Rishi Tea

Delicious and malty as always.

Mmmmm soo good. I tried this a while ago at Sals, and we went for breakfast again today and I had another cup.

Malt and sweet potato. Excellent. My partner noticed iodine when they had a sip, and… maybe? They’re a scotch drinker and said that there was a subtle background note here that was similar to the top note of Laphroaig. I do not have a palate that can appreciate scotch, and Laphroaig tasted like Sharpies to me, so, I’m maybe not the right person to pick up on the comparison. :P

They were a sweetie and bought me a box of this at the restaurant to take home, since I enjoy it so, and Rishi’s shipping to Canada is ridiculous. <3

I had this with a restaurant breakfast. The first cup was lovely and delicate, nice and balanced. My second steeping of the leaves was much bolder and full bodied. I drank the first cup straight, as it seemed that milk and sugar would over power the delicate flavour. The second cup was well suited to milk and sugar.

I should have read the ingredients list, but I was swayed by the box label that said the words “chocolate” and “cinnamon”. I’m sure they are present, but the only flavor I can taste is the peppermint. This is a good tea, if you want peppermint pu-erh. If you’re expecting chocolate and cinnamon, look elsewhere.

In related news, I have most of a box of the tea if someone wants it.

Wow – I am a huge fan. This has a way of tasting juicy without being overly sour or sweetened. It is very much an equal mix of citrus and oolong, as opposed to oolong with some citrus in it. In fact, in the jar, I was like “wtf where is the tea??” because of all of the flowers. But once steeped, the oolong unfurls a TON and then it doesn’t seem so crazy. The blossoms are beautiful and prevent it from tasting like cleaning products for me, and I enjoy this hot or iced equally. Bonus, I steeped it three times and all three steeps were flavorful. This is a definite repurchase.

SSTTB #16.

Still not feeling so great, and while I had a ginger tea at work, I wanted something less sweet at home. Enter this.

I steeped somewhere around 5 minutes, as I was baking toast and didn’t feel like setting the timer twice. It’s really nice! Earthy mineral puerh, lots of ginger. I added 1/2 tsp honey just to punch it up a little, but although it tastes good like this, I’m not sure it really needs it.

Definitely a decent tea. Not something I need to stock, but I’m glad I had it around this evening.

This is a funny case—the opposite of Pukka—where sachets are being identified on the box as “tea bags”. In fact, I almost passed on this box, until I saw the image of the pyramid sachet on the side, along with a little blurb, “Introducing our Novel Knit Tea Bag”. Now I’m wondering whether this whole series of sachets is new to Rishi.

The material used for this jasmine green (which, to be honest, reminds me a lot of Sunflower Jasmine Tea!) has much coarser openings than the one they use for the Matcha Super Green. No doubt that is because of the size of matcha particles. Or is it? Now I’m wondering: why not use the smaller-pored material for all of their sachets?

This tea is heavily scented with jasmine. On the box, it is suggested that the tea has been infused nine, count ‘em nine, times with jasmine petals collected at night. I say “suggested”, because here’s how the text reads:

The sweet fragrance of jasmine tea can only be created in the traditional way, involving nine stages of scenting to deeply infuse the tea leaves with the aroma of fresh jasmine.

Is the claim here that any company which does not put its tea leaves through nine jasmine mating sessions is not producing true jasmine tea? Not sure, but I believe that a number of them talk about five or six jasmine-scenting sessions.

All of that aside, I ended up enjoying the second infusion more than the first. The liquor was pale gold and the flavor very jasminy in both cases. There is a touch of nice green tea texture here, but no more than I found in the Sunflower Asian market budget brand, so I probably won’t buy these sachets again. Of course, it’s worth noting that this tea is organic and fair trade certified, unlike the mass-produced and budget-priced Sunflower Jasmine Tea.

