Lupicia

I got this in my New Year’s Happy bag. Which was a really awesome deal. Now I have to work my way through trying the different teas. So this one I am having after lunch since I was craving something sweet. So I was good and steeped this instead of having a cookie. Dry it smells like sweetened pineapple and coconut. Steeped it is delicious. Very buttery creamy flavor with just a hint of pineapple. I really like that you can taste the oolong more than the flavoring. Liking this one a lot. Yummy!

This tea smells so yummy! At first the scent reminded me of bubble gum, but then I realized that it smells like those sugary fruit instant oatmeal packets. I can’t really detect the individual fruits… it’s more like a big blob of mixed fruits: strawberry, mango, orange, peach?

Sipping… wow, the fruits really come to the front of the cup! It’s a little bit tart and sweet with beautiful tropical flavors. With all of these fruits flying around, it’s very easy to forget about the green tea itself. It’s there, though, and adds a faint grassy note. I like how this tea prickles the tongue in the same way citrus fruits do. I almost think that all of the flavor fades quickly, but it actually lingers in the mouth for a good while.

This is a very delicious, very fruity tea. It borders on being a little bit like fruity bubble gum, but it’s still something fun to drink when you’re in the mood for an interesting tea!

Don’t ask me how the leafs of lapsong are bestowed with that souchong smokiness, but I will attest to indulging my senses fully through drink this tea by Lupicha. There you sit by the teapot and easy wafting smoke appears to be made present by this loose leaf brew. And while you are there the further floodgates open this rich intoxicating smelly tea to your taste buds and it’s not really drinkable three times back to back. It’s still my absolute go to tea during the winter however, so I rate it in high 80s

Mmmmmmm – that is all I have for now … going to go brew a tub of this and soak in it sipping down the level until I can refill – think I have enough leaf? Ahhhh Glorious!
A Tea from my Lupicia Happy Bag.

Full review coming on the 13th here: http://sororiteasisters.com/
But in the mean time here are my snippits:

Morning Tea from Lupicia is quite soothing and deep. The vanilla is only a mere hint at the flavor note, so don’t expect this to be a typical vanilla tea. Also if you wait for the tea to cool a bit the vanilla peeks out a tad more, but not a lot. I get more of the vanilla note on the aftertaste which is a lovely little surprise.

There is a slight smokiness in the tea but nothing like a Lapsang Souchong whatsoever. Just a very faint hint at what may remain from a campfire that has been smoldering out slowly. The tea does remind me somewhat of the early fall months, when it is still quite lovely out and not too cold but you can feel the air changing around you, there is a crispness, a slight bite to the air, yet the sun is still shining and all is well with the world. That is the feeling this tea evokes for me!

Now if you desired, you could absolutely add milk and or sugar to this tea. It is hearty enough to handle it and I think would make it quite yummy, however I prefer teas on their own merit without additives usually. I may give it a go with this one though as I really think it would be delicious and maybe pull out the vanilla note more.

I will be keeping this in my morning rotation for sure. Mmmm, more vanilla just peeked through! I love that sneaky vanilla!

A Tea from my Lupicia Happy Bag

Well, another Lupicia Happy Bag tea bites the dust. I left the bag out where Mom could see it, and since Mom likes all things grapefruit she insisted I open yet another packet. I’m not at all sorry.

Very bright green in color (it scared my mom a little; “is it supposed to be neon green like that?”)

The grapefruit smell is really juicy and bright and smells like the old Tropicana white grapefruit juice gramma used to keep in her fridge (presumably for mixing with gin). So it’s got a little bitter note to it and I wonder whether this will carry over to the brew itself.

NOPE. It’s light and sweet, not bitter, but a sweet grapefruit flavor is very present. I poured into a cup that may have had a slight sugar residue in it, so that may be interfering, but I don’t think so—just a nice clean balanced cup that tastes exactly like, well, grapefruit and green. Love it.

EDIT: I now know this tea is awesome, because I involuntarily whispered “yummy” into my cup just now. I don’t even like the word “yummy,” as a general rule.

I snagged this tea while at Lupicia. Was nice as they had samples and it was easy to sniff each tea before buying.

DRY: Smells very roasted and sweet. The tea is in small chunks with lumps of dried strawberries. I actually was intending to get the Strawberry Orzo, but this one smelled better as it had caramel and strawberry scent!

The packaging is a “limited package” which turned out to be a bag around their typical package. Kinda wasteful and I rather not of had the extra bag around it, as I’m just gonna lose or toss it. The package also did not have english steeping instructions, so I had to look those up.

STEEPED: WHOA, this looks like coffee! Pitch black with a hint of brown. Smells dark roasted and rich.
FYI, this was a PITA to get out of my Steeper – the fine chunks of this tea clogged up the filter, pouring the tea very slowly. Next time, I’d go for a tea bag or steep in a tea pot with filter. Probably want a good filter though.
Upon closer inspection, small bits got through the Steeper filter, but one can only see it at the dregs.

