Lupicia

This is Lupicia at their very best. In the bag, a natural, sweet, ripe strawberry meets a rich and creamy vanilla. Lupicia usually go for a very subtle vanilla flavour, but in this case, either they’ve kicked it up a notch, or the strawberry gives it more punch, as the vanilla is highly present both in the nose and in the cup.

But what gives this tea that extra something, is the manner in which these two main flavours come together – to each sip, there’s a beautiful roundness I can’t really get enough of. This is one of my absolute favourite flavoured greens and the first one I hoarded when I accidentally (yes, REALLY!) stumbled over a Lupicia in Kyoto while out for a perfectly innocent evening stroll.

[Purchased at Lupicia in Honolulu, December 2012.]

It’s not as cold anymore (Okay, Canadians, I know 10 C doesn’t seem very cold to you considering your current weather situation, but it’s really been unusually chilly and wet here.) so I can drink copious amounts of iced tea again.

I saved the last of this much beloved and somewhat aged Lupicia tea in order to try it iced again. It’s absolute perfection – delicate, with that perfect natural peach perfume and some lush vanilla to round it off.

Nothing beats a just-opened package of Lupicia tea, but I must say I feel they age exceptionally well.

Necessary repurchase.

[Purchased at Lupicia in Honolulu, December 2012.]
[Polished off in Rome, March 2014.]

Ana was right, this is almost too good cold-steeped. Hot, many of Lupicia’s teas are fun, happy, playful teas to me – but cold, just as many reach this whole new level of exquisite. This is one of those teas, and it’s a huge treat to get to try it with the last (almost, I think there’s enough for one cup left) of my leaf.

The sweetness and the vanilla notes in this one really come through in the cold brew and I absolutely love it. This tea needs a higher rating, and shall hence be awarded five more points.

This one is also still very good, in spite of having been a travel tea on more than one occasion. I think there’s enough left for a cold steep of this one as well. I didn’t think I’d drink cold tea again for a while, but it’s 15 C/59 F in Rome, and very balmy; it might as well be spring.

I really love Lupicia’s peach flavour.

I had so much Momoko on my flight.

And every single person on the staff made fun of me, as per usual. I cup-steeped after lunch and they were all like hue hue hue, you brought your own little strainer, how adorable. And then I was hanging out in the pantry filling up my thermos and everyone was all ooh and aah about my tea tin and had to smell it and I took note (actual, physical note, with note pads and pens!) about Lupicia and the name of the tea, and I was seriously like a traveling tea circus.

And Argo are expanding like crazy over here and I’m not quite sure how I feel about them.

(This is my 100th tasting note.)

Scent wise, this is very peachful and sweet with vanilla. The dry tea itself is not as beautiful as many other flavoured greens from Lupicia – there’s the occasional petal, but I see no trace of the cornflower and there are no discernible pieces of fruit.

Peach and vanilla with floral notes is everything I love in a cup – so it’s a shame the flavour is so subtle. The first sip, to me, is gorgeous, but my palate familiarizes itself with the main taste notes so quickly, it turns just a little bit too bland a little bit too fast.

Still, when I want a mellow, vanilla-infused peach, this is good tea.

[Purchased at Lupicia in Honolulu, December 2012.]

Back to the land of good tea! Yay!

I was at a work conference last week at a beautiful, but remote, training center in West Virginia. The food service was pretty good, but I knew that, most likely, the tea available would be Lipton. I was right, but they did have some Tazo tea…a slight step up, but only slight, haha! I brought some of my bagged black teas with me, and even some 52teas marshmallow genmaicha with portable teabags. On the latter, my coworker resteeped the bag I steeped…I think she was desperate for some green tea! Haha! All they had was black and chamomile.

Anyway, I mostly enjoyed my Northwest Breakfast tea from Market Spice, but I did have a sample of this tea from one of the monthly newsletters. It’s kinda too bad I drank it there, because all that I remember was that it was better than most of the tea available, but that’s good, right? ;)

Glad to be back!

If I had to use just one word for this tea, it would be “clean.” Inoffensive, not too strong with the salted cherry leaves. I wish it was a bit stronger, actually. The sencha base is decent and the saltiness is very, very subtle – though you do get that scent that is just spot-on for sakuramochi. Tiny bit soapy, but not in a bad way. Works well with ice. One of those for the “nice to have tried it, but probably won’t repurchase after I finish this packet” list.

There are often times when I wish there’s more in a tea, but this time I wish there’s less. Jasmine tea and green tea is a wonderful combination; the floral scent of the former together with the grassiness of the latter makes me think about springtime. However, the muscat flavour added to this tea seems totally out of place and has upset the delicate balance of flavours. Sorry! The blend sounds interesting but it doesn’t work for me!

This is very much like Yamabudo, another oolong tea scented with grapes by Lupicia. The grapes used in Budou Oolong are apparently different (Pione grapes, they said), although I really can’t tell if it tastes different from other types of grapes. Anyway, people who enjoy Yamabudo will like this tea because it has all the former’s great qualities. While the grape flavour smells somewhat artificial, its taste, surprisingly enough, is subtle and natural. The bright floral fragrance of oolong tea base blends wonderfully with the grape flavour. A very gentle tea that makes a great start of the holiday :)

It’s allegedly 96F/36C and I’m drinking hot, reliably floral tea. The effort of flash-chilling this would probably outweigh the negatives of getting even warmer through tea, though.

But I love this weather – humidity’s at roughly 60% and the formerly scorching sun has retreated behind the clouds. It’s supposed to rain for four days straight starting tonight, but it’s not stifling at all; Rome will be washed clean, not thundered at.

Sometimes that’s all a city needs to feel brand new.

