Rishi Tea

WHOA. Citrus.
Fruit Loops? Ok…I’ll buy it. This sure is interesting…or should I say striking!? Regardless…it’s different…rare…obscure!?

I think I would like this from time to time, sure…why not!?

Yummy!

Moldy basement? Did you guys brew your tea with lake water?

Serve with a milk chocolate chip [insert your favourite nut here] cookie. It will compliment the unique nutty qualities of the tea!
And it will make the tea more appealing for a first-timer or the average American palate. :)

The end of my sample from the lovely jennlea; I’ll definitely buy a larger size of this someday. I typically loathe rooibos, but you really can’t taste much rooibos at all in this. It just tastes like sweet, juicy, tart blueberries.

Ooh, this is gooood. This truly does smell like blueberry muffins, as most of the other reviewers have stated. The taste is pretty great, too; I can taste a bit more of the rooibos than I’d like, but it blends well with the natural sweetness and tartness of the blueberry. I love that they use real baby blueberries in this tea!

nutty, grassy, vegetal and sweet, all in the same cup.

very nutty, grassy with a hint of sweetness. a really comforting cup to drink on a morning when it is icing and snowing out.

Probably my favorite Ti Guan Yin: I love the “baked” quality, which imparts a substantial sweetness to the tea.

Too much ginger for me, overpowering the pu-erh tea taste. Caused me to belch, probably the ginger. Can get 3 steepings, but I’ll try other varieties from Rishi.

Trying this again with sugar and milk just to see what happens. It’s a bit better – I’m getting spices and mint and richness, but I’m also getting a bit of a waxy white chocolate taste from before. Much less than the first (unadulterated) try though so that’s good and I can just about ignore it. It is a bit chai-like but the pu-erh adds something a little different that I haven’t gotten from a chai before (I haven’t busted out my Golden Moon pu-erh chai sample yet… maybe I’ll do that today).

The taste has more dimension now than it did with no additives so I’m not so ambivalent about it but I’m not totally in love with it or anything, in spite of the change. But I can now see the attraction it might have for other folks – earthy and rich in a pu-erh hay sort of way, plus spices and a little whoosh of mint. I’m upping my rating a tiny bit but it’s nothing I’m going to miss once it has left my pantry.

The dry leaves smell of nutmeg, mint and chocolate. Which is pretty interesting because of those three things, it only contains one of them. But that’s what I smell. I’m doing this with just water (no chai-like prep – maybe next time) and while it is brewing it smells of earth and mint. And something else that vaguely reminds me of candy though I can’t place what exactly it is. Ah, I know what it is – Red Hots. Not evil Red Hots. Not like Adagio’s White Cucumber (::shudder::). I’m going to guess that it is the combo of cinnamon and vanilla that gives it that smell but I’m really just guessing.

As the tea goes from my IngenuiTEA into my cup, I’m really surprised at how dark it is. We’re talking used motor oil dark. Yikes. I’m wondering if I went a little too long on the steep time – I think in the past I’ve done pu-erh no more than 3 minutes…

The smell is earthy and sweet like hay with an obvious (and slightly creamy) mint tingle. No hint anymore of the cinnamon/Red Hot smell and I haven’t picked up on any licorice at all (possibly ‘yet’). Sipping it is… kind of dull. I get mint. Lots of mint. And maybe a tiny but of pu-erh dry hay-like sweetness left on my tongue after a sip. Maybe. If I look really hard. If I swish the tea around in my mouth, I can maybe pick up a little cinnamon, but I won’t discount the possibility that I’m finding it simply because it is there. When I lick my lips, I get a kind of white chocolate aftertaste so maybe that’s how I’m reading the vanilla?

I’ve let it cool a little to see if I can get more flavor out of it. I do but most of the flavor is mint and then what I’m reading as white chocolate (but guessing is the vanilla). There’s an almost sour taste up front that I associate with slightly overbrewed mint (or too hot mint – either/or), then mint, white chocolate, mint. While I can smell more of the pu-erh hay sweetness but I sure can’t taste it anywhere in the tea. The mint aftertaste is a nice fresh aftertaste, so that’s good but that’s pretty much the only good thing I’m getting out of this tea. Mind you, I’m not really getting anything bad out of it. I’m just getting… minty and white chocolate and bland. I’d really like some tea in there. Please? Just a little? The added flavors are nice, they just need a bit of a solid tea taste to carry them, but instead I feel like I’m drinking white chocolate and mint water. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed mint flavored water before (though I haven’t tried chocolate flavored water yet) but when I’m looking to taste tea and end up with water? It’s kind of a let down.

I’m rating this tea smack dab in the middle. The vanilla mint aspect is good, the water aspect is bad but all in all, I’m left not really feeling anything about this tea other than a vague since of disappointment and a whole lot of apathy.

Amazing tea. Use less then you think when steeping.

I have decided that today shall be an “Orange” day. I have no idea why. It’s just worked out that way. So next on deck is an Auggy tea, which always makes me feel warm and fuzzy, because Auggy is quite the warm and fuzzy lady.

She picked this one up at the London Tea Room, which is awesome, and it’s Rishi, which is double-awesome! Anyway, I used a tablespoon of this lovely stuff. It’s very pretty. A rainbow of greens and yellows, and very… stick-like! Lots of flat, stick-shaped things in this blend.

Anyway, this one smells bright and summery! It’s less heavy on the orange than something like Blood Orange Pu-erh (Samovar, not Rishi), but it’s still orange-y. I’m really getting a smell similar to the gorgeous smell they used to pump out in the faux orange groves of the Horizons Disney World ride that they have since dismantled. It’s a nice scent!

So I steep this one up, and the resulting infusion is a medium goldenrod color. The scent coming off the wet leaves is actually pretty lemon-heavy, but the infusion itself… Deeper orange than I thought initially, with an almost floral-sweet edge to it. If I flounced around in fields, I’d want them to smell like this. Of course, I’m not the flouncing type, and I’m a city girl, so there are no fields, but still. You get the picture.

At first sip, I’m sort of shocked at how light this one is! And bright and happy! It’s a complete 180 from the tall/dark/handsome pu-erh before. Sunshine in a cup. I’m not good with citrus, so I can’t really expound on what’s going on here (since it’s really just blending together), but there’s an orange taste as well as a lemon myrtle taste, followed by a refreshing sweetness. This one is clean and fresh and light.

There is a slight Fruit Loops flavor, but it’s not as heavy as Citron Oolong by Rishi! Which is good!

I just finished a children’s book, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, and this tea really reminds me of that 1899, rural Texas plantation kind of feel. Lazy summers in the heat, sweeping music, cicadas humming and a sunset in the distance.

Yum.

I had to try this, I was so very curious.

Very clean. Mildly earthy. Not at all tart or astringent like red rooibos. Lovely infusion colour.

It’s very good, I appreciate it for what it is, but my palate has no interest in it on it’s own. However, it would make an EXCELLENT BLENDING INGREDIENT. If you’re into that sort of thing!