Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
After the success of our Malted Genmaicha and Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha, we’re back at it again. Here’s a blend of Japanese Genmaicha (sencha green tea and toasted rice) with real freeze-dried cherries and natural cheesecake and maraschino cherry flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I tore open the pouch, I could recognize the cherry cheesecake aroma immediately. I could even smell the graham cracker crust! The brewed tea offers mere hints of what I experienced with the dry leaf, but it is enough to inspire one to deeply inhale before taking a sip to enjoy the sweet, delicious fragrance of cherry cheesecake.
I steeped this tea using a low temperature (170°F) for two and a half minutes in my Breville One-Touch. The flavor is quite nice, but, not really what I had hoped for. I expected a WOW! – This is cherry cheesecake kind of flavor but I didn’t get that. Yes, I taste the individual notes of cherry cheesecake: I taste the sweet and tart notes of the cherry, I taste the creamy, tangy flavors of the cream cheese, I even taste a slight buttery tone that melds well with the toasty flavors of the genmaicha to form a sort of crust-like taste. I even taste the sweet, fresh flavors of the green tea.
But, somehow, these flavors aren’t coming together in a seamless fashion to create the flavor of cherry cheesecake for me. It’s kind of like one of those gourmet deconstructed dishes where all the elements of the cherry cheesecake are represented but they aren’t put together in the usual way.
Don’t get me wrong, it is still a very delicious cup of tea, and I’m enjoying it very much. It is just different than what I expected.
I do notice that as the tea cools, the flavors do come together a bit more than when served hot, so I would recommend serving this one as an iced tea … I think it’s much better that way. I also found that the tea yields at least two infusions, which is nice, and I enjoyed the second cup just as much as – if not more than! – the first cup.
So, overall, it is a very enjoyable tea, but, I don’t know that I would consider this an adequate substitution for a cherry cheesecake. Delicious yes, but, not quite that delicious, if you know what I mean.
