Genmaicha

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea, Popped Rice
Flavors
Toasted Rice, Popcorn, Burnt, Seaweed, Vegetal, Rice, Salty, Smooth, Metallic, Burnt Food, Butter, Earth, Green, Nutty, Roasted, Salt, Toasty, Sweet, Grass
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Low
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by B
Average preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 25 oz / 752 ml

From Our Community

1 Image

39 Want it Want it

  • +24

228 Own it Own it

  • +213

135 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I always forget how enjoyable this one is. So much yum! Of course, I rarely indulge. I tend to bypass the DT options in my cupboard, not for any apparent reason, it just happens :/” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “Bland on the sip, reminiscent of metallic taste. Light roasted green taste at the end of the sip with something hinting at a floral flavour. After taste is very roasty with green tea taste. As the...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “In july I cracked a tooth and it was incredibly painful. Due to the health professional shortage in my wonderful province, it still hasn’t come out of my mouth and I have 3 weeks to wait to see a...” Read full tasting note
    79
  • “Sipdown!! (130) Thank you Roswell Stange! I am always happy to try a genmaicha and this one is not bad. I am not running to stock up on it but it is easily accessible and if I am dying for a...” Read full tasting note
    70

From DAVIDsTEA

Watch out, it’s addictive

Some people call Genmaicha popcorn tea because it contains whole roasted grains of brown rice, some of which have popped. Others call it the Rice Krispie of green teas. Either way, genmaicha was originally drunk by poor Japanese who used the rice as a filler because they couldn’t afford enough tea leaves. It soon became all the rage. Today, everyone is addicted to its sweet, toasted rice flavour.

Ingredients: Japanese-style green tea, roasted rice.

About DAVIDsTEA View company

DavidsTea is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country, with its first store having opened in 2008.

135 Tasting Notes

87
1759 tasting notes

I always forget how enjoyable this one is. So much yum!
Of course, I rarely indulge. I tend to bypass the DT options in my cupboard, not for any apparent reason, it just happens :/

Nightshifter

Same here, but you are inspiring me to go back to some DT favorites this weekend. :)

Indigobloom

lol yay!!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

88
836 tasting notes

Bland on the sip, reminiscent of metallic taste. Light roasted green taste at the end of the sip with something hinting at a floral flavour. After taste is very roasty with green tea taste.

As the tea cools, I’m getting more of a full green tea taste on the sip; very seaweed-like. Very smooth, light and delightful!

On the second infusion the flavour reminds me strongly of popcorn.

This tea does well for at least three infusions.

This tea feels like a good everyday tea for me.

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 2 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

79
171 tasting notes

In july I cracked a tooth and it was incredibly painful. Due to the health professional shortage in my wonderful province, it still hasn’t come out of my mouth and I have 3 weeks to wait to see a dentist. Antibiotics helped, not anymore.
So, I woke up at 6am in excruciating pain and decided to clean my house before I start this busy day. House is still quiet if you ignore the dishwasher and snoring dogs that followed me downstairs.
I thought this is the perfect opportunity to enjoy some Genmaicha. I was certain I messed up my last attempt and I was right! This cup is toasty, not overly rice-y. Unfortunately I hear movement upstairs which means it’s time for me start breakfast. Someday, Genmaicha, someday.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 4 min, 0 sec
softrevolution

I hope you can get in to see a dentist soon, that sounds like ouch! Feel better :)

Ninavampi

I hate tooth aches… It is horrible that they make you wait so long!

BoxerMama

It’s true tooth aches are the worst. I’m going to call the dentist today and beg to get in sooner.

Will Work For Tea

I had tooth problems for a couple months after a crown was put on a few years ago – turned out I needed a root canal. Totally feel your pain – hang in there!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

70
6444 tasting notes

Sipdown!! (130)

Thank you Roswell Stange! I am always happy to try a genmaicha and this one is not bad. I am not running to stock up on it but it is easily accessible and if I am dying for a straight genmaicha, this is certainly not a bad option to have. The base is present and just a touch vegetal but mostly this is toasty rice. Yum!

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 16 OZ / 473 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

82
15526 tasting notes

This is a queued tasting note.

So, a lot has been going on for me this week and much of that has actually directly correlated to DAVIDsTEA. I’ll be finishing up my Sommelier classes in less than a month now so I’ve been thinking about what I want to do afterwards. A fairly good friend of mine works at DAVIDsTEA and she recommended applying to work there as one of the seasonal tea guides just to get some tea related work experience on my resume and I thought that was an awesome idea. If nothing else, I think it’s a work environment I’d genuinely enjoy and it’ll be nice having that extra cash flow for the Christmas season.

