Thank you Zen Tea for this very nice sample! It is much appreciated.
This tea combo of Genmaicha and Matcha is a very nice treat,when looking for something more than the traditional green or oolong tea. There are faint toasty notes from the puffed rice (which would satisfy the longing for an oolong:), however there is much more complexity than most teas in this class.
There is a fresher, more fuller taste to the tea than other Sencha grades that are usually coupled in the Genmaicha. Zen Tea’s claim of “made from only Ichibancha (tea from the first harvest of the year)”, seems to hold up to its claim. The brew tastes more like a smoothie of some sort, which may be attributed to the addition of the matcha. Whatever may be the case here, it is really good and stands alone in the Genmaicha category.
You can really taste the green tea, yet with a creaminess and very smooth, non-bitter sip. The quality of the leaves are not disguised behind an extra dose of roasted puffed rice, intended to hide it’s shortcoming. I like the fact that you can evaluate the tea, well – for its leaves.
This tea may not be for everyone, especially if you do not normally like the taste of greener teas – this is certainly a GREEN tea and that’s what you get. If however, you love perfecting the lower water temp to ensure the sweeter, buttery and creamy characteristics of a green tea – don’t pass this one up! You can really play with this one quite a bit. I actually used about twice as much as normal in my gaiwan and shorten the steep time and found great success. Very tasty!
