Benjamin from Rishi Tea

Vanessa from the Deli invited us to come hear one of our favorite tea vendors speak. Benjamin Harrison from Rishi Tea was in town and Billie, Joe and I went down to drink tea and here him speak about tea.

I won’t do a transcript of our time, though I did take some copious notes; just the highlights. Ben spoke calmly and reassuringly on the subject of tea and I was amazed that he restrained himself from falling into the complex details. He later said that one of the challenges of speaking about tea is understanding that the vast majority of people in the US find it frighteningly daunting.

Rishi Tea stays focused on acquiring quality tea as directly as possible from the producer. They also are very into organic – they have worked hard to get USDA certification on 95% of their products. Ben said that the tea that Rishi Tea selects is in the top 2% of the available tea and then by further restricting themselves to USDA organic certifiable they are choosing one-quarter of 1% of that 2%.

They also do a good deal of business on blending teas, often with herbal ingredients, which I wasn’t aware of. One of their most popular teas is the Jasmine Pearl.

We sampled Sencha, Golden Yunnan and Golden Yunnan Buds, Silver Needle, Iron Goddess of Mercy, Wu Yi, Pu Erh, and Jasmine Pearl – both hot brewed and cold brewed. All excellent, of course.