Rishi Tea

I’m not really a fan of black tea, but as far as black teas go, this is pretty good. It’s not too overpowering and has a sweetness to it just as some others have said. I think this would be a good tea to introduce to someone who has been drinking inferior bagged black teas to give them a feel of how a real black tea is supposed to taste

This tea has a flavor reminiscent of the smell of leather with a hint of molasses. It’s not something I drink everyday but it is a good quality tea.

What beautiful leaves: long and fluffy with colors that vary from white to pale green to olive green and smelling of hay! When dunked in water they develop a light floral fragrance, almost an orchid but lighter and sweeter. There is a very, very slight vegetal but nothing objectionable. The taste is true to the fragrance with the addition of the very slightest nutty note. It is not a sweet green tea, which surprised me but it is quite nice.

Much thanks to takgoti for this wonderful tea!

This was the first loose leaf oolong I have ever tried. It quickly became one of my favorites. It has a somewhat nutty flavor and after drinking I actually experienced what I can only describe as a tea high. I was very light headed and felt very floaty. This is a great and relatively cheap oolong tea.

I love this tea, perfect for those cold winter days

I love this tea. It is a bit pricy for me (I am poor and thrifty), but well worth it. I agree with the other sippers that a long steep time is needed. It is great hot or cold, and is one of the only teas I like just as much on a 2nd and 3rd steep.

The smell of this tea is intoxicating. Dry, it could sit in a bowl and improve the room. Wet, it looses it frangrance, but as beautiful as the smell is, the tea takes on an even prettier glow.

And then the taste. It is subtle, sweet, and complicated. I can taste the berry and hibuscus, though I can’t pull out the plum directly. It is a really mild tea, with mild flavors. This is a tea that newbies can enjoy, but that seasoned sippers will also appreciate. I cannot recommend this tea enough.

Taken Plain and with sugar.
Refreshing yes!
Tropical? ehhh… maybe?
The dominant flavors are hibiscus and lemon which is fine with me and there is a distinctly odd cooling feeling accompanying those flavors that I find minutely disconcerting. After you take a sip if you breathe in you feel a nice cool breath of ‘fresh’ air. It’s actually pretty neat considering you don’t taste whatever is doing that.
So this tea gets an automatic rating of super neato with magic and science!
And the hibiscus and lemon go great together with neither of them being over powering. With ‘tropical’ in the title I expected a bit more… I don’t know coconut or something that reminded me of the Caribbean and I’m not finding anything like that at all.
But it is yummy and refreshing.
And it has some kind of neat cooling science!
Yea Science!

Looking in my tea cupboard I realized I mostly have Rishi Tea. It’s a great brand and I highly recommend them. Yet I’m thinking maybe I should diversify.
This still is among one of my favorite teas. I steeped this one for 3 minutes. I think I enjoy it more around 4 minutes. Great nutty flavor, not grassy like most green teas. I really like it.

By far one of my favorite teas! So good. Smooth, chestnutty taste, pan-roasted flavor, and good for multiple infusions. It’s suprisingly good for the second steep. Try it in a cast iron tea pot. It tastes even better in my cast iron teapot. Not sure if it’s from the cure or what, it just tastes better in cast iron. I’m almost out of this. It was on sale a few weeks back at Whole Foods. HIGHLY recommended.

The liquor of this tea is a perfect green. It’s one of the best smelling green teas I’ve had in a while. The taste is so smooth and fresh and light and satisfying. At the end of the tea pot you get the pan fried taste. It’s my favorite green tea. Rishi does Dragon Well very well. One of their Dragon Well green teas won first place and another one second place in the World Tea Championship in Las Vegas in 2009. I don’t suspect that this is one of them but it still is an amazing green tea! I love it!

Found this in my parents’ fridge; who knew Rishi sold bottles of pre-steeped chai?! Not I. Really enjoyed this even though it is cold outside, and surely having it iced doesn’t help. But it is so sweet, almost like chocolate (the ginger is strong with this one), and very fully flavored! That being said, it is not in any way a spicy chai, and I didn’t particularly taste peppercorn or cinnamon. May buy the loose leaf, now…

The Final Sipdown: Day 2.1

I’ve been trying not to read my prior logs on some of these samples that I have previously tried [this one coming from Auggy almost a year ago – how time flies!] but sipping on this one I immediately think, “Oh yeah, Froot Loops.”

And yet, children’s breakfast cereal comparison aside, there’s some kind of…sophistication, about this tea. Additionally, though I typically don’t like messing with my tea, this would probably taste fantastic carbonated and I really should give it a go chilled because I bet it’s pretty tasty that way. The tea has such a light, citrusy, refreshing quality about it and for me that’s somewhat lessened by drinking it hot. Hot citrusy things make me think of either Thanksgiving/Holiday dishes, or things you drink when you are sick. Cool citrusy things make me think of cooling off and refreshing yourself during the summer, and so I think I would rather like this chilled.

I’m eating meatballs right now, which typically read as heavier, almost wintry type fare. Thinking I’d finish the tea off and grab some water, the last of my cup overlapped with when I was done cooking, so I decided to try the two together to see how it paired. The result was surprisingly pleasant! The tea, which seems rather lightweight on its own, was really heightened for me by eating it with something bolder and spiced. Quite interesting indeed, and now I find myself going for a second steep to finish off dinner and place a cup in the fridge so that I can try it chilled later. I might as well do it now because I have no more left to try as this sample is GONE.

