Mar 23
Review: Rishi Tea Organic Ancient Pu-Erh Ginger
Fair Trade Tea, Ginger Tea, Oolong Tea, Orange Peel Tea, Pu'er Tea, Rishi Tea Add commentsTroy’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "If you happen to like richly dirty Puerh this one wont satisfy. Its more for the Green or Black Tea drinker who wants to earn a little Puerh street cred."
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9/10
Of all the samples I received this time around, this one gets to go first. It does so because it caught my attention first, It also caught my affections first. It caught my attention in part by being a Loose Leaf Puerh, and also because of all the snazzy certifications it wears like an obscenely decorated general.There are many impressive logos on the bag, USDA Organic, Certified Organic by Quality Assurance International, Kosher Supervisors of Wisconsin, but their wasn't a single stitch of verbiage to indicate what made the tea "Ancient". Ancient is a very vague phrase, one mans Ancient is another mans child, and Marty McFly's hot and ready mother.
Loose leaf Puerh holds a special place in my heart, right next to that kid that ate paste in High School. Its the "Special" kid in the family, or at least that's how it gets treated. Unpressed, Loose leaf, Puerh can be just as high quality as the finest cake, and just as richly flavored. The only downside with Loose leaf Puerh is that it doesn't keep nearly as well as its caked brethren, and as such isn't as suitable for aging. Hence my Confusion at Ancient.
As I opened the plastic lips of the airtight synthetic tea-womb, my nostrils danced with the well balanced aroma of Orange peel and Ginger, not so much with the, sometimes overbearing, earthy punch of Puerh. The puerh was also notably mild in the cup. The blend brews up a dark, dusky, brown, retaining the rich smell of before, and picking up just a hint of earth, the same is true of the flavor.
The orange peel and Ginger blend soo well its hard to tell where one begins and the other ends, the orange adding a crisp acid tang at one end, where the ginger hits the rich-warm-spicy, end of the spectrum. What might disappoint is the lack of a strong earth component. If you happen to like richly dirty Puerh this one wont satisfy. Its more for the Green or Black Tea drinker who wants to earn a little Puerh street cred.
— To purchase Rishi Tea Organic Ancient Pu-Erh Ginger, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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March 23rd, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Troy, Rishi promotes a lot of their teas come from “ancient” trees, which means they are over 1000 years old. and the people who live there have been cultivating the tea the same way the whole time. I have an earl grey of theirs and it tells the story on the can.