Where to buy freshest, best quality Genmai Cha?

by **fitzkotlr** » Jan 17th, '07, 21:37

Where to buy freshest, best quality Genmai Cha?

by fitzkotlr » Jan 17th, '07, 21:37

I love this tea, but the large tin I just bought doesn't taste very fresh. I'm willing to spend the money for the most flavorful tea I can get, just need to know where. Thanks for any suggestions!

by Ed » Jan 18th, '07, 08:54

by Ed » Jan 18th, '07, 08:54

I'd suggest either of these sites below. They ship geen tea (including genmaicha) straight from Japan. They use far better packaging that keeps it much fresher than those tins with the loose-fitting lids.

http://www.o-cha.com/

http://www.hibiki-an.com/default.php

Hope that helps

by **Chip** » Jan 18th, '07, 11:50

by Chip » Jan 18th, '07, 11:50

I recently had genmaicha w/matcha which I really enjoyed...it had a much more distinct green tea taste to it. I often find that genmaicha is dominated by the "rice krispy" flavors brought on by the toasted rice. As a result, I only craved it several times a year.

But the blend with matcha, wow, that was really nice...I could drink that...hmmm...much more often. I still prefer straight green tea, especially sencha, but this is a nice diversion.

by **fitzkotlr** » Jan 18th, '07, 18:16

by fitzkotlr » Jan 18th, '07, 18:16

Ed wrote:http://www.hibiki-an.com/default.php

Hope that helps

Thank you! I got restless last night and stumbled upon this site and did place an order from them. I'll check out the other one today.

by **fitzkotlr** » Jan 18th, '07, 18:17

by fitzkotlr » Jan 18th, '07, 18:17

chip wrote:I recently had genmaicha w/matcha which I really enjoyed...it had a much more distinct green tea taste to it. I often find that genmaicha is dominated by the "rice krispy" flavors brought on by the toasted rice. As a result, I only craved it several times a year.

But the blend with matcha, wow, that was really nice...I could drink that...hmmm...much more often. I still prefer straight green tea, especially sencha, but this is a nice diversion.

I actually like this tea because of the toasted flavor, but I accidentally ordered the gemicha with matcha from a site last night. I'll give it a try.

by **studio271** » Jan 19th, '07, 00:29

by studio271 » Jan 19th, '07, 00:29

Why not make the search simpler by looking for the freshest sencha, and then toasting and mixing in brown rice yourself? :-D

by **Chip** » Jan 19th, '07, 00:36

by Chip » Jan 19th, '07, 00:36

studio271 wrote:Why not make the search simpler by looking for the freshest sencha, and then toasting and mixing in brown rice yourself?

...I have actually thought about it...but it is usually so cheap, why bother. But I would like to try making it sometime...just for the fun of it.

by **shelanman** » Mar 2nd, '07, 02:39

by shelanman » Mar 2nd, '07, 02:39

for that matter, you can get... I forget what it's called... but, anyway, you can get a package of just the already toasted rice, and add it to your favorite green tea.

Myself, I typically just buy one-or-another of the varieties of Yamamotoyama Genmaicha out there...

http://www.yamamotoyama.com/catalog.pdf

They have a bunch of different grades/quality levels... they are all really cheap, so I typically just grab the most expensive that my local asian market is carrying at the time. But, DON'T go for the "Family Pack Series" in that catalog -- it was extremely disappointing

I'm just finishing up a package of their "Tokusen series Genmai-cha" which I paid like $3 for... which was shockingly cheap, but it was the best/most expensive one the market had... so I figured I'd try it... it's pretty good.

I've had more expensive Genmaicha... it's not usually any better, in my view. I've tried mixing the tea and rice myself... never that much success... I can't get the proportions quite right... always either too nutty or too... not...

I haven't tried Adagio's Genmaicha yet...

Stash Tea sells it's own packaging of Yamamotoyama Genmaicha, but only in bag form. For bagged tea, it's pretty good.

Then again, I've been known to actually enjoy some bagged teas (when they're of good quality)... so if you're a loose-tea purist, you can safely ignore my opinion

by **tenuki** » Mar 12th, '07, 01:05

by tenuki » Mar 12th, '07, 01:05

Adagio's (the host for this site) is actually pretty good. Try it!

http://www.adagio.com/green/genmai_cha. ... ccf38be041