This is an organic sencha genmaicha from Kyoto. The rice is brown rice from Nara Prefecture and the sencha is first harvest aka shincha versus bancha. For the most part, it is a good genmaicha and has nice toasty brown rice notes. I found it to be very temperature sensitive though.
I made it with 160Fwater in a banko kyusu. At 185F it was far too brisk for me. Astringent, extremely drying on my tongue, bitter. So I dropped the temperature down to 170F and then finally 160F. At this temperature, I got the familiar mellow aroma, umami, and a much better balance of sweet and bitter taste, less bitterness and was savory, had vegetal notes of greens, like grass, spinach. I re-steeped it 3 times. I also found making it in spring water was best. 170F was good too though.
It is a good price for organic first harvest sencha genmaicha. Recommended.
Flavors: Grass, Rice, Savory, Spinach, Toasted Rice, Umami, Vegetal
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Hi Kawaii! I’m not sure how I feel about shincha in a genmaicha… I feel like I really like the combination of the mellower bancha flavor with the rice, and it would be weird with a more vegetal, umami-forward base…
I’ve always preferred bancha in my genmaicha as well.
I agree with both of you! I didn’t really care for this one compared to the bancha flavor.
Hi Kawaii! I’m not sure how I feel about shincha in a genmaicha… I feel like I really like the combination of the mellower bancha flavor with the rice, and it would be weird with a more vegetal, umami-forward base…
I’ve always preferred bancha in my genmaicha as well.
I agree with both of you! I didn’t really care for this one compared to the bancha flavor.