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.

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

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.

What the heck? Am I eating a bowl of cereal or drinking a cup of tea? (Not very tasty cereal, at that!) The toasted rice flavor totally dominated the tea. Could it really be as bad as this and still have so many fans? Different strokes for different folks. This one just isn’t my cup of tea. But you know me. I’ll try anything…twice. I’ll let you know if my opinion changes.

Caffeine is an engineering students best friend. Also sleeps mortal enemy.

I’m thankful for Adagio’s sample sizes, because while this isn’t a tea I like enough to buy a full bag of, its always tasty when I drink it. I wouldn’t really describe it as particularly savory, buts its not really quite sweet either. Also has a nice little caffeine punch to it. Its 2 a.m and I’m wide awake. Feel like I could run a freaking marathon. Solve ALL the calculus problems! Literally all of them. Invent time travel and punch Hitler in the face.

(Seriously, how do people drink green’s before bed? Am I missing something here?)

Hubs and I were escaping the heat of the house yesterday, and ended up at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Our air conditioner had gone out, but thankfully we found a competent company to fix it within hours – and relatively cheaply. But meanwhile the house heated up, and we were waiting for it to cool back down by partaking in others’ AC. So there we were looking around, and we came across a cast iron teapot that looks a lot like the ones used at one of the sushi restaurants we go to. Hubs was a very nice man, and got it for me. It came with a trivet and a wire mesh infuser basket. On the way home I kept thinking “Tetsubin? Is that the right word for it?” I looked it up, and while it looks like a tetsubin, it’s enameled on the inside, which makes it just a kyūsu (teapot). I am pleased that I kinda remembered what a tetsubin was though!

For its first pot, I brought out my Genmai Cha. I got this awhile back when hubbylove gave me a tea-of-the-month subscription for Christmas. It’s an odd tea, and one I can’t quite decide if I like or not. If I drank it all the time, I think I might like it, but drinking it only once in awhile just makes me go “this is so strange.”

The popped rice and popcorn do give it a nutty flavor. It’s not *un*pleasant, but I think it’s just not for me. This is one I’ve been trying to use up here and there. It’s probably halfway down, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it off before it gets too old.

I gave hubby a small cup – I used my tiny handle-less Japanese teacups – because he loves popcorn. He said he was not sure he liked it, but he might get used to and start to like it. But that the thing that makes him hesitant is actually the popcorn taste, strangely enough.

The teapot is the best pouring one I have now – it pours wonderfully, and after the first pour, I can pour a cup without spilling a drop of tea. I wish the rest of my pots poured as nice!

When you brew this to Adagio’s specifications it is extremely toasty and much more vegital than I would have imagined. I was expecting it to be a much lighter tea all around. The toast is very strong and holds an almost burnt flavor like dark brown toast before it starts to burn. It seems like Adagio felt that the brighter notes of the green tea would counter so much heavy toast but it really just comes across darkly spinach tasting. Not a bitter spinach because it is sweet but it is not enough to balance out the dark toasty.

If you reduce the leaf amount to about 2/3 and the steep time to between 2 and 2 and a half minutes it lightens up a lot and becomes quite pleasant. The toastiness becomes more of a medium bold flavor and the green tea lightens up on the spinach to become more of a sweet green tea flavor. It is still heavy on the vegital but that really does go nicely with the toasty rice and pop corn. This is the balence point I found for my tastes but everyone should really fool around with leaf amounts and steep times because the differences gained by changing things around is really significant.

As a regular drinker of Maeda-en’s Genmai-cha, I was happily surprised by Adagio Tea’s version. The first thing you notice out of the bag is that it has a much sweeter aroma, and the sencha green is of a much deeper hue (higher grade sencha?). The first steep has an almost overwhelming aroma of roasted rice and popcorn, which subsides quickly so that you catch a bit more of the vegetal green. Nice!

Now the true test for me is the second steep, which I enjoy even more. True to form, the sencha flavor comes forward, and there is a freshness which I never find in the Maeda-en teas. There is a nice balance here, and I am beginning to think this will become the new staple in my cupboard… The Adagio Genmai Cha is about double the price of Maeda-en, but I think life is much more about quality than quantity, especially in tea!

I don’t get it. I know its popular, but it is very difficult for me to drink. Roasted rice just isn’t my thing, I guess.

Oh my god can we talk about how much I LOVE GENMAICHA BECAUSE this is seriously one of my favorite teas next to some good ol’ standard oolongs. This stuff is amazing, the toasty rice flavor is so much stronger with the loose leaf stuff and seeing as this NUTTY RICE taste is my favorite part I WELCOME IT WITH OPEN ARMS. I don’t really know how to compare it to the Zen Tea sample, but I guess you just can’t really go wrong with me and genmaicha.

A friend made sure I had some genmaicha after I told her I’d never had it. I’ve always been curious about it, and I figured I’d like it because I do enjoy other nutty flavored teas. It did not disappoint, I love it.
It’s very different, and I can see how it wouldn’t be someone’s cup of tea (hurr hurr pun intended). It’s just like cereal meets green tea in a beautifully unique way. It’s got that slightly grassy taste of green tea with the very different flavor of popped rice and corn. Almost smells like toasted seaweed, which I love, so all around I really enjoy this and when I run out of what I was sent, I’m definitely getting more.

When I did a second steeping, I liked the toasty flavor even better.

Genmai Cha is my favorite Japanese tea and I’m extremely picky about it. I don’t tolerate any grassiness or bitterness that comes with some blends out there. The way I see it, it should be sweet, smooth and creamy with a prominent roasted flavor. Adagio’s pretty much hits the spot, it has almost everything I’d expect from a good quality Genmai Cha. The only thing that keeps me from giving it a higher rating is the fact that the rice in the blend seems to be a bit over-roasted. It gives the tea a slightly bitter aftertaste which I can live with because it comes from the rice not tea leaves and has a different kind of bitterness that is not unpleasant at all.

What a wonderful, nutty green tea. I’m fairly new to green teas and this has been a wonderful introduction to such a complex world. I really enjoy the popcorn taste that is rounded out by the grassiness of the green tea leaf. This is definitely a tea I will buy again and again.

My preferred steep formula is 1 tsp per 8oz water, 170-175º for 2 minutes. This tea resteeps well a couple times, just add one minute to the steep time.

Though I had a cup from a friend’s pot that had been sitting for a few minutes, this was still a very enjoyable tea with a nice popcorn accent and a strong green tea flavor that worked well together.

It’s the type of tea that you can enjoy at any time, because the flavor is smooth and mellow, but there’s enough complexity to keep you interested.

I like this tea quite a bit- love the nuttiness/popcorn flavor-definitely unique and definitely a keeper! I did multiple steeps and am very satisfied. Kinda curbed my hunger too.