S'mores Genmaicha

Oh, I thought that I would really love this tea. I adore the marshmallow treat blend and thought that this would be a nice alternative tea. Right when I opened the package I knew something was really, really wrong. It smelled very funky and sharp. Once the tea was brewed, I was really too nervous to take a sip. The brew smelled like burning chemicals — I just don’t know how else to describe it. After a few minutes, I finally took a sip (against my better judgment!) and tasted more chemicals mixed with hot water. The strange thing was at the tail end of the sip, I detected the smallest bit of artificial chocolate. I’m really bummed because this blend sounded so yummy. I’ve never had this experience with 52Teas before — I’m guessing that this is just not the batch for me.

Thank you, Stephanie, for this sample! I really wanted to try this one because I love genmaicha, but I was worried about buying a whole bag, based on people’s not-so-great reviews. I was also a little worried about potential smokiness, because I’m not a fan of that. So, I had some last night, and overall, it was just okay. It had the same flavor as marshmallow treat genmaicha, which I like, and there was something else in there, but that something else was just too subtle to pick out. I have to tell you, though, the dry leaf smelled delicious. I definitely got a chocolate aroma from the dry leaf. I just wish there was more flavor. I wonder if there’s a way to tease it out. I steeped it at 175 degrees for 3 minutes. Any suggestions for achieving more flavor? I still have a cup left.

Tea #4 for Traveling Tea Box

This one smells…interesting in the bag. Its weirdly sweet and savory. Whatever that smell is though, its gone once its steeped. The main flavor here is the genmaicha. I can’t say I would consider this s’mores at all. I think I can get a bit of a marshmallow flavor, but I’m really not tasting the chocolate. 52teas always seem to be really amazing or no flavor at all for me

After enjoying Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, I had pretty high hopes for this tea. This was definitely a disappointment. The smell of the tea in the pouch is a bit off-putting. I don’t know what it is. Maybe the lapsang or the chocolate flavoring? Once outside of the pouch, it smells more like a toasty genmaicha but it still has a strange, syrupy aroma.

I expected the taste would be like a chocolatey version of Marshmallow Treat. It tastes pretty weird. There were some pleasant notes from the genmaicha base, but they were hidden beneath a strange flavor that did not remind me of marshmallow nor of chocolate. This is definitely not a tea for me.

Thanks for sharing, CrowKettle!

Just when I think that Frank couldn’t come out with a better blend he comes out with this delight! S’mores Genmaicha is exactly what you hope it would be based on the name. A delicious blend of chocolate, marshmallow root and a roasted warmth from both the Genmaicha and lapsang souchoung. Being lactose intolerant I am thrilled with the use of cacao nibs rather than bits of chocolate! This also works perfectly to add a good subtle chocolate flavor without (in my opinion) ruining the tea with added unnecessary sugar. This has officially become one of my favorites and is a must try!

I was super excited to try this one! Another tea from a swap with Stephanie :D!! I’m not sure what went wrong with this…I either did not steep long enough, or over leafed it and the genmaicha is too over powering…? This is however my first encounter with Genmaicha, and I am quite happy. I was very intimidated by just the looks of it. After steeping it smelled like pan fried rice with a little hint of sweetness and a lot of smokiness. And the taste to me, tasted exactly how it smelled. I am sad that I could not pick up the marshmallow root and cacao nibs. So… I decided to add sugar. It brought out the marshmallow flavor a tad bit, so why not at cream? THERE’S THE MARSHMALLOW! All in all it tastes like a roasted marshmallow and I am fine with that. Stephanie gave me 1 oz to work with so I will continue experimenting and will not cross this one off my list quite yet. Thank you Stephanie for letting me experience all these new flavors. Your 52 teas were the first 52 teas I have ever tried :D. I had a order come in a couple days ago but have yet to open them because I wanted to get to your swap first:)

We got back from the arts festival tonight and I was CRAVING something sweet… So I had a pot of this :] I let it get a bit cold but it still had some sweet flavor along with the flavor of the toasty rice. I wish I would have drank it faster D:

I rated this 46 last time I tried it, which I think was a bit harsher than I’d give it now.

It just tastes like genmaicha to me, maybe with a slight hint of sweetness. This sample is super old, but I never got any chocolate out of it. Just disappointing, more than anything else.

I will bump the rating to 50, because that’s how you rate something that’s totally mediocre.

I really have to use my imagination to taste the S’mores with this one because the flavor of the genmaicha overpowers everything else. There’s a little bit of natural sweetness and the toasted genmachia almost tastes like burnt marshmallows. It’s not a bad tea, just not the chocolatey and gooey marshmallow flavor that I was hoping for.

Fifth tea sampled from TTB-C

I gave up on the fruit flavored teas for tonight and decided to go for something completely different. I’ve been curious about this tea for some time. Tempted at times to purchase or swap for it, but always hesitated because I don’t much like genmaicha. But here it was in front of me, so I figured, what the heck?

No surprise, but I didn’t like it. Why? Because of the genmaicha of course. I thought, maybe, in a blend it would turn out differently. But, I could hardly detect that this was a blend at all. It tasted almost like unflavored genmaicha, but there was something else that mellowed the roastiness. Not a flavor I could put my finger on, just something. I’d rather have true plain genmaicha than this if I had to choose.