Rishi Tea

I’m a big fan of Silver Needle teas and this one doesn’t disappoint. The dry leaf smells very green. However, the brewed tea is a classic, smooth drinking Silver Needle. However, it isn’t quite as sweet or complex as my favorite Silver Needle from Adagio.

So this is the end of the sample Ricky kindly gave me. I’m on a quest to finish off the little bits and dregs of teas that I have sitting around in my cabinet.

I’m drinking this with milk, which seems to be the way to go with this sucker. It tastes like a yunnan but more mild than the others of that variety that I’ve tried. It’s a little bit smokey, a little bit sweet, and a little bit malty without tasting strongly of either.

It has a decent re-steep (@5:30) although there are some bitter notes starting to creep in. It has a bit of a spicy bite to it, that I think got hidden by the milk in the first steep. Perhaps this is the mythical pepper flavour?

This tea is exponentially better with a bit of milk added to it – it really cuts down on the bitterness and it nicely smoothes the taste out. I am picking up a bit of smoke this time but mostly I’m getting a more malty sort of flavour. Upping the rating. :)

Another tea I got from Ricky. This looks a fair bit like Adagio’s Yunnan Jig with twisted, wiry leaves and some gold tips. It lacks the smokiness and the cocoa notes of the Adgio’s tea however. It has a bit of a toasty quality to it, but I found it to be rather bitter, at least initially. I kept drinking it and realize about half-way through the cup that “Hey this isn’t that bad”. I’ll have to try this tea with some milk and honey to see if that helps things.

Better on the second steep.

I am too exhausted to really write much, however this tea is wonderful. Has a floral oolong taste that is accompanied by a baked quality that compliments it perfectly. Had 2 steeps so far and will continue until I have sucked the life out of the leaves.

I recently discovered a wealth of Rishi tea in my local Wegmans, which made me really happy. I grabbed this and ran before I could convince myself to buy more.

This is quite possibly the strongest unflavored white tea I have ever had. The flavors involved are mostly light, but it’s definitely not weak. That could also be because I used a lot of tea [Rishi recommends 1 tablespoon per 8 oz. water].

It reminds me a lot of Ancient Emerald Lily, actually. It’s got the grassy, nutty, and roasty notes that I keep on talking about in a lot of these green tea logs because I lack creativity and an experienced enough palate to pull much more out of the flavors. The difference between this and a tea like Ancient Emerald Lily, however, is that the sweetness in this soars upwards – like that nearly sharp smell of freshly cut grass. It reminds me, in a way, of the high sweetness of honeydew melon.

In fact, yes. That’s the difference. Honeydew Melon : Snowbuds :: Sweet Corn : Ancient Emerald Lily.

It’s an enjoyable tea, and I think it could become a good staple tea for me if it weren’t so similar to AEL. In the battle between those two, I think that AEL wins out, though time and experience may change that.

The primary infusion of this tea is incredulous. The robust smokey essence left me wanting another cup. However, subsequent infusions are a huge letdown. I tried many different combination of quantity, temperature, and time; but I was left wanting. If anyone overcame this problem, feel free to drop me a note!

As fall moves into winter, I usually go heavier on coffee than tea. However, the richness of this pu-erh is really drawing me in as an warm respite from the harsh Minnesota winter!

This tea tastes artificial and very fruity; and, unfortunately, the taste of the Rooibos is overpowered by the other ingredients. The resulting brew is intense and flavorful, and slightly tangy.

The blend noticeably includes many real dried blueberries.

From the product’s label: “Ingredients: 100% Organic Fair Trade Certified rooibos, 100% Organic blueberries, 100% Organic schizandra berries, 100% Organic hibiscus, natural blueberry and strawberry flavors.”

Another Traveling Teabox Tea!!!

Yum, yum, yum. I love this tea! A gorgeous golden color, and I’m getting a luscious apricot flavor. It uses alot of tea – 2 tablespoons full! This was steep #1, 8 minutes.

Steep #2: another 8 minutes. Still very apricoty and delicious with more floral notes this time around. This is quite a sipper! I wish I was curled up with a novel instead of sitting at work!

