This is actually the third time I’ve had this. It was one of the teas I got in Doulton’s gift, and it was one of the two that I picked myself. I like genmaichas and I’m not sure what the ’malted’ness was supposed to be like. Also I couldn’t figure out what the glass of milk had to do with anything. Lexitus tried to offer an explanation using wikipedia and small words, but I’m still pretty much blank as to the glass of milk.
I gather it’s a special kind of milk that tastes malt-y. This is the sort of thing that can’t really wrap my head around. Why would you do that to milk? What’s wrong with milk-flavoured milk? Milk tastes lovely the way it is! You foreigners do some odd things to perfectly fine milk, I have to say. See in Denmark we have chocolate milk and a variety milk milks with different fat percentages. The end. (And of course a range of various yoghurt products) We get by fine on that. I’m sure you lot are all OMG O.O at this, like the time I revealed to the a bunch of americans over on LJ that in Denmark we don’t have condensed milk either except for possibly industrial kitchens and such. It’s just not something we use.
Anyway, so yeah. The point of this is that malt-y milk is a really weird concept for me. One thing is unnecessary flavour in milk, but malt and milk? I’m sorry, it just strikes me as a somewhat bizarre combination. I can’t imagine that at all.
So I was curious. Against my better judgement yes, but still curious.
I can certainly smell the malt when I open the pouch. It’s overwhelming! And frankly, it smells like molasses. Which is something I associate with horse food. Looking at the leaves themselves, it looks like what we’ve got is one part green tea and two parts puffed rice. Erm… shouldn’t it have been the other way around, balance wise? I mean I want tea with puffed rice. I don’t want puffed rice extract garnished with tea. (And smelling of horse food) So not a lot of points on aroma and look of leaves here.
This being my third cup out of three different sessions so I’m pretty sure I’ve got a consistent flavour out of it, and as one would have guessed from leaf appearance, I’ve got rice flavour like whoa.
And that’s pretty much it, really. Rice, rice, rice, rice, rice, rice. And then on the swallow a hint of sencha and a little maltyness which thankfully isn’t reminding me of horse food. That much.
I like genmaichas. But this is way too rice-y and I’m still not getting what the glass of milk has to do with anything. Is there supposed to be milk flavour in here too somewhere? If so, I’m not finding it.
I can’t really decide if I kind of like this, if I like it enough for it to be drinkable, or if I don’t like it at all. It’s definitely not something I would invest in or something I would ask for another time. I think I’ll go with drinkable on this one and that’s it.
On the upside I’ve used almost all of what Doulton sent me just to get this far, so I won’t have to struggle through a lot of it or find someone else to pass it on to. But I’ll probably add some more sencha to what I do have left, so it isn’t so rice-rice-rice-rice-rice-y.
I’m quite disappointed that I didn’t like it more than this. The majority of others who have posted about it thought it was all kinds of awesome, and I’m feeling a little left out that I can’t find the awesomeness. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, me not being used to this whacky milk flavour? I’m sure we have super-common food products in Denmark that you lot would find bizarre too.
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The glass of milk might be a reference to malted milkshakes, which were really popular in the 50s and I suppose still today, although I’ve never tried one. :)
I don’t think it’s just you. I tried it twice to give it a fair shake, and my bag of it, almost full, is currently sitting on my counter alongside a few others that I just don’t like. I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve liked several of the offerings from 52teas (since flavored tea isn’t really my thing) — some of them are fantastic — but I find this one pretty unpleasant. To each their own!
Oh, and Horlicks! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malted_milk
I am amused/intrigued/fascinated by the cultural taste difference issues you describe from time to time. Do they market Whoppers chocolate covered malt balls over there? That’s the closest taste similarity I can come up with for this tea.
Gmathis, never heard of those. If they do, it’s under a different name.
yummmmmm whoppers!
I don’t know how much more help I can be to this, but, I love malted milkshakes. Basically, I think that the milk reference comes from “malted milk” which is a product that is available here in the US, and people can add a scoop of it to their milkshakes to make it thicker and give it a unique texture – sort of like adding a little bit of grain to a milkshake. Malted milk is called malted milk because it is made of a mixture that includes grains and milk which is evaporated into a powder form – which is how we can purchase it here in the states.
As I said, I love malted milkshakes, and when I do happen to indulge in a milkshake when I’m out to eat, I usually order a malted milkshake. It just gives it a more interesting consistency, and it’s more filling and satisfying. YUMMMM!
Haha, this made me giggle. I’m a big regular milk fan too (though I’ve had orange milk that is tasty and my grandma used to sweeten her coffee with condensed milk with was sorta weird but tasty).
LiberTEAS, thank you for that explanation! I’ve only recently started to understand what malt even tastes like and was totally at see with malted milkshakes and the like. So thanks!
At least now I know that the honey note in Assams is supposed to be the malt-y note. But I still think it’s more like honey, so I’ll stick to (Hee! Sticky honey!) calling it a honey note.
You might look at our original post for this tea (http://www.52teas.com/2009/11/23/11-23-09-malted-genmaicha/), we posted some good information about malted milk there. Sorry you didn’t like this one, but like you said, “to each their own”. I’ve come to the conclusion that seeking universal love by creating amazing tea blends is a wild goose chase. There is definitely a reason behind the saying “not my cup of tea”. Everyone has different tastes.
I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s a cultural thing, so I’ll be staying away from anything ‘malted’ in the future. Just like I know to steer clear of anything with peanut butter. (I don’t ‘get’ peanut butter either. It’s available easily enough over here, I just don’t understand why people would eat it. An ex-boyfriend of mine (sorta) once brought me these peanutbutter filled chocolate-y (HAH! I’m not sure that even had enough cocoa contents in it to qualify as chocolate according to danish rules) things and started feeding them to me before I knew what was going on. Urgh!!!)
The tropical white, though! That’s one with a big NOM factor for me! And tropical fruit doesn’t normally get that sort of response from me. I think I’m just more of a fruit-person.
Also, that link redirects to http://www.52teas.com/2009/03/29/032909-sundae1888s-mayan-chocolate-chai/ for some reason! O.o
(if you’re trying to influence me, then sorry it won’t work. I don’t care much for chai or things with chili in it)
Also, EPIPHANY!!!!
OMG now I get that line from that Grease song! gotta be going to that malt shop in the sky
The comments on this post make me smile :)
Also, my mind has just been blown. HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE GLORY OF PEANUT BUTTER?!!1 ;) It’s soooo good. You have to have try a peanut butter and nutella sandwich at some point. Or a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Or a peanut butter cup. Or Reeses Pieces. Or peanut butter pie. Mmmmm. The trick is to heat up the peanut butter a little before or after spreading it on your bread :)
Uhm… because it’s all dry and not nice? It’s like a mouthful of cement. Blergh, you may keep it. I don’t want my nutella or my honey contaminated.
No, marmite. Marmite, that’s the good stuff! (unfortunately we can’t get that in danish shops)
Oh, for a slab of peanut butter pie! (My favorite is a clone of traditional American pecan pie, rather than the frozen/creamy PB pie variety.)
Oooh, you’ve been eating the wrong peanut butter then :) it should be somewhat thick and maybe a little sticky, but not dry! It’s creamy and sweet and salty and crunchy and mmmmmmm.
I mean dry the way nuts, peanuts included, are dry, not dry-dry. I don’t really care much for nuts on their own either. It’s like I never quite finish chewing even when they’re reduced to dust. In cooking or with (proper!) chocolate around them, nuts are fine. But not alone.
I am COMPLETELY baffled by the redirection of that link. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I’m pretty sure the Internet gremlins are to blame. Anyway, if you want to read the information we provided on malt, I guess you will have to search our site for malt and click on the Malted Genmaicha post. It actually does have an interesting history: Malted milk was orginally developed by a pharmacist as a nutritionally fortified milk to be used as baby formula, but then it became famous as a confectionary ingredient.
Likewise, peanut butter, was originally (in the form we currently think of as peanut butter) created in the 1890s as a means to provide toothless patients with protein.
My all time favorite sandwich, by the way, is peanut butter on toast with sizzling hot bacon. Mmmmm.
Hmmm…. peanut butter and bacon tea?
OMG, do iiiiiiit!
Okay after reading all this I am hungry! Malted Milkshakes totally rock BTW. :)
If you remove the end ) on the link it works properly.
So if you stick ) to the end of a link it’ll randomly choose a different page for you. Interesting… O.o
Yeah, not really sure why that works, but it does! Yay for the interwebs!
It’s a bit like the “I’m feeling lucky” button on Google. :p
(go to Google, search “Find Chuck Norris” and use the lucky button)
Ha! That’s awesome!
I like peanut butter, but, I don’t like it enough to try a peanut butter tea. Something about peanut butter and tea together just makes my tummy get all squeamish and just… eww. I have been quite liberal, I think, in weird tea blends – I tried the bacon tea (very good, especially with a pinch of salt), I tried some rather weird concoctions (most of them have been Frank’s), but, I just… cannot try peanut butter tea. That’s where I draw the line.
Same…the idea of peanut butter chai made me feel squeamish. I actually am not a huge fan of peanut butter itself, but it manages to redeem itself every once in a while :)
The glass of milk might be a reference to malted milkshakes, which were really popular in the 50s and I suppose still today, although I’ve never tried one. :)
I don’t think it’s just you. I tried it twice to give it a fair shake, and my bag of it, almost full, is currently sitting on my counter alongside a few others that I just don’t like. I’ve been surprised at how much I’ve liked several of the offerings from 52teas (since flavored tea isn’t really my thing) — some of them are fantastic — but I find this one pretty unpleasant. To each their own!
Oh, and Horlicks! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malted_milk
I am amused/intrigued/fascinated by the cultural taste difference issues you describe from time to time. Do they market Whoppers chocolate covered malt balls over there? That’s the closest taste similarity I can come up with for this tea.
Gmathis, never heard of those. If they do, it’s under a different name.
yummmmmm whoppers!
I don’t know how much more help I can be to this, but, I love malted milkshakes. Basically, I think that the milk reference comes from “malted milk” which is a product that is available here in the US, and people can add a scoop of it to their milkshakes to make it thicker and give it a unique texture – sort of like adding a little bit of grain to a milkshake. Malted milk is called malted milk because it is made of a mixture that includes grains and milk which is evaporated into a powder form – which is how we can purchase it here in the states.
As I said, I love malted milkshakes, and when I do happen to indulge in a milkshake when I’m out to eat, I usually order a malted milkshake. It just gives it a more interesting consistency, and it’s more filling and satisfying. YUMMMM!
Haha, this made me giggle. I’m a big regular milk fan too (though I’ve had orange milk that is tasty and my grandma used to sweeten her coffee with condensed milk with was sorta weird but tasty).
LiberTEAS, thank you for that explanation! I’ve only recently started to understand what malt even tastes like and was totally at see with malted milkshakes and the like. So thanks!
At least now I know that the honey note in Assams is supposed to be the malt-y note. But I still think it’s more like honey, so I’ll stick to (Hee! Sticky honey!) calling it a honey note.
You might look at our original post for this tea (http://www.52teas.com/2009/11/23/11-23-09-malted-genmaicha/), we posted some good information about malted milk there. Sorry you didn’t like this one, but like you said, “to each their own”. I’ve come to the conclusion that seeking universal love by creating amazing tea blends is a wild goose chase. There is definitely a reason behind the saying “not my cup of tea”. Everyone has different tastes.
I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s a cultural thing, so I’ll be staying away from anything ‘malted’ in the future. Just like I know to steer clear of anything with peanut butter. (I don’t ‘get’ peanut butter either. It’s available easily enough over here, I just don’t understand why people would eat it. An ex-boyfriend of mine (sorta) once brought me these peanutbutter filled chocolate-y (HAH! I’m not sure that even had enough cocoa contents in it to qualify as chocolate according to danish rules) things and started feeding them to me before I knew what was going on. Urgh!!!)
The tropical white, though! That’s one with a big NOM factor for me! And tropical fruit doesn’t normally get that sort of response from me. I think I’m just more of a fruit-person.
Also, that link redirects to http://www.52teas.com/2009/03/29/032909-sundae1888s-mayan-chocolate-chai/ for some reason! O.o
(if you’re trying to influence me, then sorry it won’t work. I don’t care much for chai or things with chili in it)
Also, EPIPHANY!!!!
OMG now I get that line from that Grease song! gotta be going to that malt shop in the sky
The comments on this post make me smile :)
Also, my mind has just been blown. HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE GLORY OF PEANUT BUTTER?!!1 ;) It’s soooo good. You have to have try a peanut butter and nutella sandwich at some point. Or a peanut butter and honey sandwich. Or a peanut butter cup. Or Reeses Pieces. Or peanut butter pie. Mmmmm. The trick is to heat up the peanut butter a little before or after spreading it on your bread :)
Uhm… because it’s all dry and not nice? It’s like a mouthful of cement. Blergh, you may keep it. I don’t want my nutella or my honey contaminated.
No, marmite. Marmite, that’s the good stuff! (unfortunately we can’t get that in danish shops)
Oh, for a slab of peanut butter pie! (My favorite is a clone of traditional American pecan pie, rather than the frozen/creamy PB pie variety.)
Oooh, you’ve been eating the wrong peanut butter then :) it should be somewhat thick and maybe a little sticky, but not dry! It’s creamy and sweet and salty and crunchy and mmmmmmm.
I mean dry the way nuts, peanuts included, are dry, not dry-dry. I don’t really care much for nuts on their own either. It’s like I never quite finish chewing even when they’re reduced to dust. In cooking or with (proper!) chocolate around them, nuts are fine. But not alone.
I am COMPLETELY baffled by the redirection of that link. It makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I’m pretty sure the Internet gremlins are to blame. Anyway, if you want to read the information we provided on malt, I guess you will have to search our site for malt and click on the Malted Genmaicha post. It actually does have an interesting history: Malted milk was orginally developed by a pharmacist as a nutritionally fortified milk to be used as baby formula, but then it became famous as a confectionary ingredient.
Likewise, peanut butter, was originally (in the form we currently think of as peanut butter) created in the 1890s as a means to provide toothless patients with protein.
My all time favorite sandwich, by the way, is peanut butter on toast with sizzling hot bacon. Mmmmm.
Hmmm…. peanut butter and bacon tea?
OMG, do iiiiiiit!
Okay after reading all this I am hungry! Malted Milkshakes totally rock BTW. :)
If you remove the end ) on the link it works properly.
So if you stick ) to the end of a link it’ll randomly choose a different page for you. Interesting… O.o
Yeah, not really sure why that works, but it does! Yay for the interwebs!
It’s a bit like the “I’m feeling lucky” button on Google. :p
(go to Google, search “Find Chuck Norris” and use the lucky button)
Ha! That’s awesome!
I like peanut butter, but, I don’t like it enough to try a peanut butter tea. Something about peanut butter and tea together just makes my tummy get all squeamish and just… eww. I have been quite liberal, I think, in weird tea blends – I tried the bacon tea (very good, especially with a pinch of salt), I tried some rather weird concoctions (most of them have been Frank’s), but, I just… cannot try peanut butter tea. That’s where I draw the line.
Same…the idea of peanut butter chai made me feel squeamish. I actually am not a huge fan of peanut butter itself, but it manages to redeem itself every once in a while :)