Rishi Tea

sweet peachy smell, mild, a bit sour.

I was actually really excited to open this tea and smell the cardamom! I feel like most chai blends are heavy on the clove so this was a nice surprise. It’s too bad that the steeped tea didn’t retain any of the cardamom flavor. It’s still a good chai in the sense that it’s a nice spiced tea, but the cardamom tease left me expecting more than I received. Overall, a suitable bagged tea for on the go.

Very flavorful….just not my favorite flavor.

Well, I had always been under the impression that Tea Chai Te made it’s own blends, when I opened up this sampler of Rishi’s “Tangerine Ginger” that I got for free from an order with them ages ago, it looks just like Tea Chai Te’s “Tangerine Dream” (formerly known as “Orange Zephyr”) which is one of my favorite teas (I even restocked it when I visited their shop in Portland on vacation last summer). This leads me to think they are actually wholesaling this blend from Rishi — the leaf certainly looks identical to me — but there are some minor differences listed in the ingredients between the two (Tea Chai Te says their blend includes ginseng and doesn’t list schizandra berries, though it certainly looks like I can see schizandra berries in Tea Chai Te’s leaf from a visual inspection; Rishi doesn’t list ginseng in their ingredients). Hmm… I’m still bordering more on the “this is wholesaled from Rishi” fence than not, since they are a large tea wholesaler to smaller tea shops (I am still pretty convinced Tea Chai Te makes their own chais, though…)

In any event, at least that means I already know I’m going to like this tea. It’s a hibi-hip with ginger and has a nice orange flavor, as well. This is one of my go-to “sick teas” and may seem an odd choice, but all that hibiscus/rose hip packs a whollop of Vitamin C which is perfect once my nose starts going runny or my throat starts feeling froggy, and the ginger is calming on the throat or tummy/GI tract. I like hibiscus teas, so I like the warm tangy fruity base which I’ve always felt accompanies an orange flavor well (like in Christmas spice blends), and the ginger is warming and gives a bit of heat against the throat but isn’t overbearing to my spice-wuss self, and I think it’s the touch of licorice root in the blend which helps temper it. I don’t really taste the licorice root as a distinct flavor, but there is an overall balance of the tangy hibiscus/spicy ginger with a sweetness that works. And that is another ingredient that works nicely with the ginger to calm a sore throat.

Along with TeaSource’s “Margaret’s Soother,” this is one of my favorite “what ails ya” teas.

Cold Brew Sipdown (721)!

From last weekend – finished this off, but it was much worse as a cold brew than my initial tasting. Just intense and heavy handed bergamot and very floral oolong, and combined and with a cold temperature it just really felt like drinking perfume.

Earl Green is such a confusing name for this tea, given that it’s actually an Earl Grey on an oolong base – not green tea. I understand the logic is that it’s a greener oolong but even still I feel like it creates unnecessary confusion…

Taste wise it’s very nice though; pretty strong on the bergamot but I find I don’t mind it because it compliments the fresh green and floral notes of the chosen base oolong really well. It’s intense while still managing to be fresh and fragrant rather than perfumey and overpowering. You can tell that both of the used ingredients have a lot of integrity.

I’d happily drink this one again!

Sipdown (687)!

Finished this off with breakfast during one of the mornings at the hotel; starting your day off with Genmaicha is pretty lovely – it’s just this warm, toasty and comforting kind of tea. I really, really enjoy Rishi’s matcha genmaicha too because the balance of the greener elements and rice is so well done. Most Matcha Genmaicha I find I lose the toasted rice note almost entirely, and that’s the whole reason I want to drink Genmaicha. So, I’m very glad it’s not gone in this blend!

I was given a sampler box of bagged teas by Rishi but branded for La Colombe, a coffee roaster. This was one of the teas. I followed the steeping guide on the bag packaging, though the temperature was approximate because my kettle isn’t that fancy.

The scent is mild, as is the flavor. It hints at some of the bitterness of black tea, but stays just on the edge of something that would require me to add some milk to make palatable. This I can drink without additives, and enjoy the flavor that is somehow simultaneously robust and soft.

I was given a sampler box of bagged teas by Rishi but branded for La Colombe, a coffee roaster. This was one of the teas. I followed the steeping guide on the bag packaging, though the temperature was approximate because my kettle isn’t that fancy.

The bergamot whacks you in the face as soon as the package opens, and it doesn’t diminish with the brewing. I added some milk as I usually do with strong black teas, and it toned down a bit. Still stronger than I’d prefer.

I was given a sampler box of bagged teas by Rishi but branded for La Colombe, a coffee roaster. This was one of the teas. I followed the steeping guide on the bag packaging, though the temperature was approximate because my kettle isn’t that fancy.

The scent reminds me of straw and grain. The flavor is like puffed rice, which is one of my favorite cereal grains. Very smooth and pleasant morning drink. No sweetener or milk required.

