Lupicia

This is an interesting blend – being a white tea, it wants to be steeped briefly and gently, but being peppermint tea, it wants to be steeped long and boiling… Lupicia recommends 1.5-2min and boiling, I compromised with 200F, since boiling water is a waste of white tea.

I am a big fan of peppermint tea; as simple as it is, a good fresh peppermint is one of life’s greatest pleasures. This offering keeps with Lupicia’s standard of quality, with large pieces of unbroken mint leaf, interlaced with whole, snow white tea leaves. It’s so fluffy that it comes in a double-tall Lupicia tin for the same weight, and you need 2x the scoops for the same amount of tea. Many peppermint teas are broken down to save space, or because peppermint is more forgiving of broken leaves, lower grade etc. As always, Lupicia’s about tea, not cost balance: big pieces of obviously fresh dried leaf because it’s better that way for the drinker. They could have skimped on the white tea, too, being an herbal blend, but it’s some of the prettiest, most consistently unbroken white I’ve had, and there’s plenty of it, almost leaf-for-leaf balanced.

Brewed, it has everything I love about peppermint tea, from the warming, calming aroma to the faint psychoactive calming effect, but the taste is mellowed, the white tea coming through clear and fresh, not at all overpowered by the mint. It’s hard to judge the tea side of this one in depth, as any real complexity or fanciness the white tea might have is lost in the mint, but it tastes like peppermint flavored, high quality white tea, not like peppermint tea with a faint sprinkle of white tea, or just watered down peppermint tea (as some takes on this blend do).

This is everything I could want from a peppermint white – it’s a tea nerd’s blend, with true attention and care paid to the quality, blend proportions and handling. So often, white tea blends are aimed at people who like sweet+iced white tea bottled drinks, and skimp on the quality with the assumption it will end up iced, sweetened, and the customer wouldn’t be the type to notice either way.

Lupicia is constantly proving to me that they’re something unique: a company with a wide range of flavored teas, fruity blends, and other such hallmarks of shitty Teavana-style hackery, except they actually deliver on the quality. For every fruity, flavored-up blend, there’s a Yame gyokuro, or a fresh winter-picked Taiwan oolong, or this-season plantation-specific shincha complete with photos and information about the farmer who grew it and the region it’s from… and they’re all taken equally as seriously when the leaves are selected. The stores don’t try to upsell you, and you can have an expertly prepared sample of that Yame gyokuro ($3 of leaves in the sample alone) without so much as a glare should you choose to leave the store empty-handed.

I bought this one because when you open the tin, it punches you in the face with delicious berry-candy aroma, and while that’s not usually my thing, in this case it was just intoxicating.

I find that things flavored with blueberry are generally pretty gross, but I adore blackcurrant/cassis (they’re the same thing, people) – and ultimately, the combination of the two added up to awesome. Once brewed, the cassis thankfully takes the lead in the flavor, with the blueberry remaining subtle and a background note. Unlike the face-slammingly intense smell, the flavor is well tempered. This is a blackcurrant tea with a blueberry tint. Blueberry fans would probably be disappointed, but I’m in it for the cassis.

It has a certain dryness to it, and is definitely not sweet, but the fruity flavor still comes through in spite of that, and it ends up working. I don’t think I am going to be having this too frequently, as it’s pretty distinctive and rich on the added flavor, but I’m definitely glad to have it in my collection.

As always, Lupicia means quality.

To me, “Earl Grey” has always meant mediocrity – I thought of it as the boring, bitter, miserable stuff of cheap complimentary teabags. Then, I smelled Lupicia’s take on it…

The aroma hits you like a truck out of the tin, pure fresh bergamot – absolutely love at first smell. Tin sold. When brewed, the bergamot explosion mellows out to allow the smoky smooth keemun base to take the lead. Unlike the terrible greys I have had in the past, the bergamot is fresh, complex, fruity and multilayered, the kind of quality I’ve come to expect from Lupicia. No “someone sprinkled citric acid on some Lipton” here.

I don’t know that I would call myself a fan of Earl Grey just yet, but I am most certainly a fan of Lupicia’s take on it. Fresh, complex, energizing and pure quality.

greenteafairy sent this to me in a swap. I haven’t had much luck with peach teas so far, but I hadn’t tried one with a black tea base before, so that was new.

The first impression I got was a generic poorly flavored black tea. I now read that it is blended with authentic peaches and I see that reviewers are commenting on the pleasant natural peach flavor. It just doesn’t taste natural to me and the back base isn’t all that exciting either. Oh well, it was worth trying anyway!

Oh no. Oh the drama. This is now all gone! Oh the humanity! Why?!?!?! I wanted it to last for much longer in the springtime. Obviously I could not stop drinking it, and its how we got into this trouble in the first place.
Yum. Elegant rose tea with little sugar crystals. It tastes so glorious.
I got to sleep in today, which was a pure delight.
Today my plans are to write, drink a lot of tea, and then read my book (I am not getting nearly the amount of reading I want too lately. That must be remidied!) and eat my seasonal package of Peeps. Peeps!
Its going to be a good day.

My friends pick for the second pot of tea this morning. She’d never had a champagne tea before, and was eager to try it. And thought I’m already scrapping the bottom of this tin (need more soon!) I cannot deny a friends request to try a tea.
This is just so elegant. We sat and talked and drank tea and it just colored the whole world pink and champagne colored. Perfect.

This mornings pot of tea.
I’m up early to try and do as much writing as I can, as its going to be another busy day.
I act as model for my friends Etsy shop, which is great fun. I get to wear the adorable knit caps and the fun dragon shaped scarves, and its always fun. We’ve got a photo shoot today, so I’ve got to get my writing and tea drinking done bright and early.
I oversteeped this a little bit this morning, so the base came through just a bit too much. Still, a good start to the morning.

I was right, yesterday was a very good day. A fun show to see, a lot of good shopping, and a beautiful dinner.
I’ve got an opera to go to today (I’m a fan. I love the opera. Classics nerd!), and I’m starting the day off with another lovely tea.
This is good. I’m going to be out very soon at this rate. Sweet, and a little dry, just like a glass of champagne. Yum.

This morning I decided on a failsafe tea. I cant promise that it will make the day spectacular, but at least I will have drunk a very good pot of tea to start the day off.
This is just so elegant. A lovely blend. A good way to start off a friday to what has been a tricky week.

Determined to have as good a day as possible today. So I will start it with a good tea.
I’ve said it before, and my new batch of Champagne Rose only confirms it. This is an elegant tea. The little sugar crystals are a delight, and the rose is in no way overpowering. A really delicious tea. I’m glad its almost spring time, so I can bring it back into the cupboard!

I remembered only as I was steeping this sample sachet, that I had planned to keep this till New Years Morning. Ah well, I have lots of other wonderful teas to drink then.
I am dragging today, and have to finish wrapping gifts, and also go to a party tonight. So I need energy, and this beautiful tea is the way to do it. I need another tin of this….

Sipdown! I think I will restock this eventually, but its not urgent.
This is the most sophisticated rose tea I own. Not my favorite, mind you, but so very sophisticated.
Whittling down the cupboard one sip at a time.

I had a pot of this in the morning. It was very nice. An elegant rose tea, I always think.

A little pot of this is a lovely way to start up the day. This is a very elegant tea, with a lovely balace of flavors. The little sugar crystals in the dry tea gives it just the right amount of sweetness.

A very nice fruity rose tea. Its got some smokiness that I enjoy. And the rose is not too perfume-y.