Reviewer: homais
✓ 21 teas reviewed
✓ 2 of Genmaicha
✓ 2 of Flavored Green Tea
✓ 3 of Aiya
✓ 5 from Japan
Review of Matcha Infused Genmaicha
February 13th, 2013
| Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
| 8 of 10 | 4 of 5 | 2 of 5 | 73 of 100 |
| Excellent | Good | Overpriced |
Straight out of the bag, this tea had a strong matcha smell, very grassy in a fresh and invigorating way.
I didn't have a lot of tea to play with - I had only a small sample, and thanks to a spill I had an even smaller sample than usual - so I brewed it as close to the recommended instructions as possible - 194 F for one minute. Once brewed, the very strong aroma of the toasted rice completely overwhelmed all other smells, though the actual liquid of the brew was greener than you'd otherwise get without the matcha. The toasty aroma is really not subtle. It made my whole room smell like toasted rice cakes.
Taste-wise, I agree with the previous reviewer's assessment as mild, easy-drinking, and accessible. It's strongly toasty, neither especially bitter nor sweet nor tart, and just a tiny bit vegetal on the aftertaste.
Also like the last reviewer, I'm inclined to think of it as a bit pricey relative to how much I like it. It's clearly a high quality base tea, but at least to me not worth the price premium given that it has a flavor profile not so different from good teas that don't have the matcha infusion.
