Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This one I suspect is going to go really fast. This is an awesome blend of genmaicha, cashews and macadamias, with organic cashew, macadamia and honey flavors. Just the smell of this tea is enough to cause instant drooling.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Taster’s Review:
One of the first things I like to do with any tea when I first “approach” it is to smell it. I like to check out the dry leaf to see what it looks like and more importantly, what it tastes like. This one smells so nutty! It smells a bit like I had just opened a can of honey roasted mixed nuts … and a tin of Genmaicha!
The dry leaf looks pretty much the way it smells too: chunks of cashews and macadamia nuts, green tea leaves, tan toasted rice grains and popped bits of sorghum seed.
I brewed this tea in my Breville One-Touch tea maker, measuring out 2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket and adding 500ml of water. I set the timer for 2 minutes and the temperature for 170°F. Then I walked away for a few minutes and let the tea maker do it’s thing. I came back to a kitchen that smelled of delicious, roasted nuts and honey.
The brewed tea smells less of Genmaicha and more like cashews and macadamia nuts. I still smell hints of the toasted rice from the Genmaicha, but they’re quite faint.
The taste is an interesting combination of all the components of this tea. I taste the Genmaicha – the sweet green tea and the warm, toasty flavor of the rice – and I taste the nuts and the honey. It all comes together in a very seamless way. It’s hard to say where the flavors start and end … they all seem very melded into one flavor that is Genmacashew!
As I started sipping this tea, I noticed that the honey notes were softer than the other flavors. Not surprising, because honey isn’t usually a very aggressive flavor. But now that I’m about mid-way through the cup, I’m picking up more of the honey. It’s a strong, persistent flavor throughout the sip.
The nut flavors taste more like a medley of nuts. Like I reached into the mixed nut can and grabbed a handful and popped it into my mouth. It doesn’t necessarily taste like macadamia or cashew … but it tastes like both of them, if that makes sense. And I also get a nutty flavor from the toasted rice that melds with the both of them.
The green tea is probably the softest flavor of the components, but it isn’t hidden behind the flavors. I taste that sweet, “green” taste that’s lightly grassy, buttery and I even taste very subtle notes of flower in the distance.
Overall, this is a really enjoyable cup of tea. After I drank a cup hot, I resteeped it and let that cool and enjoyed a cup of this chilled. It’s good both hot or cold!
