Obubu Tea: The Great Genmaicha Giveway

Being of Scottish and Irish blood, I completely respect and enjoy attempts at being frugal. My favorite dishes thus far usually involve some sort of meat that no self-respecting person would willingly choose. As a matter of fact, no self-respecting person would be able to eat it with no less than three tons of TNT and a belt sander. I'm a huge fan of braised meats, hearty stews, and lots and lots of offal. Haggis? Yes please. Tripe soup? Lay it on me. Shitty cuts of meat stewed and basted with broth until they turn into an unctuous mass of deliciously fragrant and soft meat? If you give me a serving of root vegetables with that I may die.

I also respect the need for frugality in beverages. Genmaicha is a personal favorite of mine. Genmaicha is a Japanese bancha (a cheap version of sencha), coupled with toasted rice. The theory behind the rice is, back in the old days, tea was...well...expensive as hell. What little people could afford had to be stretched as far as possible. By adding toasted rice, it imparts not just a deliciously nutty beverage but a deliciously nutty beverage that you can enjoy for a lot longer than just plain bancha. See? Frugality in beverages. Nice.

Obubu Tea has launched their 2010 Great Genmaicha Giveway, in which they will be giving away 3.5 oz. bags of genmaicha, direct from Japan, to 15 people each month this summer (June to August). I wholeheartedly recommend signing up. Their sencha is pretty damn stellar and their kukicha is delicious as well. They really care about tea and, unlike so many tea places these days, they're not just a company selling tea from the same damn supplier that everyone else has. Trust me, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have faith in the company. I don't endorse what I don't like. I have integrity. Dignity...not so much. I won't lie, when I first typed out 'dignity', I spelled it wrong. But integrity, yes.

To enter into the running, either join their Twitter page, their Facebook page, or sign up for their email newsletter. That's all. Fifteen lucky bastards a month will get a sweet sweet dose of frugality straight to their mailbox. Mmmm, toasted poverty.

EDIT: Sorry, their genmaicha is good. Not kukicha. That's what I was drinking while writing this. Whoops.