Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Nutty Aroma’

So, as I child, I used to eat grass.  Not a lot, and not actual grazing, but every so often when outside, I’d pick a blade and nibble.  Thank goodness my parently didn’t use chemical fertilizer, and that we didn’t have any dogs!  I favored wild grass, because you can get the milder white hearts of grass from the inner stem in larger portions than from regular lawn grass.

That is what this tea reminds me of – those mild grass hearts.  It’s a lovely mellow, smooth and grassy tea.   And grass really is a motif throughout the tea. The dry leaf looks like dried grass slippings, while having cocoa and nutty aroma notes.  The brewed leaf looks even more like grass clippings and smells like a typical green tea.

But the brew – oh!  the brew.  It’s lovely.  Others have called it sweet.  I don’t get sweet.  I get grassy, lightly nutty, and very mellow.  Mild.  Very lightly colored.  This is a tea I could sip all day.  Lovely, lovely tea.

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I am obsessed with genmaicha and try to drink it every day. Needless to say, I was excited to try this and I wasn’t disappointed.

The dry leaf contains various shades of green with a healthy dose of toasted brown rice. The aroma was nutty, but very light.

The first time I had this tea, I steeped it for 3 minutes which produced a rich, nutty aroma while brewing. The liquor was a pale gold that I find to be typical of many greens. The tea tasted of toasted popcorn, not burnt or stale, which I have found in other genmaichas. The second infusion lasted for 5 minutes and had more of a buttery quality, but less popcorn presence.

I wanted to try this tea again with different infusion times in order to hopefully produce the perfect cup of genmaicha. The tea was brewed for 2 minutes which resulted in a lighter, but still nutty and popcorn-like infusion. While the first infusion was lighter at 2 minutes, it allowed the 3 minute second infusion to have a fuller mouthfeel and more balanced taste. I was able to get a decent third infusion, but the tea mainly tasted of sencha without the presence of the toasted rice.

Overall, this tea is a nice example of what genmaicha should be. It wasn’t burnt or stale tasting and had a nice buttery quality which I love. I wish the toasted rice came through stronger in the taste, but honestly, I love bold flavors and I wish almost every tea had a stronger taste. I would definitely recommend this tea for someone who wanted to try genmaicha or prefers light, nuanced flavors.

You can purchase the Genmaicha Organic directly from the TeaFrog website.