some more quirking, as the ‘toasted’ scent became very heavy…less like popcorn and more like popcorn on the ‘uh oh’ side of done. Some part of me felt like a little kid again, and it was saying, ‘this smells like Honey Smacks!’ while the adult bit of me stood off to the side going…but…I didn’t like Honey Smacks. Or Corn Pops, either (and then I remember that I ate both of them by the boxfull when I went away to school). I began to worry.

And then, sitting and sniffing and anxiously waiting, it made a connection for me that merely reading the words ‘toasted rice’ had not.

I have had this flavor before, and it isn’t Honey Smacks or Corn Pops or even popcorn to me, either.

Suddenly I am in Japan again.

At the time of this triggered memory I’ve been there for almost two weeks, which is not even a fraction of the time that someone needs to experience Japan, but has already felt like a lifetime…because only the girl whose family I’m staying with, my roommate from school, speaks any English. No one else does. (In hindsight, this was probably a good thing. It was better for me to be more quiet, do more listening, than I would have been or done otherwise.) It isn’t conversation that’s most difficult, strangely; her mother and I, one afternoon, managed to fold origami together — she taught me some patterns — despite the fact that we understood not a single word the other was saying. The difficult thing was ordering food off of menus. Poor Eiko had to gamble at every meal on what I might like or not like, and even ‘safe’ dishes — like pasta — occasionally arrived with a surprise twist (as with the night that there was a whole octopus gorgeously arrayed on top of the noodles as though it were still alive, and I was faced with a horrifying decision: to send it back when it was so beautifully prepared and offend, or to…urp…eat it). Combine this hit-and-miss ordering with my growing teen years and the fact that Japanese eat far smaller portions than we get accustomed to eating, and I was often more than a little bit peckish.

One afternoon, we travel to see the Daibutsu (giant Buddha) at Kamakura. Afterward we wandered through the little market stalls set up off to one side to look at Japanese historical merchandise of dubious quality (katanas, tsubas and netsukes, oh my!), stopping where someone was cooking little rice cakes — sembei. They had all sorts of different flavors, soy sauce most common. The fresh ones were fantastic, but…lo and behold…they sold them pre-packaged, too. I enjoyed the fresh sembei so much that my hosts from that point forward saw to it that I had a pretty overwhelming supply of the packaged ones, and my vexing food issue was finally solved.

That is what this tastes like, to me. Not popcorn or cereal, though I can readily find that there, it makes utter sense, and probably would have gone to that flavor had my tongue not had this other experience…but sembei. Of course now that I’ve found it, I can’t escape it. That’s what I smell as it brews, too — those cruchy, slightly sticky, sweet-on-the-tail-end, savory snacks that I practically lived on for the last leg of my trip, and which Eiko was forever afterward bringing back to school with her from trips home, just for me.

Why does this surprise me so much? It really shouldn’t. Toasted rice, toasted rice cakes. Logic prevails. I had just not expected to discover it again. It’s entirely possible that other people will have had it without even knowing it; I gather that there are trail mixes that like to toss in chunks of stuff that taste almost just like sembei.

And this is already way, way too long now, so it’s time to abandon memory lane and get back to the tea that I’m now working on my second cup of. First cup I brewed for two and a half minutes and added just shy of the full tablespoon of, afraid that it looked awfully potent, wary of overdoing it. This cup I added the full tablespoon and went for the full four minutes, and I think I prefer this one…the sweetness is so much stronger, and it seems to come not just from the rice but also from the tea this time…two different types of sweet, with the tea sweetness softer and the rice sweetness higher. In the mouth the tea is thick and I find it easy to think ‘creamy’ without any objections from my tongue. It’s like creamy tea without the mouth-sticky that comes from actual dairy.

I’ve lost the brine. I think the reason for this may be that eating soy-sauce sembei has irrevoccably connected salty and savory together with the rice in my palate’s memory…so what I think of isn’t the ocean, but instead that giant, beautiful Buddha gently putting on a green patina just south of Tokyo.

I think this one can stay.

Edit: Worth a mention: a nice honey flavor toward the end of the second cup, lukewarm, especially evident on an exhale or cleared throat. Yum.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 4 min, 0 sec
Auggy

Yay! I loved your epiphany about it smelling like osembei! Genmaicha always makes me feel like I should be in a bar for that same reason. And your story about going to see the Daibutsu brings back some great memories. So thanks!

teaplz

Oooooh, I loved this tasting note! This is what Steepster is all about, and really, what logs should be about! What tea evokes, and how it makes you feel is just as important as describing the actual experience of drinking the tea.

Perfect! And happy you enjoyed this one! It’s a unique one!

Jason

What’s a takgoti?

…you don’t want to know

takgoti

@sophistre This log is fantastic. Loved it.

@Jason Hey now!

Consequently, if either of you do figure out what a takgoti is, let a girl know.

LENA

HA! great post.

Keemun

…obviously you fall in love with Japan. Well, same with me. Great country. I love the way how ‘The Last Samurai’ starts to describe it….They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan…and this pureness is easy to find in japan’s culinary as well as in there tea culture. I love Kyoto by the way. Have you ever been there?

Garrett

Great log, I can totally relate to how this tea brings back memories of traveling to Japan!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

88
1908 tasting notes

So this is the Takgoti tea I’ve been waiting to try. Now I’ve finally been given the chance to see if Samovar lives up to its lofty reputation or not. ;)

The dry tea smells mostly of matcha, a thick, grassy sort of smell with a hint of toasted grains. I accidently put my nose too close and inhale a bit of the green powder. Cue a violent coughing fit.

With my eyes and nose still running, I manage somehow to add the water without spilling or scalding myself. Instantly my senses are bombarded with the smell of toasted grains. It’s a rich, powerful, savory scent that rivals any of the genmaichas I’ve ever tried. My mug is black so I can’t really see the tea colour well, but even so I can see the water turn a cloudy green.

Now here it comes…the moment of truth….Drum roll please.

The taste is fascinatingly complex. I do get the roasted grains flavour at the tip of each sip, but not as strongly as I was expecting from the scent. Then the flavour fades into something like matcha but not quite. It’s lightly grassy with a thick, milky sort of feel in my mouth, but it lacks the bitter-grass tang that straight matcha will give you. The after taste is more roasted grains and tasting it is making me feel a bit hungry almost.

This is a lovely, complex tea; it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but then I have no idea what exactly I was expecting. It’s a delicious-tasting savory tea that has a surprisingly amout of body and presence for a green tea. This is no delicate little Dragonwell! Two thumbs up Takgoti, I think you have excellent taste! :)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 15 sec
Angrboda

Sniffing matcha now? Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I wonder if there are any support groups for that…

Cofftea

Inhaling matcha is the only negative aspect of it:)

Shanti

Wow, your description sounds great…I assumed this would taste bitter like matcha, but it seems like it’s a whole different experience.

Auggy

Personally, I’m not a fan of genmaicha. But yeah, I have ordered some of this. Beware – it’s addictive! :)

I ♥ NewYorkCiTEA

I agree on takgoti. Nice review.

takgoti

Yay! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it! [And I’ve accidentally inhaled the matcha powder before, too, so I completely understand. It had a tendency to poof!]

teaplz

This tea is such a meal, almost! Takes like breakfast cereal gone green. This will more than likely be on my Samovar order when I have enough money and a lot less tea. :D

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

86
411 tasting notes

Buzz, buzz nom. Nom nom nom.
Buzz.

This is a nice tea. Very complex. In fact my first thought when having this tea was “mmm.. this is complex.” I am a genmaicha fan, and this is one of the better ones I’ve had.

It also has a lot of caffiene. Or at least I’m getting a serious buzz from this one. (Nevermind the fact I’ve had 3 other cups of tea today… :P )

This tea is the lovely green color others have mentioned, murky, deep, flavorful, and just pretty awesome. Liking this tea!!!

(And possibly twitching at this point, but I won’t dwell on that… )

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 2 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

66
328 tasting notes

This tea brews up to a neon retro lime green. What fun I thought! I had high hopes for this tea based on the reviews and my positive experience with Samovar. But, alas, I just don’t like genmaicha tea. I can’t get over the liquid popcorn taste. Worst, as I take my tea with sugar usually, the addition of sugar, only turns this into liquid kettle corn….

This seems like a fine version of a genmaicha although not my type. I will set my numerical rating to reflect the consensus so I don’t skew the ratings….

Janefan

eww, liquid kettle corn! I’ll be sure to remember that if I ever get the urge to sweeten my genmaicha.

