Ujinotsuyu

Mmmm a very nice tasting and affordable genmaicha! I have been drinking this for years. Everyone tells me genmaicha is the Japanese “poor man’s tea” but who cares it tastes great and I love the roasted rice flavour!

A good enough basic green tea, but nothing exceptional.

Loose
Appearance: small leaf, lots of sorghum seed, some popped rice
Aroma when Dry: buttery, nutty
After water is first poured: buttery, creamy, nutty, grassy, faint earthiness
At end of steep: harsh grass
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: grassy, clear
Staple? Type yes, would not use brand again
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first: harsh grassiness, slight rice and butter notes hinted at
As it cools ? Harshness lessens, creamy notes surface
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No

Lingers? Yes, harsh at first, slight buttery grass notes close

This is my almost-daily morning sencha. It’s not artisan sencha by any means, but I like how it’s easily available from the Asian aisle in my supermarket, and it’s cheap enough to buy regularly. The taste is decent, though a little strong on the seaweed, but I like the calm buzz it gives me in the morning.

Thanks Alphakitty

It’s looks like your typical Genmaicha but it has a less intense aroma, I think. Plus, I think the flavor is a bit more vegetal-juicy and a tad less popped rice and popcorn flavor than others I have tried but REGARDLESS this is darned tasty! Maybe because it seems a bit more buttery than some of the others or a combo of all the less is more type flavors – not sure – but it’s very YUMMY!

Hello everyone! I have returned from the dead! Actually I’ve been very much alive, but the past few months have been hectic to say the least (warning: this is not so much a tasting note as a life update note, so if you’re expecting tea stop now! I’ve commented a whole lot on this bad boy before so I thought it’d be a safe one to pick. Plus, it actually does tie in at the end. I promise!)

My boyfriend was diagnosed with ulcerative collitis two years ago, when he was 20. Usually when you’re young it’s an easy disease to control but he has been in a constant flare since then—if you know anything about uc, you’ll understand how totally hellish that was for both of us. None of his medications worked, the constant steroids they had to use to control the ulcers caused crazy mood changes, and he even had some very rare traits of the disease that his doctors had never seen (like ulcers on his appendix… and skin).

This summer we finally hit our limit. The disease had overwhelmed us. Surgery is a pretty extreme solution, because it involves cutting out his colon. Yup, the whole thing… at 22. And then rebuilding it 2 surgeries down the line, but it’s kind of insane to have to do something like that at this point in our lives (though we have been together for 5 years).

His family is not exactly… traditional, you could say (okay I’m being polite here they’re kind of extremely hard to deal with) and he had to have the surgery down in Philly since his doctor is there (which was worth it, since his doctor is AMAZING), but this necessitated me staying in the hospital with him. The entire time. Thankfully they do let non “family” members (at this point I consider myself family, and so does he!) stay over so I slept curled up in a chair, living off Lipton (Lipton!) for 6 days before he got the all-clear to go home. It was horrible, hellish, yet somehow a wonderful bonding experience that brought us together closer than ever, and perhaps I’ll write more about it later. But not now!

I said this tea came into play and indeed it did, because I brought it with me! His past room at UPenn had fridge, and this is his absolute favorite tea so I brought it to cold brew for him. Alas, surgery recovery rooms don’t include fridges because they want to carefully monitor the patients’ food & drink intake so neither of us had any good tea that week. So no tea for us, because Lipton brewed in coffee-tasting water is possibly the worst beverage on the entire planet.

There is no way I can ever hope to catch up on past notes since I’ve been binge drinking tea (kind of like chain smoking, except without all the bad stuff since unsweetened tea really has no negative sides!), but I’ll try to pop by more often and catch up on all the notes I’ve missed from you wonderful people! I’d also like to thank Kittenna for reminding me that I’d suddenly vanished—forgive me, but my social media obligations have been the last thing on my mind!

