Genmaicha
Green tea — usually bancha or a modest sencha — blended with roasted and partly popped rice. The rice contributes a toasted, savoury, faintly nutty character and dilutes the leaf, producing a tea that is gentler and cheaper than the green tea it is built on.
Character
Toasted and comforting, with the rice doing most of the aromatic work. The story that it was a wartime economy measure is widely repeated and poorly evidenced; what is clear is that the rice reduces the cost per cup.
- Flavour
- Nutty, Roasted, Grassy
- Aroma
- Toasted
- Mouthfeel
- Light, Smooth
- Complexity
- Straightforward
- Notes
- toasted rice, popcorn, grain, light grass
- Aftertaste
- Warm and grain-sweet.
Delicate intensity: light in the mouth with little grip. forgiving of a long steep.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- Japan
- Oxidation
- Unoxidised
- Roast
- Light
- Harvest
- Summer
- Processing
- Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Roasting
History
Roasted rice was originally blended with tea to make a small amount of leaf go further, and the tea carried a reputation as a poor person’s drink well into the twentieth century. It is now bought for the flavour, which is a complete inversion of why it was made.
Brewing
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 1 authored infusion
Kyusu brewing (Japanese style)
3–5 g/100 ml · 80–90 °C · 3 authored infusions
Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
3–4 g/100 ml · 75–85 °C · 4 authored infusions
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
Common mistakes
- Brewing it as long as a black tea, which brings out a papery note
If you like this
Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Hojicha
Both are toasty Japanese green teas sold side by side. Hojicha is roasted leaf; genmaicha is unroasted leaf blended with roasted rice. The toast comes from different places.
- Sencha
The roasted rice masks the vegetal notes that put most newcomers off Japanese green tea.
- Matcha-iri genmaicha
Plain genmaicha and the version with matcha blended in, now more common commercially. The added powder supplies colour and body that the base bancha lacks.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Bancha
Shares 5 descriptors with Genmaicha: grassy, nutty, light, smooth and toasted.
- Huoshan Huangya
Shares 5 descriptors with Genmaicha: nutty, grassy, light, smooth and toasted.
- Jin Shan Cui Ya
Shares 5 descriptors with Genmaicha: nutty, grassy, light, smooth and toasted.
- Kamairicha
Shares 5 descriptors with Genmaicha: nutty, roasted, grassy, smooth and toasted.
- Korean green tea
Shares 5 descriptors with Genmaicha: nutty, grassy, light, smooth and toasted.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison.
- Hojicha vs genmaicha — Two toasty Japanese green teas sold side by side, whose toastiness comes from entirely different places. One is roasted after processing; the other has roasted rice blended into unroasted leaf, and the distinction changes what each is good for.
- Sencha vs genmaicha — Genmaicha is sencha or bancha with roasted rice added, and the rice does more than add flavour — it changes what the tea is for.
- Hojicha vs genmaicha: which to start with — Both are recommended to newcomers for the same reason and they solve different problems. Choosing between them depends on what put you off green tea.
Botanicals this connects to
- Roasted rice — Genmaicha is bancha or sencha blended with this roasted rice. The rice is half the product.
Journeys featuring this tea
- Discover Japanese tea — Someone who has had sencha or matcha and wants the rest of the picture.
- Finding your first loose leaf tea — Someone ready to buy loose leaf and unsure which of the hundreds of names to start with.