Genmaicha Extra Green - Den's Teas

Now, on to today's tea:

Wow, wow, wow. This tea completely changed my opinion of Genmaicha. Someone had given me Genmaicha a few years ago and I really didn't care for it. I think partly it was me - I just hadn't had much experience with green teas - but I also think it just wasn't very good tea. It's so easy to get turned off something by one bad experience. I am so glad I gave this a chance.

Genmaicha ("brown rice tea") is a Japanese green tea combined with toasted rice. It was originally created as a way to "stretch" the tea to save money and it was frequently made with bancha green tea or low-quality sencha. Den's Tea's version is actually Matcha-iri Genmaicha - genmaicha combined with matcha tea and is called "Genmaicha Extra Green (with Matcha)." Their green tea is sourced from Shizouka and Nishio, Japan.

The dry leaf was really interesting. There were the long needles of Sencha with the matcha powder coating yellow-ish brown toasted puffed rice. The scent was heavenly - bright and toasty with some woodsy notes. The brewing instructions made me very nervous - It called for boiling water. I was very afraid of "cooking" this tea. But it also called for a flash steeping of just 30 seconds in 8 ounces of water. I knew I needed to just follow their instructions for my first attempt and make adjustments as needed.

No adjustments necessary! It brewed to a beautiful lemony yellow and the scents carried through beautifully from the dry leaf. The toasted rice was the predominant flavor providing a really interesting experience. As I drank, I almost felt that I was eating a hearty piece of nutty toast. The matcha provided a nice sweetness. Beautiful. I think this is a fantastic tea. Sign me up for more!

Tea: Genmaicha Extra Green (with Matcha)
Source: Den's Tea
Type: Green tea
Brewing details: 1 tsp at 212 degrees for 30 seconds
Comment: Den's Tea has a really cool offer. They have a Green Tea Kit for those of us new to their company. It includes samples of some loose tea and their pyramid tea bags for just $3 (shipping charge only). Then if you place an order of $15 or more in the future, they will even reimburse that $3!

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Taken from http://teapages.blogspot.com/