I think if I logged this tea every time I actually drank it I’d have something like 30 entries by now haha. Enjoying a nice cup of iced genmaicha since it’s nearing the end of cold tea season!

I’ve been drinking this almost every day, and while it’s no less delicious I wanted to try something new. Almost everything I have in my fridge that could potentially be added to tea is fruity, and somehow I don’t think peach genmaicha would be good (though who knows, I’ll probably try it out now!). That’s how I ended up with half of a cucumber (peeled & sliced) in my pitcher of genmaicha: it stayed in there for the whole cold brew, roughly 14 hours. I was honestly a bit suspicious when I sniffed the end result (no cucumber) but oh dear lord is this delicious. It’s even MORE refreshing than usual, with that soft hint of cucumber lifting it to new heights. It tastes like a day at the spa!

I drink a lot of iced tea every day even in colder months, and my consumption pretty much doubles in the summer. I really can’t afford to ice all the teas I’d like to since the bf and I go through about half of a very large pitcher a day—even some of the cheaper blends I like cold like Bangkok would cost an arm and a leg over the course of a hot NYC summer. So, I need a cost-effective tea to make, preferably one that I take no sugar in so I’m not ingesting a truckload of extra calories. I’ll be honest, I like most of my iced tea sweet, even blends that I wouldn’t sugar hot. To me, nothing screams refreshing like genmaicha, so when I saw a 400g packet of this in one of the asian groceries for $4 I absolutely had to get it. Ends up costing about 7 cents a day (15g per a pitcher cold-brewed), not bad at all! Plus no sugar… I can’t even imagine sugar in a straight genmaicha (though I did put it in the strawberry cheesecake one).

This is SO GOOD. Cool, refreshing, crisp and light from the green tea, earthy and nutty from the rice. I think cold brewing it brings out the green base a lot more, as hot this particular blend ends up being all nutty toastiness (which is nice and all, but I like it better with a bit more balance). Yup, definitely going to be drinking this alllll summer. It’s already 95, not really a great sign of things to come, but with the AC blasting and a glass of this in hand I just might survive.

EDIT: Seems like we actually went through an entire pitcher in a day since I just drank the last glass… seems like our cost will be raised to a whopping 15 cents a day!

It is freaking freezing out there. Only -20°C but -25°C with wind chill, yet it felt even colder. Maybe I’m not used to it? A friend and I met up at a cafe both new to us which required a bus route that had me stand outside a bit, but the real kicker was when I thought I’d walk a few blocks down to a nearby makeup store afterwards seeing that I was in the area, only to discover that it closed early due to weird post-New Year semi-holiday-for-them-still hours. Damnit! That is literally the third time I tried going to an establishment in that area only to discover that something closed early or wasn’t open that day at all.

So, why am I yapping about this? This meant having to be outside even longer trying to walk back to catch a bus, and despite wearing thermal gloves, my fingers were freezing and starting to hurt. Once I got on the bus, the pain got even worse as they were thawing out. Geez. What would happen in -40°C weather? Which I experienced much more often as a kid in the countryside? Once I got home, I felt like a steaming hot cup of tea, something soothing, so I opted for this. It totally hit the spot with that toasty rice and broth-like mouthfeel. Thank you for scaring off the frostbite, genmaicha!

Lately I haven’t felt like dessert teas, and I haven’t really had the time to drink all sorts of tea throughout the day. After finishing my whey protein smoothie with DAVIDsTEA’s Ceremonial matcha and some Banana Split added to it, I felt like something hot, so I busted this out after going through all my flavoured teas and not finding anything that caught my fancy.

So roasty toasty and delicious. I appreciate how the base isn’t too vegetal. At $6/400g bag, you can’t go wrong. My Nordic mug is already empty so I guess it’s time to hit the gym again. I burned over 1700 calories on the elliptical yesterday (in two sessions, mind you), so maybe I should dial it back a bit. But let’s see if this pre-workout matcha in the smoothie and genmaicha will affect the workout.

