Help me find the best green tea

October 24, 2015 9:19 AM

I just finished this green tea. It is my most favorite green tea and I would like to order or purchase some more of it. The problem? I don't know where it came from and most of the text on the package is in Japanese, which I cannot read. Can you help me identify/find it?

I received this loose leaf tea as a gift, but the gift giver does not remember where they purchased it, although it was almost certainly in the continental United States or Amazon. The link above contains images of the front and back of the packaging -- apologies for poor image quality. I googled around for the importer (Rhee Bros, Inc, Korean Farms Inc) but most of their websites redirect to "domain not valid" pages, and at any rate, I just need the one package.

The English text says:
JAPANESE GREEN TEA
(MATCHAIRI GENMAICHA)
INGREDIENTS GREEN TEA,BROWN RICE

IMPORTED BY RHEE BROS, INC.
HANOVER, MD21076 U.S.A. TEL[phone]
KOREAN FARM, INC
SANTA FE SPRINGS,CA90670 TEL[phone]

PRODUCT OF JAPAN

Any help would be appreciated!

posted by sparrow89 to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Oh, if it's genmai you may be in luck. The flavor you may be picking up on is from the brown rice, which is what makes this genmai; and a lot of tea manufacturers make genmai.

I'd just try searching for "genmai" or "genmaicha". You'll be spoiled for choice, basically. (And I love Genmai myself too.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:26 AM on October 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I haven't been able to find the specific brand (the brand name is covered up by the English label), but Harney & Sons make a matcha-iri genmaicha, and if you search for "matcha iri genmaicha" you'll find a few Japanese suppliers that ship internationally.
posted by Jeanne at 9:45 AM on October 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, genmaicha is a very specific sort of tea, and presumably part of what you like is the roasty notes. Because the roasted-rice flavors are dominant, genmai is typically not extremely top-quality green (which is not to say it's inferior --- it's not, but they don't generally mix it from premium sencha) so it's additionally pretty reasonably priced as a rule.

If you get other genmais and they don't hit that magic spot, then maybe there is something in their particular choice of green tea or rice-roasting process that is different than the norm. But unless you know that this is an atypical genmaicha, I would bet that any other tea of the same style would be as satisfactory
posted by jackbishop at 9:49 AM on October 24, 2015

Do you have an Assi Market/ Supermarket/ Plaza around you? They have a deal with Rhee Brothers, I believe, so your friend might've gotten it there.
posted by bluecore at 9:50 AM on October 24, 2015

Best answer: Actually, an addendum to my above: I see that this is matcha-iri genmaicha, which consists not only of genmai (brown rice) and sencha (green whole-leaf tea), but also matcha (finely ground green tea). Matcha lends a particular color (green rather than straw-colored), consistency (very slightly thickened by the powdery tea), and taste/aroma (far more assertively grassy) which sencha doesn't, so you might find that an ordinary genmaicha is missing a critical component.
posted by jackbishop at 9:56 AM on October 24, 2015 [3 favorites]

Have you tried calling the importers?
posted by Small Dollar at 10:50 AM on October 24, 2015

Best answer: The brand is Sasaki
posted by neroli at 11:09 AM on October 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: neroli, I can't believe you found it! Too bad that site only ships to the EU and UK. Many thanks to everyone; the breakdown of the various components is very useful to know and will hopefully allow me to find something similar if I can't find a way to get that particular brand. Don't seem to be near an Assi Market, sadly.
posted by sparrow89 at 5:01 PM on October 24, 2015

Here is something similar from Upton Tea.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 5:46 PM on October 24, 2015 [1 favorite]