Genmaicha

Tea culture in Japan is about 1000 years old, so there is a lot of tradition to draw from. These days, it seems most people associate Japan with matcha tea (since it is having its "super food" moment). Today we're exploring Genmaicha. I've seen many pictures of this tea blend, although I wasn't sure I should believe it the first time I saw it. While there are many local outlets that sell it, I don't want to buy a big package of it. It also looks pretty easy to make on your own.

Genmaicha is also known as "the people's tea" since it was originally the beverage of peasants. It was developed as a way to stretch the expensive tea leaves to make them last longer. So today, we start with a hot pan and...

Popcorn.

Yes, you read that right. I also have some white rice waiting on the side. So anyway, pop your popcorn in a hot pan. I used a dry pan because I didn't want oil in my tea. Then wipe the residue out of the pan. I found wearing an oven mitt and holding a paper towel worked well (although I'm sure how much the paper towel got versus the oven mitt, but I digress). Toast your rice in the hot pan. I discovered that a few rice grains actually popped like popcorn, but most of them don't. Anyway, you end up with this.

Okay, I actually made a big pan of popcorn, but you want the just barely popped kernels for your tea. All the blends I have seen have little, tiny pieces of popcorn in them. It's a great way to make you slow down, and get rid of the grannies. It's also a good way to use up those borderline kernels that you wonder if you should eat or toss. I ended up with about a tablespoon of popped popcorn, and a tablespoon of toasted rice. 

Since I don't know what specific ratios are used, I decided to add a tablespoon of green tea to keep everything balanced. I had originally planned to use China green tea, but I couldn't find any in my cupboard, so I used gunpowder instead. While one is supposed to use Japanese green tea, I figured the China green (or gunpowder) would be close enough. Most places don't sell tea from Japan any more due to ongoing concerns of radioactive contamination, so if I bought some "Japanese" tea, it would probably be from China anyway. 

Check out how the mug reflects the surface of the plate in
picture. It looks like they match when they really don't!

So, the only thing left to do is steep my tea (I used a heaping teaspoon of the blend). I steeped it for about 3 minutes. I thought it looked really interesting in my tea strainer, so I took a picture. the tea leaves and popcorn float, while the rice sinks. 

The finished product looks a lot like green tea, and it is described as having a "distinctive" flavor. It does taste a little of green tea. I really don't notice the popcorn flavor, and it reminds me a bit of the burnt rice tea from Madagascar. This form of burnt (okay, actually toasted) rice tea certainly has a longer shelf life than the previous method of making it. It is a neat blend, and I'm glad that I still have enough for several more cups.