An Agatha Christea mystery in two sentences:

First there was a cold-steeped pitcher of this…

…and then there wasn’t.

F and I used up all our pilfered wine in the spinach risotto, so we drank the pitcher of this I’d been cold-steeping.

I can’t even tell you how much I love Lupicia’s greens iced in summer. They’re just so good. Elegant, delicate, highly drinkable.

Now I just have to figure out what to put in the fridge next. I think I’ll try the Melon White and blame TeaFairy.

I’m not reviewing much lately – more than anything, it’s because I currently produce so much text on a daily basis that writing more feels like a chore, plus Steepster has been a bit wonky lately. Not to mention the fact that I just haven’t been drinking that much tea at all. I’ve had exactly this: one pot of Forgeron & Blanc’s jasmine, plus one cup of the same, one pot of the Kiwi Vanilla from Kränku, plus one cup of the same, plus one more cold-steeped pitcher (it’s all been very kiwi around here), and one pot of Mariage Frères’ Thé des Impréssionistes.

Then when I was in Turkey, I brought two bags from Le Palais des Thés because I didn’t check any luggage (please take a moment to be in awe of this accomplishment) and they’re not in tins and a good size for my carry-on. (Some of you asked what I named that very bag ages ago, and I forgot to respond – it is known as The Great Otter, because that’s what it looks like – dark, fat and sleek, yet with a surprising air of delicacy. In addition it swallows anything and is fine with getting wet. Ergo – otterbag.)

So then I had some of the Thé du Hammam rooibos with some new tea frens, and then the Green Vanilla for breakfast every day. And, of course, every day the breakfast guy at the Richmond laughed at me because I didn’t know how to make Turkish tea (the actual tea pot is balanced atop the hot water dispenser and then you dilute it as much as you want) and then I had to demonstrate the delights of green tea and much sniffing and oohing and aahing ensued. I hope it wasn’t the same guy every day, but I honestly couldn’t tell and maybe we were just playing a really funny game and I didn’t even realize.

And then obviously the compulsory apple tea, but that’s not really tea as much as super-sugary granules. And, finally, the amazing new addition to the airport lounge – a tea garden, where I had something like six pots of garnet, jasmine, carnation, and whatever else they had in terms of tea. They had little individual tetsubins! (Tetsubi?) I was there for hours.

Now I’m back in Rome, though, trying to get back into the habit of… habits. This is a reliable Lupicia green – fresh, natural-tasting and delicious. I put some in the fridge to cold steep while I was at it. Again, I’m impressed by how well Lupicia’s greens age – I can’t really tell any major difference between the ones I got in 2012 and 2013, and a full year’s worth of storage can really make a difference for some teas, in my experience. Yet another reason to love Lupicia.

You and me, Lupi – forever.

I started my day with a pot of this and more strawberries. And banan(n)a. Today was a two-fruit day. Also, Facebook tells me, the day The Breakfast Club met for detention 30 years ago! I don’t know if I’m more excited about that, the multi-fruit situation, or this tea.

This one was actually tastier than I remembered and I enjoyed it very much. It came off more complex and well-balanced – fruity, sweet, and with that lovely base tea I love so much. I’m going to nudge it up five more points.

In other news, just work, work and more work. (And some missage. I miss you.)

Right, so someone on my dash (Who was it?) recently talked about wanting to try this one iced, so I figured I’d be a helpful little steepsterer and give it a shot.

And I did. And forgot about it completely. So I think this cold-steeped for a little over 24 hours.

I assumed there would be at least some bitterness due to the long steep, but there really is none. Not a hint. Even if there had been, I would have been delighted with the experiment, as it demonstrated quite clearly how very useful even these somewhat less amazing Lupicia greens are iced.

Because this is seriously beautiful – almost up there with A.C. Perch’s White Temple. The floral notes really come out very nicely in the cold tea, and the base is so good. This is something I could drink all day. I will keep the grade at 75 for now, though, until I see how the higher rated teas fare iced.

So little time for tea right now. I sipped this during a seminar on ceramic Etruscan roof tiles. And that was honestly one of the highlights of my day, so it’s just that kind of week.

This tea is lush in the bag, petals and fruit pieces participating without being showy, and it smells absolutely gorgeous.

What I usually say about Lupicia’s fruity/floral green teas coming off as very natural and fresh applies here, too. There is nothing artificial about the scent, which consists of a concentrated, ripe fruity base with hints of red berries, pineapple and mango, paired with a light floral note.

Lupicia are uncharacteristically vague in their description of the flavour, but the conceptual island flowers and tropical fruits do sum it up very accurately.

In terms of scent notes carrying through from the bag to the cup, this tea succeeds where Apple & Berry (which I talked about here http://steepster.com/annchen/posts/184943) failed.

I enjoy this very much – it’s a lovely tropical green and a perfect tea for summer.

Excellent re-steep.

[Purchased at Lupicia in Kyoto, July 2013.]

This is all quite sad, but that was the very last of it. I dropped the remains into a pitcher and cold-steeped over night. It’ll last me to the end of the day, but this is definitely a tea I will miss very much until I restock.

This remains my favourite crisp, green apple tea and I will nudge it up five points for being consistently awesome since Christmas 2012.

Lupicia, I love you.

[Purchased at Lupicia in Honolulu, December 2012.]
[Polished off in Rome, March 2014.]

I’m having a cup of this while eating a (very large) strawberry.

I find myself quite pleased with the whole thing.

I wasn’t going to drink this until tomorrow, but it was so appley and all-around tasty already that I couldn’t resist. Great tea for a cold steep – light, fresh, and crisp, like drinking a liquefied apple cloud. (Which, I guess, would technically be an apple rain, but nevermind.)

Perfection.