Genmai Cha

Never had this kind of tea before. Thanks Rachel for letting me try this!

This tea smells and tastes like liquid rice cakes. I am really enjoying the savory flavors of this tea. I need to save the rest of this and let my boyfriend try it, because I am trying to get him into more tea and currently he only like lapsang souchong. He likes salty things better then sweet and considers most tea sweet so I think this would be right up his alley. I might need to buy more of it. Its very different then anything I currently have and its yummy!

Backlogging again. I am unsure if I am doing this correctly, I brewed the tea, hot no additives, 2.5 minutes.

I can definitely smell the puffed/toasted rice in the tea pot, but the steeped leaves now have a bitter aroma, I think I may have oversteeped. The bitterness was not found in the tea. The tea has a few layers of flavor: first the toasty rice, then a sweet green, followed by a mellow nut flavor. I drank the pot (22 ounces) over about an hour. The first cup was delicious, the second was alright, then the third I was starting to get that bitter flavor.

Maybe I need to drink this hot? Any suggestions?

Overall, it was not bad, but the bitterness is disappointing, I wish the toasty-rice flavor would remain uncompromised.

I can’t get enough of this stuff. I love the the popped rice flavor like no other. Also recently ordered that popular Ryokucha tea from Samovar which also has the rice. I think I’ll become as addicted to that as I am to this blend. I really put a lot of tea into my infuser tonight.. I was feeling a thick cup. And nevertheless, I got what I wanted. On my third steep currently. MMmm.

Ricecake!!!!! That is what I get from this, that or rice cereal that isn’t very sweetened in almond milk. I love it and it makes me feel full.

DISCLAIMER: I added a half a teaspoon of ITO EN Matcha with this Genmaicha tea, to see what it tasted like. The results may frighten you. Okay not really, but maybe.

To start off, I just wanted to say that this was not my idea alone. My good buddy @paintedleaves put this on her blog and I decided to try it. After a bit of WikiResearch (note: I coined that phrase), I found that this is sometimes sold as a package (Genmaicha and Matcha) and it is known as Matcha-iri genmaicha. Lackluster title. I prefer to call it Genmaimatcha or Genmaitcha. But what do I know about Japanese? Anyway.

Genmaicha for those of you unaware, is a blend of popped rice, green tea leaves and occasionally popped corn (in this case, Adagio’s HAS popped corn in it, need to try some without it).

COLOR
The color of normal Genmaicha is a surprisingly light green from my experience. It’s very clear and it tastes like grass that has been slathered with butter and roasted (even sauted) over a skillet. It’s almost overwhelming when you first try it, and the variety of green tea associated with is almost FIERCE.

Now, mix this combination with ITO EN’s premium Matcha and you get a hell of a combo! Flavor pops out the wazoo, not to mention it looks like something you would find in a swamp or sewer. So basically you’ve got your tea that looks like something out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and “Gak.” But smells absolutely enticing.

Now onto FLAVOR

This is a strange combination. Though I tasted the typical genmaicha flavor, it was overridden (overrided? whatever.) by a blast of the pure strength of the Matcha powder. It was like I put more powder in than genmaicha. It had this really smooth and silky texture to it, almost like chocolate with a mix of tannin. It also tasted like if you had sand in your mouth, or if you were ever a kid and tasted a rock by accident (hey, what the hell, kids are weird, I know I was)! It was bland, yet it had that KICK to it, given mostly by the genmaicha’s popped rice and unique flavor. It also tasted like vegetals that you would find around the beach. The smell of that driftwood and seaweed, THAT’S what it tasted like. It’s so seaweedy, like you accidentally got a gulp of Lake Erie’s water. All in all, INCREDIBLY potent.

Also, I did a video review, so if you want a little more emotion, check out http://teacast.net

the most notable new thing was that I spilled it on myself. on my birthday. There needs to be some kind of award for that.

Other than that, still love this and it’s toasty goodness.

After sitting patiently in its little sample bag for several weeks, Adagio’s Genmai Cha is finally up at bat. This one has roasted rice and popped corn kernels visibly hanging out amongst the tea leaves — loitering, one might say — and smells fascinatingly nutty fresh out of the bag.

Steeping for two minutes yields an earthy green liquid with a full-bodied roasted rice flavor. There’s an unusual maltiness in the background of this tea, and I like what it says to me. It says to me: “No no, I am not zee beer, and you do not drink zee beer, but voila, have some maltiness anyway, and you will like eet, ah yes.” Apparently, my Japanese tea has a terrible French accent. (Lupin III?)

I can see why Genmai Cha is not for the faint of heart — or rather, not for the faint of green. It is not a flavor for everyone, nor for every day. It’s too strong for that, methinks, and it seems to lack the mellow-inducing property of most greens. It is different, but I like that. Perhaps I am too positive in the land of tea, but to be perfectly honest, I rarely encounter a tea which I do not like.

P.S. According to Adagio’s company story for Genmai Cha, “Japanese peasants found it difficult to afford much tea, and would mix it with roasted rice, which was abundant and cheap. Thus, they were able to squeeze more cups from the same amount of leaves. A recipe born of poverty, Genmai Cha has acquired an uptown chic and is now a favorite of urban dwellers in Japan and the West.” Oddly enough, the muddy swills endured by European medieval peasantry have yet to lure modern consumers in this way.

Tea-haiku time:

Snap, crackle, poppin’:
like lip gloss, but in tea. Who
let the malt hops out?

“What’s that you drink, oh
peasant fair?” asked the market
exec. “I smell cash!”

Last of my sample. I need to bring some genmaicha back in my life. I love the stuff, but don’t drink nearly enough. Think I’ll be replacing this with Den Tea’s Genmaicha Extra Green, though.

This is good, but not as good as that one.

When I was a small child, my mother used to give us that puffed rice cereal for breakfast. I loved it – so toasty and caramelly tasting. So, I have been preprogrammed from early childhood to become instantly addicted to this tea. After trying it for the first time today, I can report that all of that childhood conditioning worked, and I will never again be without genmai cha on my tea shelf.

There is an instant rush of toasty rice smell as the hot water hits the leaves. The color is golden green and the smell is rich. With the first steep, the flavor reminds me of brown rice sushi – warm grain with a hint of saltiness and seaweed flavor, with perhaps just a dash of toasted sesame oil. As the brew cooled on the first steep, I noticed a very pronounced bitterness and astringency, that nearly disappeared with the second steep. It may be I need to use a shorter steep or less leaf, but this is definitely so good that it is well worth experimenting to find the perfect brew.

I followed the suggested directions on the tin and found the flavor too light. Steeping it a bit longer made all the difference in the world to me.

First steep was still good, but very light. The deeper steep was a vast improvement. The green tea was very very mellow which I liked in combination with the toasted rice and popcorn flavor. I was hoping that I’d like this one and I wasn’t disappointed. I can understand completely why others may not like it.

In the tin it smells delicious and popcorny. While it was steeping, my kitchen smelled like air popped popcorn.

In the cup it smells like stale wet popcorn which is about the only bad thing I can say about the tea.

And even though I like most of my tea without sugar or cream, I had to at least try a bit of sugar and it wasn’t very good, but someone may like it. It just made me grimace and go back to the pure tea.