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This article was last modified November 18th, 2021. by Yuki

Here is a quick reference on how to brew Genmaicha.

For a normal Genmaicha, use boiling water to let the aroma pop from the tea.

If you have a Genmaicha of a higher grade, then you'd also like to enjoy the umami of the tea as well. Reduce the water temperature to 80 degrees Celsius for an enjoyable quality Genmaicha.

Chart: Instructions for Brewing Genmaicha

In 7 steps, we'll be covering how to brew "normal grade" Genmaicha which uses boiling water instead of cooled water.

If you have a high-grade sencha, make sure you use 80 degrees water instead. You can lower the temperature of the water in a similar way to how you make Sencha.

Refer to "how to make delicous Sencha" on how to cool the water down.

The most important thing you need is obviously - Genmaicha leaves.

If you don't have any? Well, excuse my advertisement here, but make sure you stop by our shop to look at our Genmaicha selection too! The Genmaicha we have in our shop are truly magnificent.

Once you have your Genmaicha leaves, all you need now are your tea tools.

Typically, Genmaicha will be prepared in volume. Use a large sized Kyusu (approximately 800 ml) and large sized Chawan (approximately 200ml) for this.

If you don't have these at hand, you can also substitute with any teapot and any tea cups as well. However, since the selection of the teapot or the Kyusu is indeed important, I'll recommend you buying one if you feel like you'll be preparing Genmaicha often.

Genmaicha will typically use 2-3g of tea leaves per person.

Going by this ratio, if you are preparing for a group of 5 people, the amount of required leaves will be 10-15g. However, in such case, 10g will be enough to enjoy great tasting Genmaicha.

Now, if you use more than this amount – say, 4-5g of Genmaicha leaves for 1 person, you can also enjoy a delicious 2^nd infusion as well.

The next step is to prepare the right amount of water.

The best way to measure the water is by pouring the water into the cups (chawans) first! Then you'll know exactly how much water you'll need to serve.

Use a large size Chawan.

Pour water into the Chawan to measure the amount of water you need. Keep in mind that when you infuse the Genmaicha, the tea leaves will absorb the water so the amount at the end will become less.

They would absorb about 4 times the mass of the leaves. Make sure you add more water to account for this.

Once you have measured the amount of water required, put the water back in the pot and start boiling.

Next step is to boil the water and infuse in the Chawan.

Unlike Sencha or Gyokuro, Genmaicha is usually a low-grade tea with small amount of nutrients.

For this type of tea, it’s best to extract the nutrients as much as possible by infusing with boiling water straight from the teapot. It will help unleash the great aroma that comes out of the tea and the brown rice kernels.

As mentioned above, there are high-grade Genmaichas as well. For these, you would want to reduce the temperature to 80 degrees, then infuse.

This allows the umami to come out while containing the astringency of the green tea.

For Genmaicha, let the tea seep for only 30 seconds. Don’t let it seep too long, as it may become bitter.

If this is a high-grade, and the water temperature is 80 degrees, then you should let it infuse for 60 seconds.

When you serve Genmaicha to several people, make sure the thickness of the tea is equal. You can’t have one person have thick tea, and another person have thin tea! If you don’t be careful, this will happen as the tea will become richer and richer as you pour. In order to even the richness of the tea for everyone, the tea is poured in the above order.

This method of pouring is called “Mawashisogi”. If there are 3 Chawans, firstly, pour halfway in the order of 1 – 2 – 3. Subsequently, pour again in the reverse order of 3 – 2 – 1.

Make sure that the tea is poured to the very last drop. This helps to keep the second infusion delicious as well. If tea is remaining in the Kyusu, the second infusion may not be as enjoyable.

For the second Infusion, use boiling water directly from the pot again.

The infusion time should be extremely short - I recommend to serve immediately after you start the brewing. Since the leaves of the tea are already opened, the taste will easily come out even if the length of brewing is short.

If you were using high-grade Genmaicha leaves, then make sure the water tememperature this time around is 90 degrees or so. Adding 10 degrees to the temperature of the first infusion is the rule of thumb for Japanese green tea.

As mentioned above, having the last drop poured after the first infusion is very key in preserving the taste of the second infusion. There's other tips as well, which we'll cover in a different article.

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