What’s that?

Gone!

Day two, sample one, down the metaphorical drain! The Final Sipdown is shaping up to be extremely cathartic. [Also, as I reread my old log now that this one is essentially done, this might be due for a slight ratings bump. I should stress, like other Steepsterites have before me, that the oolong is essentially nonexistent in this tea, but it is nevertheless enjoyable. I’ll try it chilled before I see where it falls.]

ETA: Forgetting to comment on the aftertaste – for me it falls somewhere between lemony and limey with just a whisper of sweetness. Almost like you sucked on a lemondrop five minutes ago.

ETA2: Chilled, this is like lemon water without any sour taste and a clean finish. No sweetness to be had, but I think that if I found myself buying this to make it chilled, I would lightly sweeten the tea when I made it. Whether or not I like this enough to buy it or not is another story, but seeing as how my next Rishi order is likely to be soon, it may find its way in there. Aftertaste hints again at Froot Loops and/or Fruity Pebbles.

Samples Downed: 4

Slowly but steadily, I am making my way through the teas I got through tea swaps. This is another Auggy tea, and it fit in rather snugly into my day. Fit my mood very well, and helped me work through some school stuff.

This tea is light in flavor, but that keeps it refreshing instead of cloying. I could see it being that kind of sickly sweet – like canned lemonade concentrate. But it’s on the other end of the spectrum – not at all syrupy. More like…essence of limeade. Eau de lime. I can definitely see what people are saying when they compare the overall taste to Fruity Pebbles, but don’t worry, it’s not like drinking everyone’s favorite Flintstone breakfast cereal. [I’d say Yabba Dabba Yum here, but I can’t make myself say it seriously, so I’ll just mock it by groaning at myself and leaving it in the brackets. GROAN.]

This tea has a fresh scent to it that carries through the taste. It reminds me of that citron green [I think that’s what it’s called] but it doesn’t do a suction vacuum number on my mouth. It also has a lighter hand on the flavoring.

I’d love to say that I could taste the oolong in it, but it eluded me. I’m beginning to think that the flavor of flavored oolongs is just going to always outweigh the oolong taste for me. Or maybe they just blend together too closely and I just can’t separate the flavors. Either way, I enjoy what this tea has going on when considering the whole package, so there’s a good chance I’ll be ordering it when I get around to ordering from Rishi.

It isn’t going to be a comfort tea for me. It’s one of those head-clearing, woo-sah, take a deep breath and begin anew teas. It reminds me of one of the lines in one of my favorite movies, Waitress: “Start fresh.” [Which has probably been said in other movies before it, but Waitress is such a good movie.] Considering all of the tea I drink, I don’t have a ton that slip into that category. And so, for me, this works.

I like this one quite a bit. Been steeping it every evening for the past week. Finishes my day off nicely. A very pleasant tea.

I enjoyed a few cups of this throughout the day. My stomach was a little upset from last night’s Thai food binge. Oh man, I love Thai food! The family that owns the Thai joint that I go to uses a spicy scale of 1-5, five being “ethnic”. Of course I’m all about eating as authentic and ethnic as possible, so I went for the big 5. The server smiled.

My husband and I go to this restaurant once every 1-2 weeks, so they know us well. Well enough to send us a Christmas card in the mail, as a matter of fact. (We’re good customers.) It was totally worth the burn…and this tea did help soothe. At least I think it helped…maybe I’m developing a cast iron “ethnic” stomach.

YUM! A perfect combo of rooibos and peppermint. The peppermint is pretty overwhelming, but in a good way (if you like peppermint, that is). The rooibos backs up the taste with its full body of earthy goodness. I’m finding ZERO unpleasantries. No sugar needed. This would be great iced…maybe then I’d add a little sweetener. Super fresh tasting and my mouth is all tingly with peppermint cleanness. Lovely fresh aftertaste as well. This would be great to drink after a heavy meal.
A great choice to start my Friday!

So soothing… lovely! :)
Today was my first time trying this tea!

I think it would go really well WITH MIDDLE EASTERN FOOD! I’m craving now…

Next meal: Babaghannoj, Foule, Hummus, Chicken Kabobs, a Rosewater Lemonade, and WHITE TEA ROSE MELANGE. And maybe a hookah. Reeeeeally craving now…

…Sheesh, you’d swear I was pregnant. But no hookah if I was pregnant. WHICH I’M NOT. :)

I really love this tea!!! A hint of peach, that enhances the white tea, rather than distracting from it! Just the way a white tea blend should be :)

I’ve found that when it comes to sharing with guests or gift giving, this is a great route to go, because it seems to appeal to most palettes! Everyone seems to either really like fruity teas, or really not like fruity teas… and this one bridges the gap!

Bumping up this rating a bit on this one for my final cups. Nice, vegetal and sweet with a little mineral/salt-lick tingle that is nice when it isn’t too strong – and as long as the steep time isn’t too long, the tingle is under control. The second steep still isn’t worth much but the first steep is pretty good.
10g/18oz