Country of Origin: Japan
Leaf Appearance: deep green, needle like, lots of rice pieces
Ingredients: sencha, toasted rice, rice cracker balls (plain and matcha flavored)
Steep time: 3 minutes
Water Temperature: 195 degrees
Preparation Method: ceramic teacup and mesh infuser
Liquor: bright greenish yellow
I receive this tea as part of the July Shipment for +Yunomi.us‘sTea Samplers Club. The appearance was somewhat different from other genmaicha that I have had before because of the little rice cracker balls. They looked like fluffy pom poms from my arts and crafts days as a Girl Scout. Novelty is always fun for me, even if it is something silly like that. Their steeping instructions are designed to create a concentrated brew with a short steep and small amount of water. I prefer my genmaicha in larger doses so I went with an average time of 3 minutes. The taste was sweet, vegetal and full of toasty flavor. It had lots of umami and just the right amound of astringency. I always look forward to drinking teas from Yunomi because I love reading the background stories they give about the farmers. This particular tea was produced by Hiroshi Sasaki of Kashima Tea Garden. So far I’ve been very impressed with the teas that I’ve received from this subscription service and I highly recommend giving it a try if you’d like to explore Japanese teas.
You can find out more about this tea here.