Laoshan Genmaicha

The Tea
I ordered this tea just in the nick of time so it seems, because the stock has already sold out. I know that Verdant will blend some more as soon as the autumn harvest of Laoshan Green is in! Waiting, waiting, wanting!

When I read that Minnesota wild rice and Jasmine sticky rice were being roasted at Verdant to be blended with the superior Laoshan Green tea to make this Genmaicha, I was all in. My taste imagination recalled the buttery green bean smooth tea. Um, with a pairing of toasted rice how brilliant!

Laoshan green leaves are lovely to begin with, very small and curly. The white and black rice, slightly puffy from roasting, made a pretty speckled trio with the tea.
The scent was roasty, like sweet sticky rice and the aroma of buttered popcorn.

The taste didn’t disappoint me!
The flavor was my best experience with a 4 hour Wedding Banquet at the ‘Empress’ in Chinatown San Francisco, and the best day at the
Butte County Fair eating BBQ Corn dripping with Buddah’!

This tea rocks! (Now that’s something you’ve never heard me say!)

The tea is SAVORY and a little SWEET at the same time almost like kettle corn. You won’t be able to stop because of that sweet, savory addictive quality that begs you to have more and more.

I can hear my self now…“Hi, my name is Bonnie and I’m addicted to Laoshan Genmaicha.” …“Hello Bonnie”, thousands of voices respond with the same problem. Sigh. (I’ll have to fill the complimentary hot beverage containers in the back of the room with this tea hee hee!)

There is enough flavor to drink this with a meal. I love the way the taste lingers lazily, a long while after the sipping is done.
With a piece of toast and honey for a snack or at breakfast…yum.

The Story:
Last night I stopped at my tea pub (Happy Lucky’s for those new to my stories) and brought Eric and Sam a sample of the new Verdant Earl of Anxi tea blend with the Frankincense in it. The evening crowds were gone (dinner time) all was quiet and I sat at the bar while they lined up tastings from a small Gaiwan.
The first was great, the second steeping also, but the THIRD…well that’s when the Frankincense began to bloom and meld with the Oolong into an aroma and flavor that amazed them and me.
What an awesome experience. I gave each a little sample to take home and then ordered a pot of Assam and a ginger cookie (Sam’s shift was over and he went home).

People began filling up the shop and I chatted with some, helping others while the lone Eric rushed to make tea orders. This lasted for an hour until another lull arrived.
Still sitting at the bar talking about tea while he frothed some milk, a long line of people came into the shop, behind the bar, past me and Eric and disappeared. “What’s going on?”, I asked surprised.
“Uh, oh, he chuckled, it’s the ghost walk.” “The what?, I answered, is this place supposed to be haunted?” “Well, you know this was a firehouse and had a jail in the back…but in the basement was solitary confinement,” Eric informed me. Yikes! And a few minutes later, a line of people came back up (about 25-30 in all) and filed past me again only this time I held up my hands and said BOO!

I watched the young couple on a date, the oldsters on a night out. The young couple with a baby enjoying Chai. Four friends playing a board game. Most of the people stayed to drink their tea as the sun went down and it became dark.

Never a dull moment at Happy Lucky’s Tea House! It’s beginning to be my Lake Wobegon.

I’ll have to share some of this Laoshan Genmaicha Tea too!
(but just a little since I only have an ounce!).
The sharing makes the tea taste even better I think!

sipdown! you know… for whatever reason, i don’t love this nearly as much as i did the first time around. It might be because this is a different picking or something but the first time, i was in love! now i’m like meh. I wouldn’t be oppoed to picking up a sample of this later on and see if my tastes have changed again but for now, i can live without it for a while.

It’s been awhile since I had a cup of Genmaicha. It’s so soothing, & this one is especially nice, because we all know that there is no green tea better than Laoshan green! It’s gently sweet, creamy, greenbeany goodness, with just the right amount of toasted rices, like a green bean & rice casserole, only better.

Wow, 500th tasting note! Cowabunga? Genmaicha is like a comfort food to me, so between finishing off the term and battling some virus that wants to take over my body, this is an excellent choice.

When I steeped the leaves the first time, honestly, I was a little scared. It smelled more vegetal than what I prefer. No roastiness, oddly. Haha my iPad just autocorrected ‘oddly’ to ‘diddly’. And I’m sitting invigilating a make up exam, so I can’t laugh at the stupidity.

