Prices collected 25 August 2026 from eight sellers’ own listings.
Genmaicha is green tea blended with roasted rice. The rice makes it nutty and mellow, takes the edge off the astringency, and — because rice is cheaper than tea — it has a reputation as the budget option.
At most American shops, that reputation is wrong.
What to buy
| Shop | Price | Per cup | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best value | Ippodo Genmaicha, 100 g | $14 | $0.42 |
| Also good | Ippodo Obukucha Genmaicha, 100 g | $16 | $0.48 |
| Buying in bulk | Rishi Genmaicha, 250 g | $52 | $0.62 |
| If you want to know what’s in it | Tezumi Kumamoto Kamairicha Genmaicha, 100 g | $24 | $0.72 |
A 100 g bag makes about thirty-three cups at 3 g each.
Ippodo’s is the easy answer. It is the cheapest genmaicha we found in the US, from a Kyoto house that has been selling tea since 1717, and it is less than half the price of the most expensive bag on this list.
Genmaicha is not always the cheap option
The idea is simple: replace some of the tea with rice, pay less. And at some shops that is exactly what happens.
Here is what each shop charges for its genmaicha, compared with its own sencha:
| Shop | Genmaicha costs this much of its own sencha |
|---|---|
| Yunomi (Japan) | 36% |
| Ippodo (US) | 47% |
| Rishi | 54% |
| Mizuba | 80% |
| Tezumi | 86% |
At Ippodo you are paying less than half what its sencha costs. At Tezumi you are paying 86% — the rice is barely saving you anything.
And at two shops, genmaicha costs more than the plain tea it is supposedly built from.
| Shop | Genmaicha | Its own bancha |
|---|---|---|
| Mizuba | $0.263/g | $0.208/g |
| Rishi | $0.249/g | $0.192/g |
Both charge about a third more for the version with rice mixed in — Mizuba 27%, Rishi 30%. That is not a scandal — a genmaicha built on good sencha is a different product from plain bancha — but it does mean “genmaicha is the cheap one” is not a rule you can shop by.
No one tells you how much rice is in it
Here is the thing that would actually let you compare two bags, and not a single listing gives it: the ratio of tea to rice.
Genmaicha is traditionally about half and half by volume. Rice costs a fraction of what tea costs. So a bag that is 60% rice and a bag that is 40% rice are meaningfully different products at the same price — and there is no way to tell them apart from the label.
We read every genmaicha listing at eight shops. None states the proportion.
That is the single most useful number in this category, and it does not exist on any shelf we can see.
The shops charging the most tell you the most
If you cannot see the ratio, the next best signal is how much the shop tells you about anything else.
| Shop | Price vs its own sencha | What the listing tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Ippodo | 47% | “Blending green tea leaves with roasted rice.” No base tea, no rice origin |
| Rishi | 54% | “Roasted sticky rice and sencha” |
| Mizuba | 80% | Names first-harvest Uji sencha and a “sweet mochi selection from Hokkaido” |
| Tezumi | 86% | Names the rice cultivar (Koshihikari), the village it came from, and notes the tea and rice are grown a few miles apart |
The ladder runs the same way as the price. The cheap bags say “green tea and roasted rice.” The expensive ones name the rice variety and where it grew.
How to use this when you shop: if the listing does not name the base tea or the rice, you are buying on the shop’s reputation and nothing else. That is fine at $14. It is worth thinking about at $24.
Matcha-iri genmaicha: is it worth extra?
Some shops sell a version with matcha dusted through it, usually called matcha-iri genmaicha. It is greener, thicker and a little sweeter.
Whether it costs more depends entirely on the shop:
| Shop | Plain | With matcha |
|---|---|---|
| Rishi | $0.249/g | $0.326/g (+31%) |
| Mizuba | $0.263/g | $0.263/g (same price) |
| Yunomi (Japan) | $0.094/g | $0.091/g (slightly less) |
Only one of the three charges a premium for it. If your shop sells both at the same price, the matcha version is the more interesting cup for the same money.
Loose leaf, bags or powder?
| Form | Typical price per gram |
|---|---|
| Loose leaf | $0.145 |
| Teabags | $0.150 |
| Powder | $0.249 |
Teabags cost about the same as loose leaf here, which is unusual — in most teas you pay a premium for the convenience. Powder costs about 70% more and is a different product: it dissolves rather than steeps, and it is mostly sold for lattes and cooking.
Buy loose leaf unless you specifically want the powder for something.
How to brew it
Genmaicha is one of the more forgiving Japanese teas, which is part of why it is a good everyday choice.
- Water: 80–85°C. Hotter than gyokuro or good sencha. Boiling is fine in a pinch.
- Leaf: about 3 g per cup.
- Time: 30–60 seconds for the first cup.
- Re-steep it. Two or three more infusions, each a little shorter.
If it tastes thin, use more leaf rather than a longer steep — the rice gives up its flavour quickly and long steeping mostly extracts bitterness from the tea.
FAQ
Is genmaicha caffeinated?
Yes, but less than straight sencha, because some of the volume in the bag is rice rather than tea.
Why is it called “popcorn tea”?
A few of the rice grains pop during roasting and look like tiny popcorn. The name is a Western nickname, not a Japanese one.
Is genmaicha good for beginners?
It is probably the best Japanese green tea to start with. It is forgiving about water temperature, mellow rather than astringent, and cheap enough to experiment with.
What is the difference between genmaicha and matcha-iri genmaicha?
The second has matcha powder blended in, which makes it greener and thicker in the cup. At most shops it costs the same or only slightly more.
How much rice should be in it?
Traditionally about half. No seller we found publishes the actual ratio, so you cannot check.
The eight sellers: Ippodo (US), Mizuba, Rishi, Tezumi, Kettl, Hojicha Co., Matchaful and Yunomi. Five of them stock genmaicha. Per-cup figures assume 3 g a cup — about thirty-three cups from a 100 g bag.
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