Genmaicha: green tea with roasted rice. What it tastes like and how to brew it
What genmaicha is, why it has roasted rice in it, what it tastes like, how much caffeine it has and how to brew it so it's nutty rather than bitter.
2 min read, 18 October 2026
Genmaicha is a Japanese green tea mixed roughly half and half with roasted rice. In Japan it's drunk with meals, in offices and at home, because it's inexpensive, gentle and smells like freshly baked bread. The rice in the cup isn't decoration: it's what gives the tea its character.
Why there's rice in the tea
The story you hear most often is that rice was added to make the tea go further when tea was expensive. That's hard to verify today, but one thing is certain: genmaicha has long been an everyday tea rather than one for special occasions. The blend uses sencha or bancha and rice grains roasted to a golden colour. Some of the grains pop during roasting, like popcorn. In Japan they're called hana, which means flowers.
What it tastes like
Nutty and slightly sweet, with a note of toasted grain and the freshness of green tea in the background. The infusion is light gold. There's little bitterness, as long as the water isn't too hot. Many people who aren't keen on green tea come round to it through genmaicha.
How much caffeine it has
Less than plain sencha, because a large part of the blend is rice, which has no caffeine. In Japan it's often drunk with meals.
How to brew it
- 5 g of the blend, about two teaspoons, to 250 ml of water
- water at 80–85°C
- 60 seconds
- second infusion: the same amount of water, 30–40 seconds
Genmaicha is more forgiving than sencha, but boiling water and several minutes of brewing will draw a bitterness out of the leaves that covers up the taste of the rice.
What it goes with
Miso soup, rice, fish, tempura and anything fried. Roasted rice also goes well with yeast cake and oat biscuits. In summer you can cold-brew genmaicha: 10 g to a litre of cold water, a few hours in the fridge.
Genmaicha with matcha
Sometimes you'll find genmaicha dusted with matcha (matcha-iri genmaicha). It has a greener infusion and a stronger tea flavour. You can make it yourself: add a pinch of matcha to the teapot along with the leaves.
In our shop: Genmaicha. It's also in the Japan Starter Set, alongside sencha and hojicha.
