The American House

I was sorting my teas and came across this packet with… maybe a serving left in it. Sara and I went to The American House in 2017 during a vacation in San Diego, and I must have picked it up then. I’ll bet they source it from somewhere else, but I have no idea where.

The bancha and puffed rice have a nice toasty flavor. I know what looks like popcorn is puffed rice, but I’m getting a hint of popcorn flavor here. I love the balance of flavors in this.

Green March! Well, I’m finally able to drink tea again, after a lovely bought of food poisoning from my birthday dinner. Still dealing with the fall-out migraine from the ordeal (which is now on it’s fourth day… meh) but I’ve moved from Gatorade and mint and ginger teas to other liquids now. I still haven’t had a very large appetite, but have always found Genmaicha tea quite nice at breakfast time… sort of has a Rice Krispies cereal-appeal, while being light on the stomach and warm and comforting, you know?

This genmaicha is a standard mix of bancha leaf and toasted rice, though I have to question if The American House knows anything about genmaicha, since they actually list “popcorn” on their website’s ingredient list (are they actually adding popcorn to their tea, or are they really just so daft they don’t realize the “popcorn” looking bits are just popped bits of rice from the roasting process? If there is one thing that rankles a library cataloger like me, it is listing inaccurate information, ugh.) But the tea is good, with a smooth vegetal flavor, and nice nutty overtones from the roasted rice. It’s a fairly balanced genmaicha between leaf and rice (and doesn’t include nearly so much popped rice as the image on their website would lead one to believe!), that produces a tasty tea, though I’m sure there isn’t anything special about it. Even if it’s just a simple run-of-the-mill genmaicha, it makes me happy. I think this will always be one of my favorite teas.