Lupicia

The very nice Ost sent me this to try. It has a nice green and fruity scent. This has a good peachy green flavour, along with some creaminess from the vanilla. I had fresh peaches with it, which was even better. Now I’ve tried all their peach teas. :)

My final cup of this tea. I will miss it! But this will be another source of inspiration to plan another trip to Japan to pick up another tin!

A wonderful blend of flavors. Usually I don’t like flavored green teas, but this is fantastic. The cornflower adds a bit of creaminess without overpowering the green tea, and neither does the rooibos come off too strong.

Yum! Berries! I love love love cassis. Why aren’t more things in that flavor around here?
Thanks to Ashmanra, I get to experience this delicious cup of juicy sweet nectar. Love the supportive base that just allows the flavors to shine. Lupicia does such a great job with fruit flavors.
I need to get these cassis berries planted somewhere. And juneberries. That’s my plan.

And I managed to dash off a big article before going to bed tonight. Technically I still submitted it the day it was due, buuuut… does after office hours count?

Anyways.

This tea was good in that the chestnut flavour was really out there and prominent. Points for honesty from this tea. However, I’m not sure if it was the right tea for me, as I was hoping for something a tad sweeter.

Thanks to Sil for sending me a sample! I’m going to save the rest and send it as part of a swap package to Ost.

Another apple tea that is absolutely delicious!

It seems like Lupicia is kind of a hit or miss for me (although the misses are never truly bad and the hits are usually SUPER hits) but this one I am definitely enjoying. I am not sure if this is better than Nina’s Marie Antoinette or not… I wish I had more of MA in order to compare but the little sample I had I drank ages ago.

So, yeah, I guess Tsugaru is not just any apple but a special Japanese apple, probably slightly tarter than an ol’ granny smith (or maybe not, the google search came up with the information that it is “a cross between a Gold Delicious and Orange Pippin”). But I really don’t know. All I can say is that the tea is damn refreshing, tasty and smells super appley. I mean, really, it is an apple-crazy tea. It might not be an instant re-stock when I am out of it, but I will definitely want to have it on hand from time to time.

I tried this as a sample many years ago, and was underwhelmed by it. Why did I order this tea, then? I don’t know. Wishful thinking? Stupidity? It was on sale? Maybe all of the above.

Regardless, a lot has changed with this tea, but I hesitate to update the profile on it, since I don’t want to negate or confuse any reviews or information that came before. For those interested: this has neither vanilla nor coconut in it, if it ever did. The ingredients are: black tea, dried pineapple, sugar, cornflower, flavorings. This is right off the label. No vanilla. No coconut. Was it always like this or did they change the formula?

The description says: a peach, orange and mango flavored black tea. Its sweet and fruity flavor goes well with milk. Again, no vanilla, no coconut. Could be why I was so nonplussed about it when I tried it. When you’re expecting vanilla coconut and get neither of those flavors, well, disappointment is unsurprising.

Now, I just want to emphasize that I love Japan. LOVE IT. I love the people, I love the aesthetics, when I went on the trip there 6 years ago it was the BEST trip I have ever been on. And Lupicia is amazing and one of my favorite tea companies. So, Japan, I love you. But you’re nuts if you think milk goes well in this tea. To explain: Lupicia teas that are fruit flavored have an uncanny ability to capture the essence of the fruit. If you’re drinking a strawberry flavored tea, the juicy strawberry flavor is truly on target. If it’s a peach flavored tea, it really tastes like actual peach is in there, juicy with that slight muskiness that real peaches have. That being said, unless you truly enjoy your fruit with cream and don’t mind drinking a tea version of it, then you’ll be happy. As much as I love fruit and cream, it doesn’t translate into an enjoyable tea experience for me. It’s weird.

My next attempt will be iced. Straight. I really think it’ll be fantastic that way, and very timely as the summer is here and I love a nice, refreshing iced tea. Hot with milk? Not so much.

Got this from hapatite awhile ago (many thanks, again!) but just got around to drinking it. I would say the vanilla and coconut flavors are very subtle, unless I simply didn’t use enough of the tea or didn’t steep it long enough. All in all, very nice, almost sophisticated, but if you’re in the mood for strong vanilla and tropical flavors, you won’t get a big hit of those flavors from this tea.

