Rishi Tea

Steeped according to package directions. 1.5 tsp in 12 oz boling water for 5:30.

Yep, it’s pretty much exactly the same as the American Tea Room with the same name which I described as:

Sipdown no. 132 of 2018 (no. 488 total). A sample.

For the last caffeine of the day, I decided to crack open my sample of this.

I’m not sure what possessed me to buy this. I sort of think that flavored pu erhs are a mistake in general. I’m not an expert in pu erh but that is my uneducated opinion.

However, the BF came down with some awful thing while we were on vacation and he sounds like he’s coughing up both lungs. So he wanted me to make something he could drink and though I’m not sure this would ordinarily be his thing (he’s more of a fruit blend sort of guy) I thought it would kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Making this western style in the size cups we have basically sipped the whole thing down.

In the packet, there’s a strong primary smell of mint, and a secondary smell of vanilla. I have to search for the pu erh.

Because this is so highly flavored, I couldn’t really bring myself to put it through 10 steeps in the gaiwan. It just seemed a bit pointless.

Instead, I heated water to the temperature on the packet, 195F, and steeped for four minutes per the directions. I didn’t rinse, either.

The tea steeps very dark and almost opaque. Not as dark or opaque as coffee, though, and redder. It smells of minty peppermint and beany vanilla. No tea smell that I could discern.

And it tastes pretty much exactly like it smells. I didn’t expect to like this at all, and I have to say that I do like it. But not because of the pu erh, which I can’t taste at all, but because the pu erh makes a nice silent partner for the delivery of the mint and vanilla.

I think this is more aptly named Mint-Vanilla, with a hard to find pu erh base.

Tasty and worth trying, but it’s not the sort of thing I’m going to wring my hands over not being able to have again now that ATR is kaput.

I’d rate it higher but for the fact that the name doesn’t really describe the tea.

Uuuuuuuugh… so after spending $1140 in car repairs last month, my car is still having the same issues, and I just can’t stand the thought of having to take it back (after five trips to the mechanic already!) and be without a vehicle again after they’ve already screwed me over so thoroughly. At this point I think I’m going to have to be going used car shopping, and who knows how much that is going to cost me… the depression is overwhelming at this point. I just want a car that is going to reliably start on me and get me to and from work, is that too much to ask for? I’m so frustrated at this point…

Anyway, Throwback Thursday! I think one of my biggest issues achieving sipdowns is I tend to sort of forget about older teas in my cupboard, things I’ve reviewed before, since I’m just not the sort of person that logs every single cup of tea I drink (I don’t have the time for that, and trust me, you don’t need to see that, either). But I was thinking that it would be good for me to “remember” those teas and make progress towards them if I went back and revisited them at least periodically, especially since my brewing techniques and palate have likely changed a lot since I last reviewed the very earliest teas I logged. Thus, Throwback Thursday!

This tea was actually probably the first I ever purchased when I got into collecting looseleaf tea, though it was horribly overpriced and came from the Spice and Tea Exchange (man, did I get ripped off as a complete tea newbie from that place!) (Original review located here, first I published on Steepster! So historical: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/365230 ) The blend there is identical to Rishi’s West Cape Chai, which they sell for $32.00 for a pound; Spice and Tea Exchange sells it as “Rooibos Chai” for — get this — $22.39 for 4 oz. * cough * Yaaaaaaa. Now, I don’t have the space for a pound of tea in my tiny apartment, so when I wanted more of this specific tea after I’d drank up my Spice and Tea Exchange 1 oz. sampler, I ordered this particular bag from California Tea & Herbal (also called “Rooibos Chai”), since they offered 2 oz. sized bags, just the right amount for my collection. And yes, it’s not much cheaper from them than from Spice and Tea Exchange, but when you just don’t need a whole pound of tea at once and Rishi won’t sell you human-sized bags directly…

I’ve had a few different rooibos chais/spiced teas since this “OG” blend, but coming back to this… ya, this is still my favorite. There is something about this particular spice blend that just does it for me. This rooibos is actually a bit more earthy/woody than most I try — usually I pick up sweeter, honeyed notes — but it fits the blend very nicely. I get a strong cinnamon note that hits my tongue initially, with a strong spicy kick of ginger, clove, and pepper that hits the roof of my mouth, and then toward the end of the sip there is a soft sweetness of licorice root. It’s actually quite well blended. It actually leaves a bit more of a spiciness than I usually prefer, but because I like the unique taste of all the subtle flavors so much, I actually hesitate to add milk, and focus on the roasty, earthy, and sweet licorice notes until the spiciness subsides between sips. I probably will try it as a latte sometime, though!

