Products · Tea & teaware · The Tao of Tea
The Tao of Tea Organic Genmaicha (Brown Rice Tea)
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Everyday loose-leaf genmaicha (sencha with toasted rice) from a Portland tea house. USDA-organic in the registry, and an outside lab found no lead in a strong brew. One test, of the liquid; no harvest date.
Best for Anyone who wants an inexpensive everyday loose-leaf green tea with an organic listing and a lab result on the brewed cup.
- Our quality rating
- Good (4 of 5)
- Price range
- Budget
- Verified marks
- USDA Organic (QAI)
- Size
- 3.5 oz (Classic) tin or 2 oz (Small Wonder) tin
- Made in
- Japan; the shop lists it under Japan and links a page on the Shizuoka tea regions
approx. $12 for a 3.5 oz tin ($7 for 2 oz)
See it on The Tao of Tea’s site →We are not affiliated with The Tao of Tea. This link goes to the maker’s own page, with no tracking code. How we're funded.
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Your review
Reviews are personal experiences, not research, and they never change our quality ratings. Every review is read by our team before it appears.
How we evaluated it
Why we chose it What put it on our list
- The Tao of Tea is in the USDA Organic Integrity Database (certifier QAI, status effective 26 Jan 2006), and “Tea, GenmaiCha” is on its certified product list.
- An outside lab found no lead in the brewed tea. In Dec 2024 Lead Safe Mama, an advocacy group, steeped this tea strong (about five minutes, then overnight) and sent the liquid to SGS North America. Lead, cadmium, arsenic and mercury were all not detected at 5 ppb.
- It is loose leaf in a tin, and the page lists two ingredients: organic green tea leaves and organic toasted brown rice.
- At $12 for 3.5 oz (about 99 g) it costs about $0.12 a gram. Part of that weight is rice, so the cost per cup is higher than the per-gram figure suggests.
Trade-offs What to weigh before you buy
- The outside test was of the brewed liquid, not the dry leaf, and covers one sample. A result below 5 ppb tells you about that cup, not about how much lead is in the leaf. No pesticide test was run.
- The Tao of Tea does not publish test results of its own, so the only lab data are the advocacy group’s single test.
- The page gives no harvest year or packing date and does not name a farm.
- Genmaicha is part rice, so you get less tea per gram than from plain sencha. The shop suggests 160 to 170 °F water and 2 to 3 minutes.
What to know Details worth knowing first
Genmaicha is steamed green tea blended with toasted brown rice, a mild, nutty cup that is easy to like. The Tao of Tea is a Portland, Oregon tea house, and this is its loose-leaf version in a tin. Loose leaf also avoids the plastic that some tea bags shed, which we cover in loose leaf vs. tea bags.
It is listed because two things check out. The USDA database confirms the organic certification, and an outside lab found nothing detectable in a strong brew. That is the best evidence we found for any loose-leaf tea, and it comes from a single test of the liquid.
Read the result for what it is. It does not say the dry leaf is lead-free, and tea leaves can take up lead from soil (see our matcha guide). It says that one very strong cup had none above 5 ppb. We would like a test of the dry leaf, and a harvest date on the tin.
Quality & testing How it measures up against our checklist
- Third-party tested
- Yes
- Tested by
- SGS North America (outside test of the brewed tea, for Lead Safe Mama)
| What we checked | What we found |
|---|---|
| Tested for lead and pesticides Verified | Brewed tea tested at SGS North America (report HRFKBS, reported 11 Dec 2024): arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury not detected at 5 ppb. The test covered the liquid, not the dry leaf, and no pesticide test was run. |
| Organic Verified | The Tao of Tea is certified by QAI (NOP ID 5520029967) under the USDA National Organic Program (status effective 26 Jan 2006), and the listing names “Tea, GenmaiCha”. |
| Named origin Maker’s claim | Japan. The shop lists it under Japan and links a page on the Shizuoka tea regions. No farm is named. |
| Loose leaf or plastic-free bags Maker’s claim | Loose leaf, sold in a metal tin. No tea bag is involved. |
| Freshness Not verified | No harvest year or packing date on the page. The tin blocks light. |
| Notices and recalls Verified | We found no California Prop 65 notices and no FDA recalls naming The Tao of Tea when we searched on 22 Oct 2026. |
What the labels mean
- Verified We opened an independent record that confirms it: a certifier’s listing, a regulator’s list or a lab report. It is linked under Sources.
- Maker’s claim The maker says so on its own page or label. We read it but found no independent record.
- Not verified We looked and could not confirm it, or the maker does not say. Treat it as unknown.
Sources Where our facts come from
- The Tao of Tea: Brown Rice Tea, Genmaicha (product page). Maker’s page. Open ↗
- USDA Organic Integrity Database: The Tao of Tea. Certifier or regulator listing. Open ↗
- Lead Safe Mama: Organic Genmaicha, The Tao of Tea, 2024 lab report. Test report. Community-funded test by an advocacy group. SGS North America (via SimpleLab), brewed tea, collected 30 Nov 2024; the lab report is at the bottom of the page. Open ↗
- Amazon: The Tao of Tea Genmaicha, 3.5 oz tin. Independent source. Open ↗
- California Attorney General: Prop 65 60-day notice search. Certifier or regulator listing. Searched by alleged violator on 22 Oct 2026; no notice named The Tao of Tea. Open ↗
Where to buy Other stores and the prices we saw
- Amazon approx. $12 for the 3.5 oz tin. Sold and shipped by Amazon.com, not by The Tao of Tea.
Prices as we saw them on October 22, 2026. They change often. These links carry no tracking code and earn us nothing.
Alternatives Other options to compare
- Den’s Tea Organic Sencha Yutaka-Midori Names the farmer and the first-flush harvest, at about $0.32 a gram. No lab results on its page.
- Numi Organic Chinese Breakfast (tea bags) If you prefer bags: organic, with bags the maker says are manila hemp rather than plastic. About $0.44 a bag.