Rishi Tea

derrrrrk. Thank you for this.

The mountain air is getting chilly and the leaves are dropping in fits… I love having seasons again. I opened up my drawer of magical powdered things in anticipation of some kind of cozy-thick latte thing… ended up with a lukewarm cup of summer in front of the fire.

I maybe leaned a little light on my powder-to-water ratio here, so the faint reminiscence of Theraflu is totally on me. I always think of gooseberry as a kind of nondescript flavor, so rightly expected the passionfruit to be the leading layer…. but hot damn, if the scent of summer in the backyard - drying grass and sweaty bodies and sun-hot gooseberries - weren’t exactly what my brain found when it went digging.

I’ll save the rest of this for next summer, I think. Dreamy.

Rishi recommends gong-fu brewing 8-9g in 150-200ml @212F for 45 sec for the first 4 steeps.
Per Rishi: “Smooth and silky with a deep fermentation taste and sweet and malty notes.”

Unfortunately, it’s not sweet, rich, viscous, or full-bodied.

I’ve tried 210F & 30 sec. I’ve also tried my normal brewing parameters. It was ok, but nothing impressive.

Pot-brewed per package recommendations & also by my usual gung fu method.
Cert. Organic, but lacking in flavor. There are much better choices available in shou pu-erh.

Dry aroma: Barely there but if it were fresh I am sure it would be stronger with woody notes.
Liquor aroma: Malty. Slightly woody.
Flavor: I would not call this robust. But to be fair my parents don’t drink tea much and I don’t drink tea bags much. Also don’t know how long this tea has been in their cupboard let alone been around. Granted the packaging looks fresh. Still…. I think this could be stronger. It’s not terrible but the slightly woody, slight varnish, slight malt… it’s too much slight for an English Breakfast.

From beerandbeancurd!

Made with cold non-homogenized 2% milk and stirred. At first the beet powder clumped a little on top, but after letting it sit in the work fridge for several hours, the mixture completely homogenized. Color is like one of those flesh-colored crayons with a pinkish tint.

The taste is a near copy of restaurant Thai iced tea but more natural tasting. Less thick (which I appreciate) because it’s not made with condensed milk — really satisfying and chuggable. The beet extract powder with its earthy sweetness lightly balances the richer cane sugar taste. Am I imagining the floral suggestion of the gardenia flower extract?

I don’t understand how this has such a spot-on flavor with only 4 ingredients! That black tea extract powder must have a major malty-vanilla tilt to it.

Not only would this powder be perfect for people that like to cook Thai/Asian food at home, but I also think it would make a killer ice cream.

This came as a free sample with my order. I’m not the biggest fan of houjicha, but the toasted, nutty flavor does seem pretty perfect for the cooler fall temperatures we’re getting here in Wisconsin this week! Probably not something I’d order again, but I’ll sip down this sample.

Have you ever bought a tea just because it looked too pretty to pass up? I’d like to think I’m above this kind of thing, but yesterday I bought this matcha on impulse because the tin is cute. And I didn’t have any matcha at home. But also, the tin is cute.

This is my first unflavored matcha in quite a while. David’s Tea’s wild honey matcha used to be a staple in my cupboard for matcha lattes, so that’s the “default” flavor in my mind when I whisk up matcha. I guess that’s probably why I instantly reached for the honey and milk and made a sweetened matcha latte as soon as I opened the tin. Shame on me. I usually taste teas straight before I try any additions.

That being said, it made a highly satisfying latte. It’s quite grassy without giving that dusty, pollen-y flavor that matcha sometimes gets, and it’s hardly bitter at all — but then again, that might be the milk and honey. All in all, the impulse buy paid off! I’ll write an update when I try it on its own.

Mmm, this is nice! Despite the pale color, the flavor is surprisingly robust with floral notes and a honeyed sweetness. It is just the tiniest bit drying at the end of the sip, which keeps me coming back for more! Guessing it will also resteep well.

I love a good coconut oolong! My favorite is from The London Tea Room in St Louis and I was excited to possibly find a replacement a little closer to home. However, I missed the fact that this one also includes pineapple. The flavor is much more pina colada than straight-up coconut. Not what I was expecting, but still quite delicious! Going to try icing it next time.

Yunnan black teas tend to be my favorite, so I had to try a sample of this one in my recent Rishi order! Unfortunately, I found it to be just okay…which was disappointing considering the price point. It was quite smooth with a pleasant bready flavor, but I found the flavor surprising thin and watery despite using my usual steeping parameters. I will try over-leafing my next cup to see if that improves the flavor, but I probably won’t be repurchasing this one.

Since I grew up (and still live) in the Milwaukee area, Rishi is THE tea that gets served in my local coffee shops. Which means I’ve neglected them as a source of tea for my personal collection because I’m always thinking, “But that’s what I’ll be having next time I go to Stone Creek with my coffee-loving friend.” However, a local tea friend recently invited me to go in on a group order with her and I was delighted to discover that their tea catalog goes far beyond the half-dozen or so usual suspects I rely on to avoid having to drink coffee.

This was one of the samples I ordered and I think I’m going to have to go for the big bag next time. Lemon ginger is a fairly basic flavor profile that a lot of companies offer, but in my experience it can go SO wrong: artificial lemon flavor that tastes like cleaning fluid, too much spicy ginger taking over everything, not enough ginger just making the lemon taste weird…the list goes on.

But this one is perfection! Pure, natural-tasting lemon; just the right amount of ginger bite; notes of mango and lime in the background adding a bit of pop; and just the right amount of licorice root sweetness. It was great plain at my desk today, but I really see myself reaching for this with a touch of honey next time I’m feeling a bit under the weather.

Looking forward to seeing what other goodies my Rishi sample pile holds!

Pungent pearls!
Abundant acid!
Spicy, salty spheres!
Bitter balls!
Numbing nuggets!
Generous juniper!

TCM associations for sure. There is some semblance to Sichuan peppercorns.

Refreshing, sour and light when brewed hot then refrigerated .

Feeling: cleansing, fat digestive, tonic, invigorating

Last note I mentioned something about this smelling like paint. A little exposure to air has done the trick. Best genmaicha around even though it has too much roasted rice for my liking. Remedy? Crunch crunch crunch :)

Hefty sample from Rishi helping get me through food poisoning. The rice, when brewed, provides that smell that I can’t quite place. Acrylic paint? Did I see ashmanra mention a houjicha smelling like paint? Sobacha can have it, too. Chemical-ish.

Still a good genmaicha. Maybe it needs aired out. Could be a touch more savory as the amount of rice leads this to being a little too sweet. I’ll give it some more attention soon.

Love this tea! Drank 2 cups every morning until I ran out. The advertising is that the flavor has complex layers of cacao, raisin, and black cherry. It does! Finally a tea that tastes precisely as it should. This tea is rich and sophisticated, and if I can’t get another bag, I’ll cry.

Cold Brew!

You know when you taste something so sour that you can’t help but squish and contort your face to the point where you look like a shrunken skull? Yeah, that was me with every sip of this cold brew. It was almost like just drinking straight malic acid, except after each gut punch of sourness would be this lingering savory note. Very strange, though still enjoyable in a sort of masochistic kinda way.

Backlog Sipdown from a few days ago. Soooo goood. Fruity, dark, and honey sweet with the cool starflower floral. I personlly wouldn’t buy more than a sample of it it, but definitely worth trying. Thank you DERK!

Thank you Derk!

I probably would have gotten this myself, though I would have been detracted by the darker oolong. However, it serves as a fruity base backing up a lot of umph for it overall. I brewed it in my ceramic strainer mug and did it over six times western, and it just gives and gives. The dryleaf has a spicy ripeness to it, but brewing it up has a very pronounced passionfruit flavor with a nice balance of sweetness and pith. The earlier steeps had a little bit of a fresh peppery profile, but I’m not sure if it’s really spicy despite leaning in that direction. It’s tropical for sure and super easy to drink. Very bright sunny energy coming from it. I’m glad I had this in the morning. It felt like a pick me up in a cup.

I personally would not consistently drink it as a hoarded stash, but it’s a profile I really love for a summer tea and is deep in the category of the kind of floral and fruity teas I like.

Gongfu!

It’s my first time trying cucamelon today! These little bite-sized veggies are crisp and satisfying with a really concentrated taste of fresh and hydrating cucumber pulp and just a hint of bitterness. After testing the waters by eating a couple, I decided the perfect pairing was going to be Rishi’s Houjicha Shiso!! The heavy notes of barley, coffee and grilled corn from the roasted green tea are a green contrast to the bright pops of cucumber, while the slight sensation of menthol from the peppermint and the tingly ginger and basil-like herbaceous notes of the shiso are more naturally complimentary and really emphasize this cooling, fresh feeling from the crunchy cucamelons. This was great – it was such a dynamically sensory tea session with a full spectrum of flavours. If you can find cucamelons, if would definitely recommend giving them a try!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9-mx3_Opb_/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn-WtjCnj-Y

Brewed this up in one of the pieces of pottery I picked up while in Victoria this past week!! Though I’ve always loved houjicha, I’ve been especially interested in blended houjicha as of late and Rishi has a few more unique options that have been fun to explore. This one, which uses shiso leaf in addition to mint and bamboo ginger, had my eyebrows turned up from the moment I opened the bag of dry leaf to take a sniff because it smells so potently and precisely of snow peas at that exact moment you snap one in half and the essential oils are released in one crisp motion; sweet, earthy, fresh and vegetal with a slight resin note.

It tastes a bit like that when steeped too, but mostly it’s the tingly and cooling combination of shiso and mint that stand out the most against a warm backdrop of cozy, roasty hojicha with strong notes of toasted nuts and grains. Of the handful of Rishi’s houjicha blends I’ve gotten to try, this has definitely been my favourite!

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtKgvuuOwtT/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvzctFHXfGs