Genmaicha

So today's post will be about one of my other favorites: Gemaicha.  This is a Japanese green tea which, if you've ever had tea at a Chinese or Japanese restaurant, I can pretty much be certain that you've had this tea.

I discovered this tea completely by accident.  I was in a loose leaf tea shop buying Earl Gray and Sencha tea (I'll do a post about Sencha another time, so don't worry!) and was asking the tea seller what some of the other teas were since I was curious.  I ended up asking about the Genmaicha and was told that the Genmaicha was unique as that it was a green tea with roasted rice, producing a nutty flavor.  I thought that was pretty cool, so I decided to get an ounce or two to try it out.  Needless to say, Genmaicha is another tea that I tend to have to buy every time I go tea shopping.

Genmaicha is pronounced: Gen (using the guttural G like in good and rhyming with Ken), Mai (sounds like my), Cha (the CH from chimney, and the A as in "say ah" when you go to the doctor).  Gen-mai-cha.

Here is a picture of the loose leaf Genmaicha, you can see the roasted rice within the green tea leaves.  Sometimes the rice will pop (just like popcorn) and you'll have little white puffs in the tea.  As a result, the tea is sometimes called "popcorn tea".  If you do end up buying some Genmaicha and you see the popped grains of rice, don't take them out, they are perfectly okay to steep with the rest of the tea.  The popped rice also makes a wonderful conversation starter!

Also, as an aside, I feel I should mention that thus far, all of the pictures I've used are mine, taking with my digital point and shoot as I'm making the tea and drinking it with these posts in mind.  If I should ever use someone else's images, I will credit them as is their due.  If the images remain uncredited, they are mine.

And here is a picture of the brewed Genmaicha.  If you read yesterday's post on Earl Gray tea, you'll notice this tea is more of a green color and much lighter.  In a future post, I will go into what black, green, white, oolong, etc teas are and the differences between them.

Genmaicha has a smooth buttery taste with a nutty flavor to it.  In my opinion, it can be the drink of choice with any food.  I've had it with all kinds of food.  In my opinion, the nuttiness of the flavor helps to tie into whatever you may be eating. It's also a fabulous tea to drink by itself and enjoy the tea just for the tea.

This is one of the reasons I love tea so much, because it is a drink that can be enjoyed by itself and with food. It can be enjoyed hot or cold (and I've found that I enjoy lukewarm or room temperature tea of my favorites as well).  It's a very versatile drink and with loose leaf tea, you can do several steepings before you need to toss the leaves, unlike with tea bags where you can get, maybe, two steepings before the tea ends up too weak and you have to get a new bag.  Loose leaf tea is meant to be steeped several times, and yes, I'll go into this in another post at another time.

I believe that Genmaicha tea is only available in loose leaf form - I've never found it in bagged tea, which is not to say it doesn't exist.

Current Tea: Genmaicha

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