We picked up this Minami Aso Tea House Genmaicha with Matcha during our recent trip to Kumamoto. It comes in the cutest tin.
The tea is a looseleaf blend of brown rice, sencha, black soybean and matcha.
Steeping a tea bag containing 2.5 g of looseleaf in 150 mL of water at 82°C for 1 minute the tea was a translucent yellow-green colour with a fresh, marine aroma and matcha powder throughout. Served hot, lightly savoury marine notes came through before a natural sweetness emerged in the body along with a gentle nuttiness that rounds out the body ahead of a more vegetal finish with minimal astringency. The overall mellow flavour with its delicate balance between the savoury, sweet and astringent make it an enjoyable tea for everyday drinking.
The Lupicia Matcha Black Soybean Rice Tea contained a similar blend but in a ratio that contained more and whole (rather than crushed) black soybean and less sencha. This results in an infusion that has a deeper sweetness (from the black soybean) and a more subdued marine flavour (from the sencha) compared to this Minami Aso Tea House version. As for the preferred tea, this depends entirely on mood as the shift in ratio makes these two teas taste very different from one another.
This Minami Aso Tea House Genmaicha with Matcha contained 10 x 2.5 g tea bags. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Kumamoto, Japan in 2019.