Lori

Don’t try it…

LiberTEAS

liquid kettle corn? um… eww. just… eww…

AmazonV

but…i like kettle corn

Rabs

::throws up a little in mouth::

SoccerMom

LOL. Lori I still have the genmaicha you sent me and I’m scared to try it! It just stares at me everytime I open my sample box:)

JacquelineM

SoccerMom – that is how I am w Pu Erh! Ricky mentioned “fish tank” and I can’t seem to get over it! It stares and stares…

Lori

Aha- I knew I sent it away to several unsuspecting folks- I just could not remember who they were! Some like it you should give it a try. I am finally getting rid of the last of my genmaicha sample….

Shanti

SoccerMom—Maybe you’ll like it! It’s more of a “savory” tea than a sweet one…I don’t taste popcorn as much as maybe crisped rice or a rice cake?

Stephanie

I like kettle corn too! I love the combination of sweet and salty. I may have to add sugar to this! :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

79
314 tasting notes

I’ve had this forever and just opened it this morning. Just had to share it with my co-workers who love genmaicha.

I was able to get 4 infusions from my 12oz mug.

This is basically Genmaicha “to the Max!!” (lol, that’s such an 80’s reference isn’t it?). It’s super toasty, super green, mostly savory but with a little sweetness…and a bit of seaweed?

I enjoyed this because I love genmaicha. But it didn’t knock my socks off. So, while this was good, I’m not sure I’ll re-order once this tin is empty.

But it’s a good tea to share.

(hmm…I wonder exactly why I don’t love this? Since I find it good but not amazing, maybe the Samovar love spell has passed me over? ;) )

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 5 min, 0 sec
wombatgirl

Interesting. I have only found one Samovar tea that just makes me weak in the knees, and this is it. Otherwise, I’m fairly “meh” on their stuff, which is great on my pocketbook considering their price.

sophistre

Royal Garland (which I am sadly out of) has been my ‘omg I need this tea’ Samovar tea…but Ryokucha is pretty great. The other genmaicha teas I’ve tried have come close, but not been quite as creamy/savory, so this one still wins in my book (I’ll grant you that I haven’t tried buckets of them, though).

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
259 tasting notes

Thanks to AUGGY who sent me a generous sample of this. I thought I would probably like it because I’m fond of sencha and genmaicha. The roasted rice adds a very nice nutty flavor to these teas which always seems to result in an irresistible aroma and taste.

I am not on the fence at all, but I do have quite a few other genmaichas that I like. I’m going to give this one another go. It may be essential to keep it in stock. It’s salty-malty; it’s ricey-nicey; it’s sweet and beautiful. Splendid aftertaste, too.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

84
187 tasting notes

“This smells like a fish tank!”

That’s what my boyfriend exclaimed after he opened up the little Gladware takgoti sent me containing Ryokucha. I laughed at the time, but I couldn’t shake the idea that it kind of DOES smell like a fish tank.

Anyway, Ryokucha, Samovar’s version of the popular genmaimatcha blend. It’s neon-green from the matcha, filled with powdery-ness, with little bits of puffed rice and sencha. Certainly one of the more bizarre teas that I’ve come across, but I’m pretty much up for anything. If I lean in a bit closer, I can pick up traces of nuttiness and a buttery note. I got some of the matcha on my fingertips while trying to clean my teaspoon, and those were definitely highlights of the scent.

Anyway, steeping this up was a memorable experience! It looks like an explosion at the fields surrounding a nuclear waste facility. Cloudy neon-green murkiness, random leaves, bits of rice floating at the top. The entire thing is really bizarre.

The pour is pretty weird too. Now I have radioactive liquid in my cup, and there’s all the sediment left behind. The wet leaves smell a lot like puffed rice cereal. Very toasty and delicious smelling. I was tempted to eat the rice out of the pot, but I didn’t think that was such a good idea.

The tea itself smells really, really good. Very roasty-toasty buttery notes. Mmm.

So how does it taste? Very, very complex, for starters. I guess the best way to describe it is if your morning cereal got invaded by marine life and grass. I should probably explain that a bit further. There’s the toasty component of the puffed rice, which adds a delicious nutty note. There are hints of a milkiness that come across a lot in the aftertaste and sweet taste that lingers on the palate after every sip. The forefront of the flavor is an almost oceanic taste, with a slightly grassy component. Maybe like kelp. But in a good way.

