Rishi Tea

Holy lord, that’s tasty. Made with “full-fat” (read: added oil) oat milk. I keep instant brown sugar boba packets on hand and threw two of those in. Too, too easy. Earthy, creamy, sweet without cloy, floral without fakery. (Gardenia powder… who knew?)

Between this banger and derk’s saucy review of Rishi’s passionfruit powder recently, I’ma be tracking that one down soon, methinks…

Increased my ratio to 15:1 on this session, which is becoming my trend. There is so much happening in this tea. The boldest flavors are the gorgeous wintergreen/deep berries/tobacco of the tea, along with the alcohol/barrel notes imparted from the aging. But there are surprises to find — a flaky croissant on the lid, caramelized sugar at the bottom of the cup. Tannins and peeking wild florals keep the whole thing lively and without stodge. A meadow-plunked picnic in southern France.

This just got here yesterday and probably needs to rest, but I just wanted to get a baby bead on it. Tasty enough; I do hope it settles in a bit. Reserving numerics for now.

I never did get around to making a thick-ass syrup out of this powder to drizzle on a jicama, grapefruit and avocado salad, or on ripe papaya, or on unsweetened yogurt, or on my body.

Instead, I’d dump like 2T into 8oz of cold water, add a few tsp of chia seeds and a good shot of spicy-ass ginger juice, shake hard and leave in fridge overnight. In the AM, add some liquid cholorphyll, give another good shake and down the concoction. It was pretty good but gosh do I feel like I could’ve used twice the powder, which means I’d blow through the bag in no time. The passionfruit taste was rather weak even before adding all that other nonsense. I am not a drinkmaster mixologist.

In contrast to Roswell Strange’s experience of sweaty body odor and bile,

I am eating this straight outta the bag with a spoon.

It’s that good.

I want to make a thick syrup out of it for drizzling on something. Jicama, grapefuit and avocado salad? Papaya? Unsweetened yogurt? My body? Was that too far?

It is passion fruit, after all.

I want to like this tea very badly. It’s such a simple, straight forward blend and in theory I can see the warm, toasty notes of hojicha being quite lovely with the sweetness of sarsaparilla. However, there’s something about the hojicha itself that seems just a little bit off to me. It almost tastes like burnt bread? But not in that kind of way where a hint of intentional char actually highlights the sweet golden notes of grains. No, this kind of burnt note feels a little bit like an accident. It kind of sucks down the flavours of the hojicha in a way that makes them feels a little one dimensional, and then on top of that the sarsaparilla is adding a coating sweetness that feels cacophonous to me.

I’m not writing this one off yet because I just feel in my bones that there’s something more to this that I’m not understanding or that I haven’t “unlocked” with how I initially steeped it, but I just don’t feel quite right about this first tasting. The notes didn’t click together for me how I expected them to at all.

Iced Tea!

I wanted to like this one so badly but the moment I started whisking it up for my drink I could tell that I wasn’t going to like it. The aroma was very faint, but it was exactly that kind of sweaty “body odor” type of tropical fruit that just doesn’t sit right at all.

What’s most shocking to me is that I portioned this out for three other coworkers to also try with me and all of them really enjoyed it – I was DEFINITELY the outlier in our tasting. There were positives as the bright, almost sour tropical notes had this ere of being almost like a fancy and more exotic lemonade, but then the taste of sweat would kind of bleed into the sip and just ever so slightly trigger my gag reflex. At one point I thought about bile and after that I was just done. I couldn’t drink any more of this.

I so, so rarely toss out mugs of tea. Even when something is kind of bad I prefer to still drink it for the education of it – but I just dumped this one out. It’s not for me. My coworkers, though? Big thumbs up on their ends…

Latte Sipdown (2221)!

This weekend I started reading Legends & Lattes and I’ve had a hard time putting it down since, so this morning I snuck in a couple chapters over a breakfast bagel and a fairly appropriate pairing of matcha whisked up as an oat milk latte – I know the book takes place at a coffee shop, buuuuttt this feels like a pretty acceptable alternative. Surely I get bonus points for the D&D themed mug, which is from the lovely Dryad Tea, and the fact it was also a sipdown. The matcha was delicious though; very fresh, creamy and vegetal with pleasant notes of snow peas!!

PS. I first saw this book shared by Jackie Allen on IG, so thank you for the unintentional introduction!! It’s been the perfect fantasy read for this Dungeons & Dragons nerd!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsRqhgZue33/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly140X_-V7E

Bold and colorful flavor. Like most Thai teas, this is forward and strong. It oozes cheerful character and holds nothing back. The passionfruit taste is from another world. Those little starflowers pack a punch of spicy-minty herbaceous marigold. High energy brew. I had this mid-morning and couldn’t sleep that night.

May 2022 harvest

I’ve had another of this matcha master’s Asahi cultivar matcha from a vendor based in Japan. Looking to skirt the high shipping charge from Japan, I ordered from Rishi.

This is good matcha, though nowhere near as great as the other one. Great color and foam, muted aroma; flavor is a little watered down for the amount of powder used and leans rather floral and like cucumber. Texture is not as silky as I’ve experienced with the other Asahi cultivar matcha. In fact, it’s kind of chalky. Perhaps this a function of age, since it was probably milled late last year or early this year (it is now October).

Not worth the high price to me.

I’m pretty excited to be traveling to Hubei province (albeit a different county), where this green tea is produced. It’s made from one of the same cultivars I’ll be working with, E Cha, at the co-operative tea farming village that One River Tea is a part of. Saturday night I fly out! This has been a pretty stressful process and that feeling might not ease until I meet the folks of One River Tea at the airport, who will also have a SIM card for my phone. I will be traveling to a completely foreign country for the first time ever alone. Even if things go awry, I can figure out where and how to catch the 5-hour train ride from Wuhan to Enshi. But once in Enshi, getting to the village is another feat that will require a 1.5-hour? taxi ride. So much is out of my hands. It’ll all work out, though, even if plans get bumpy. Right? RIGHT? Haha. Of course it will as long as I stay cool :)

Speaking of cool, not only is the purpose of this note to release some stress, but it is also to share what a delicious cold brew these tiny leaves make! It’s got some of that dark, mossy energy that a hot brew does, but with my parameters of 7g:1L for 24 hours, this has a bright, fruity taste to it that’s not present in western or gongfu steeps. Good stuff. And the leaves instantly sink to the bottom of any brewing vessel. Why do I value such a thing in tea?

Excellent Chinese green tea from Hubei Province. Smallest buds I’ve ever seen! Best western. At work, I let the dispenser hot water cool for a bit then fill the steeper basket with a big pinch of clumpy buds. Sweet like scallops, fluid and mellow. Very ‘dewy’ and cool feeling, refreshing and nourishing. I don’t quite get the woody-tannic sandawlood/cedar impression that Rishi does but tannins do cling in rings to the cup. Great for 2 steeps and a 3rd can be eked out if I’m mindful of prior steep times.

Handy little sample packet for a hike with the apple of my eye a ways up north along the coast. The blue-green vegetal/marine notes and the florality matched the scene nature painted before us.

Iced Oat Milk Latte!

I’m still trying to find the perfect amount of powder for my personal tastes, but ultimately I think I’m just really starting to love this blend. It very much tastes like Thai Milk Tea but just not as cloying. This cup was, to be fair, I think a little weakly made. I’m nervous about going too extreme with how much I use but that’s caused me to over correct a bit and make cups on the (slightly) light side.

Still delish though and, again, I’ve gotta say that I’d totally recommend this for someone looking for an at home alternative to buying their Thai Milk tea from a shop.

Iced oat milk latte!

I’m pretty pleasantly surprised with this one. The ingredients list is strange and not at all what I’d expect in a Thai iced tea so the fact it works as well as it does is a huge win in my books. Very, very malty black tea base with a bit of earthiness to it as well – though that’s certainly also from the beets that are contributing so beautifully to the cup colour. It’s definitely rich and saturated and in the right ballpark of a Thai milk tea, but slightly more pink-y red than the orange/brown you’d expect. Totally fair and reasonable though – this is done naturally versus through dyes. I thought the sweetness level was really good, it was easy to whisk up and the texture unproblematic.

Overall very solid!

I don’t know what’s up with my palate lately but it feels like every time I drink a vanilla tea I just taste marshmallow? I had this a few days ago and while it was delicious it was just sooo marshmallow tasting to me. A nice creamy vanilla marshmallow. But marshmallow nonetheless. WTF.

First cuppa of the day!

It a little busy at work right now for a few reasons – one of which is that my manager just got back from two weeks away so we’re doing a lot of catch up on some projects that were paused in her absence.

Because I knew I’d be glued to my desk for a while, I just wanted something simple that I could make a lot of in one go that would be reliably delicious as I worked. Queue this vanilla blend. It’s aromatic, bold, and really authentic tasting. Even has just the right hint of astringency for my own tastes. Quite a good choice for the situation. Classic.

I’m gonna have to try and write a better tasting note for this at some other point in the future because right now I feel too tired to do it justice, but I guess I’ll just say that this was a very good vanilla black tea. So fresh, aromatic and flavour packed. I think the fact Rishi is starting with an excellent quality black tea base is really, really going a long way to that superb flavour payoff.

Cold Brew!

Every time I smell the dry leaf of this blend I just sneeze – there’s something about the way the linden and eucalyptus hit my nose that is just sooo intense to me.

However, brewed up I’m so pleasantly surprised by how light and refreshing this tastes. It’s a flavouring free fruit blend, so definitely not packing a whole lot of punch. As I’ve said before dehydrated or freeze dried fruits have waaayyyy less taste than most people expect. However, that said, there’s a pleasant semi-tart strawberry note that does still come through. I definitely am not reminded of guava, which is a bit of a shame since that’s the namesake of the blend – but that refreshing soft berry note and the hint of cooling eucalyptus in the finish is hitting the spot for me. Kind of like a fruit infused water or “spa water” type vibe!

It’ll be interesting to try this hot.

Made this as a Western cup and badly over brewed it. Still had the sort of cocoa-y and subtle spice notes that are often present, but without any of that beautiful passionfruit flavour and just a whole schwack of astringency instead. Worst cup I’ve made of this so far which was devastating. My fault though. Way, way my fault.

Had a cup of this while working from home today. It was pleasantly smooth with that rich and floral passionfruit note that makes this tea so spectacular and unique with undertones of cocoa and black pepper. Always a highlight when I brew up this tea.

Geek Steep: Top Steeps 2024!

The final episode of 2023. Did we save the best for last? I guess y’all will have to be the judge…

I don’t normally tell you guys exactly what my top three teas are of the year because, well, spoilers. Just the tea that I’m drinking during recording, which is typically an honorable mention. This year was a little bit difference because both Marika and I chose to drink this delicious passionfruit-tasting scented oolong. However, I can’t exactly say why without giving something big away.

So… here’s a tasting note. For a tea. It’s a good tea.

Listen to the episode to find out more.