Genmaicha

 Today's tea is Genmaicha, one of my special occasions tea.  The occasion that has me drinking it today is I'm out of milk and I don't feel like Earl Grey :-)  Genmaicha is a green tea with toasted brown rice.  Some of the rice is "popped" looking like popcorn.  The toasted rice supplies a sweetness to the tea making sugar unnecessary.

This tea was from the company "The Tao of Tea" and was sourced from Amazon.  It costs about $3.43 an ounce, which is a bit pricey, but the fact that it can be steeped 2 or 3 times reduces it's effective cost by a factor of 2 or 3.




I made this tea in the Assam tea press and used the 185 degree water and a 4 minute steep time.  Because it's a green tea, my normal pattern of taste testing is being changed, as the major difference in the test is which steeping of the tea is being tested.

1st stepping: Like most orthodox green teas genmaicha is fairly subtle.  It has a a nice smell when in the cup, smelling of toasted grains.  It has a  grassy taste and a sweetness added by the toasted rice.  For the 1st steeping it has no bitterness and is rather sweet, with the taste of the rice being the primary flavor in the flavor profile.

2nd stepping: The 2nd steeping has less rice sweetness and has a more pronounced "grassy" or traditional green tea taste.  It's still not bitter, just not as sweet as the 1st steeping.  It's closer to what I think of as "green tea".

3rd stepping: The 3rd steeping is slightly bitter and has almost no rice flavor.  Aside from the faint bitterness it's really pretty close to just being hot water in flavor. I didn't finish this pot after the 2nd cup.

Would I drink this if offered by a friend? Yes, it's a nice tea, even if not in my normal comfort zone of black Indian teas.  In general I think I prefer the 1st steeping.

Will I drink this tea again?  Yes, it's in my special occasion tea rotation list.

Would I buy this tea again?  Yes.

Did Explorer the Cat go nuts over this tea?  She sniffed at it, but there are some cats outside that had drawn her attention.

Final verdict:  8 out of 10, a good green tea and one that I will drink again when the occasion presents itself.


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