Genmaicha

Maura has informed me that she would appreciate a cup of tea every morning before she heads off to work. This is not an unreasonable request as she earns an income, and I do all (or most) of the housework. Lately, she's decided that genmaicha is her favorite of the Japanese teas, so I've been preparing a lot of genmaicha in the mornings. So much so, that we quickly ran out of our initial supply. Genmaicha was originally invented as a means of stretching out your tea supply by adding puffed and roasted rice and some popped rice to sencha. It has the classic greeen tea flavor, plus a little bonus nutty overtone, and can tend towards either brown or green in color.

Instead of buying more when we ran out Maura decided to try mixing her own. We've recently come into a windfall of sencha, and one of the tea shops sells packages of just the puffed and popped rice. I can't tell you what ratios she used, because she probably just mixed them together until they looked right. Also, one of the genmaichas we really liked had matcha mixed in with it. We have some matcha that's a little old, as the stuff doesn't seam to age well. So she added that in as well. It turned out to be an excellent mix, and I've been preparing it the last couple of days.

For preparation instructions: In a Japanese teapot, fill the basket about one third full of genmaicha. Heat the water to just below boiling, where fish-eye sized bubbles are just starting to jump to the surface. Fill two drinking teacups with the hot water to warm them and to cool the water slightly. Wait 10-20 seconds, then add the water from the teacups to the teapot. Allow the tea to brew for 30 seconds, and then pour it out into your teacups, and enjoy.