Rishi Tea

It looks as though the recipe for Rishi Citron Green may have changed. There is definitely no rooibos in this box! I prepared a quart-sized bag using the cold brew method, left to infuse in the refrigerator overnight.

To be honest, I was pessimistic because of the overwhelming scent of the dried tea, which was basically lemongrass, lemongrass, lemongrass. Fortunately, the iced tea tastes quite a bit more balanced. There are some other gentle citrus flavors mingling with a real jasmine green tea base. Not bad at all, though the lemongrass does dominate.

(Blazing New Rating #75)

I found the most exciting new coffee/tea shop ever!!!!! I drove by a shop about 3 miles from my house and noticed a new sign…. The Blue Box Cafe. I say to my self… Oh, how funny? Like Doctor Who. But then I go, sure it is… here in Elgin. Well guess what, it is a Doctor Who themed tea/coffee shop!!! Doctor Who and Tea… what could be better! This looks like my new obsession!

Well my cup of tea could have been better. Not much flavor, no bergamot. But they have other loose leaf teas, so I’ll try some more.

They have a nice selection of pastry, salads and sandwiches. Nothing looked Weight Watchers friendly, but I think I’ll find something I can eat without so many calories.

This is a fun little tea – it’s a leaf hopper, and I always find those fascinating. This one is a nice balance between dark oolong (nutty, roasty, but not too mineral) and the honey sweetness of the hopper influence. Really happy to have had the chance to try this one. Thank you Ubacat for sending this my way.

Undaunted by my recent lapse, I have donned my Blazing New Rating cap and brewed up another tea new to me: Rishi Peach Blossom.

Once again, I am impressed by a Rishi tea. This one boasts a combination of White Peony from Fujian and Silver Needle from Yunnan along with various essences, including citrus and jasmine, along with natural peach flavor.

Judging by the appearance of the dried leaves, there is much more White Peony than Silver Needle in this blend, but the brewed liquor is very smooth and tastes a lot fancier than your typical flavored White Peony, many of which are evidently of lower quality than this one, which is organic.

The liquor is bright yellow, to my surprise, and I can taste the orange oil in the background, especially after having read that it is there. Actually, I’m now on the second infusion, and it may be that the orange has become more dominant than the peach. The scent of the dried leaves was very, very peachy, but by now the liquor seems just as much about orange if not more than about peach.

I have not had that many peach-flavored teas, but I am impressed by the quality of the underlying white tea in this Rishi blend. I’ll probably try a third infusion tonight, as the spent leaves are still rather fragrant.

(Blazing New Rating #68)

Trying this one cold brewed this evening – since it’s the weekend, I’m not too worried about having caffeine this late. I used a teaspoon of pearls for 8 ounces of water and left it to brew in the fridge for six hours.

The floral is just way too strong for me when this is cold. I can’t taste anything but jasmine! I think I may try this again and just use a very short steep time, maybe two or three hours. Or I may try it hot brewed and then chilled. Ideas for tomorrow! :)

So this is my second jasmine pearl tea (the first being free sample from Yezi). I wish I could taste them both side-by-side, but without that option, I think I like this one a little better. The little pearls are tightly rolled and about a quarter inch in diameter. The smell of the dry tea is amazing – such a strong and sweet jasmine aroma. It smells like actual flowers, not like a perfume, which is a very good sign. The directions say to use a tablespoon (!) of tea per 8 ounces of water, so this is what I did. I think in the future I could definitely get away with using less per cup.

The brewed tea smells very jasminey, though definitely not as strongly as the dry (thank goodness). I can also catch a hint of a sweet, vegetal green tea behind the jasmine. I really enjoy the taste of this tea. The jasmine flavor is prominent and it’s definitely the star, but I can also taste the sweet and mellow green tea base. It came out a tiny bit bitter for me, but I think using less tea or maybe a tiny bit shorter steep would eliminate this. The aftertaste is very floral. I found this was delicious with just half a teaspoon of sugar – it seemed to round out the jasmine flavor.

The first time I tried it it was like: ouch, that is a strong bergamot taste. I added some milk and it was better. It’s perfect for mornings like 6.am or so…but I would think before buying again.

Fruity and sweet. I could taste a hint of the oolong but overall, just another pleasant, inoffensive flavored tea.

Sipdown!! (171)

Thank you for the opportunity to try this tea, Dexter, but this is just not for me. Perhaps I brewed this wrong because this tastes like one big cup of bitter chemicals. Sadly, it got dumped.

