Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing a Genmaicha from Birchley’s Finest. Before I get into today’s review if you haven’t read my first posts featuring Birchley’s Finest you can find them all here (happy reading). If you’ve read them already you’ll know that I’ve loved what I’ve tried from Birchley’s Finest so far and because of how high they have raised the bar for themselves I went into this tasting session expecting a lot from their Genmaicha. I’m a massive fan of Genmaicha so when I saw this in the package that Birchley’s Finest sent I couldn’t have been happier. It’s been far to long since I’ve had any genmaicha/tried a new Genmaicha, so this arrived at the perfect time.

Dry Leaves

Vegetal – Savoury – Toasted Rice (Strong) – Toasty – Slight Earthy

Ingredients: Green Tea, Toasted Rice This Genmaicha has a unique dry aroma, it’s the complete opposite from almost all Genmaichas I’ve ever had in that the toasted rice was much strong than the green tea. Don’t get me wrong the vegetal were there and strong enough that I could pick them out the toasted rice was much stronger. Most Genmaichas I’ve tired have had a slight sweet aroma to them but this one was for the most part savoury until I let it acclimatise and an ever so slight sweet note started to come through.

For this tasting session I used: 2-3g of tea, my 150ml teapot and tumbler and 150ml of 80oC Water (for teach steep) | Total Steeps: 2

Tea Tasting Notes

Steep 1: 80OC Water – 2 Mins | The rice notes from the aroma mellowed out on the taste and the vegetals became much stronger as a result. One this that surprised me when I took my first sip of this was how naturally sweet it was, I was expecting it to be much more savoury, but the aftertaste is incredibly sweet. Unlike a lot of the Genmaicha’s I’ve had this one is very well balanced the vegetal and toasted rice notes were pretty much the same strength taste wise. Mouthfeel wise it was much softer than I expected it to be as most of the Genmaichas I’ve had have been very drying but this one was far from it.

Steep 2: 80oC Water – 3 Mins | The second steep was very similar to the first but much lighter in almost every aspect other than the vegetal notes they stood their ground. This steep was also much sweeter than the first and while it was still pleasant to drink with how much lighter it got I didn’t think it would have lasted another steep, so I didn’t want to push it. Looking back I think I would have had a much better tasting session with this tea if I had steeped it gongfu style, I’ll be doing that next time and learning from my mistake.

I would say that this is one of the best Genmaicha’s I’ve tried in along time and I’m thankful that I was given the chance to try it. It blew all my expectations out of the water and has made me even more excited than I already was to try all of the other teas that Birchley’s Finest have sent.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley