Rishi Tea

It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed this tea, but it still remains one of my favorites so I thought I’d review it over on my blog today. Not everyone can appreciate the bold, somewhat bitter flavor of this tea, which is why I suggest adjusting the amount of leaf until the flavor is more suitable to your (or your guests) tastes. This is a very flexible tea and after some experimenting I found that my guests prefer it when I use 1 Tablespoon of loose tea per 16 ounces of water, steep the tea three times (3m, 4m, and 5m) then mix the steeps together. This preparation method produces a more mild flavor with hints of malt and subtle chocolate notes that even my non-tea loving friends and family have come to appreciate Since discovering this tea nearly six years ago it has become my tea of choice for iced tea, we go through several pounds a year, officially making it the tea I couldn’t live without.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2014/9/23/tuesday-tea-organic-china-breakfast-rishi-tea.html

I’m surprised that I haven’t reviewed this tea yet, especially since we go through so much of it that I buy it by the pound now. This has been my my tea of choice for ice tea since I moved to Wisconsin almost five years ago. I love the fact that I can buy my tea from a local company and as an added bonus it is Organic and Fair Trade Certified.

When it comes to black tea Dian Hong style is my favorite. This particular tea has a wonderful bold malty flavor with subtle cocoa notes. Many of my guests find that the flavor is too bold for their tastes, but that is easily solved by resteeping the same Tablespoon of tea several times and mixing it together. With this method I can always produce a flavor for everyone to enjoy (it also means my pound of tea lasts much longer.)

My only complaint about this tea is that the price has nearly doubled since I started buying it (it’s $42/lb from rishi or $33/lb from Amazon.) The price has increased enough that I have begun to look for other options for my everyday tea.

I am putting today’s tea drinking under this tea, but there will be three teas mentioned here. The other two do not have a designation of their own.

My bestie, Melissa1, came over today for lunch since she is on spring break. We did a side by side test of three instant matcha latte mixes; this one, my home made blend of Olive Nation matcha and sugar, and Red Leaf Tea’s sample of Caramel Matchacinno No. 4, which is a test sample and not the final product that will be sold.

I made three glasses of milk and put a scoop of mix on top. As the matcha begin to bleed its color out into the milk, the differences were immediate and obvious. Rishi’s matcha was a bright spring grass green. Olive Nation was more of an olive green color, as was Red Leaf, though the flavoring does slightly change the color of theirs. Note: the mixes call for eight ounces of milk per tablespoon of mix. I have found that it is plenty sweet and flavorful enough to put one tablespoon mix to fourteen to sixteen ounces for me.

I used an Aerolatte to blend the mix and froth the top.

The Rishi had the strongest matcha flavor and tasted the sweetest of the unflavored. Olive Nation home made mix was good, but their matcha is more earthy and muted. I do like it, though.

The Caramel Matchaccino was still too strong for us at 12 ounces milk so I went with fourteen. This is a good thing, as it means I can make my mondo glass of latte and not go broke putting two tablespoons in it! Also, the flavoring level was either delicate or more likely, distinctive. I thought that was plenty strong enough and I would not order it in robust personally. I think I will put my money in upgrading the base now and go with lighter flavor, because the flavoring is generous enough as it is and the base makes the most difference to me now that I have developed a taste for matcha. The caramel is creamy and sweet.

As we poured up the last of it, she laughed and gasped, “How did we drink so much already?” I thought that was pretty funny since it is something you would expect to hear over a bottle a wine, not a table full of matcha! :)

This is quite a nice tea from which you can draw a lot of complex intricate flavours, over multiple steeps, from a small amount of leaf. Of my two Silver Needles that I own at the moment this is the one that I go to want something softer, and maybe more meditative. The other one I own is Zen Tea’s offering.

Dry, the tea smells of straw and hay mixed together with soft and slightly powdery, sweet and citrusy notes. The leaves are pale yellow to pale green with fine silvery downy pale hairs. The leaves are around one inch long.

The first steep of around 50 seconds resulted in pale beige with a grey tinged tea. it smelled faintly of buttered rice both slightly nutty and creamy, of faint citrus notes, of notes of straw and grain, and of a touch of smoke. It tasted sweet, with a smoky note, a hint of citrus/vitamin C and of straw, all underlain with a silky sweet note that hinted of a mildly flavoured bready fruit and a taste that reminds me of Choclo ( a corn staple in many countries in Latin America). The tea has a noticeable full and silky body. The sweet flavour intensify as it cools.

The 2nd steep had a scent that hints of citrus, with nutty sweet grains, and a faint combined floral/vegetal note like blooming alfalfa mixed with a note of jasmine. The smoke was gone leaving a hint of amber. It tasted of citrus notes, combined with wildflowers nectar (clover and someting spicier), with the straw receeding to the background. The tea remained sweet, but in a cooked fuit / squash or grain type of sweetness. Their was a faint taste of smoke. The aftertaste was mainly a mix of sweet, citrus and vegetal notes.

The 3rd steep was a silky straw, and grain flavour, followed by sweet floral nectar/citrus flavour with an aftertaste of stewed mild flavoured plums with a lingering sweetness.

In the 4th steep the sweet nectar references were more dominant with citrus, straw accents in the background

The remaining steeps required an increase in brewing temperature and maintained a sliky, warm sweetness over straw flavour.

I have steeped this tea up to 10 times before and it is a nice tea when you have some time to explore subtle nuances in flavour and scent. A nice example of this genre of tea. but I am going to hold off rating at this time until I have an opportunity to compare it to Zen Teas option.

After tasting a lot of teas today (17), with only a few that were good, I kinda needed a tea to make me sigh in happiness.

So I reached for this sample from Dustin :)

I have never had this before but thought a Rishi EG can’t be bad.

It is a reserved EG. But that is fine with me. Flavor was a bit muted but it seemed dignified that way :)

Got this from Azzrian:)

I got up late (As usual.) but luckily in time to make some tea before I have to deal with the insanity known as Work. I had been wanting to try this one out from the get go, but truthfully…I am alittle wary of unflavored black teas. I needn’t worry…because this turned out to be quite lovely. I’ve yet to find a tea that I think I could have everyday though. But anyways like I said this turned out to be a lovely tea. I used Splenda, but it would be nice with some flavored honey too. Have to use something my lavender honey next time I drink it.

I found the orange and grapefruit flavors to be off, an over or underripe off citrus flavor. But I have done my best to redeem it by adding lots of lemongrass (from the Korean store, better than what’s in most tea blends). I find it somewhat drinkable now – good for when you feel like you’re getting a cold.

I love this tea. Tart, tangy. The blueberries are present in the smell and every sip. If you don’t like blueberries, this one isn’t going to be for you.

I used to work at a place where a person would get called back onto the sales floor during their lunch breaks. I wanted tea, darn it, but finicky teas were out. This tea is not finicky.

I do not add anything to this when I drink it. Straight up blueberry, baby. ;)

I got this with a chai sampler awhile back, and it’s been sitting in my cupboard because I liked the vanilla mint one much better. This one I recall being very spicy, yet a bit weak in flavor overall. But now, after the great pu’erh blends I’ve been having from Verdant lately, I thought it might be quite good with a little beefing up. I added about half a teaspoon of Maiden’s Ecstasy – a loose shu pu’er from Samovar – to a couple teaspoons of the chai. MUCH better! Now this has actual body and heft, but I can still taste all the chocolate/coconut/spice from the chai. This is very warming, now, and good for a cold windy day.