As it’s cooled, the milky taste becomes more prominent, overtaking the puffed rice taste. This tea is thick and silky. It definitely has a mouthfeel, and it’s almost making me feel full. I haven’t felt that way about a tea before – it is like a meal. And for the sweetness in the aftertaste, you can almost certainly pick out very savory components as well. I could see this making an excellent foundation for soup, as they prepare it at Samovar.

The very bottom of the cup is a tiny bit astringent, but the rest was silky smooth. I usually drink my tea with a spoon at the beginning, that way I can sip it when it’s very hot. I used that spoon to continually stir it, so I don’t have any dregs at the bottom. And yay, you can finally see the bottom of the cup! Cause this stuff is MURKY. SWAMP MURKY. SWAMP THING IS IN MY TEA.

I think I’m already starting to feel the effects of the caffeine, even though I haven’t finished the entire cup yet. This one is kind of more than a tea. It’s more of an experience. A foodie experience. A radioactive foodie experience.

Yeah, I think the caffeine is definitely kicking in. I’m hyper-concentrated, but at the same time, prone to just random tangents of nothingness.

Okay, I think it’s time to end the review now, before I start jumping around and breaking out in song and dance.

And this was such a rational review before, too!

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec
LENA

this is a GREAT review. i’ve been trying to pump myself up to try the sample takgoti sent me too. aren’t those little gladware containers the cutest freakin’ thing? i’m going to try this tonight. maybe i’ll just post a link to your review…i loved it. :)

takgoti

The sediment is matcha! Did you drink it? It’s one of the best parts, like when…oh crap, what was that restaurant. Friendlies? Friendly’s? Anyway, they had those sundae’s with the “surprise” at the bottom and the “surprise” was just Reese’s Pieces but my brother and I got SO EXCITED about it.

Reese’s Pieces just don’t taste as good when they’re not at the bottom of an ice cream sundae.

@LENA DO IT! But uh…be ready for caffeine. It doesn’t make me jumpy, but it definitely makes me awake. It’s a very good version of awake – very solid and it lasts a while, which is why I like it in the morning. You might want to do it well before you want to go to bed, though.

teaplz

Yay, thanks Lena! I was seriously bouncing off the walls for a while. Everything was moving super-fast. I’ve never washed dishes and folded clothes that fast. INSANE.

And takgoti pretty much wins at packing. It’s unreal. I’m sure your review will be just as awesome!

And I totes drank the sediment and it tasted yummy. The whole thing tasted yummy. Even though it’s potentially very weird. But yummy, in a yummy-like way. Shoot, maybe I’m still caffeinated…

Ricky

Now that I think about it Genmaicha does smell like a murky fish tank. The liquid doesn’t look too appetizing either. Gladware containers? That’s some quality packaging =D

sophistre

This was an excellent review! I think the mental imagery of an ocean in my cereal bowl will stay with me for a while. This stuff is waiting for me at home, and I seriously can’t wait to get back to it now that I’ve read about your experience with it. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I love savory and bready things (to the general dismay of my metabolism) and beverages that scratch that itch are much sought-after…this sounds perfect.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

91
38 tasting notes

Amazing tea. I love the smooth and rich taste of the toasted rice blended with the sencha and matcha powder. It has a great grassy/kelp taste that deepens the overall flavor profile. However, my only gripe about this tea is the brewing instructions. The Ryokucha video online recommends using 16 ounces of boiling water added to 1 teaspoon of tea infused for 1-2 minutes. Yet, the can recommends the traditional preparation with the cooled water, 1 tablespoon, and 2-4 minutes. What do you guys recommend? I basically did a hybrid of the two and met in the middle.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec
takgoti

I do a heaping teaspoon [sometimes I tip a little more in there] with around 8-9 ounces of water at anywhere from 170-190°F and around 3-4 minutes. Clearly, my methods aren’t exact, but I’ve found that it’s remained pretty consistent throughout.

Thomas M. Frank

Thanks for your input! I can tell that I’m going to experiment a great deal with this tea. Not a bad thing considering this blend is absolutely delicious.

takgoti

Fantastic! Looking forward to any insight you have to offer in future logs!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.