Green tea mixed with roasted brown rice (genmai). Of the 6-7 types of tea offered at Ippuku, except for sencha and matcha, I had no idea what is what, so I just randomly pointed at genmaicha. Its color: a beautiful light jade. Its smell and taste: milder than sencha, probably because of the genmai, but the seaweed flavor is definitely visible. Is this a common characteristic of Japanese green tea?
Wikipedia says that the base of genmaicha is often sencha or bancha (lower-graded sencha) mixed with a little bit of matcha for color. From the shape of the tea leaves in this pot, I would guess that this is aki-bancha, which is made from the trimmed twigs of tea plant instead of the full tea leaves.
This seaweed flavor grows on you, and it goes surprisingly well with grilled meats.
Steeping time: 1 minute at 80-85C (176-185F). It’s not bitter at all.