If you love Joy The Baker as much as I do, you will know that she’s a big fan of Rishi Tea, and from Joy is where I first heard about Rishi Tea.  I keep meaning to purchase some teas from Rishi Tea’s website but just haven’t gotten around to it yet, so I was really exited when I heard that they were doing lots of giveaways of their Fair Trade tea in October to help support the Fair Trade Month campaign.  All you have to do is retweet their daily contest announcements on Twitter.  Visit Rishi Tea’s blog post about the event for more information.

I started retweeting their tweets about their contests each day at the beginning of October and on the 6th I won a tin of Fair Trade/Organic Earl Gray Lavender tea!  I received my tea this past Friday and quickly took some photos and made myself a cup of tea!

This is what was in my package – a tin of Earl Gray lavender tea, a Rishi Tea button pin, a handwritten note congratulating me on my win and thanking me for supporting Fair Trade, a 20% discount on my next order and two postcards with photos of tea harvesters on the front and information on Rishi Tea on the back.

The tea smells amazing; the lavender is really pronounced, both in the smell and the taste.  I used my coffee press to make my first cup of tea.

The directions on making the tea were a little confusing; on the website, they have instructed to use 1 teaspoon tea leaves for 8 ounces of boiling water and steep for 4 minutes.  On the actual tin of the tea, they have instructed to use 1 tablespoon for 8 ounces of boiling water and steep 3-5 minutes.  I chose to follow the directions on the tin and used 1 tablespoon, and steeped for 4 minutes.

(Update:  Rishi Tea read this post and has now changed the directions on their website to match those of the directions on the tin!)

I’m not really a tea-drinker but I do have my favorite teas.  I’ve never tasted Earl Gray tea or even lavender tea, so I was really looking forward to this.  I don’t have a special teacup, either, although I see a couple at Rishi Tea that I really like!

My first cup I drank with just sugar and I thought it tasted quite nice.  My next cup I added some milk and I loved it!  It’s a really lovely tea, I’m so glad I won this.  As I said, the floral-ness of the lavender is strong but it tastes so nice.  Lavender can help reduce stress and can even help with insomnia, and I have to say that I have felt more at peace after drinking a cup of this tea!

If you’d like to help support Fair Trade and buy Organic, check out Rishi Tea and buy yourself some tasty teas!

Note that I have not been paid from or asked by Rishi Tea to write up this review; this is just a company that I’m really excited about and would like to share that excitement with others!