TeaChat

Has anyone tried Rishi's loose leaf green tea that Whole Foods sells in a tin? I was curious about the quality.

I tried and didn't enjoy one that was labelled "Emerald Lily", but that was before I started to 'get' green tea brewing. Not sure how I'd rate it today, but it was given away before I gave it a full chance.

I started with their Ancient Tree Tuo Cha Puerh, which is still pleasantly earthy and mellow, but I've discovered others that I like better. I would still recommend it as a reliable started puerh, because it's hard to brew it badly. I have quite enjoyed their Yunnan Gold black tea, fruity and spicy but rarely bitter.

I've also been very popular in afternoon clinic when I brew up some of the peach blossom white tea, although it is so strongly flavored that I need to dilute it gram for gram with some silver needle or other white tea to get an optimally flavored brew.

I no longer build my weekend shopping trips around a stop at the stores where I could most reliably get my Rishi, but I still am finishing off the last tins I bought before I had thoroughly explored my local tea shops and started ordering online.

what happened to their website I can't get to it...its acting suspicious

Does anyone know if they accept paypal?

Working fine on this end. Looks like it was recently updated.

I cannot remember the paypal method. A search turned up 0 results for paypal, so I am guessing not?

Rishi is a domestic USA vendor who is investing a lot of time, effort and expence into introducing excellent Japanese teas. This is significant in that no other domestic USA vendor is excelling on this front. I have tried many of their sencha and shincha offerings over the last 3-4 years, first really taking notice of their Kagoshima offerings at a time when only a handful seemed to be available to the West ... they offered a really nice grouping of them.

It is interesting watching their sencha offerings as they change from season to season and year to year.

Fast forward to 2010 Shincha, I conducted tastings of 3, the Kukicha, Sae Midori, and Organic Nishi.

The Kukicha is a very clean looking kukicha, hardly any dust which shows effort went into the making of this "byproduct" tea. The taste is very full and rounded yet has an overall light and refreshing feel. It is very nice kukicha.

Sae Midori, seems I had more than my fill of Sae Midori Shincha this year, a varietal that is not really my fave. Still this was a very good example of how a Sae Midori can exceed expectations. Very full mouth feel and deep rich flavor.

Nishi Organic. I come to expect Rishi to do a very good job in sourcing organics, and they did not let me down with this one. 3 exceptional steeps. If anything on the downside, it was a bit tricky to brew and hard to nail each time, but this only serves to fuel my interest.

I rate them this way ... out of a possible 5 with 5 being the highest.

Kukicha 4.5
Sae Midori 4.6
Nishi Organic 4.5 - 4.75 depending on how well I brewed.

Very interesting review. I am skeptical in general of vendors with overly broad ranges of tea, and so many of them flavored, and the limited selection of Rishi's teas in my local supermarket was probably not their best, so I stopped buying their teas more than a year ago.

But I also remember reading.....aha, here's the quote: "Joshua Kaiser [founder of Rishi]....keeps me on my toes with his smart sourcing." From the Harney & Sons Guide to Tea.

I have seen their teas at Wegmans but have not purchased. I have also seen their abundant flavored tea selection, and have not bought (though they are mostly organic).

I have also seen their whites and have bought, quite exceptional! I have only had one of their oolong so far, quite good Bai Hao Oolong Hsinchu.

And then the Japanese greens have all been very good ...

I was not always impressed with Rishi, but they turned things around.

My only experience with Rishi is via the OTTI's, but since then I've been checking their web page for the 2010 special silver needles. They don't consistently post harvest information.

I wonder if they find the need to offer so many flavored teas to attract buyers in supermarkets. I'm guessing (I could be underestimating supermarket shoppers) that as a group that's a different type of tea drinker than the group that orders from a Japanese tea specialist like Den's or O-Cha.

I would think that the flavors are revenue generators. I would venture a guess that flavored tea market represents more than 50% of revenue generated directly by tea purchases in the USA.

A company has to make a conscious decision of what path they will follow. Some companies specialize, some diversify and are more mainstream USA. Rishi seems to "split the seam" and do both effectively. Rishi wants to hit more than one market.

Their teas from OTTI were great for me...I rated them (from 1-5):
Sae Midori 4,5 (excellent, lot of ummami, complex, tastefull, on par with O-cha's Sae Midori or Yutaka Midori)
Nishi Organic 3,5 (tasted like fukamushi, I expected worse quality, because it's organic, but was wrong...after 3rd steeping it kind of lost taste)
Kukicha 3,5 (light, tasted great, like normal sencha, with hint of lemon...this tea could be my every day relaxing tea...3rd and later steepings not so good)

A heads up. This came in my email:

One Day Sales are Here!
One Day Sales begin tomorrow! Check our homepage daily from November 24th – December 31st for great discounts on some of your favorite Rishi products! Last year's selections included our award-winning Jasmine Pearl, Golden Needle and great gift sets.

I don't remember them putting anything great up last year, but it is worth a look.

Has anyone tried their puerhs?

I'm attracted to the notion of organic puerh from what I perceive as a very reliable sourcer, but have never heard much about their beengs.

I have only had thier mini shu tuos. They are shu mini tuos. No fishy taste, sweet and thick –not much else.

Rishi was the first tea site that caught my eye and piqued my interest in tea, which I'd always assumed was that foul dust found in tea bags. They're responsible for getting my feet wet in a major way and even though I don't buy much from them anymore, they still have some excellent stuff (they also had some excellent stuff that went the way of the dinosaur). One thing I now intend to buy on a regular basis is their Sencha Sakura which, I think, is out of this world for a tea of this type (and much better than what I bought at Ito En years ago). In fact, I'm about ready to break into the extra bag I bought last year with winter in mind. I also picked up some of their Moroccan Mint because it looked interesting, but I haven't tried it yet. I highly recommend their Jasmine Pearls (I sure miss those canisters from Whole Foods) and their "non-standard" chais, i.e. those made with rooibos or green tea--all excellent although I prefer Seven Cups' Silver Dragon Pearls. I think their oolongs are overpriced, though--I have much better luck with vendors who deal only with Chinese and/or Taiwanese tea.