Lupicia

Someone had liked my review of Kotobuki (Mirabelle) and I reread it because I remembered nothing, and then I remembered everything, and so I cold-steeped some for tomorrow. I so very much look forward to getting a tea scale so I can leaf more scientifically – this randomness is not Anna at all, now is it.

And while I was at it, I made a warm afternoon cup of this for myself – because if you act like it’s not 33 C/91 F outside, it’s probably not. Also highly scientific.

I just like this more and more. It fills the whole room with its lushness – in stiff competition with the sweaty jasmines outside, should be noted. But it’s the lovely lingering aftertaste that really gets me. This reminds me more and more of Lupicia’s green tea Bravissimo! in terms of that perfect linger.

(And we all know what a sucker I am for a good linger.)

This is illicit library tea. Before anyone gets on my case, please know that the tea is on the windowsill, FAR away from any books and/or my desk. And I create far less of a disturbance this way than by running between the library and my apartment every time I need to have some tea. Okay? Okay. (But whatever you do, don’t tell the in-house librarians.)

Last time I reviewed this, I said I’d probably adjust this upwards rather than downwards, if I were to change the rating. And I was right – after a week of being completely spoiled by all those new Lupicia teas from my lupicia.fr order, it was probably difficult to review this one independently like the shiny gem it is.

Again, scent wise, this is sheer happiness, all plum candy and sweetness. In the cup, there’s the added element of creamy, smooth vanilla – I know I’ve compared the Kiwi Vanilla from Kränku to a liquid version of kiwi fool, and this is definitely similar.

I would like to nudge this up another five after revisiting it, but I’m excited about trying it iced, too, so I think I’ll wait until then.

I had no special hopes for this one – I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record here, but this order was the first time I purchased from Lupicia without doing the full-on, in-store smelling thing, so I really just picked out things that could just as easily be a miss.

In the bag, this is a beautiful oolong – it comes out even prettier steeped, and that’s high praise indeed for a pile of wet tea leaf. It smells fantastic. I don’t even know how to describe it – I’m trying to think back to my own experiences with mirabelle plums, and I keep coming back to this cake, or this tarte, really, compact like a clafoutis but far less eggy, with plums. Their skins were a deep burgundy purple, though, not the pale gold that makes me think of mirabelles.

What really, really, really gets me here, though – and keep in mind I’m still just smelling this tea – is the presence of heavy, smooth, thick vanilla. It’s right there, at the end of the sniff, as exciting and unexpected as the return of a long-lost lover. Same thing in the cup – first a crazy, jubilant, sweetplummy fruitiness, and then the lushest of , Baby. You’re back. vanilla sips. There is definitely a floral element here, too, but I’ve had enough of Lupicia’s flavoured oolongs to place this firmly in the fruit category.

This is really quite something, a wonderful tea, but I’ve been so radically spoiled in terms of Lupicia oolongs that I don’t quite know how to grade this. If I were to change this rating in the future, though, I’m pretty sure it would be nudged upwards, rather than downwards.

[From my Lupicia order to Rome, April 2014.]

I already told you about the liquid, cherry-flavoured penicillin that was forced upon me when I was but a tiny Anna, so I will spare you a rerun. Keywords like, ‘very vomity’, ‘traumatized’, and ‘still terrified of Dr. Pepper’ might help jog your memory.

Artificial cherry flavouring, hence, is about as far from what I can take as possible, palate wise. So in the interest of pushing boundaries, here I am with some of this. I don’t know if it’s one of those limited edition blends, but it comes in a special, extra-pretty tin, which is nice.

Again, I am conflicted when it comes to cherry. I mean – what do cherries smell like? What do they taste like? It’s one of the most elusive flavours to me, which might be a further reason (I mean in addition to the PTSD, mom) why it’s so hard for me to accept artificial cherry flavouring.

So does the dry tea smell like cherry? I don’t know. It doesn’t smell of Dr. Pepper, not even close to anything coughsyrupy or medical. It could be cherry preserves, I guess – more like jam than maraschino, though. The scent is rich and thick and darkly, stickily red – it makes me think of the cherry pie in Twin Peaks.

In the cup, the scent metamorphoses to something much closer to the cherry I’m used to. But as you may remember, Lupicia also do the bitter almondy, plummy nuance of stone fruit – Ume Vert is one of my most unexpected favourites. This scent lands somewhere in between. I get both the plum pit and the potentially scary cherry.

Taste wise, I’m surprised to say I can drink this without any signs of retching or wanting to curl up in a fetal position and mutter reassuringly to myself. The steeped tea is in no way cloying, and the aftertaste is lightly floral. All in all, this is a fairly delicate tea – not overly complex, but pleasant and highly drinkable. If I sound detached, it’s because I have no idea what just happened, but apparently there’s a cherry-flavoured tea that I can both drink and enjoy? Okay – mind blown.

ETA: Well, this is definitely a limited edition… with the little kicker that it actually doesn’t exist on the US site. This is a first, but the US do get the black version, and it’s called Cerisier, so that’s the name I’ll enter into the database. Oh, Japan, you and your obsession with French stuff. SO confuse.

