Rishi Tea

Deeply refreshing single-cultivar gyokuro with a lively energy and fresh wheatgrass flavor.

Shade-grown Gyokuro offering a complex flavor with notes of oceanic umami and nori seaweed, with aromatic hints of preserved sakura in the finish.

Formally named “Red Ginseng Recharge”

This tea has been discontinued in Tea Bags.

Currently unavailable.

Very unique! Currently out of stock and discontinued.

Delicious! But no longer available.

This tea has been discontinued and is no longer available!

Our Wuyi Oolong has recently been disco’d and is no longer available.

This tea is no longer available, sold out a few years ago!

Yes, yet another review of Earl Grey Supreme, but this time on the positive side! I had made enough for two cups yesterday when I was drinking it hot, and after having one cup I decided to put the rest in the fridge to try cold. Lo and behold, the Iced Earl Grey Supreme! I had added a couple of rock sugars to it while it was hot, and the Iced version is nicely smooth and not too bitter tasting. I can even get a TEENSY bit of that begamont that I was searching for in the hot cup. Although I still wouldn’t call this a great tea, I am glad that at least the iced version redeemed itself a little bit so that I can drink it without cringing.

This morning I tried Earl Grey Supreme again, hoping to get a better taste out of it by steeping it for a shorter time than last time I drank it. The result, unfortunately, did not improve: I can hardly get a taste or smell of the bergamont, and the black tea is not smooth and rich – it leaves a slightly unpleasant bitter aftertaste that I am not too fond of.

I think I will just finish this tea off tomorrow morning and go back to my other earl greys.

I agree with past reviewers that this is a rather basic earl grey tea. The taste is fine if you steep it right (not too long), but there is not as much depth in taste and aroma as other earl grey teas I’ve encountered.

Rishi might be better served by removing that blackberry twang from this blend. I feel like many of the reviewers, myself included, picked up this tea in hopes of experiencing an earthy pu-erh with a hint of red wine to bring out a figgy and mature flavor. What I got instead was a low but noticeable dose of Berry Zinger. Now, to be fair, the package told me right off there would be blackberry, but I figured that no one would pair pu-erh and grape skins only to tart it up too strongly with the blackberry. I was wrong. That’s my fault and not theirs, but I do think this tea might be better received if they let the pu-erh take the lead.

I recommend adding sweetener to this. Also, consider throwing away the first steep to avoid some of the sour.

i ordered this tea mainly because my mom was looking for a tea to kick her cold, but i ended up drinking more of it then she did! Absolutely love this tea. It has a nice spice to it from the ginger and the Meyer lemon balances it out quite nicely. It also smells AMAZING!!! Defiantly going to buy this again!

I knew I wasn’t going to like this one when I picked it out but I need to get through this box of teas from my swap. It’s got a strange aftertaste, similar to stevia. The ginger smells much stronger in the bag than it does when steeped which is a let down and the hibiscus is very overwhelming. I’m definitely going to have my boyfriend try this one – he always seems to like the ones I don’t.

I got this in a swap awhile back and just finished it off today. I really love this one, it’s super hibiscus-y, tart, and full of berry flavors (mostly blueberry I think.) I’d actually compare it to an unsweetened (or lightly sweetened) cranberry juice – though it doesn’t taste like cranberry, it has the same feel in my mouth and has a similar flavor palette.

Very sad to see this one go. I’m avoiding ordering tea until my collection dwindles a bit but if I ever stumble across it somewhere, I’ll definitely pick it up!

I think I managed to oversteep this one – I made this to have with dinner but then totally forgot about it in my Ingenuitea for probably a good hour.

It’s much more sour (probably the hibiscus) and it’s almost reminiscent of Raspberry/Cranberry juice in a bizarre way. I don’t mind it, but I don’t think I was actually in the mood for a fruit tea when I made this. Unfortunately for my pride in having a large collection (and fortunately for my need to consolidate teas) there’s only about a tsp left of this guy, so the next tasting will be it’s last.

I steeped this a bit longer than I did last time and the berry flavor mellowed out the hibiscus (yay!) This time around, I got a much stronger blueberry flavor. I definitely like this one a lot.

I just did a swap on /r/teaexchange and got my box today. It was filled to the brim with lots of goodies I have to try! Generally my tea collection is flavored and a lot of the stuff she sent me is unflavored, so of course I had to start with what I felt most comfortable with – an herbal.

This guy is great! Crisp, tart taste, akin to that of Bear Trap from Davids or Berry Kiwi Colada from Teavana. I can taste a faint berry flavor, but I can’t distinguish which berry… I’d still drink a cup of Bear Trap or Berry Kiwi Colada over this one, but it’s a welcome addition to the collection and will definitely go into my regular rotation!

To be fair… the rating/ review is for the over all tea not for its taste alone. I seem to be catching bronchitis again :( so am taking this opportunity to review a lot of herbals.

This is a medicinal tea, that rishi has made very approachable by making it taste like a bright lemony ginger tea rather than medicine. It’s very effective at doing what you want it to do (make your throat/ stomach feel better/ be warm and comforting) while tasting vastly better than most herbals that do the same. That being said, I am on team ginger rather than team peppermint 90% of the time.

The complex citrus notes (lemon grass, orange and lemon I know from the label are in there) really liven it up. It’s pleasant enough to drink even when your not sick, I drink it a lot after I work out for the anti-inflammatory properties of tumeric to try and not get sore the next day.

I take daily tumeric/greens supplements, so I know exactly how nasty this COULD taste (everyone I know gags at the smell and is HOW CAN YOU DRINK THAT?). An believe this is my favorite way to take turmeric. Ginger is always best fresh in chai or stir fry though! But it’s better than Yogi’s lemon ginger I reach for when I am so sick all I want is to shove hot water down my throat.

Taste alone I would rate this in the 70s. But its easily and B when the artistry and effectiveness of the ingredients is considered. If you ever find a tumeric tea thats an A in taste, please send me a gallon of it!

Taste: 75
Effectiveness: 90
Price/Value: 80ish

Went to see Dracula as a ballet in Madison, Wisconsin, and it made me happy on a number of levels because it was NOT traditional ballet, thank heavens. The performers actually touched each other AND emoted…

Anyway, Madison is littered with coffee shops. And one just so happened to serve Rishi. I was so tempted to get the Tie Guan Yin ‘cause I’ve been wanting to try it again to see if it was as good as I remembered. Yet I craved a coconut oolong. It also made me happy on a number of levels. I’m not sure if it was a milk oolong or a Baozhong for the base, but anyway, it was distinguishable and flowed perfectly with the pineapple and creamy coconut. It tasted good throughout, getting better and slightly more vegetal as it steeped and as I drank it for over 30 minutes. Maybe I’m easily impressed, but this certainly matched a great day.

Given that the item is supposedly not available, maybe the order I just received is old and wasn’t stored properly. Maybe that’s why the tea is bitter, without any of the thick malty smoothness I expect in a Yunnan. It’s like the LIpton bagged tea I grew up with. I tried a second infusion, and it was less bitter, but hardly more flavorful.

Of course this isn’t great shou… I’d be really sad for someone to waste good shou in a blend like this, but you know what? It’s cheap CHOCOLATEY shou so I am still happy… it is also not vanilla mint… so if you go in expecting anything from the name of this tea you will be a sad panda.

Now let’s talk about what this tea is… with a little bit of vanilla almond milk at the end this tea is chocolate fennel more than anything… its desserty and a treat before bed that won’t keep you up all night.

Rishi has new green tins that were too cute not to pick up from Wegmans.

You want a cheap cuppa chocolate that has a decent resteep value for something so cheap? Try some of this. If you want something to curb a hot chocolate craving, get some of this. If you want to try a weird blend that smells good… get some of this. If you are like me and tend to forget your teas brewing because you are used to gongfu and want something forgiving for a cheap thrill, this might be your thing.

If you are going in expecting this to be vanilla mint… go try some Tippy’s Minted Monkey instead. If you are going into this hoping for some good ripe puerh, hit up Crimson Lotus or one of the many other pu erh vendors on Steepster.

But just know, as I was drinking this I would not have guessed it was so lowly rated on steepster… I would never have bought it if I had looked first, but I am very glad I did.