Genmaicha Extra Green (with Matcha) [duplicate]

Had this one as a comparison with Butiki’s genmaicha and I think i prefer both her version and the one from verdant much better if i’m going to be drinking this type of tea. There’s nothing wrong with this one exactly, but when doing a direct comparison, this one is inferior to butiki’s.

Backlog: The freshly opened package and smell of the dry leaves makes my mouth water!

There’s plenty of toasted rice aroma rising from this tea. The added Matcha seems to include the right amount of refreshing vegetal notes. The rice swells up nicely after infusion, without separating and becoming mushy.

The poured liquid is smooth, almost straight water smooth. There is also a warming and comforting element to this tea. It certainly put me in a better mood after a long day at work.

I find this tea perfect to enjoy halfway through the evening, either before or after dinner. It’s not for everyone, in fact, only my son and I found it delicious in this household.

A review of Genmaicha Extra Green (with Matcha) by Den’s Tea

This is Den’s Tea special blend of Genmaicha with Matcha. This blend uses a tea ceremony grade of Matcha and quality Bancha.

Origin: Shizuoka
Harvest: A blend of First & Second Harvests

This tea smells lovely from first opening of the foil bag to the steeping of this tea and to finally drinking the tea.
It is suggested that this tea be steep for 30 second for the 1st steep; I take a rounded heaping teaspoon and put this in my cup and pour in the boiled water and left to steep. When the times seem right, I remove the covering from the tea and I am met with a very rich flavorful cup of tea. It is very green in color with the roasted brown rice floating loosely in my cup. At first it smells like popcorn, the kernels of corn not cooked at the bottom of the bag; and as the tea cools down I am met with a rice crispy kind of smell.

So this tea’s aroma is most invigorating as well as intoxicating. In tasting the tea, one is met with the rice’s grainy textures or the best wording is ‘nutty’. This 1st cup of tea is very filling, for a somewhat medium bodied tea.

I try this tea next with a 2nd steep for 15 second and adding the boiled water to my cup with the tealeaves already loose and immersed in the boiled water. The tea’s aroma with this short infusion is more vegetal and sweet and when tasted I am met with the matcha this time and not so much of the grainy texture of the rice.

1st infusion for 30 seconds yields a highly aromatic aroma in the tea. The tea’s color is green and the taste is very grainy; smelling/tasting like rice crispies.
2nd infusion for 15 seconds gives way to another layering to be found in this tea; the astringency of the matcha, giving this tea its natural sweetness with a slight astringency.

Overall, this tea is green in color with the 1st steeping to be more of roasted rice for aroma and flavor. With the 2nd steep tea is more grassy tasting, slight oceany taste to it as the matcha flavoring comes through.

Finally reordered this tea! I went back to look at my old tasting notes and WOW I’ve already been here for two years? Time flies. I still feel like I have so much more to discover about tea, so that’s nice. Anyway, this reorder was long overdue. I don’t actually like straight up matcha all that much, but in combination with genmaicha (one of my favorite types of tea), I love love it.

I’ve been having a really hectic couple of weeks at work, so this tea has been perfect for my sleepy, confused self in the mornings. Unlike most other greens, this one doesn’t seem to be too picky about temperature. I noticed that I noted this in my tasting notes from over a year ago as well. I also wanted to add to my previous notes that it resteeps incredibly well. I think I had 3 steeps out of it before I added a tiny pinch more of tea to resteep another 2 times.

The unfortunate news is that 2 ounces did not turn out to be as much as I thought it would be. Maybe the matcha makes it heavy? Anyway, that is not so great news for me because apparently, I am really awful at reordering this tea even though I know I want more.

This is the loose leaf version of Den’s bagged genmaicha. Smells quite similar but differs in appearance. Unlike the bagged version which is practically powder, this one is full leaf and includes popped rice along with toasted rice.

When steeped, it’s vibrant green and cloudy thanks to the dusting of matcha. The toasted rice flavor is more prominent here than the bagged tea which is sweeter and more matcha forward. Both are delicious but head to head, I actually prefer the bagged one when it comes to flavor. Go figure.

Finally managed a sipdown of this sample from 2016! Truly it’s practically criminal to let a decent green tea sit around for so long, even in a sealed packet. Any rating I gave it now would be entirely unfair and not reflective of what this might have tasted like when it was fresh. It’s still ok now – roasty, nutty, excellent for fall. And it counts as a nutty tea for Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge!

Not going to do a rating of this one since the sampler is old and I don’t feel fully fair with the flavor notes. I liked it, but it’s not something I would order more of to drink on a casual basis. Definitely different. First time trying a Genmaicha or with the rice. I like the toasted feel but did not catch more of the green tea flavor enough to really tell. I brewed for the recommended time of 30 seconds with 1 tsp., then brewed slightly more after a few sips.

My favorite weird green tea, though I think my tastes have become kind of boring with regards to tea flavors. It’s super good, not really much I can say beyond that. You’ve got Matcha. You’ve got Genmaicha. Together. Very green. Genmaicha is still my everything so that’s not putting it down, just observational. I love Den’s for really good quality tea, so it’s just a nice good quality tea. :D

Random sample I’ve had from Den’s sitting around for a long time. The first infusion of this one is by far the best – likely because all the matcha ends up in that cup. Relatively sweet and spinachy tasting, with a bit of that toastiness from the popped rice. Easy to drink, but the matcha gives it enough of a kick to be slightly more interesting than your average genmaicha. I do think it distracts from the overall warm and simple nature of genmaicha though – so this is nice, but I think I’d rather go with genmaicha not dusted with matcha.

This is from a teabox and now it is gone and I never wrote a tasting note. Here is one: the tea is ancient but the packaging is great, so the flavor shouldn’t be too bad. It still tastes fantastic to me — if anything, the green tea is so light. I used two teaspoons since there were so many popped rice pieces! And lots of matcha among the few leaves of green tea. The mug color is more yellow than green which is surprising with all the matcha. The flavor is all sweetness and toastiness and earthiness from the matcha. Sometimes this type of tea hits all the notes and this is an excellent one. I think my preferred genmaicha in stock would be one with matcha. (I also finished a couple other teas from teaboxes recently!)
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug// 30 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep