Brown Rice Green Tea

This tea is a mixed bag (pun intended?). I’ve drank a lot of cups of this tea, and sometimes it tastes fantastic and fresh, and other times it’s weak and stale. I guess it depends on how long ago the store stocked it. I find that steeping it on the longer side (around 3 mins) tends to be a good idea.

I tried this tea before I knew what tea was. It came off burnt and sour. I didn’t buy another genmaicha for years b/c of it. I think it was too toasty, coming off smoky. I did like Yamamotoyama teas years ago, but now, they are just mediocre to me.

Of the gen mai cha teas in bags I have tried, this one has the strongest toasted rice note and weakest tea flavors. The dry tea bags have the aroma of green tea and toasted rice in balance. The steeped cup has a light yellow color and nice toasty aroma. The rice flavors come through strongly, and it is hard to taste the tea. Still, the toasted rice on its own is pleasant.

I tried another one with a 8-ish minute steeping at the same temperature. That brought out the bitter of the green tea, and it was too bitter for me.

I’ve never had a genmaicha that I didn’t like. This one is thoroughly decent and drinkable. The green tea is pretty standard bagged quality, so it probably won’t knock the socks off of seasoned tea drinkers. It’s greatly improved by the brown rice, though, so the drink as a lovely toasted earthiness—kind of like popcorn. Sometimes that hits the spot better than anything else!

Price is definitely another factor this has going for it. I got a box for around 2 bucks, so it’s affordable to drink every day if I wanted. And actually… sometimes I do. :)

This one is my favourite for fighting the urge to eat something sugary at 4pm. It certainly has got me through the day today.

I like the water boiling and I leave the bag in whilst I drink but I think with green tea it’s down to personal preference.