Veronica mentioned popcorn in tea and now I want this. :) Frankly, I actually just want to chug two litres of water, but I’ll have some of this too.

I was bad and bought a copy of Rolling Stone’s special edition Paul McCartney issue. And a whole bunch of chocolate. And went out for a veggie burger at the Scottish pub. I was a bit extravagant today.

So this tea will bring me down to earth. Cheap but oh so fine.

After being out of the province for nearly a week, I need some detox. After all that restaurant food, I’m feeling gross. So what better than genmaicha!

By the way, the night before I flew back, my family and I went out to a Japanese restaurant we’ve gone to many times before. When I asked for genmaicha, the waitress had no idea what it even was. :/

We ended up having genmaicha anyway, since that is what she brought out when I asked for “green tea” after the mass confusion. One huge anthroLOLogy moment.

And now I’m enjoying more! You can’t go wrong with this brand. Sooooo cheap and oh so toasty and delicious. Two thumbs up, as always.

Now this is my ultimate staple in my household. I’m on my second 400g bag and will keep on going. I originally fell in love with Genmaicha when I’d go out for sushi with friends and family. The wonderfully roasted aroma and taste of the tea was always an added bonus to the meal. Just had to get some for home and found this for dirt cheap.

And hey, despite it being so cheap, it’s freaking good. There is a perfect balance between the rice and tea. I’ve steeped this for several different lengths of time, in different temperatures, etc. Hot, iced, it’s fantabulous. I’m always up for trying samples of Genmaicha from other companies, but ultimately, I will always be satisfied with this one. I’d also say that out of all the Genmaichas that I have tried, this one has delivered the toastiest flavour.

My family received a 400g bag of this tea (along with a gigantic bottle of honey and a big box of ramen) from our pastor when he decided to retire and leave the God-forsaken town of Nome, Alaska.

Anyway, I’ve had trouble keeping this tea in the bag. The bag itself is really not that sturdy, so I definitely suggest putting the contents into another tin or jar for storage.

The tea itself is really nice — when brewed accordingly to directions, it’s nice and balanced, with a light popcorn/popped rice taste over a warm green tea base. I’ve had Takaokaya’s genmaicha before, and I like this one more. It’s toasty and warm, but there’s no powdery taste. I’m having it with rasmalai and oatmeal, and it sounds weird to pair it with those, but it works.

I like to pull this tea out when it’s cold and snowing and icy and windy, which is the normal Nome weather. It’s like I associate this tea with Nome. …I wish I didn’t do this. Nome is horrible, really. If you can take one thing away from this review, it’s that you should never go to Nome.

This is one of my comfort teas I drink daily. You can equally taste the green tea and the roasted rice. It’s very vegetal, grassy, nutty with hints of roasted seaweed flavor.

Genmaicha is my favorite tea thanks to Collette and Liz introducing me to it 8 years ago. My stepmom brought me back a bag of it. Soothing!

One of my favourite teas.
It have a special body, texture, a strong ricey taste and it’s so diggestive.

It tastes great with brown sugar.

i love this tea! Found it in Japan and haven’t seen in my area except in chilled bottles / cans. As someone noted, it’s pretty grassy.

This tasty tea came all the way from Japan for me. I’m such a sucker for any well-blended matcha and genmaicha tea like the ryokucha from Samovar. This tea is still very fresh, so the genmai is still very “crispy”. <3

Smooth and rich but the taste is flat sadly.
Thank you for the sample Mel!

What a wonderful thing to drink while cleaning and listening to Jens Lekman! The bottomless pot.

I got this tea as a “hand-me-down” from a friend who recently moved to California (I’m in France). I am so happy she gave me it!

This is a really tasty, smooth green tea that lasts forever. I make my little pot and refill and refill and refill… never ending. Perfect for a lazy day.

I really need to go hunting for another bag (no idea where she bought it, maybe in Chinatown…) because I’m almost out!