Our blog is not about promoting our loose leaf tea products. It’s meant to be a forum for anyone in our company to talk about anything tea – even if it’s just remotely tea-related. But after this morning’s cup of goodness I just soothed myself in, i feel compelled to share just how extraordinary our Genmaicha green tea is.
Perhaps this is just my own little lesson in loose tea vs tea bags. I almost never make Genmaicha myself. My daily tea ritual includes a steaming cup Bolder Breakfast or Organic Pu’erh tea in the morning, along with my daily dosage of matcha green tea powder. The matcha may be mixed into a breakfast smoothie or post-cycling recovery drink – or on colder days, I’ll just make the traditional green tea beverage. Beyond that, I’ll usually steep (and re-steep and re-steep…) a cup of green tea or oolong tea at my desk in the afternoon, or else indulge in whatever we’re serving up at a tea tasting during our daily afternoon team meeting. But for whatever reason, I’ve only been ordering Genmaicha when I go to a Japanese restaurant, which happens maybe once every two months. And it’s fine – I enjoy the hot beverage at the end of a big meal – as well as the ritual of holding a warm cup of tea in my hands.
But this morning, I knew we had a heavy black tea tasting day ahead of us at work, so I wanted something very low in caffeine, and Genmaicha fit the bill. This traditional Japanese tea blend stands out as a curious melange alongside all the purest of single origin teas you’ll see from Japan. It looks like a happy, almost comical, blend. Genmaicha has as its base a quality Japanese green tea “cha” – generally either Sencha or Bancha. The green tea leaves are blended with popcorn (!) and toasted brown rice kernels “genmai”, which to any American look strangely like Kellogg’s Rice Krispies.
What I steeped up in my glass infusions teapot was wondrous – the green tea leaves unfurled beautifully, and a savory, toasty aroma filled my kitchen. It was clear right away that this tea was going to be very different that the Genmaicha I’d been in the habit of drinking at restaurants…
The flavor of the tea is spring grass vegetal, but at the same time soothingly robust and nourishing. The roasted brown rice and popcorn complete this loose leaf tea blend, making it a most pleasant and easy to drink green tea, even without food. And because it’s a blend with caffeine-free ingredients, I estimate that it would have about 10 mg of caffeine per 8 oz serving, or about one-fifth the caffeine you’d get in a cup of black tea. All in all, an exquisitely satisfying way to start the day!