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Argh! I missed yesterday’s ginger day! I was too distracted by the moving truck in front of a neighbor’s house. They are moving and gave us a tour of their BEAUTIFUL home which they are putting up for sale. The house was built in 1907 and they have been there since the late 80’s. The husband has spent all that time placing layer upon layer of very well thought out and color coordinated wall paper on nearly every wall and ceiling. It sounds horrendous, but looks amazing. Curved corners in the ceilings and lots of wood trim. Despite having very little yard, the house would be perfect for us…. if we could afford the 1.5M that it is probably going to go for. :(….. All that to say, I was distracted, questioning my life choices and not thinking of ginger.

THIS tea I’ve likely had since 2013. In my first and only other tasting note I mention I’d give it one more try and then give up if it didn’t grow on me. I don’t recall it ever growing on me and I obviously didn’t get rid of it either. There are 3-4 servings left, but I feel more motivated to get rid of it than sip it down. I forget who made the suggestion I try Lupicia flavored oolongs at a super high temp, but that advice didn’t steer me wrong. It seems to get rid of the flat cardboard flavors that I tend to pick out of their oolongs. It took 3 minutes of steeping to get the ginger to pop out and I again think it’s more of a preserved ginger flavor, not a spicy ginger flavor. It’s not a bad cup, but I’m still feeling just eh on it. Not a very enthusiastic endorsement of my chosen ginger day tea.

I have been drinking this all day! I drank two cups during out 2.5hr family yoga class on zoom today. My cousin runs a long class, I’ll likely be sore tomorrow from slow motion squats. I releafed after class and am on a second steeping of that releaf, so cup 4 at the moment! This tea is really hitting the spot. It’s different than Melange teas from other companies. They all have orange, but the other all seem to have a more preserved orange peel flavor. This one is more orange than peel. There is a caramel like flavor in there too that melds well with the base and the orange. Overall I really like this tea. Theodor does such a good job balancing their teas.

Over leafed this today and that may have been a mistake. It has stevia leaf in it. I’m not a fan of stevia, but I think I like the leaf version better than the refined powder version. The sweetness enhances the other flavors in the tea, but is also a little distracting at the same time. I’ve never properly acclimatized to stevia. It smells strongly of cinnamon and other spices. I’m reminded of a cinnamon orange tea that a local restaurant is known for, along with their coffee cake. I think I can taste some pumpkin, but my brain is so hard wired to associate the holy trinity of spice that is pumpkin to equate to pumpkin flavor, that it’s hard not to taste with a bias. As it cools I get the pumpkin spices a bit better and the clove comes out more. It’s leaving my mouth feeling rooibos dry, which is strange. I can’t quite figure out how I feel about this tea. I’ll have to remember not to overleaf the next cup.

I went heavier on the leaf today for this cup. I was double fisting this and David’s Pumpkin Chai this morning and resteeps into the afternoon. I think I enjoyed this one a bit more. It has sugar in it, so it’s slightly sweet on it’s own and has cinnamon that gives it a warm comforting feeling.

I’m not into this tea. Today I’m getting tart/tannic flavors on the base of light preserved orange. They grow stronger as my cup cools. There is a flatness in there somewhere that seems to shift. A bit alkaline in the finish. I’m about ready to toss it in the “get rid of” bag. :(

When I saw that 1/9/21 was going to be apricot tea day in the sipdown thread, I thought of Hatsune immediately. It may also be the only apricot tea I have, but I do love it and wish I had bought more when I had the change. If we ever do a France or Japan Lupicia group order, I’m in!
There were big chunks of cinnamon in my steeping basket today. Apricot has such a delicate flavor that it’s hard for me to pick out in this tea over the lovely hojicha base and cinnamon. I think I can pick it out in the finish, but it’s competing with the handful of arugula I shoved in my face hole ten minutes ago. I do love arugula.
This tea is so warm and comforting! I’m not close to a sipdown yet, but I do hope I can get my hands on more of this tea in the future.

After seeing someone post about liking their banana tea on IG, trying that and liking it, I decided to give a couple other Curtis blends a try. I had an Amazon gift card to use, so I didn’t feel too guilty about buying MORE tea. From what I can tell this is a Russian brand, based off their writing on their IG account. Their teas seem a little hard to find and the bagged versions seem more widely available than their loose leaf. I was able to get this one in loose leaf.

Having my second steeping of this. Mint is the main flavor, but it’s not a sharp mint. The lime is subtle too, blending in with the mild mint. The strawberry is a little harder to ID. I can smell it and I get a hint of it in the finish, but not much in the sip. It leaves my mouth feeling a little dry. The dry leaves were rolled up into loose balls. It’s an easy cup to drink, but isn’t as exciting as I had hoped. Looking forward to what cold steeping this will taste like.

I smell a lot of pandan with some mango behind it. Hojicha seems to pair so well with cinnamon that it’s hard to separate them, but I can smell them as well. This seems to have a very similar flavor profile to ETTE’s Mango Sticky Rice genmaicha. I love both those tea bases in flavored blends, but I think I like this one a little better than the Sticky Rice. There is some depth that the hojicha adds. I get mango in the sip and in the finish mixed with the cinnamon. The whole ensemble is very warming and lovely. I’ve been a little disappointed with several of the ETTE blends I ordered. The desire to explore more of their line was based on how much I love their Sticky Rice. So far this blend and the Lychee Kris Grey have been the two that stand out out of nine teas I hadn’t tried before. I was hoping for a higher percentage of winners, but oh well!

This tea smells so good! Bright passion fruit scent. My first few sips when steeped were tart. Way to tart. Now that the cup has cooled a little the tartness doesn’t seem as shocking, but it’s still there. The sip is tart, almost a lemony sensation and the passion fruit flavor is hard to find. Right after the sip there is a flatness that I liken to cardboard that kicks in for a few seconds, then the finish alternates in some aromatic passion flavor. As this is, I feel like it’s missing something. One of my early EG experiences that opened up my EG curiosity was a passion fruit EG by Lupicia. It was part of their Hawaii blends line and they discontinued it shortly after I fell for it. I might try mixing some of this with an EG to see if that rounds things out a bit. Or maybe try it cold steeped. I’m not impressed for far, but I haven’t given up on it’s potential either.

Update: Adding Lupicia’s Breakfast EG to this cup and a little cream made it really nice.

Sorta sip down on this. I finished the bag, but I have two more in my cupboard because this is part of my permanent collection. I only got one good steeping out of it today. The second was weak so I dumped it. I don’t recall if I usually get more than one steeping out of it. It was a good cup, but nothing is really hitting the spot the past few days. It’s like I’m searching for something and don’t know what it is.