Organic Matcha-iri Genmaicha ~ Hibiki-An

Despite being excited about it for months, so far I’ve only managed to review one tea from Hibiki-an, Organic Sencha Superior. At this point i have two others waiting to be reviewed and i’m chomping at the bit to share (if only so i can justify placing another order).

As you know, Hibiki-an is a quintessentially Uji vendor. Eventually I hope to review some teas that Uji is renowned for. First however, i kind of need to establish how their basic, everyday Japanese teas stack up to others I’ve had. Genmaicha and Matcha are both grown all over Japan (…mostly), and in the West we have access to dozens of examples of both. In addition to Sencha (the most common/basic Japanese tea that exists), Organic Matcha-iri Genmaicha also makes for a good tea to help me establish a baseline.

Popcorn that’s been dumped into a bowl of ramen? That’s about what Matcha-iri Genmaicha smells like. For those of you who can’t speak Japanese the suffix “-iri” means “put in”, or in this case, “added to”. In flavor, a bright Japanese Green with a touch of freshly cooked sushi rice. Matcha-iri Genmaicha is an experience that’s steeped in Japanese cuisine. In texture, a fluffy, powdery gyokuro-like cellulose slime. In appearance, a greeny, dewy, muddy jade. If i had to summarize Matcha-iri Genmaicha in one word, it would have to be “powdery”. Matcha-iri Genmaicha is simply phenomenal.

1. Aroma – 95
2. Taste – 93
3. Texture – 95
4. Spunk – 93
5. Rarity – 91 (44 hits for matcha+genmaicha on Steepster, including even DavidsTea…)
6. Availability – 94
7. Appearance – 93

Mean score – 93%

It’s not exceptional in any way, but i do think it’s probably the best genmaicha i’ve ever had.

This Miyazaki-like bird cloud scared the piss out of me driving to work the other morning. xD