ETA 2: In other news, French Lupicia have now added an English version of the website… with English names that are direct translations of the French names for the teas, and not pulled from the US site. Just to make things a little bit more confusing. But hey, somewhere a translator got paid, and I’m all for that.

[From my Lupicia order to Rome, April 2014.]

This was a special offering from jump62359 in the Teeny Traveling Tea Box. You will see on my profile that I’m not exactly a rooibos fan. I don’t usually like flavored teas much and I especially don’t usually like fruity tea. I had no idea that I would actually like this. Apparently green rooibos is good. This tastes just exactly like honeydew melon. It is pale and pretty and tastes juicy and just happy. This would be a PERFECT bedtime tea for sweet dreams. It is unfortunate you can only get this by walking into a store in California or I would actually go buy this. I know. I’m as surprised as anyone.

Oh, oh, oh, so nice. You remember that little Apricot Houji burial that took place at Fiumicino a while back? http://steepster.com/clareborn/posts/229850

This one has that same perfectly balanced smooth houijicha base with the addition of fruitiness. Comparing this to the apricot is somewhat unfair – in that tea, one fruit was allowed the full range of flavour, and, at that, the fruit in question was one Lupicia pulled off flawlessly. In this case, the fruit flavour is more generic.

It’s not quite Apple & Berry territory, but muscat grape and apple, well – they do blend together fairly seamlessly, and I can’t say I distinguish the individual fruit flavours. I think that’s good, because I was somewhat put off by the apple when I considered this – Lupicia’s apple is a crisp, green one with a slightly yeasty aftertaste I wasn’t convinced would go well with the earthy houji.

Here, though, the apple is rounded off by the muscat grape on the tonguetip – their sweetness slowly dissipates to give way to the full earthiness of the houji, which is as exceptional as always. The booziness of the dry tea is quite toned down in the cup, which I consider a good thing in this case – I do love my boozy teas, but when the base tea is this good, I want it to shine.

(Also a big thanks to darling devious tea temptress Christina for pointing me in the way of some other flavoured houjichas that I am now dying to try.)

[From my Lupicia order to Rome, April 2014.]

This is interesting – I bought this with very low expectations, as it sounds so generic – I mean, caramel this or caramel that seems to be in everything – it’s hardly a novelty.

Then again, it’s Lupicia, so I absolutely had to try it.

In the bag, this is a boozefest – a very liqueurey caramel, which really does veer far closer to hazelnut. I think this would have been the potentially fatal flaw of this tea – the blend of sweet, thick dulce de leche caramel and the roasty houjicha adds up to something very close to hazelnut/walnut/whatevernut tea, as it is generally presented in much lesser (yes, I mean German) blends.

But even though the flavour is very familiar, Lupicia take it to another level entirely. This is what really does it for me with their teas – they never feel disgusting or wrong in any way. I have never had a green anynut-flavoured tea that didn’t make my throat slightly itchy as the liquid cooled, or that wasn’t thick and oily from the leaf. But this one? No – every sip is clean and smooth, all toasted nut caramel. Even cold, the dregs of this are beautiful. I’d latte the fuck out of this one if I could.

I don’t want any of the other nut teas anymore (coconut, you are exempt and may go back to your seat) because this is all I’m going to need. (And I haven’t felt like that about anything since, say, February 2012 or so.)

[From my Lupicia order to Rome, April 2014.]

So I had this before and wasn’t impressed but today it is amazing! Great caramel flavor but there is also a fair bit of nut flavouring that is giving a nougatty impression. It’s actually really good! 264.

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Thank you Kat_Maria for sharing with me. This is similar enough to Japon that I just can’e help comparing the two and this just does not measure up. For that reason, I won’t be getting more of this. With that said, it is a good tea. The houjicha is a nice base to combine with the sweet, buttery caramel as it makes for a full flavor.

Thank you Kat_Maria for sharing this with me. Surprisingly, I am not loving it. I mean, Milk Caramel sounds AMAZING but is really just okay. To be honest, I am actually thankful to have found a Lupicia blend that is mediocre because I don’t think my wallet could handle it if they were all amazing!!

I realized I said nothing about this tea. Whoops, fail. It is essentially a very mellow hojicha with a buttery smooth caramel flavor. Also, it is getting better as it cools, though I still feel as though something is missing. Perhaps it is because hojicha is roasty, thus reminiscent of a genmaicha, and the caramel flavor is making me want Japon. Not bad, but not amazing either.

This was a bagged offering I grabbed from a tea box a while back, and while I was working on dinner yesterday, figured I’d brew it up.

The dry bag smells nothing like what I was expecting! It smells like lemon cream and is heavenly! I could seriously keep this bag and just like give it a good sniff once in a while. But that’s kind of weird, so I’ll hold off.

The flavor is a sweet creamy lemon, with a touch of mango. It’s very gentle, and just slightly tropical. The rooibos is pretty much a non existent flavor, so this is a delicious caffeine-free/rooibos option for me!

