Sourced from Ise Bay in Mie Prefecture, Japan, this Great Taste 2020 award-winning Japanese specialty tea is made with premium quality Sencha, roasted rice grains and popcorn. In ancient Japan, tea was a luxury commodity. Therefore, the Japanese mixed roasted rice with Sencha green tea and created the blend that is now known as Genmaicha. Today, Genmaicha is a luxurious delicacy tea with a very distinctive and delicious flavour.
The tea has a mild flavour and combines the fresh grassy taste of green tea with the aroma of roasted rice. The combination of elements creates a beautifully balanced tea that plays with your senses of taste, smell and sight.
Ingredients: Japanese green tea, roasted rice and popcorn
Health benefits - Genmaicha is known for its various health benefits such as increasing metabolism and reducing cholesterol. The tea is rich in the polyphenols ‘catechin’ and ‘gallic acid’. It also includes other antioxidants such as ‘carotenoids’ and ‘ascorbic acid’.
Information for tea connoisseurs
Today, Japanese Genmaicha green tea is consumed in the Western world as a delicacy with an interesting a complex flavour profile. However, in ancient Japan, Genmaicha was actually a peasant’s tea. While the roasted rice and popcorn impart a very beautiful and distinctive flavour to the brewed tea, the original purpose of adding rice was not a culinary innovation but, simply, an attempted to make the green tea last longer. This is why, in Japan, Genmaicha is known as ‘The People’s Tea’.
Genmaicha was also consumed by Buddhist during periods of fasting and by those who did not have regular access to food.
Region & Time of Harvest
This tea is harvested from July to August in Ise Bay, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
This excellent Japanese tea has a tasty mild nutty flavour imparted by the blended-in roasted rice, which I find very pleasant. It is best steeped in filtered water, as with all quality green teas, for the best flavour. Very good for late afternoon or evening drinking, it does not disappoint.
I tried this tea before, several years ago, and am very pleased to have come across it again. The nutty flavour from the toasted rice is delightful and interesting. I find that I can get two or three brews from a single spoonful of the tea. Keep adding more hot water and drinking the tea while the flavour and colour lasts. Delightful
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