I still really like this blend. I’m lowering the rating just slightly since my personal preference is for a little less spice-burn on the back of the throat, but that is entirely subjective because I’m a spice-wuss; I love everything about the blend and flavor, which is why I’m subjecting myself to the spice-burn regardless. A year later and this one still holds up for me! Probably an especially good choice on a really cold evening like tonight where my toes are frigid!

Sipdown no. 8 of February 2019 (no. 26 of 2019 total, no. 514 grand total).

As with the Wild Orange from Chicago Tea Garden, this was close to the bottom of the ratings for shus in my cupboard. I had one little orange left when I went to make cold brew yesterday so I needed to supplement. One orange equalled about 1.75 spoons. I supplemented with this until it ran out, and then with a couple of tuo chas, also from Rishi.

I haven’t tasted the mishmash yet, but I expect it will be better than the Wild Orange was. Still, I’m bumping down the rating some because this tea was good, but not the best I’ve ever had. And I’m having a shu this morning that is much better.

BTW, No. 2 quite liked the Wild Orange. He said it tasted like the woods.

I was going to taste this yesterday but ran into a time crunch so it was a natural candidate for today.

I rinsed, and did a tour in the gaiwan at boiling: 10/10/20/30/40/60/120/240/300/360

I have had enough shus at this point to think of this one as a sort of usual one. Not really anything special. This doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that it isn’t at the top of my list.

But other than that, it was the typical mushroom/leather notes in both aroma and flavor (no fish, thankfully) and didn’t change much from steep to steep. In steep 3 I thought I detected a hint of cocoa, but there was no surge of sweetness in the middle steeps like some others, which would have been welcome.

Sipdown no. 3 of April 2019 (no. 52 of 2019 total, no. 540 grand total).

Definitely one of the better flavord pu erhs I have had.

In my original note, I complained about the ginger not being strong enough. Clearly I needed to shake the packet up because in the last steep of this, the ginger is quite strong and tastes like the spice, not a confection. It must have all settled to the bottom…

Since I’ve decided I don’t need to go through the multi-steep process with flavored pu erh, because it is more about the flavor and less about the pu erh, I made an abrupt change of plan this morning to crack open this one instead of trying the Rishi Classic. It’s 9:30 and the 11 a.m. appointment is looming…

I followed the directions — I steeped 1.5 tsp in 12 oz of water for 5:30.

The smell in the packet is really wonderfully ginger. The root, not the cookie.

After steeping, the tea is dark brown and very nearly opaque. It still has a wonderful ginger smell, though the rootiness is less noticeable and something confectionery is more noticeable.

And yet, the flavor doesn’t live up to the aroma’s promise. It’s got some ginger, for sure. But it’s more around the edges than it should be, in my view. The earthiness of the pu erh
is the front and center flavor.

I remember thinking that the Numi Chocolate Pu Erh had a gingerbread quality to it that I was sort of expecting from this (though I have no idea why since this isn’t a chocolate pu erh).

Still, I can see this being a good stomach settler and it’s tasty enough.

The package says the finish is reminiscent of baked grain and dates. Hmmm.

It does have rather more toastiness to the dry leaf aroma than I expected from a greener oolong, and yeah, it’s a little grain like. Like toasted bread.

Gaiwain. 195F, rinse, 15 seconds plus 5 for each additional steep.

The tea has a hint of toasted rice in the aroma but mostly the smell is reassuringly floral and slightly buttery, which is more like what I expected. The tea is golden yellow, a sort of medium hue.