So I actually got my cup of this during my group interview! One of the things they told us to expect for the interview was a free cup of tea and then my friend tipped me off that sometimes in smaller interviews one of the questions is to “sell” the tea you picked to the interviewer. So picking this one was definitely more strategic for me because it’s a tea I have LOTS of familiarity with and I knew there would be tons of different ways I could spin it. I could have talked about the “myth” based origins of the blend that relate to how it got its name because I know I’m always more interested in a tea when there’s a story or its nickname “The People’s Tea” and how that originated. I also know a ton of ways to cook with Genmaicha or pair it with different cheeses and chocolates so I thought that could be a unique approach as well. It’s also a great evening tea because of the lower caffeine amount and the fact the roasty notes are very soothing. Finally, I think it’s a perfect tea to bride the gap between traditional and “pure” teas and more fun, flavored ones. Also, I just really fucking like Genmaicha.

Turns out – that wasn’t even one of the interview questions. Probably because my group interview was gargantuan: roughly twenty people! Everyone wants to work for DAVIDsTEA…

Questions they did ask, for anyone curious, were availability (that was a huge focus) and what ‘defines’ good customer service as well as examples of how you could provide it at their store as well as how its been provided or not provided for you at other stores. Our interviewer (the store manager) also wanted to know our general preexisting knowledge of tea fucking nailed that part and then to finish and to get a sense of our personalities we were asked to either describe the person who has been our biggest influence in life/motivation in life OR an object that we feel close to that directly ties into our identity. I chose to talk about my tattoos – specifically the three I feel hold the most meaning, which would be my memorial tattoo, my Shel Silverstein piece, and my Camellia Sinensis tattoo.

Apart from the sheer size of the group, I’d say it was a pretty straight forward interview that, even if I hadn’t prepped before hand, would have been really easy to navigate. I’m a big fan of group interviews in general and I think finding a balance between having personality and standing out without ‘screaming for attention’ or talking over other applicants is something I’ve always done well with.

Oh, and I got the job! I should start somewhere between a week from now and two weeks. Once I start I think I’m going to continue to rate DAVIDsTEA blends, just without assigning any numerical score to them unless the Steepster community seems to have objections to that approach. I think that’s a good balance between continuing to write about them while still remaining impartial and not skewing the average rating here on the site. In the mean time, I’m going to continue to to review as normal. Also, any numerical ratings I currently have up for existing blends I think I will just leave untouched as they were before I was hired.

Thoughts?

Rasseru

Youve got a tea tat? Born for this :) & yeah just keep up with it, seems a fair balance to not score

Roswell Strange

I do! It’s pretty simple though; literally just the words “Camellia Sinensis”. It seemed the best approach for me because I like to stay away from coloured tattoos so getting the tea flower was out (because without colour it’s hard to distinguish from other flowers) and I wasn’t a fan of getting any teaware done because there’s no one style of teaware I feel particularly drawn to or use more than any other. And definitely no “tea bag” tattoos ;)

Rosehips

Congrats on the job!
And I think that would be a good system, to review but not rate, at least for the time being. It seems very fair.

Kaylee

Congratulations! Drink ALL THE TEA. I agree that you can keep reviewing and just not rate. Some tea company owners review their own blends on here and it is fine as long as they don’t rate.

Kristal

Congrats! And good idea about not rating the teas. Sometimes (rarely anymore) I buy from Steeped Tea and looking here on steepster the other day it makes me mad when reps create profiles and rate every tea 100

carol who

Awesome!! Now we can get all the inside scoop on the newest teas. I hope you enjoy the new job.

Evol Ving Ness

Congratulations! I hope this with be rewarding and fun and useful to you.

A question—or two. How does a group interview work? How many people interviewed you? etc. etc.

Roswell Strange

So, in a group interview it’s typically one (maybe two) interviewer but a large group of people being interviewed. They’re typically less questions and generally those questions are more personality or team based. They want to get a sense of your personality and how you’ll communicate and interact with coworkers and customers. They also run much longer – about an hour in this case.

Also, thanks for all the congrats!

mrmopar

Way to go!

VariaTEA

I think you are pretty unbiased so I know even if you work for the company, your reviews will be honest. So no qualms here…though you probably already knew that. Also, I was thinking about you getting hired and all I could think is “I would drink so many eggnog lattes if I had that job :P”…I would basically try the wall as an eggnog latte so when someone asked which tea was best that way, I could give an educated and informed answer

sundaysipping

Congratulations!

Scheherazade

Congrats on the job!

Evol Ving Ness

Thanks, Ms. Strange. When the interviewers ask a question, do they address it to a particular person? or to the group up for grabs? or same question one by one continuing whatever the person before you said?

Evol Ving Ness

I also would be eggnog latteing myself to death.

Roswell Strange

@Evol,

This interview was a combination of “up for grabs” questions (basically, answer if you can contribute) and questions that everyone was expected to answer. Personally, I’ve yet to do a group interview where they directed questions to specific individuals.