What a roller coaster ride this tea has been! Rishi Orange Blossom sounded so exciting to me—I imagined something like a high-quality (Rishi) jasmine green tea, but with the jasmine petals switched out for orange blossoms. How could I, a major white floral maven, resist?

Upon opening the packet, I was shocked to see that the bulk of the dried material was lemongrass, not tea! The scent also smelled like orange oil (not orange blossom) with a hint of jasmine in the background. At this point, I was quite pessimistic.

The brew proved me wrong, however! I was expecting this blend to be completely overwhelmed by the abundant lemon grass. Instead, the golden liquor tasted very similar to a jasmine-scented green tea with a touch of lemon myrtle!

It’s a very pleasant blend, but this is not really an orange blossom tea, in my opinion. It’s more like a perfume tea, with a harmonious mingling of several essences. The green tea base is very much in the background, but it carries the floral scents well. Thank goodness lemongrass does not predominate!

second infusion: perhaps predictably, a reinfusion produced more of a lemongrass taste—almost a tisane!

third infusion: I did not taste this but transferred it to the refrigerator to drink iced. The liquor is still quite bright and strongly redolent of lemongrass…

(Blazing New Rating #35)

My second Rishi experience, Jade Cloud is an organic and fair trade China green which brews up pale yellow with a touch of green.

The scent and appearance of both the dried and the infused leaves remind me very much of Mao Feng, though this tea is identified by Rishi as “Wulu”. The flavor offers some interesting Long Jing facets as well.

A solid offering, and a yummy lunchtime tea! I made a big pot and will be reinfusing the leaves for a post-dinner decaffeinated green.

(Blazing New Rating #15)

Let me put it this way. If I make this tea for you it means a love you, because I hoard this tea like an addict. All it took was one whiff of this tea through the box while I was in the store and I was in love, and I haven’t looked back since.

This is the tea that completely changed my mind about white teas. Its not as delicate as I expected, definitely lighter and lacking the sometimes unpleasant astringency of black teas.
Taste: succulent peaches. Seriously, this tea taste the same as it smells. Juicy, peachy with a hint of citrus. Not all that sweet on its own but requires just the tinest amount of sugar to really enhance its natural peachy flavor.
Liquor: pale gold when steeped in short periods. darker gold/light amber when cold steeped over night in the fridge. The taste remains more or less the same, but picks up a slight bitterness when steeped overnight.

(backlog from 5/29/14)

This is my very first tea from Rishi, which seems to have a devoted clientele of fine tea connoisseurs. I’ve been wondering about these teas for a while, but at Whole Foods they seems never to go on sale and seem a bit pricey—for a grocery store tea! Or are they?

The first infusion of Silver Needle Jasmine was a light peach-tinged liquor. According to the box, this blend contains not only jasmine petals, but magnolia as well. However, to me this is nearly a jasmine soliflore experience—a bit like drinking perfume, and I mean that in a positive way! The texture is smooth and silken. Unsurprisingly the tea itself is not contributing much flavor. I rarely get much taste out of white teas, the tofu of the tea world, it seems to me.

second infusion: liquor more yellow than peach and quite pale, with the flavor correspondingly lighter. The spent leaves were a bit stinky, so this will be all for this tea today.

(Blazing New Rating #10)

This is a yummy coconut oolong. The addition of pineapple makes for a sweet bright note to the creamy, smooth tea. As far as coconut oolongs go, this is a good one.

Tea of the morning. I’ve been drinking cups and cups of this as the weather gets warmer. It’s has a great coconut flavor, just a hint of pineapple, and then the buttery flavor of the Oolong. The combination makes for a great summer tea.

So my computer died as I was typing my note for this tea. Not good. I got it up and running again, but I think I’ll be computer shopping before too long.

Anyway, this tea is full of amazing coconut yumminess. The coconut combined with the buttery flavor of the oolong and the sweetness of the pineapple, I loved each and every sip. This is sure to be a summer favorite, and I’m already looking forward to a resteep. I can’t wait for my daughter to get home from school. This tea is right up her ally.

Not sure about this one. I like the ginger. It’s got a nice kick, which I enjoy, but the overall taste is a little weak. I brewed according to the directions, and steeped at the high end of the time range,

If I have enough left, I’ll try using 1.5x to 2x the tea per 8 oz next time. I want to like this a little more because I love ginger so much.