Sencha and roasted brown rice · two regions of Japan
Half green tea, half roasted brown rice, by weight. The rice leads with toast and warmth, the sencha follows soft and clean, and the cup lands at 10 to 30 mg of caffeine. Teafy blends it from the Shizuoka family farm where Teafy is the largest shareholder and rice roasted in the south.
Two ingredients
Genmaicha is a blend, so the honest page is one that tells you where both halves come from.
The leaf
From the sixth generation family farm where Teafy is the largest shareholder. First flush, medium steamed in the chumushi style, which is the right steam for a blend: deep enough to give body against the rice, short enough that the leaf stays tidy and does not turn the cup cloudy. Blended to a leaf ratio we keep to ourselves.
The rice
Organic genmai from two southern prefectures, roasted in small batches across eight progressive levels for even caramelisation, until some of the grains pop open into the white puffs you see in the can. Popped grains are a sign the roast went deep enough. Blended with the leaf at our partner facility in Japan.
Blended 50 / 50 by weight. Rice is lighter than leaf, so by volume the can looks rice heavy. By the cup it is balanced, which is the point.
Eight levels
Drag the ring across the saucers, or tap a level. The rice goes from raw to popped, and the cup goes from grassy to toast.
Pale, hard, smells of nothing. Brown rice straight from the mill. No flavour to give a tea yet.
Where Teafy lands
Across all eight. We do not stop at one level. The rice is taken through the ladder in small batches so every grain caramelises evenly, and the batch is pulled when a share of the grains have popped. Popped grains are the tell: a genmaicha with no white puffs in it was roasted fast and shallow, and tastes of it.
The story the rice tells
You will read that genmaicha was invented to stretch expensive tea with cheap rice. Tea merchants in Kyoto were selling roasted rice blends to people who could afford plenty of tea, because the rice does something the leaf cannot: it adds toast, warmth and body, and it takes the edge off caffeine. It is the tea Japanese families drink with food, at the table, with the kids.
The reason to buy a good one rather than a cheap one is the rice. Cheap genmaicha uses broken white rice roasted fast. Ours uses whole organic brown rice taken slowly through eight levels, blended half and half with a sencha that would sell on its own.
Caffeine, a cup each
Half the can is rice, which has no caffeine at all, so the cup starts at half strength before you even brew it.
Genmaicha and matcha figures are from the Teafy product pages. Sencha is a general figure for a 2 g cup. Coffee is the USDA average for a 240 ml brewed cup. Genmaicha is low, not caffeine free: if you are very sensitive, treat it as a midday cup and keep hojicha for the evening.
How to make it
On the can
2 g, a teaspoon180 ml80 degrees1 to 3 min
Pale gold cup, toast first, green underneath.
Summer
10 g1 L cold water4 hours
Cold water pulls the toast and sweetness and almost none of the caffeine. The gentlest cup in the range, and the one to hand to kids.
With food
Strong brewHot riceWhatever is in the fridge
This is what genmaicha is for in Japan. Late night, after a long day, the toast in the tea meets the rice in the bowl.
Shop genmaicha
Certified organic in Japan, the EU, the UK, the USA and Canada. Lab tested in Victoria. Cool room in Clayton South, same day dispatch before 2 pm Melbourne time.
Toasted rice first, soft sencha underneath, low astringency.
Best forAny timeWith food
Sencha and roasted rice · 100 g · about 40 cups
4.87(506)
Lab tested · Agrifood, April 2026
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Airtight can for the bench. Fully recyclable.
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All four loose leaf cans: asamushi, fukamushi, genmaicha, hojicha.
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Ceremonial matcha plus all four loose leaf teas, in pouches. Taste the whole range.
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Read the numbers like a grader
Rice takes up more arsenic from paddy soil than almost any other crop, which is why the arsenic figure on a genmaicha is always higher than on the same sencha alone, and why we test the finished blend rather than the leaf. 0.065 mg/kg sits comfortably under food standards, and the lead figure is the lowest in our range because half the weight is rice from clean southern paddies. Read the full report and all eight teas.
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4.87506 verified buyers of Teafy Genmaicha · Teafy overall 4.95 from 516 company reviewsI really enjoyed the genmaicha. I like the combination of green tea and the roasted notes.Noppadon C. · verified buyer · GenmaichaRead all 506 reviews
Questions we get asked
Japanese green tea blended with roasted brown rice. Teafy genmaicha is a first flush chumushi sencha from our Shizuoka farm, blended half and half by weight with organic brown rice from Kagoshima and Miyazaki that has been roasted across eight levels until some grains pop. It tastes of toast first and clean green tea underneath.
A little. 10 to 30 mg a cup, less than half of straight sencha, because half the blend is rice and rice has none. It is a midday or afternoon cup. For the evening, hojicha is lower again.
Those are rice grains that popped during roasting, the same way popcorn does. They are the sign the roast went deep enough. A genmaicha with no popped grains was roasted fast and shallow and will taste flat.
Rice contains no gluten and the blend has two ingredients, sencha and brown rice, with nothing else added. It is not made in a certified gluten free facility, so if you are coeliac treat it as you would any product without that certification.
That is the popular story and the evidence for it is thin. Roasted rice blends were sold by established Kyoto tea merchants to ordinary households who wanted a warmer, lower caffeine tea to drink with meals. Good genmaicha has never been cheap to make well, because the rice has to be roasted slowly.
Yes. Some people eat the spent leaf and rice after brewing with a drop of soy. Better still, pour the strong brewed tea over a bowl of hot rice for ochazuke, which is the dish genmaicha was made for.
Sealed, cool, dark. The roasted rice loses its aroma faster than the leaf, so use it within 30 days of opening. The airtight can is built for this; refill it from the pouch.
Both ingredients are certified organic in Japan, the EU, the UK, the USA and Canada, and the finished blend is tested for lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury by an ISO 17025 laboratory in Victoria. The numbers are on this page.
Buy genmaicha in Australia
Teafy sells an organic loose leaf genmaicha in Australia made from first flush chumushi sencha grown on the sixth generation Shizuoka family farm where Teafy is the largest shareholder, blended half and half by weight with organic brown rice from Kagoshima and Miyazaki roasted across eight levels until some grains pop. Toasted, nutty and mellow with a clean green finish, 10 to 30 mg of caffeine a cup, and a cup that works hot, cold brewed or poured over rice.
Certified JAS, EU, USDA, Canada and UK Organic, tested as a finished blend for heavy metals by an ISO 17025 laboratory in Victoria with the results above, and packed to order from a cool room in Clayton South. Orders before 2 pm Melbourne time on a weekday ship the same day. Each 100 g can or refill pouch makes about 40 cups.
Also on this site: sencha, the same leaf without the rice, and hojicha, the roasted, lowest caffeine cup.
This afternoon