Evol Ving Ness

Thanks. I’ve never attended a group interview though I have been interviewed by a group of people from various departments as the single interviewee.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

1429 tasting notes

Mini sipdown, courtesy of Heather!

I’ve yet to come across a genmaicha I dislike. This cup is a little greener than average but that’s because there’s more leaves in this serving. I burnt it a bit too. A little more roasted and less buttery than my usual genmaicha but still decent! Edit: I take it back, this has a respectful amount of butter rice. There’s also some sweetness.

Genmaicha is one of those teas that I prefer later in the evening or when I wake up earlier than I needed to and can still fall back to sleep (but probably won’t). It has a distinct place in my personal tea hierarchy.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 15 sec
Fjellrev

Seriously, I’ve yet to come across a genmaicha I don’t like.

Crowkettle

Maybe this speaks more of my own tasting abilities but I find that even “dust bags” of genmaicha are still ok.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

125 tasting notes

So here is an interesting one…. I got this few months ago, drank it once and was so dissatisfied with it, I put it at the back of my cupboard and forgot about it. The reason? Too much roasted rice, not enough tea, just not my taste I guess. I remember wanting to try it with addition of more green tea but like I said… I forgot about it.

Lo and behold I remembered about it out last night. I steeped about half a teaspoon of it with regular serving of Dragonwell in 8 ounces of water…. and I liked it. I liked it so much that tonight I decided to double the amount. I guess I like the toasted rice filler after all but for me there has to be more tea and less rice.

Stephanie

There are definitely better genmaichas out there :) try Den’s extra green (with added matcha!) sometime! So good…

Kamyria

Thank you, I totally will. I will finish what I have of this one because I do enjoy it with a little extra green tea, but after than I will definitely have to branch out and try other genmaichas out there. :)

Stephanie

If you’ve never shopped at Den’s tea, they do a $5 introduction to Japanese greens sampler, and it comes with a $5 off your next purchase coupon, so it’s basically free!

Kamyria

Oh, that’s awesome! Thank you :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

1438 tasting notes

Puffed rice. I kind of like the smell in a bizarre sort of way.

I can’t stop drinking it, yet I’m not really sure what it is I like about drinking it.

Update: Also great resteeped! This one gets the upgrade. But I still couldn’t tell you exactly why. Now back to PLL!

Update #2: 4th resteep, still going strong.

Well 5 steeps, that was my entire tea story for this evening. Impressive. Time to turn in.

Preparation
2 min, 15 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

123 tasting notes

Yay, I got my David’s Tea shipment!

Just awhile ago I wrote about my errors with The Path of Tea genmaicha, which was lovely brewed in my French Press at home with an appropriate amount of tea and a carefully timed steep. When I used my Tea for Life set, the curved blue cup with the metal infuser, I blew it.

So, mindful of that, with David’s Tea I used the Tea for Life set again, but measured only a gently rounded tablespoon and steeped for about 2 1/2 minutes.

The dry tea looks like it’s about half tea (fairly regular, needle-shaped leaves about 3/4 inch long) and half toasted rice, with a fair amount of popped rice kernels. It looks pretty much like the photo. Could not really detect a toasty smell in the dry form.

Steeped, I have the lovely toasty aroma rising from the cup, not with the buttery note I found in The Path of Tea version, but pleasant.

First sip: seem a bit weak. I think it needs a bit more in the filter when made this way. I’ll try increasing the amount of leaf slightly next time and steep it for the same amount of time. I may try a re-steep, adding another teaspoon of fresh dry leaf. And I’ll try it in the French press tonight or tomorrow.

Going to withhold a numerical rating for now, but so far it’s quite nice and I’m looking forward to more tweaking.

Update: I just tried Daniel Scott’s discovery of this technique and I’m getting much stronger toast notes this way even though the tea has cooled down quite a bit:

1. First, exhale completely.
2. Take a sip of tea.
3. Hold the tea in your mouth across your entire tongue and inhale deeply through your nose.
4. Swallow.
****************

Update 2: Re-steeped as planned, with addition of another tsp or so. Pleasant but still not there. Next time will try with more leaf to start with.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 30 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

100
250 tasting notes

It was quite a struggle to get my 1-year-old to nap, which inevitably meant that this tea brewed too long. However, it still tastes delicious and toasty, with not even a hint of bitterness! Hmmmm… never saw that coming! I was certain that it’d come out awful, which just proves my point that this is the greatest tea. Ever. No contest.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 7 min, 0 sec
Kay Kanada

Totally oversteeped mine yesterday, and I expected an absolute disaster. Same outcome as yours, though, and what a welcome surprise!

Faith

I know! Usually when you over-steep green tea it’s not even drinkable, which means you have to watch it like a hawk. Not so for Genmaicha.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.