It’s also fantastic iced. Very fresh and refreshing. Yum!

From the queue

This one is from the EU TTB, round 2. I don’t drink very much green tea, leaning mostly towards black, flavoured and unflavoured alike, but I’m trying to remember that there are other types in the world as well. Therefore I’m only using half of this to try it. There little use in taking all of it, when I might end up forgetting I have it.

The leaf smells very lovely of grapefruit, and it’s not just generic citrus and suspiciously lemon-y, it’s actual real grapefruit. The scent of the zest, rather than the flesh of the fruit, really. This is also true after steeping, although here the zestyness is softened by the aroma of the base.

This is very strongly flavoured. It tastes like eating a grapefruit, and I can’t pick up the slightest hint of the base at all. I’m a bit torn about this. I like a flavoured tea to taste like what it has been flavoured with, but I also like it to not be so strong that I can only taste flavouring. This one is definitely in the ‘all flavouring, no base’ camp. This could have been anything. From what I can tell, it could have been flavoured water. I rather like to be able to taste that I’m drinking tea, if that makes any sense.

So I’m ambivalent on this one. It tastes lovely like grapefruit, and I’m very fond of grapefruit. But it doesn’t really feel like I’m drinking tea, and this bothers me, so although it’s lovely, I’m still a bit disappointed by it.

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Good bye delicious melon tea! You shall be missed!

However, you are passed your best before date and it’s time to say good bye.

Revisiting this one after thinking about it for a week.

No one does melon flavours quite like lupicia.

Cameron B was super awesome to give me the chance to revisit this tea that I remembered living but didnt intend on buying again anytime soon. Then we found out Lupicia was shutting down the US online store and I ordered more so when I made tea today, I felt completely okay using the whole sample for one mug. Then I brought the mug upstairs and was watching a show in bed. Didnt take long before I fell asleep. So now I’m drinking this cold and it is still delightfully juicy and melon. Thanks Cameron B!

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This is losing flavor fast leaving behind oolong and Oolong alone, something I am not a fan of. A couple weeks back I made a cold brew and that seemed to bring out the melon but the same could not be said for the cold brew today. Consequently I figured it was time to finish this off and since we are having dairy for dinner (bagels, quiche, French toast casserole) I decided a smoothie was the best way to do so. I made this super concentrated and used a fruit mix with melon in it which means this is a fruity melon smoothie and probably the best way to say bye as this tea is barely even a shadow of what it once was. ’’Tis the dangers of hoarding, I suppose.

I’ve had a sealed package of this for so long that I don’t even remember when I bought it. However, what I do know is that the best before date on this package was 02/2015 so this is probably fairly old.

I decided to have it iced though I am not loving it. There is the slightest hint of the sweet melon flavor but it is being drowned out by the floral and perfume like flavor of the oolong. I don’t know if this is because it is iced or flavor deterioration from its age. I guess I’ll have to see what happens when it comes to subsequent brews.

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So long Melon Oolong tea. Your amazing fruit taste will be greatly missed though I am sure we will meet again. Until then, I have some of your delicious friend, Golden Honey Dew to keep me happy. Anyways, thank you Kat_Maria for introducing me to this tea. It is certainly something I would have passed over when placing an order but now I know better.

Well, I am jumping on the Melon Oolong bandwagon. This is amazing! No oolong flavor at all, just nice refreshing melon. I think I prefer this melon flavor to Cantaloupe and Cream even. I would definitely keep this one stocked. Thank you Kat_Maria for the sample of this tea. It seems that everyone has been loving this tea lately so I am grateful to have gotten a taste of it.

ETA: I resteeped this and the oolong is coming out a bit more but the melon flavor is still delicious.

The first few sips: Hmm. This is ok . Dark. Rich. It’s decent.

The next few minutes: OMG. Something smells amazing. It’s like fresh baking. And like fancy whiskey and other dark earthy things. Tobacco. Gun oil.

After: It’s the tea? Oh wow. Now that it’s cooled I taste far more cinnamon and puerh. The mouthfeel does suggest a warm pastry. Excellent.

Will have to re-steep this one as well. Today may be a day of many resteeps and less variety but that’s ok. I want to experience this tea completely.

ETA: So far I love Lupicia. What don’t I love? Their 50g bags aren’t resealable. Also, they don’t ship to Canada and when I emailed to ask if they had any plans to change their international policies I got nothing. Nothing but heartbreak.

Love the depth of taste and smoothness of this rooibos – so comforting. Perfect way to end the day, or to take the edge off a difficult afternoon at work. I shared some with a coworker who was pretty dubious since he’s mainly a coffee drinker, and he came back and asked for some more the next day.

The main scent and taste when brewed is that of vanilla. The pineapple is completely lost and the taste is very sweet. It smells less sweet than it tastes, but the vanilla is overpowering. The mixture of vanilla and coconut makes it lean towards a chocolate tea, and makes the black tea taste similar to a red roobois.