Genmaicha (blended by KittyLovesTea)

I cold brewed this, and even though the weather is horrible today I’m really enjoying it! It’s a very roasty, nutty sort of genmaicha, not very vegetal which I prefer. While I’m not the biggest genmaicha drinker generally, this has been a very enjoyable one, and I’m glad KittyLovesTea made enough to go around, and that I found one last serving buried deep in my stash.

From the queue, written March 19th 2014

Another from the EU TTB, round 2. It’s been ages since I’ve last had a genmaicha and I can’t rightly recall what I think of them. I had a genmaicha phase shortly after having it for the first time ever, but then went off it. What better way to re-introduce myself than by having some of this one that KittyLovesTea made herself?

If I recall correctly, it was made from some sort of ‘blend your own’ kit, and Kitty added some houjicha to hers, making it more toasty-roasty.

It certainly smells toasty-roasty while it steeps, almost to the point of slightly burnt, and I find myself quite looking forward to tasting it. When poured off the leaves it’s a milder aroma, though, and the green tea itself comes through. It smells both strong and mellow at the same time.

Oh, it’s very toasty-roasty! And as I thought, also quite strong. No mild little delicate green here. It tastes to me closer to something related to a roasted oolong than to green tea, and I quite like that. I don’t really drink very much green tea at all, partial as I am to the darker end of the spectrum. This is grainy and roasty and very nice.

Well blended, Kitty!

Yesterday morning I awoke to find that there was no hot water, thinking it was the pilot light on the boiler (which is ancient and has instructions which may as well be in a foreign language) so I left it for my husband to do when he got home. He arrived home (late due to overtime) and had a fiddle around for half hour before enlightening me that it’s not the pilot light. On top of the hot water there is also no central heating. So I phoned up the gas company this morning and they sent someone over to have a look (he too was late). The man said his name was Wayne and after ten minutes of reading the instructions and starring intently he had to phone a Mr Gotham. My face lit up, Wayne…Mr Gotham…I knew where this was leading. When he got off the phone I as casually as I could asked what time Batman would be over (not being able to hide the smirk on my face for long). The only response I got was a blank expression and a quiet ‘What?’. I thought it was Batman comedy gold but gas engineers apparently are oblivious to it. Oh well, made myself chuckle anyway! Long story short – Boiler still doesn’t work so I have tomorrow morning off work while Mr Gotham comes over to inspect it himself.

So here I sit with my Genmaicha, a smile on my face and the start of a Civilization V game. Oh well, it could be worse.

I really like genmaicha and I’ve been looking for one solid brand to keep as a staple. Now I just need to find a way to get KittyLovesTea to produce this in large quantities, because this is seriously good. Very well-blended, just the right amount of toasty to me (I really love toasty) and with a nicely balanced tea base. I’m impressed!

Additives are not my thing, but if I had any maple sugar lying around, I would put some in, and this might be the EU swap version of DT’s Movie Night.

I’m going to snag a little bit more and put in a sample bag for later use, but there is plenty left – the rest of you should really try it.

[Sample from the second round of the EU Travelling Box, spring 2014.]