Steep #3: another 8 minutes. Still amazing!! This may be my favorite steep so far! The apricot and floral are in a great balance in this cup. Mmmmmmmm.

I’m going to do more steeps this afternoon – I just got word that my class was canceled due to all the snow we have, so I’ll have time to do more sipping as I work :) I’ll edit this post when I do.

I have to say that this is so far the loveliest green tea that I’ve had the pleasure to experience! Much love to the Traveling Tea Box!!

EDIT: did two more tasty steeps at 9 min and 10 min. This tea is a superstar! I am definitely going to purchase some :) If you have another favorite from Rishi, I’m all ears! I suspect the organic rooibos I like from the loose tea tin area at Wegmans is actually a Rishi tea too.

The tea leave have a very vegetal odor to them. Very intense. Like opening a package of very fresh mixed green vegetables. There is a faint citrus odor, but the green tea is definitely the star here.

Brewed the tea is very much a green tea. There is the faintest hint of yuzu. The yuzu flavor is just not strong enough for my tastes. I’ll definitely drink the packet that I have, but I’ll be ordering more of the Lupicia Yuzu. It’s YUZU with sencha where this is RYOCHUCHA with yuzu. I just want more yuzu flavor.

A bit on the toasty side, I find this tea to be a favorite of mine. Easy to go to when I just want something to sip on and not have to think about much. It is nearly a daily tea for me.

I made this one and the Lemon Black at the same time, and shared with my colleagues.

The Lemongrass won 3 – 0.

It tasted more… natural! And lemony, but not bitter. Quite nice. :)

Very good.
I recommend you go a bit lighter on the infusion time than specified on the package.
Allow it to cool a little extra too, it will allow the astringency of the lemon oil to calm a bit.

When compared with Rishi Lemongrass Black, I preferred the Lemongrass… UNTIL, they had both cooled. Then I preferred the Lemon.

A quandary indeed!

Everything about this tea should have pointed toward me enjoying it. Vanilla, yes. Mint, yes. Pu-erh, yes. Favorable-ish reviews on Steepster, yes.

I should say at this point that something in this tea made me feel a bit ill, which is puzzling because mint typically does just the opposite for me and this tea was quite heavy on the mint. This no doubt is going to affect my rating, but I’m hoping that the next time I try this I won’t end up with a stomach ache and a scowl.

I actually wasn’t getting a lot of pu-erh taste on this at first, though I could definitely smell it. It was giving rise to a kind of chocolate-y taste, which was nice, since I like chocolate and mint. And oh, there was mint.

Mint, mint, mint, mint, mint.

The mint was loud. It was doing its best Tarzan impression and I was trying to smother it unsuccessfully to try and get other tastes out of the tea. The pu-erh, and I’m not really sure how to explain this, was giving it this earthy undertone without really being singular. It was giving the mint a little dimension, is another way of putting it, and I guess I found that enjoyable, but here’s where the good ended and things began to sour.

One, I couldn’t taste the vanilla. It just wasn’t there. I convinced myself that, at one point, I could taste it on the tip of my tongue because I was getting just a hint of sweetness, but the mint was doing a really good job of drop-kicking anything else that tried to compete with it in the arena that is my tongue, so there wasn’t enough for me to be happy with it.

Two, about half-way through the cup my stomach started to become very angry. I don’t know what caused it; perhaps it was mutinying illogically against the excessive mint, but it started to ache unpleasantly. I suspect that it might have been the pu-erh, but pu-erh has never upset me before and I don’t have any way of confirming this.

Because I’m a masochist, I continued to sip the tea, thinking that maybe it was something I had eaten, until I realized that I’d had, like, oatmeal and toast that morning and there’s no way that was what was upsetting my stomach. At this point I had to acknowledge that it was the tea, so I dumped it and brewed up some Moorish Mint, which was both tastier and quelled the stomach leprechauns.

I’m going to give this another try, but on a day when I’m feeling brave and know that the possibility of stomach issues won’t disrupt my day. For now, the rating shall suffer my wrath.

ETA: Picture | http://bit.ly/bqQoti