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Japanese Genmaicha Loose Leaf Green Tea

14 reviews
€11,95
€11,95
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Style

Top grade Japanese green loose leaf tea with toasted brown rice.

This Genmaicha is rather special and unusual, as we use a superior Sencha and combine it with organic Japanese toasted brown rice.

Traditionally Genmaicha was made with old, inferior or lower grade sencha and the toasted rice was used as filler to disguise the inferior quality.  We don't do that.

The sencha is crafted by Moriuchi san - one of the most revered tea-masters in Japan.  His 200 year old tea-garden in Shizuoka is still family run, alongside his wife and daughter.

Tasting Notes

The sencha base is remarkably complex and deep with rich, verdant notes. A deep, comforting finish with the aroma of popcorn.

Cost Per Cup

€0,00 per cup based on 2g of tea per 150ml of water and 2 infusions.

Origin

Moriuchi tea farm, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

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Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 2g of tea per 150ml of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 70°C water.

  • Time

    Infuse for 1 - 2 minutes, tasting regularly.

  • Infusions

    You can infuse this tea at least twice. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

1 3

More infusion tips

How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

Origin & Craft

Located between Uchimaki and Miwa Village in Shizuoka, the Moriuchi Tea Garden has been around since the Edo period. The tea is grown and harvested by husband and wife Yoshio and Masumi Moriuchi.

The gardens are steep and rich, surrounded by forests. Indeed so precipitous is the incline Mr Moriuchi has built a small monorail to lift them up, and the tea down, from the steepest slopes. They have converted the land to organic farming and our senchas are hand picked and handcrafted.

What is genmaicha?

Genmaicha is a Japanese green tea blended with toasted brown rice. It is sometimes called popcorn tea, not because it has any corn in it, but because of the flavour.

Traditionally, Japanese genmaicha was made with older or lower quality sencha leaves, using toasted rice as a means of disguising diminished flavour, aroma, and quality of the tea.

Our genmaicha is rather different. We select the top grade sencha tea leaves from the Moriuchi tea garden in Shizuoka, and organically grown toasted brown rice. Our ambition is to deliciously enhance delicious tea, not disguise poor quality.

How does genmaicha taste compared to other Japanese green teas?

Genmaicha has a very particular flavour and aroma that is distinct from all other Japanese tea. The special flavour of genmaicha comes from the inclusion of the toasted rice, adding a comforting sweetness of cereal milk with notes of popcorn and a gentle nutty flavour. The rice softens the sencha and makes it a deliciously approachable green tea.

Compared specifically to our Japanese Sencha Green Tea, or Gyokuro, which have bright, buttery notes of asparagus, genmaicha has the clean notes of traditional tea from Japan, with a softness and roundness that is less vegetal.

Does genmaicha have caffeine?

Yes, genmaicha has caffeine. It is made from Japanese green tea and all tea (black tea as well as green tea) comes from the same plant (Camelia sinensis), which contains caffeine in its leaves. The addition of toasted brown rice, however, means that you may drink less actual tea per cup, reducing the caffeine content of your tea.

For this reason some people find genmaicha more soothing and good for relaxation.

Genmaicha vs. matcha

We are often asked about the difference between genmaicha and matcha.

They are such worlds apart in terms of flavour, it is very hard to compare. True, they are both traditional Japanese green teas, but genmaicha is a sencha leaf tea you make an infusion from, and matcha is a powdered leaf you whisk to suspend in water. For this reason, you get way more leaf in a matcha and so more caffeine and more intensity. Genmaicha, on the other hand, is more subtle and soft in flavour, and provides a more gentle lift.

We do, however, have a Japanese GenMatcha, which is Genmaicha that has been ground into a fine powder, to be used in tea lattes, hot or iced. It's also delicious in cakes and desserts. Though similar in look to traditional matcha, the flavour remains distinct, with its notes of cereal milk and popcorn.

How has genmaicha changed with the times?

It is not just the development of new milling technologies that has allowed genmaicha to be ground into a matcha-like powder, it has also changed based on the development of tea storage technology.

Historically in Japanese society, genmaicha was created as a way of using up old green tea. Bulk tea was stored in paper or wooden boxes. They had no way of actually keeping tea airtight, and it deteriorated over time as the leaf oxidised in contact with air. Green tea leaves oxidise even more rapidly than black tea (it is vitally important to always store all your precious tea in its tin or a tea caddy that is airtight, away from heat and direct sunlight).

Now we can keep tea airtight to preserve all of its delicious quality and freshness - not to mention all the other technological advances in tea, from temperature control to oxygen-free packaging. There is no need for good tea to be wasted. Our genmaicha is made with the Moriuchi garden's best sencha - using the slightly more broken pieces, but still of the utmost quality. The addition of rice is there to make it an even more delicious tea, not mask poor quality.