And there, in the aroma of the last steep (I found this interesting enough to go through 6), it is. Dates! Otherwise not a lot of change from steep to steep, but the consistency is also reassuring.

It’s a little different from other tieguanyins. I get the feeling it may be less green than some others. Though it did an amazing job of unrolling in the gaiwan. It easily doubled in volume and the wet leaves smelled sweeter to me than the usual “wet leaf” smell.

I liked this more than I expected to. I think of Rishi as a serviceable brand that is consistently good but not necessarily spectacular except for a few outliers like the chai. This is one of those outliers.

Holiday Tea-son! This isn’t exactly a holiday blend, but the flavor seems to fit in well, and I’ve had this sampler around since fall of 2017 and want to use it up. It’s a blend of rooibos, peppermint leaf, and bergamot oil, but it smells really, really minty; I’d be hard-pressed to believe this is anything other than just peppermint leaf, it is so strong! Though it does have a sort of sweet briskness to the aroma, I suppose. I was just going to brew the whole sampler in my teapot, but decided to split it into two teabags and make two servings out of it after smelling how strong the mint was coming off.

Steeped up, I was actually somewhat surprised to see it was actually a proper rooibos red, and in addition to smelling the strong mint, I could smell the bergamot now as well. In the past I have never liked bergamot-infused rooibos, so I’m actually a bit curious if the mint will add enough to the blend to temper it a bit. The flavor is… hmm. It’s… interesting? I still think I’d prefer it without the bergamot, but it is certainly better with the inclusion of the mint. The mint is a very dominant flavor, and the cup almost tastes a little creamy… but then this bergamot zing sort of hit late in the sip, and it almost feels slightly sour against how cooling and refreshing the mint has left the mouth. It just doesn’t feel complimenting to me at all. In fact, the more I sip on it, the more the bergamot tastes downright soapy in my mouth, against the really refreshing pop of mint.

Ya, I just don’t like it. It just isn’t a flavor combination that is working for me at all.

Good! Robust bergamot, not dirty or cedar tasting. A good supermarket tea. Tried in the tea bag form. I will buy again.

Home – 11:30 PM

So I picked this one up at the Whole Foods flagship store in Downtown Austin. They had a decent tea selection, including some blends purchasable by weight. I chose this blend as I’ve been liking red rooibos more lately and I love blueberry. So here we are.

This is actually pretty good. It does have some hibiscus tang, but I feel like it actually goes well with the berries here. I definitely taste blueberry, elderberry, and strawberry. I have no idea what a schizandra berry is or tastes like, but according to the description they have a “cranberry-like tartness”. So that’s likely melding in with the hibiscus. The rooibos base is very mild, only contributing a very slight woody flavor.

If I were making this, I would likely reduce the hibiscus just a bit. But it’s still a perfectly nice berry rooibos for the evening.

Sipdown no. 15 of February 2019 (no. 33 of 2019 total, no. 521 grand total).

The last three of these went into a cold brew pitcher with the last four of the Chicago Tea Garden Sticky Rice Tuo Cha and a spoon of the Golden Moon Pu erh. I was hoping that the shu would cut the nasty pungent note in the cold brew of the sheng.

And it did! This pitcher is more than tolerable. It’s even quite decent, and a nice send off for one of the lower rated shus currently in my cupboard.

Picking up where I left off. No. 1 is still at kung fu, but I realized that I had forgotten my handbag when I took him over there and I hate driving without it (license in wallet and all that) and I also neglected to plan well enough to pack my lunch. So rather than starve and then risk overeating on turkey leftovers, I came home.

I had accomplished one steep before I left. Starting with a second at 20 seconds.

Now here’s where I could use some help from real pros. Am I supposed to steep this even shorter than starting at 15 seconds? I read people’s notes and they have second lengths recorded like 21. Is there a magic to this? Or is this essentially random? How long should I steep a shu and for how many steeps? Should I increase by 5 seconds each time? Help!

The packet says this has molasses and cocoa notes. I’m not getting those. The fishy aspect is gone on the second steep, and the beginnings of something sweet are emerging, but I’m also getting something that is like a slightly bitter green. Like cooked haricot verts. Still earthy and mushroomy as well. No shoe leather here.

