Genmai Cha

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Broth, Rice, Toasted Rice, Umami, Vegetal, Bitter, Grain, Grass, Sweet, Drying, Green, Roasted, Smooth, Burnt, Fish Broth, Floral, Nutty, Toasted, Nuts, Roasted Barley, Toasty, Corn Husk
Sold in
Loose Leaf, Sachet
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Michael
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec 4 g 10 oz / 294 ml

From Our Community

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97 Tasting Notes View all

  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “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.” Read full tasting note
    100

From Adagio Teas

Green tea from Japan that is the ‘snap, crackle, pop’ of teas. Genmai Cha is an exotic Japanese recipe that combines popped rice and popcorn with tender and delicate green tea leaves. First used by peasants as a cost-saving measure, our ‘Genmai Cha Pop’ tea is now equally popular with modern urbanites. Both groups enjoy a refreshing cup that’s both sweet and nutty.

$12/4 oz

About Adagio Teas View company

Adagio Teas has become one of the most popular destinations for tea online. Its products are available online at www.adagio.com and in many gourmet and health food stores.

97 Tasting Notes

95
176 tasting notes

I actually made some of this for my mom the other day because she was curious. The face she made when she sipped it was priceless. :‘) I guess it’s an acquired taste AHEH HEH HEH.

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18
19 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Ricky

I never had Adagio’s Genmaicha, but I had other brands. I loved it the first time because of the toasty rice flavor, but the second and third time was really disgusting to me.

Phil Hovatter

Exactly! I understand people drinking flavored teas, even those that totally mask the natural taste of the base tea. But why would anyone choose THIS flavor?

Ricky

I feel like you have to be me in the mood for this tea, or at least it’s just me. I’m going to revisit it in a month so it’s fresh again. If I were to have it again today I would feel sick.

Samantha

I hated this at first, but now I love a good cup.

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69
43 tasting notes

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?)

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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47
330 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 5 min, 30 sec

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80
863 tasting notes

I love, love, LOVE this tea with meals. I love that it is savory. I love that I can drink it unsweetened. I love that it smells so rice-y and looks so very springtime green. I just love it.
I really only like drinking this with food; that is the reason I can’t bring myself to bump up the rating higher. But luckily I have plenty of other stand alones to choose from and can use this to pair with lunches and dinners to my hearts’ content!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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71
154 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 15 sec

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79
134 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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79
46 tasting notes

Brewed about a tablespoon of leaves in my kokoro kyusu (heh, that sounds funny. I feel like I’m making an animal sound but anyway) from Den’s Tea. Yum. Nice to have after dinner. I poured a cup out for my mom first, then I waited a bit more then poured my share out on ice. It was gone in 5 glugs. Iced genmaicha is great! Was able to get a good second infusion out of this. And I suspect the used rice puffs will be a yummy snack with a bit of brown sugar. Hmm…

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87
23 tasting notes

All I have to say is wow. I heard some great things about this tea, and some not-so-great things. Nonetheless, I gave it a shot and boy am I glad I did. I steeped 2 teaspoons for 3 minutes at a temperature that is a mystery to me. The aroma of the tea is amazing. The smell of the rice and popcorn really shine through. The rice and popcorn are also present in the taste, although just enough to make the tea differ from the other greens I’ve tried. The rice/green tea flavor just keeps me interested every time I take a sip. The only thing I don’t really enjoy is the aftertaste, which is almost a little chalky to me. Nonetheless, a great tea! I’ll be steeping another cup any minute.

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec

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25
15 tasting notes

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.

Des

If you really like Matcha then you need to try Ryokucha (http://shop.samovarlife.com/Ryokucha_Organic_Green_Tea_Japanese_Genmaicha_p/0202ryo.htm) It’s Genmai Cha coated in Matcha powder. I enjoy it way more than Genmai Cha by itself. I think the Matcha kills the popcorn taste for me.

Blair

Not a fan of Genmai Cha. One of the first teas I ever tasted and I’ve never tasted it since. We’ll see. I might just trust your taste enough to give it a shot.

gmathis

We called it “Rice Krispie” tea at our house.

Cofftea

I’ll take it off your hands:)

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