On the other hand, I do prefer the attractive Sunflower tin to the clunky Rishi box! The individual envelopes are expansive enough to hold four sachets each! I’ve been noticing that a lot of upper-middle-class (sold at Whole Foods) brands use disproportionately large packaging—usually boxes—which frankly is a big fat waste of dead trees. It’s supposed to convey a feeling of spaciousness and luxury, like going to a museum, I guess. In reality, it calls to my mind forests razed to the ground. But that’s another story…

It will be interesting to see how these sachets compare with the loose leaf jasmine green from Rishi, which looks to be the same tea, but one never knows!!!!!

I saw these matcha-dusted sencha sachets at a gourmet specialty store and decided to give them a try. I consumed quite a lot of matcha-dusted sencha over the course of a couple years of my life, but I have not had any lately. I used to buy two different kinds: Stash Premium Green with matcha, or Kirkland Signature Green with matcha. Both were quite decent, though the Stash was in a filter bag. Kirkland’s was the very first sachet I ever encountered, and I always felt that there was something luxurious about it. Apparently many other people felt that way as well, as now sachets are in virtual ubiquity.

Rishi has changed the name of this tea. I clicked on the link in the company description and was directed to Rishi’s home page. There is no tea now known as Super Green, only this Matcha Super Green, and this batch is said to hail from Kyushu, not specifically Kagoshima. On the box the cultivars are identified (somewhat surprisingly, since even most specialty tea emporia do not provide such detailed information on their teas). Here’s what it says: Asatsuyu, Yabukita, Okumidori, Okuyutaka. Make of that what you will!

The tea brews up bright emerald, as all matcha-infused sencha does, and the texture is super sumptuous. I found the brew itself to be a bit bitter, though I kept the time short (2 minutes) and the temperature low (73F).

Upon examining the sachet, I discovered that there were lots of stems along with the tea leaves. I was very surprised by this, as the Rishi loose-leaf teas have been very good. Slipping stalks into sencha sachets? They must be trying to cut corners.

Note that this new version is not identified as the same tea which won the award in 2010. There is no way that a stem-riddled sencha would win an award. The competition is incredibly stiff among sencha producers. Lest we forget: they live in an honor-shame culture!

Queued post, written May 23rd 2014

Auggy’s shared this with me in the most recent care parcel. I looked it up when I added it to my cupboard, but I don’t recall now what it is. It smells a bit raisin-y and fruity though. Berry-ish, I thought. After steeping it’s more floral, but not very floral like it was scented. Just a thin layer of floral on top. It’s sort of wood-y underneath that, but neither cocoa-y nor really grainy.

The flavour is quite floral as well, and also quite wood-y. Again, neither cocoa-y nor grainy. It’s not hay-y either. There’s a bit of a fruity aftertaste to it, which reminds me of cherries.

I honestly can’t tell what this stuff is. It has none of the characteristics of the areas I know best. Could it be some completely new to me area?

I have to look it up.

Oh, it’s from Taiwan! That is indeed a fairly unknown region to me. That explains why there were no recognisable elements to it at all.

As I drink and it cools a bit, I feel the flowery notes get a little more pronounced as do the fruity notes. The fruity notes actually expands a bit, no longer content to being merely an aftertaste. I still think it’s mostly a dark cherry, but I see on Steepster that others have likened it more to plums. Oh well, they’re both stone fruits. Close enough for jazz.

Cooling a little further, we’re at gulping temperature now, the floral note has changed and turned from floral into something more spicy. I felt like it was reminding me of something particular, but I couldn’t think of what, so I nipped off to the kitchen to have a snuffle around the spice shelves. This didn’t yield any positive results so if it is indeed something I ought to know, it’s not a spice we currently have. I did, however, narrow it down that I think it’s a bake-y spice rather than a cooking spice. Others have mentioned cloves and cinnamon, but I didn’t really think that was a match for me either.

This is a very interesting tea. It’s not that often anymore that I get to have a completely new region’s tea for the first time where it doesn’t remind me strongly of a neighbouring region.