I’ve been drooling over tasting notes of this tea for months now. Thank you Tealizzy for sending me a sample! :D

The oolong itself is your typical tightly rolled green oolong, but there was also this crazy neon green spiky piece of sugar candy in with the leaf! Looked like this http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Kompeito_konpeito.JPG

The flavor is strikingly similar to these little individually wrapped muskmelon candies the local Vietnamese restaurant gives out at the end of the meal in lieu of a mint. I really like those candies and the flavor pairs very well with green oolong. Also this is fantastic iced! I drank it kind of fast because I just came in from hours of yard work. I finally planted my fall crop of lettuce, beets, green onion and fancy radishes :)

I enjoyed every sip! Would consider ordering this some day, especially for iced tea. Thanks again Tealizzy!

I’ve had fresh lychee recently so I felt rather spoiled until I ran out. I was craving and this was an impulse purchase. This lychee oolong is a rather mild lychee flavor, much milder even than generic grocery store lychee tea. As an oolong the base was smooth, light, and more on the green side than roasted. Actually probably not at all roasted. I will repeat that the lychee flavor is mild and maybe kind of muddled because of it. For me it tends to be a odd mix of lychee/logan/other fruitiness.

It’s nice, but I think I much prefer the one from Butiki.

I’ve been browsing through jetpens and amazon for some new fountain pens. Some of my daily carry pens were stolen recently and the lack makes me sad all over. I’m thinking of trying the pilot metro in F, or perhaps a good sturdy Lamy Safari. There’s apparently also a new line by Kaweco called Skyline. Anyone have recommendations under $40?

The pineapple tastes just as it smells, well, slightly more subtle. There is a buttery hint that’s borderline butterscotch. Quite fascinating. The pineapple isn’t artificial at all, which is lovely.

It’s taken me quite some time to get over my first disastrous pineapple oolong experience, and I’m happy to say this one went over much better.

At long last, I get to try this. White peaches are one of my favourite fruits, and this tea smells so much like them. Great scent of peach in both leaves and brew. The flavour is sweet, and a bit juicy, certainly tastes like white peaches.

Worth my trip out of town for some yesterday.

It was a dark and stormy afternoon… (seriously, it hailed on an event I attended.) Having already had hot chocolate at the Festival, I decided to go with this when I got home. It smells nicely like dark chocolate, roast nuts, and a bit like coffee. There is a dark chocolate flavour as well, with some coffee notes. Not very sweet, and strong, it is good for this weather. (Maybe this would go well with biscotti.)

I got to try this one at the store. (The tea name is French, and I like it.)

Scent- nutty, cocoa. Flavour- creamy, chocolate, a nice nuttiness. Kinda reminds of Nutella, but a chestnut version. It also reminds me of this really good chestnut/chocolate torte I made in a baking class. Very good, and much better on the hot side.

This is a decent genmaicha, but I am slightly disappointed that it doesn’t taste as interesting as its name suggests! I can barely taste the black soybean…

I opened my teas and pondered what to have on this lovely afternoon I get to sit inside and study deuterostomes. I opened the bag for this one, not expecting much, and the scent wafting out just seemed right.

I really need to be in the proper mood for an oolong, particularly a green oolong. The mango flavour never ceases to amaze me with Lupicia. They are just great with these delicate flavours. I love their pineapple oolong as well. But back to mango – the mango is coming through clearly with the green oolong flavour ever so slightly less, which is perfect for me.

This + rainymood.com + physiology research proposal.

Great combination.

P.S. These oolongs from Lupicia are truly the bees knees. I’m not generally a green oolong kind of gal, but when the mood strikes, they are quite delightful. The light, yet apparent, perfectly mango flavouring paired with the light oolong base works so well.

First, I love that this steeps at boiling. Low maintenance for the win! The mango scent was very strong from the package, but mellowed out once steeped, thank goodness. The green oolong base is apparent, but not offensive. Green oolong is not my favourite, but I’m enjoying this cup of tea, and I could see myself perhaps replacing this oolong.

This is another I tried in the store. It smells like orange chocolates in the tin, and in the brew. Though when I had the sample, the flavour got way more orange. There was some chocolate, but it was really mild. Alright, but not what I was hoping for.

Hoppy Easter! Since I don’t have any chocolate at present, decided to have this tea instead. Playing some Fire Emblem Fates (Conquest) while waiting for it to cool. There is a nice scent of chocolate and berries. A little darker on the chocolate than I remember though. The strawberry flavour is somewhat hidden on a creamy dark chocolate. Overall, still a really good tea. Had some with my strawberry french toast this morning.