Genmaicha

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 :/

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.