[Rishi Tea] Private Tea Tasting

The first week of August, I was invited to a private tea tasting of rishi tea company with a few tea specialists in the city. (Thank you Alexis, a great tea consultant and blogger of teaspoons&petals, for organizing and inviting me!) Joshua, CEO of rishi tea, gave us an introduction of his company and an educational lecture on organic tea. Throughout his lecture, we tasted many signature teas from rishi tea.

As a welcome tea, two different herbal teas were served

Beautiful rishi tea’s logo

After the welcome tea, we drank Korean green tea, Woojun.

Many Korean green teas are either from Jiri Mountain area or Jeju island. Woojun is the first pick of green tea that offers ever-green and umami flavor

Sejak, Korean Green Tea (Jiri Mountain)

Sejak is harvested after Woojun. Its tea leaves are thus more mature and bigger. Sejak brings more tannic and nuttier flavor

Bai Hao Oolong Spring Special, Thailand

This organic oolong tea is from Thailand. The famous Oriental Beauty, Taiwanese oolong, was taken to Thailand and replanted in its local soil. If you see the tea leaves in the gaiwan (left), there are different colors of tea leaves just like Oriental Beauty. I felt it was very light, almost like white tea. Maybe that is why the name of this tea is Bai Hao (white hair in Chinese) Oolong. It was very mild and had a sweet peachy touch on its flavor

Ruby Oolong Qingming Special, Thailand

Another organic oolong from Thailand. This is the oolong that I drank at La Colombe as a cold brew with Alexis. This was my first tea from Thailand. When brewed in hot water, it has a touch of acidity. I personally liked it as a cold brew better. It has natural sweet chocolate aroma

Tightly rolled Ruby oolong even after steeping

Hello, Joshua!

In his 20s, he pursued his enthusiasm in traveling and culinary. He traveled all around the world and had a chance to encounter different types of herbs in cooking and drinking. This naturally brought him to develop his interests on tea leaves all around the world. He also shared his great passion for tea and a big emphasis on organic tea. All organic teas from rishi are sent to the third party laboratory in Europe and are thoroughly scrutinized

All different tea leaves from Rishi Tea private tasting

Wild Thai Black, Thailand

Organic black tea from Thailand. While other Thailand oolongs that we drank are from Doi Mae Salong region, this particular black tea is from Chiang Dao region. It is similar to English Breakfast : fully body and strong

As a finale, we drank Japanese green tea brewing in theKyusu, the traditional Japanese tea pot. Japanese green tea is usually stronger and the color is much more vivid than that of Korean

Through this private tasting, I learned great things that I was not aware of. (A) What is organic tea and why it is important, (B) Different teas from Thailand. My main interest of tea was on China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. Throughout this tasting, I learned many different types of teas from Thailand.

Regarding organic tea, I unconsciously thought that many organic tea leaves are from colonized varietal and mass plantation since they are easy to control its pesticides and harvest. On the other hand, many authentic tea leaves are from old tea trees in a wild. Joshua points out that it shouldn’t be a dilemma between organic tea or authentic tea. Many authentic teas that are from wild old trees are naturally organic tea with no harmful pesticides. Rishi tea encourages local farmers to produce qualified organic tea that meets its high standard. I hope to see more authentic wild tea that is certified as organic tea in the market.

As a goody bag, each of us got a different tea from rishi tea company. I got Bai Mu Dan (White Peony), one of my favorite! I paired it with fig toasts and will share my tea and food paring on my next follow up post. Stay tuned!

A quick preview of my upcoming post - Summer fig toasts with Bai Mu Dan (White Peony) from rishi tea

 

Rishi Tea

• website : https://www.rishi-tea.com/
• Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/rishitea/