"The palate is noticeably chalky and dusty... Overall, a fine tuned and good tasting tea." Cap & Kettle’s Teaview: 6/10 Your Reviews: Add your review »

For me, part of the pleasure of a good Genmaicha is seeing tangible, swirling upstarts swimming in a soup of otherwise unmolested green tea. I imagine it as a clash of culture and class; the hoodlums and skater punks terrorizing tranquil and gated suburbia. Think of it - the purest icon of tea, the green leaf, hopelessly battling with an uninvited assembly of unhulled rice. It’s an accepted desecration if green tea, and I love it. Which is why I was mildly dismayed to see this Genmaicha from Den’s come in a pyramid bag. The idea of the bag is very cool. I mean, it gives the tea a chance to breath to the major benefit of the drinker. But it also removes the whole visual play of the tea, of which the Genmaicha enjoys plenty. I have to acknowledge the convenience of a tea bag with accompanying brewing space, but give a quick groan for the loss of the tea’s proper face.

If we can’t give the tea leaf itself a proper look, at least we can give it’s brewed liquor a good glance. Compared to other loose leaf Genmaicha, Den’s bagged version imparts a good, Iberian olive shade, with a slight cloudiness suggesting a clean, hearty intensity. One always worries that a stuffy, closed tea bag will release only a fraction of its tea potential, but this is clearly not the case here. An additional benefit to the bag is the absence of any bothersome particulate matter. For my part I like a little flotsam in my tea for its decorative effect, and to remind me that tea is a very analog process. But for a quick brew and a quick drink, getting tea leaf stuck in one’s teeth is more of a nuisance than a transcendental experience.

In the fragrance we find the staples of a good Genmaicha. There’s green tea, husky rice, and maybe some side aromas that are harder to pin. What’s special about Den’s Gen is the superb cohesion between the rice aroma and the tea aroma. In my experience, the deeper and more assertive rice notes tend to be aloof from everything else. You could call them brazen or bullish, but whatever adjective you choose, they don’t mingle well with others. Reference introductory paragraph. This tea is an exception. The brusque brown rice mingles, even flirts with the green tea aroma in a cohesion heretofore unknown.

Den’s Gen’s taste is less stellar than the aroma, but still a fine example of a good Genmaicha. With a two and a half minute steeping time in 6 oz. of water neither the green tea flavor nor the brown rice flavor were overwhelmingly strong. They had a delicate, almost weak touch, but enough to communicate their character. It is a fine balance. The palate is noticeably chalky and dusty, which fits well in the tea paradigm, and even better with genmaicha - an already chalky and dusty tea. Overall, a fine tuned and good tasting tea.

From a tea bag, too!

If you absolutely must take a tea in some kind of pouch, and I would hope only because of a dire emergency (revolution $ civil war, bathing in flames, other apocalyptic scenarios etc.) then this is a great tea to have and to use.

— To purchase Den’s Tea Pyramid Tea Bag Genmaicha, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.

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