Toasted and puffed rice blended with green tea: Genmaïcha is one of the most unusual specialities of Japan, said to have been born of a need to economise, the rice stretching the tea, and has become a flavour in its own right. Mariage Frères offers a blend of high-quality green tea and puffed rice grains, which it describes as extraordinary and whose very original taste it highlights.

Composition: tea, toasted puffed rice; the blend may contain traces of nuts. Dry, the green leaves mingle with golden rice grains and a few popped grains like popcorn, and the scent is that of a toasted cereal, warm and slightly nutty. In our catalogue, the tea carries the Jardin Premier label.

The liquor is clear, golden yellow. Notes of toasted cereal dominate, round and warming, and the vegetal base of the green tea sits behind, fresh and gentle, without bitterness if the water is not too hot. The cup is light in caffeine and easy, and this is a tea to drink in large sips, as in Japan, at the table.

Drink it during the day, plain, never sweetened, with a Japanese meal, rice, grilled fish, pickled vegetables, or in the afternoon with a rice cracker. The house also says it is excellent iced, and it is true: cold-brewed, it makes a refreshing cereal drink, surprising to anyone who does not know it.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 70 °C and three minutes’ infusion: the low temperature preserves the gentleness of the green tea and the roundness of the rice. Genmaïcha is weighed and packed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from the 5 g sample to the kilo, in a bag designed to preserve its freshness. Store it airtight, away from moisture.