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The first thing you need to know about popcorn tea is that it doesn’t have any popcorn in it. Although it does have toasted brown rice grains. The second thing to know is that popcorn tea is not one of your Johnny Come Lately new-fangled tea blends. This is proper old school Japanese business. This tea is properly referred to as Genmaicha and there are legends which date it back to the fifteenth century with a predictably unlikely story about a sitcom-style accidental tea and rice mix-up. More prosaically, it was probably first consumed in the early nineteenth century as a thrifty way of eking out one’s tea supplies.
I really like the concept of tea innovation brought about by careful household budgeting and trying to save a few yen. It reminds me of my family’s tradition of combining mincemeat with cooked apple in the Christmas mince pies. You start out doing something to save money and then carry on doing it because it turns out it’s really rather delicious.
And this tea really is delicious. Teapigs describe this tea as “Sugar Puffs in a cup” and they are bang on the money. This traditional blend of Japanese green tea and toasted rice has more than a soupcon of monster-endorsed breakfast cereal* about it. (Why it tastes like wheat-based Sugar Puffs and not rice-based Rice Krispies is something of a mystery.)
I’m rather enamoured with it. I love a green tea, but they do have a sort of airy-fairy-ness to them compared to their black tea brethren. Not so popcorn tea. Even though one doesn’t actually consume the rice (unless you decide to munch on the tea bag afterwards as a sort of rudimentary meal), there’s still a substantiality here, which sets it apart from other green teas. There’s also a natural sweetness to this brew, which is the other thing that makes it so pleasingly Sugar-Puffs-esque.
Teapigs’ Popcorn Tea is the first Genmaicha I’ve tried so I can’t compare it to any others out there. I’d love to hear other tea fancier’s recommendations for their favourite rice/tea mash-ups. Based on that position of self-confessed absolute ignorance, I’m still going to go ahead and confidently state that Teapigs have put together a bloody amazing Genmaicha. It’s cheerful and happy and surprisingly filling. (Genmaicha is cited by some people as the ideal tea to drink during fasting. Although I would like to issue a warning that attempting to replace all the food in your diet with a rice-based green tea may bring about some unwelcome side effects. Like deadness.)
This tea is going to become a regular member of my tea library. I am going to pour another cup and raise it in a toast to those frugal nineteenth century Japanese peasants. Thanks guys. Good work.
* Did you know that Sugar Puffs were rebranded as ‘Honey Monster Puffs’ in 2014? I didn’t until now and I’m buggered if I’m going to change all the multiple references to sugar puffs in this article. I’m aware that this probably makes me sound like an old fogey who is unable to get to grips with the ever-changing march of progress.
Today’s featured book is Tea: History Terroirs Varieties by Kevin Gascoyne, Francois Marchand, Jasmin Desharnais and Hugo Americi.
