A fairly strong, but light aroma, mostly of popcorn, a sort of light, toasty quality. Much less nutty than other genmaicha's. Very little tea presence in the aroma, even using a generous quantity of leaf and brewing longer than recommended. Flavor has an oddly strong savory (umami) quality...almost no bitterness and very little astringency.

Although some people might like the smoothness and simplicity of this tea, I didn't like it. I prefer more depth, more bitterness and astringency, and a much more noticeable tea aroma rather than one that is dominated by the popped rice. Also, the rice in this one really resembled popcorn and didn't have that deeper nutty or malty aroma that some genmacha has.

I don't want to come down too hard on Maeda-en because both of their teas that I've tried have been very inexpensive ones that I just stumbled upon--this one was at a friend's house--but so far I've been mildly disappointed with both. I hope to try some of their higher-end offerings soon though.

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