I could have sworn this tea had been sweetened; it’s so sweet! Sipping this is like sipping honey. And, though I’m speaking out of order, the dry leaves smell like raisins. Actual raisins. I love this tea. I’ve gotten resteep after resteep of this tea and overstepped it a few times too, and every single cup has been enjoyable.

This said, this is my first Chinese black tea (shocking, I know) so I’m keeping my rating a little lower before I have another Yunnan to compare it to. But I really like this tea.

The leaves of this Yunnan Gold smell strongly of honey and raisins after a quick rinse. The brew itself, however, has a very interesting heady quality to it that smells almost “perfume-like” to me. I would say it smells something like patchouli, and it comes through in the taste. If I’m not careful, it can be perceived as an almost “soapy” flavor so I have to tread lightly with my steepings of this tea. Beyond that there are definite notes of malt, and as the tea cools and I take some more sips, the flavor seems to mellow out some. There is something sort of sharp that kind of lingers on the tongue for a while. It’s got a bit of a peppery aftertaste.

Not my favorite Yunnan Gold. It’s not bad, but that heady aroma is a little bright for me. I prefer slightly darker, richer teas when it comes to this category.

Very good tea! It has a mouthfeel that is almost juicy, like a fresh nectarine. The aroma is part peach orchard and part coniferous forests. The taste is similar to the aroma, but a little bit more on the fresh, woodsy pine forest side, though the peach element is still very present. Anyways, great tea!

With all the teas I have in my cupboard this one has been overlooked for a long time. It used to be one of my favourites and I still like it. I normally do not like chai teas but I can’t taste much chai in this pu-erh tea which is probably one of the reasons I like it. Mint is prominent with vanilla notes. Goes well with the dark earthy pu-erh tea.

By the way, I noticed i didn’t have this in my Steepster cupboard but I’ve had it for awhile. I know there’s probably plenty more I’ve never updated. Sometimes it requires setting up the new tea on Steepster and I don’t always have the time.

MissB sent this one my way and i’m SUPER glad she did. I really like this one. This is tart, sour blueberry – not that sticky sweet sort of blueberry. I suspect adding a little sweetner to this would make it delicious as well, but tonight i am enjoying the tartness of this. it’s not quite genuine blueberry taste but it is really nice. Especially since it’s a rooibos base and not a green base! wooohoo! thanks for sharing this one with me MissB!

Final Count: 174 [ Fake Cupboard at 110 teas with 64 Samples]

Another from my trade with Cameron B

This smells SO AMAZING OMG OMG OMG. Everything in the package smelled like Jasmine. It was like I opened a perfume bottle instead of a tea pouch.
I couldn’t get over how amazing it smelled. This was my first time with pearls and they were so CUTE. I am a geek I know, but I just freaked out over how cute they were.

I brewed this up at 175 degrees and 2 minutes and it smelled amazing the whole time. I poured a softly greenish tea in my cup (had to use one of the glass mugs for this one so I could see its color) and sweetened it a little after a testing sip. The sip was tasty but I like my tea sweet.. so sugar went in, but just a teaspoon. I sipped again and my mouth was happy. Green tea, tasty and delicious… No astringency or bitters. WOW! First time I’ve ever had a green tea I didn’t at least hate in some direction.

Well the flavor was nice and I sipped it warm for a while. The only issue I had was when it cooled all the way, I couldn’t finish it. Why? Because my brain was saying “This is perfume. Why are you drinking perfume? Stop drinking perfume, you’re going to be ill. This is PERFUME DAMNIT NOT TEA!” and I couldn’t win the argument. Only a few tablespoons made it to that stage tho. When it cools it really does smell just like Jasmine perfume and to make this worse, I actually wear a Jasmine Perfume most days >_< So I’m quite familiar with that scent and my brain was really sure I was drinking perfume haha. :)

I kept expecting a bad taste to appear because I kept thinking of drinking perfume.

It was not tho. It was always sweet and delicious and the Jasmine flavor was so floral and so VIVID. I couldn’t believe how bright the flavor was.

I like this. I may well need to seek some of this out. Thank you so much for sending this Cameron! I really enjoyed it ^^

Started my morning with this blend.

I always struggle to think of it as a Chai since it’s just cinnamon that’s adding spice, and such a mild amount of it too. Mostly it’s a pleasantly smooth and thick earthy pu’erh base with crisp peppermint and a really rich vanilla note. Very creamy in mouthfeel, which of course the licorice root is helping contribute to. Not overly sweet or spicy or minty. Just a great harmony of relaxing flavours.

SSTTB: Pick #12

This is the second Mint Chai that I drank today as a direct comparison with Whispering Pines’ Peppermint Chai. Like I said in the tasting note for that one, the two were really, really dissimilar.

Unlike the WP blend – this one didn’t really feel like a Chai at all. Instead this one seemed to be much more about the smooth creamy vanilla mint flavour which perfectly fit the earthy Pu’Erh. The Pu’Erh base in this kinda reminded me of clay a little bit, and then the Vanilla/Mint due (which was pretty evenly balanced) sweetened it up a bit and kept it from feeling gritty or unpleasant. As far as the “Chai” element, in this one the most that I picked up on was the cinnamon in it which almost made it feel Christmas-y to me? For whatever reason.

Both were really good, just in different ways. However, I think that I liked Whispering Pines’ version better even though it was more Chai like, the reason for that being that I liked the weird Halva flavour I experienced with it because of the unexpected nostalgia. It was a tea that made me experience something other than the tea, and it’s kinda hard for this one to compete with that.

I’ve had this (sealed) tin for a year or two, but when I first opened it the smell was as strong as if it had been blended yesterday. The black leaves appear to be almost be oiled – I’m not sure if that’s the oil of bergamot or if that’s their natural appearance.

The bergamot is strong in both scent and flavour almost to the point of being unpleasantly pungent when I tried drinking the tea without milk. With the addition of milk it’s much better, but the bergamot is still a bit strong for my preferences. It brings to mind Adagio’s Earl Grey Bravo though this is a bit smoother and more refined than that one. I seem to be having difficulty finding jut the right earl grey – most of the ones I’ve tries either go too light on the bergamot or add too much.

I made my friend who does not particularly like tea try this with me after I had purchased my first electric tea kettle (and splurged on tea to try with it) and he loved it and ended up drinking more than me, probably around three cups.

When I grabbed it in the store I could smell it through the box already. It smelt delicious, like freshly baked blueberry muffins. As soon as I got home I had to try it. I picked it over the other five flavors of tea I had bought that day. I was NOT disappointed.

It tasted exactly like it had smelt, but also had a hint of almost black tea too it. The blueberry sent was amazing, and the taste matched it perfectly. I am no tea expert, and my experience in trying rooibos is lacking, so I cannot comment on that much, but the flavor did not disappoint.

I know for a fact this is going to become one of my favorite teas in my collection and will be a reoccurring purchase for me!

I was craving some more hot green tea, but it was so hot that I opted for this Rishi Citron Green iced. Then it dawned on me: why not see how this tastes hot, before cooling it down?

Turns out that the hot brew is very tasty! This may be the most economical way to drink Rishi, since the iced tea bags pack a generous 10 grams, and they produce a beautiful liter of iced tea plus two nice glasses of hot. The first glass was from the first infusion, but then I resubmerged the bag in another glass of hot water, and I must say that it tastes as good as the first. This suggests that I should try a third, and I shall…

I don’t usually go for flavored green teas, but this one has a very good green tea base and some nice jasmine, in addition to the lemon grass (which fortunately is smooth, not strident here) and citrus oils.

I’m definitely increasing my rating of this tea. I do believe that I prefer it hot!