Kittenna

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Kittenna drank Genmaicha by Butiki Teas

Mmmm, delicious! A nice, light, sweet genmaicha. No astringency when following the recommended brewing parameters. I can only wonder what this might taste like with a touch of vanilla… probably absolutely fantastic :D The rice makes this lightly toasty while the tea base leaves a lovely “tea” flavour (yeah, I still don’t know how to describe that savoury flavour) lingering in your mouth, which makes this one of the better genmaichas I’ve tried (a couple I’ve had fall a bit flat or astringent on that front).

Can’t wait to receive my genmaicha from Verdant so I can compare the two! Base teas will be quite different, so I’m expecting them not to be comparable at all, but I’m curious as to which I will prefer.

2012-12-08 22:19:49 -0500

180 °F / 82 °C

2 min 0 sec

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Butiki Teas 2012-12-09 01:25:50 -0500

Kittenna-I also recommend trying this tea with boiling water and steeping for 1 minute. The boiling water puffs up the rice and gives it a more toasty flavor. Both ways are tasty but lately I have been going for the hotter shorter steeps.

Kittenna 2012-12-09 01:35:56 -0500

Interesting! I’m quite enjoying it as recommended, but out of curiousity I think I will have to try that too!

Butiki Teas 2012-12-09 02:25:31 -0500

Its worth a shot. I’ve tested sampling this tea to customers with both methods and the boiling water method got more genmaicha purchases. If you try the boiling water method, I’d love to know which way you prefer.

Kittenna 2012-12-09 02:40:34 -0500

I tried boiling water for the re-steep (although I should have timed it, it probably got about 1-1.5 mins). The result is definitely stronger, and toeing the line of bitterness, which I’m not terribly fond of. I realize the second infusion wasn’t really the place to try this, but I was curious! I definitely liked the first results better, but perhaps with a first infusion, the result would be different. I’ll try to remember to do this next time!

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I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.