Third steep. 25 seconds. OK, maybe I spoke too soon about the leather. This is still quite mushroomy, but it also has something that is a bit like leather in this steep.

While I was drinking this one, I found a chart at the Bana site that recommends:

1st infusion: 10 seconds
2nd infusion: 10 seconds
3rd infusion: 20 seconds
4th infusion: 30 seconds
5th infusion: 40 seconds
6th infusion: 1 min.
7th infusion: 2 min.
8th infusion: 4 min.
9th infusion: 5 min.
10th infusion: 6-8 min.

Honestly, I think that I may have to cut down to one pu erh a day from my rather ambitious taste everything in the cupboard and write a note about it schedule. Really, I should be drinking one tea a day if I’m going to steep it this many times, or I’ll never get to the rest of what I have to do.

4th steep, using the chart — 30 seconds. Still not getting cocoa or molasses. Well, maybe a little molasses at the end of the sip. Just a slight sweetness.

I think I mentioned I haven’t had that much pu erh. I really want to get into it though. It seems like pu erh drinkers in the tea world are analogous to those in the hard core raiding guilds or esports teams in the gaming world. I’m a wanna be.

I will say that this has become mellower with each steep. The liquor a bit lighter as well. I’m finding it pleasant now that the fishiness has worn off. Still looking for the cocoa, though.

Sixth steep, 1 minute. I’m starting to worry that I won’t get to the next on my agenda, the Norbu 2009 Lao Cha Tou (a sample I’ve had for a while) before I have to go pick up No. 1 again). While I’m not tasting cocoa, still, I am getting a sort of a softness to the water that makes me think of cocoa. But somehow I don’t think that’s what they had in mind. Basically, it’s now a lighter version of the mix of all the flavors I’ve experienced so far.

Seventh. 2 min. The tea is now a brandy color. The leaves, after pouring out the tea, look like mush — sort of like coffee grounds though not as granular. Is this normal? The water is harder in the mouth this time. With green oolongs, this means that they’re nearing the end of their endurance. But it seems a bit early for this to be happening with pu erh?

Eighth, 4 min. There seems to be a rather steep cliff this has fallen off in terms of color and flavor. It’s still tasty, just a shadow of its former self.

I can see how multiple steeps could be lots of fun if I wasn’t setting artificial deadlines for myself, like making it through all the teas in my cupboards. Really, what this needs is an hour or so of uninterrupted time to fully enjoy, it seems.

Now that I have tasted all the black teas in my cupboard, time to get over my fear of pu erh.

I thought I’d start with this, since I could just stick the little nest into the gaiwan. The nest smells kind of fishy, which is what I’m used to with shu.

I rinsed twice (read that you should do that with shu on the Teavivre web site). After the first rinse, this little fella fell completely apart.

Adopting my oolong habit, which is trying first in the gaiwan. Boiling water. Steeps starting at 10 seconds.

A very dark liquor, not quite as darkly opaque as espresso. More like espresso with a couple of drops of milk in it. Still smells a bit fishy, with earth and mushrooms underneath. It tastes like earth and mushrooms as well.

To be continued. I have to take No. 1 to help teach kung fu. Provisional rating of 78 as a placeholder.

Sipdown, as a pot made for the house.

Tastes like a hot, slightly watered down tart quince lemonade with the right amount of eucalyptus. As it cools, the earthy-sweet ginger and delicate linden, peach and yuzu florality come to the forefront. Lingering sweet-tart throaty aftertaste. As expected for an herbal blend, this doesn’t have much body but given the taste balance, I’m fine with that.
The eucalyptus feels good in my chest now that asthma season has begun.

I like that this tisane has no added flavorings yet creates a highly aromatic and flavored cup. I also appreciate that Rishi was able to combine ingredients that my palate usually experiences as incompatible; it doesn’t taste at all like a Hall’s cough drop.

A little update on Quince Eucalyptus.