I was given a sampler box of bagged teas by Rishi but branded for La Colombe, a coffee roaster. This was one of the teas. I followed the steeping guide on the bag packaging, though the temperature was approximate because my kettle isn’t that fancy.

The scent of the brewed tea is light and floral. I was tempted to try sipping it while it was too hot, but I refrained. I can taste some fruit, but the tannin is overwhelming.

Mostly a very sweet and almost “candy” like mango and lime flavour – kind of comparable to DAVIDsTEA’s Sweet Lime but more weighted towards the mango and a little bit less acidic. However, after the sweetness of the fruit you are definitely hit with the heat and spiciness of chili; it’s strong but thankfully not lingering so it was easy to get over the spice pretty quickly in between sips.

Another Rishi tea.

This one tasted eerily familiar to me, and it was really bugging me because I was sure I’d never had this tea before. It did eventually click, though, that it was strongly reminding me of two of DT’s herbal teas – Serenity Now and Tulsi Tranquility. Same sort of general, strawberry leaning fruity profile as those two blends & and a similar balance of fruity notes and spearmint as Serenity Now has (just with a white tea base and no lavender). There’s a stronger, more noticable amount of tulsi/basil in this tea as opposed to DT’s Tulsi Tranquility though, and I do actually like the more prominent taste of basil better. You can’t taste the white tea in this for shit, but I did enjoy the cup a lot once I scratched that itch of trying to place what it was reminding me of.

As I was sipping on this yesterday, it struck me that this tea was juicy. Yes, that’s it: sweet and juicy. I suppose juicy is the mouthfeel descriptor. I don’t know how else to describe it.

This was the sachet version of this tea.

I wanted to like this, since it seems really unique in terms of its ingredient list. It even smells nice; earthy and natural with hints of cinnamon, ginger, and geranium. I thought the taste was vile though…

It was so ridiculously bitter tasting, with a more muddy/dank sort of earthiness from the pu’erh and an assaulting amount of ginger. Nothing seemed to mesh together and connect, and that weird flavour divide was only made worse by this strange finishing note of geranium. The geranium was actually the nicest part of the blend, but it felt WILDLY out of place with the cacophony of other flavours happening.

I did not finish the cup.

I guess this is probably the correct Steepster entry for the tea that I drank? It was a sachet, and the ingredients are the same as what’s listed here on Steepster, but the tea was an individually wrapped sachet and not the larger “pitcher” sized ones for iced tea.

This is Rishi’s product page for it: https://www.rishi-tea.com/product/blueberry-hibiscus-caffeine-free-organic-tea-bag/tea-bags

I drank it in a travel mug today while commuting to a new part of town – I had the opportunity to work at one of the DAVIDsTEA’s in the city today to see how the customer demographic here in Montreal varies from back home in the prairies, and to get some feedback for my department. It was a cool experience; but I was SUPER worried I was going to get lost finding the store so I made my tea in advance so I’d have something to sip on during all of this morning’s rain while I hunted for the store…

The tea was good, but not mind blowing. Very accurate to the name – a tart, syrupy blueberry note and a whole lot of hibiscus. Like, 10/10 on really nailing those two flavours and striking a surprisingly good balance. I just don’t think I was wowed by the flavour combo, even if it was super accurate and on point. Needed something to create a touch more depth/nuance, in my opinion.

Drank a travel mug of this yesterday, while out for a walk downtown looking at all of the different murals – that’s definitely one of my favourite things about Montreal. Seeing all of the art everywhere, in the form of murals or otherwise, is breathtaking! It’s a truly beautiful city – for sure.

The tea was nice – kind of sweet, and a good citrus and ginger balance. Not overly tart either, which is good because there’s a fair amount of hibiscus in this blend. I do think that calling this “Tangerine” instead of Orange is a bit weird – there’s nothing flavour wise that would indicate tangerine specifically over any other sort of orange flavour and so my assumption is just that it was chosen in order to make the blend seem fancier/more elevated than it actually is.

Still a nice cup though.

Trying to sip down some teas and tisanes that won’t exactly complement the upcoming spring weather. Made a big ol’ pot of this Cocoa Mint tisane the other night. 5 Tbsp, 1L, 5 min. Enough to share 3 big mugs.

I really liked this. In my tin, it smelled exactly like those cinnamon and peppermint candy sticks enrobed in a dark chocolate coating. Murky, cinnamon colored brew. Very well balanced aroma and taste between fresh and cooling peppermint, warm and spicy cinnamon, a perfect clove accent and a luscious chocolate flavor that I wish was more pronounced but there’s really nothing to complain about. Even has some body. I usually strongly dislike cinnamon and mint together but somehow Rishi hooked me with this one.

Very light, with a nice rose taste. 3.5/5