Anyway, yes, unexpected grassy, vegetal aroma. So I was hesitant to take that first sip. But it was good! The roastiness is luckily there with an added fresh, clean note that most genmaichas don’t have. It’s smooth, yet crisp, and slightly toasty.

I’m currently on the second steep and it’s pretty good too. Not as toasty but not bitter or vegetal. Still smooth.

Great Genmaicha, but honestly, for a fraction of a cost, I can have the Uji one you can pick up in grocery stores, and it’s roastier, which is how I prefer them.

Sipdown – 2 in one day! This one is late haha, but better late than never? I used about 1.5 tsps for this cup to finish it off. It smells HEAVENLY! Lots of puffy rice in this one, with the Laoshan green just present enough to round it off. I will enjoy this lovely cup, and it might possibly be added to the re-order list as well once I finish a few more teas. Oh, and see previous notes for details on taste :)

More travel mug deliciousness. This tea is definitely best drank fairly quickly after infusion, as most vegetal greens seem to be, but I still quite enjoyed it about 12 hours later. The flavour had changed a little (not that I recall how it changed), but it was quite tasty!

Thank you Dexter3657 for sending this my way. I am always happy to try a genmaicha and today this tea is christening my brand new mason jar. I am enjoying 24 oz of roasty-toasty goodness. This one is grassier than the others I have had but I still think it is nice. I was a little disappointed though because I, for some reason, though this was a genmaicha with Laoshan Black as a base. Nonetheless, it is still enjoyable and I am glad I am getting to try it.

I like genmaichas, but I don’t drink them a lot because I never really have a craving for them. The only time I really want some is when I go out to an Asian restaurant (usually because it still tastes decent after they boil it). But I figured I would give this one a try. I got a mere ounce knowing that it would last me a while, and it is, although I’m starting to go through it a little quicker now!

It’s been a cold, rainy, dreary day. I woke up at 6am this morning to go stand out in the (literally) freezing rain for three hours to learn how to do tree plots. I needed something soothing and warm pronto! I grabbed this. The first cup I downed just to get some warmth back into my body. Sometime during my second cup I started to get feeling back in my fingers and toes. Then I slowed down and actually tasted the tea!

This tea is incredibly smooth, creamy, and buttery. It’s reminiscent of buttered popcorn…heavy on the butter. The toasted rice isn’t the normal toasted rice you find in genmaichas. This one is sweeter and nutty. This tea is thick and savory, I feel like it should almost be viscous (not a bad thing, I promise).

I love the movie 16 Candles, and I have this scene stuck in my head:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS7s3Wq2ggk
Because today, it’s my birthday! Oh and guess who just got a monthly reserve tea package in today!

ETA: I lied, the package I got was actually the free David’s Choice reserve samples I got from accumulating so many points on the Verdant site!

Having a cup of this to unwind after a long day of school. I love the toasty flavor of genmaicha. When I was a young girl we always had tea in the house, and my mom was really fond of green and white tea. I think that actually made her a progressive tea drinker for back then (late 80s/early 90s). Some cups of tea remind me of curling up on the couch with a book and a cup of tea, watching the rain outside and listening to it splash against the roof.

Good genmaicha is one of those teas. I have really enjoyed all of the teas I’ve tried from Verdant and I think the quality is excellent for the price.

I feel like I am probably the only person on Steepster who has yet to try Laoshan Green, though that is by design. I hate green beans. Not a causal hate, I despise them, and that is often pointed out to be a dominant taste note in Laoshan Green. But I am a little bit obsessed with genmaicha so I got a sample of this against my better instinct.

Well… I suppose I am glad that I tried this. It’s very buttery as other notes have mentioned, but oh man is that some green bean taste up front and center. Very vegetal, but not in the soft spinachy way that I enjoy. This is like vegetables… in my mug. I have this issue with most Chinese greens really, it’s like a stewed veggie mash. Ugh.

The toasty, roasted rice notes are nice but I am so put of by the “here, have a cup of veggie liquid!” that I am having trouble really distinguishing them. Yeah, I am kind of hating this blend. My own fault, I suppose: not going to rate this one as it’s nothing wrong with the tea. I have a $5 voucher at Verdant so I think I’ll give the black genmaicha a go—no green beans there!