Rishi Tea

Really like this tea! It’s not showy, but it is what I expect from Earl Grey. Perhaps a bit more bergamot? I am drinking this every morning now, competing with my husband.

A bit less round and greener Rooibos flavor than the BK Tea Rooibos Chai. Thinner midpalate too. Some licorice sweetness, but an accompanying, slightly off putting seaweed taste.

Little soapy/perfumy. Spicy.

A little much cinnamon bark. Not their best. The straight Kapoor Tulsi is much better.

Ugh, just can’t do this

Bright/neon green liquor. Very fresh, grassy. Not bad, but not my style.

Red berry fruit, hibiscus, rosehip layer beautifully over the earthy ginseng. Taste is really good. This is a superb elixir.

Deep Reddish brown amber. No smoke and not tons of “toasted” flavor but definite rich, gently, slow roasted notes. Some juicy, subtle plum fruit. Verging on black tea. Just not a ton of dimension.

Reddish greenish amber. Substantial toasted barley notes. Distinctive and different than the Adagio Ti Kuan Yi. Nice. Brisk, round and satisfying palate. Solid.

This was a sachet. Broken pieces. Nice, strong citrusy aroma. Again, like the ‘supreme’, missing the luxuriousness and vanilla notes of my favorite earl greys. Citrus is overpowering.

Lemony citrus aroma from the leaves. This brews to be aromatic but is more high tone perfume and less cream than my preference. Missing vanilla and cornflower aroma. Very brisk, needs milk and honey.

Can definitely smell the Valerian strongly. Also notes of rose and fennel. Juicy almost red berry quality. Really nice… Next morning update: pretty hungover! One tablespoon too much for me, need to go with half in the future.

Like red zinger with a more rooty, earthy taste.

All mint. Very strong and very nice texture and sweetness, but the mint really overpowers.

Delicious. Buttery, rich. Very good quality. Soothing nighttime tea.

Really great. Pineapple, cupcake, hefty cinnamon. An all time favorite herbal tea.

Great balance, with a real sweetness from the fennel/licorice root.

Thanks so much to Roswell Strange and VariaTea for organizing this TTB! I had a lovely time with it, and it will be moving on to AJRimmer tomorrow. I made this hojicha from the Strange VariaTea TTB a few times and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I can say that the sarsaparilla’s root beer note is very strong when this is cold, in a nice and almost tingly way. Hot, I just really struggled to describe the flavor or even decide whether I actively liked it. Jury very much still out. I ended up keeping it because I couldn’t get the box closed without taking out another tea, so I chose this one because a) I like hojicha a lot, b) I definitely like it when it’s cold, and c) I’m intrigued by how difficult it is for me to describe it when it’s hot.

Strange VariaTea traveling (herbal) tea (powder) box? I’ve been wanting to try Rishi for a while, so it was nice to see this in here. The powder itself is kind of a muddy and unimpressive yellow, which made me apprehensive. As soon as the water hit it, though, a glorious, spot-on aroma of passionfruit wafted up. My apologies to everyone after me who won’t get to drink this because I will be keeping it. It made for a really great morning latte. Bonus: the excellent and very specific kind of sweet-tart of passionfruit brought back pleasant memories of fresh fruit on our Taiwan trip earlier this year.

derrrrrk. Thank you for this.

The mountain air is getting chilly and the leaves are dropping in fits… I love having seasons again. I opened up my drawer of magical powdered things in anticipation of some kind of cozy-thick latte thing… ended up with a lukewarm cup of summer in front of the fire.

I maybe leaned a little light on my powder-to-water ratio here, so the faint reminiscence of Theraflu is totally on me. I always think of gooseberry as a kind of nondescript flavor, so rightly expected the passionfruit to be the leading layer…. but hot damn, if the scent of summer in the backyard - drying grass and sweaty bodies and sun-hot gooseberries - weren’t exactly what my brain found when it went digging.

I’ll save the rest of this for next summer, I think. Dreamy.

Rishi recommends gong-fu brewing 8-9g in 150-200ml @212F for 45 sec for the first 4 steeps.
Per Rishi: “Smooth and silky with a deep fermentation taste and sweet and malty notes.”

Unfortunately, it’s not sweet, rich, viscous, or full-bodied.

I’ve tried 210F & 30 sec. I’ve also tried my normal brewing parameters. It was ok, but nothing impressive.