Shipping, delivery & more...

EU Shipping Information

Europe Tracked Delivery from €6.95

FREE Europe Tracked Delivery when you spend €60 or more

Europe Express Tracked Delivery from €21.95

FREE Europe Express Tracked Delivery when you spend €120 or more

Europe Express Courier from €28.95

Availability of rates depends on location and order weight. For a complete overview of our shipping rates please see our delivery page. Prices displayed at the checkout are based on live currency exchange rates and may differ slightly from this list.

IOSS for EU Orders

Rare Tea Company uses IOSS (Import One Stop Shop) for EU orders placed on the website.

How IOSS works and how it is applied on the website.

The IOSS scheme allows us to collect VAT during checkout on your behalf, meaning that no VAT is due when your order is assessed by your local authority.

  • If the combined value of the products in your cart are equal to or below €150 (excluding tax), VAT will be included at the point of sale and you should not be charged any fees when your order arrives.*
  • Once the €150 threshold is exceeded VAT will be removed from the items in your cart and from this point onwards when your order ships you will be liable for local VAT, duties and import fees.**

To avoid unnecessary import charges, keep your orders under €150 (excluding tax and shipping). Tax is included on all applicable products at Rare Tea - if your order is applicable for IOSS tax will be shown at the checkout.

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Your order confirmation and shipping confirmation emails will also confirm whether your order is valid for IOSS.

As with all complex shipping methods, the IOSS system isn't foolproof, and orders that are valid for IOSS are occasionally incorrectly charged VAT by customs.

If an order shipped via IOSS and that you have paid VAT on does get incorrectly assessed by customs, please don't worry. It's usually just a mistake that can be fixed by contacting customs and explaining that the order shipped via IOSS with VAT already paid.

If this does happen to you then we suggest the following:

  1. Please contact us before speaking to customs.
  2. We will double check that the order was valid for IOSS.
  3. We will provide a VAT receipt and a shipping label as evidence.
  4. Contact your local customs for assistance, using the shipping label as evidence.
  5. If all else fails we will attempt to get our shipping provider to investigate, but this process can take a while.

*Please note - this does not include any applicable duty charged when the item is cleared. Within the EU tea is free from duty, but your region might have a different rules for non-tea items such as tins and teaware. Any duty charged is payable by you, the customer before delivery via your local customs authority.
**In special cases where custom fees have been unexpected we have retroactively refunded these in select cases. As of the 15th February 2023 (the start of IOSS) we have discontinued this process.

What is IOSS?

The Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) is the electronic portal businesses can use since 1 July 2021 to comply with their VAT e-commerce obligations on distance sales of imported goods.

Up until the 1st July 2021, no import VAT has to be paid for commercial goods of a value up to EUR 22. New VAT eCommerce rules abolished this provision as of 1st July 2021. Thus, from 1 July 2021, all commercial goods imported into the EU from a third country or third territory is subject to VAT irrespective of their value.

What is IOSS for?

IOSS allows suppliers and electronic interfaces selling imported goods to buyers in the EU to collect, declare and pay the VAT to the tax authorities, instead of making the buyer pay the VAT at the moment the goods are imported into the EU as it was previously the case (for products over 22 EUR).

What are the advantages of IOSS?

IOSS facilitates the collection, declaration and payment of VAT for sellers making distance sales of imported goods to buyers in the EU. The IOSS also makes the process easier for the buyer, who is only charged at the time of purchase, and therefore does not face any surprise fees when the goods are delivered. If the seller is not registered in the IOSS, the buyer has to pay the VAT and usually a customs clearance fee charged by the transporter.

What countries does IOSS apply to?

IOSS applies to the EU member states of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

It does not apply to the EEA.

How much tax will I get charged?

Tax will be charged at the base VAT rate of the shipping country.

Full details of IOSS can be found on the European Comission website.

Any questions? Please get in touch!

Send us a message using the form below, or call +44 (0) 207 681 0115 (9am - 5pm GMT, Monday - Friday).

Returns

The Rare Tea Lady believes that our teas are some of the greatest in the world, and that our range and service are second to none.

In the isolated case that you are not completely satisfied with any product you purchase from our website, please get in contact with our customer services team to discuss returning your order.*

In most instances, we will give you a full refund of the item's cost, excluding postage. We may ask you to return the item to us.** Customers in the UK & European Union have statutory rights not affected by this guarantee, but any tea pouches must remained sealed for this to be in effect.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within 30 days of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

**We will endeavour to ask for pictures where possible - but if you have changed your mind and are outside of any statutory rights time period, return postage is payable by you.

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