I prefer 2 tsp over the recommended 3 (1 Tbsp) as that reduces the tart quality which allows more delicate flavors to come through. This tisane is good for 2 steeps western, and while the second steep gets a little drying, it also develops a sweet nectar-like note that complements the tartness. Bumping up the rating 9 points. I’ve never had a tisane like Quince Eucalyptus and it fills a gap in my preferences that I didn’t know existed until trying it.

A Rishi seasonal blend bought bulk at the co-op.

The dry leaf smells fantastic with eucalyptus, lemon, tangerine, white grapefruit, lime and spicy and earthy with ginger. This tastes gooood. It’s like drinking a warm ginger eucalyptus lemonade. Lemon/citrus in the foreground, slightly warming but not spicy ginger mid and eucalyptus in the background. I can’t speak for the slew of other ingredients in this tea like the quince, linden flowers and leaves, peaches, black pepper or hawthorn leaves.

Since I can’t taste the other ingredients, I bet I could recreate this easily and cheaper with a lemon, a knob of ginger and some scavenged eucalyptus leaves from the park. In fact, I think I’ll try that. And if I fail, I will come back to this because I really do enjoy it.

I bought my own Jasmine tea leaves today from Rishi at the world market. I decided I will use this tea for my project. The flowery scent and taste just blew me away!
9/28/18

Today in class we had Jasmine Green Tea from Rishi and I enjoyed it a lot. It smelled a lot like flowers and even the taste was floral. It was very relaxing. I think I will use this tea for my project.
8/31/18

Taste is very strong. But it has a very good after taste and taste very natural compared to most black teas

Sipdown no. 103 of 2018 (no. 459 total).

I made the last of this as cold brew.

I generally find myself enjoying white tea as cold brew better than hot. Something about the steeping of cold brew brings out flavor for me that I find elusive when drinking white tea hot. This made a tasty cold tea.

There is probably a lesson there of some kind.

Steeped today much hotter and longer — basically same as I would for a fruit blend or herbal. The tea has more color, a sort of beige-tan, and more flavor. Sweet hay, and maybe a touch of chestnut.

But it’s still pretty elusive and is not doing a lot for me.

Pathetic: I thought I had mistakenly entered this tea in my cupboard because I searched for it and searched for it and couldn’t find it.

Then today, when I was looking for something else (which I didn’t find), I found it.

Too much tea!!! How is that that I’m hovering at 100 sipdowns for the year, which means 100 containers jettisoned either outright or because I transferred their contents into a tin (the number of which remains static) and I still feel like I can’t find anything? Sigh.

As with the white peony, I am not convinced this is a different tea than the one without the Organic label, but this entry had more notes so I’m parking mine here.

I steeped according to package directions.

The dry leaves definitely smell nutty, like the meat of a Brazil nut with a sharp note.

The steeped tea is barely a color other than clear, which does not bode well. Usually if I can’t get color out of a white tea, I also can’t get aroma or flavor.

The tea does have a smell beyond that of hot water, but it is that diffuse, slightly sweet, fresh water smell. And the taste is about the same.

I am going to turn up the heat on this next time and see what happens. For now, I’m disappointed.

I seem to be nearing the end of the white teas in my cupboard as far as initial tastings go, so I’ll be starting to revisit a lot of those I’ve tasted and moving on to doing an initial taste of all my oolongs.

Steeped this one according to package directions.

The dry leaves have a very identifiable honeydew fragrance, as well as an earthy undercurrent.

It’s a pleasant, light, melony tea. It’s rare for me to have so little to say about a new tea, but this one is pretty straightforwardly what it claims to be. Or as we used to say back in the day, what you see is what you get.

I remember quite liking the Lupicia Melon White, in which I tasted cantaloupe quite vividly. I wouldn’t put this on a par with the Lupicia, but it’s pretty great.

This is billed as peach, but it’s more than that. In the tin, it smells like peach, but also like juicy orange.

That’s the same smell after steeping, along with some floral notes. The tea is a light to medium yellow and clear.

I’m really enjoying this one this morning. Its a light and pleasant peach with citrus and floral notes and the underlying tea delivers it without any fuss.

I steeped according to package directions, and that seemed to work perfectly.