TASTE: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! UUGGGG! YUCKYUCK! Bitter, strong roasted, malty barley flavor. Not actual coffee flavor, but this tea is on the same level of strong, roasted bitter flavor. Bit of sweetness at the end like honey and caramel. Aftertaste of coffee and strawberry.

With rock sugar: same bitter taste, but sweeter. Pour out!!! Maybe I went too heavy on the tea?

Doctored heavy with milk and honey: becomes a weird grey brown colour instead of a typical light brown coffee colour. Okay – this is good. Or am I saying that because this is drinkable? Hmmmm. It’s creamy, with a berry taste. Bit of roasted caramel and chocolate essence. Actually pretty good caramel flavor. Okay – this is good!

COMMENTS: WARNING! IF YOU HATE COFFEE RUN FROM THIS TEA or be willing to have something only as lattes or doctored with milk and sweetener!
Straight up, this is awful stuff, says this tea drinker. Seriously. I’ve utterly disliked only a few teas (Adagio’s “Toasted Sesame” of bitter death and DavidsTea’s “All the Raj” of vinegar) and this would be up there. I’d say like a 35 or 45 rating.
With milk and honey, actually pretty good. I’d have it again and finish the bag. I’d put that at a 80 or 85. I’m just gonna put the tea rating in the middle.

I’d love to show this tea to my coffee drinking friends. Actually, this might the tea they are looking for. No caffeine, tastes good (I’d drink this over coffee), interesting and delicious blend of flavors. This has got to be the closet coffee tea experience I’ve had.

Cold steeped overnight! So I don’t have to be awake to make tea! This one is easier to drink if cold steeped, the grapefruit is slightly gentler. Still not awake yet, I’ll probably need to switch to something with more oomph to it.

Hello again grapefruit green! Let’s try you with honey!

So I have bronchitis. Yay! bleh. Explain why I’m still sick and me getting over this is taking awhile. However, happy that it’s not messing my taste buds – that last sinus infection made everything taste bitter. Worst that has happened is I cough into my tea cup, ew.

I should be eating more honey, so I slide some in this tea. Honey and Grapefruit, for me, taste great. The honey here turned off the grapefruit zing, making this tea a mellow grapefruit. Pretty good, but I prefer this unsweetened for the zing that makes this tea unmistakably grapefruity.

back to coughing

more grapefruit tea! Mmmmm! I got this tea in my Happy bag.

DRY: Grapefruit, almost like those gummy grapefruit slices. I love those!
STEEPED: Bright yellow colour, faint tart citrus scent. The yellow colour is here kinda scary, never seen tea this yellow and bright.

TASTE: Good balance of the green flavor, with a good natural grapefruit flavoring. This grapefruit flavor is right out ruby red grapefruit, slightly sweet. The aftertaste is a zingy tart and kinda bitter grapefruit flavor.

Comparison: Butiki’s Grapefruit Dragon
GD (heh, GD, G Dragon.. oh no! More kpop references! LOL LOL LOL http://youtu.be/t3ULhmadHkg) is white grapefruit. I found GD to be more natural grapefruity and a better zing to it.
Lupicia’s grapefruit green is a red grapefruit flavor, more sweet and a gentler zing. GG’s green base isn’t as good, I think.
Own both? probably not unless you love grapefruit. Overall, I’d get the Butiki one, but if you love ruby red grapefruit, I’d go for Lupicia.

I need to try this grapefruit tea iced! I bet with some honey it be very good! Honey and grapefruit work great together. Back to studying.

First brew is almost entirely malt, which I like. (Chocolate malts and malt balls are some of my all-time favorite candies. I wonder what this would taste like with chocolate in it…?)

More complex as it cools; leaves a mild tingle in the back of the throat. I love the use of vanilla here more and more. It’s an enhancement, not a flavoring—just a little bit of vanilla pod to give it depth.

The second steep blew me away. Molasses and a nice cigar. Really interesting, and soft despite so many strong aromas.

I wanted something that wasn’t flavored or fruity today, so I opened this packet from my Happy Bag. Both dry and steeped, it smelled pretty bold: dark, malt, sweet, smoke. In smell and flavor, reminds strongly of a savory roasted pumpkin or squash. I want to add a tiny sprinkle of salt and cocoa and use it as a base for a sweet-spicy mole sauce.

I liked the little chunks of vanilla bean mixed in. I also liked that vanilla wasn’t a prominent note—so either it blended exceptionally well with the leaf itself, or it’s pretty mild. Or my nose is terrible. Either way, it wasn’t overly sweet.

I was sorta hoping this would be a little more like the breakfast teas I’m used to. This was milder yet more complicated than I expected, but I liked it anyway. Now someone tell me how to resist opening fifteen different bags of looseleaf at once, because it’s very… challenging to me right now.

I love this tea! Smells and tastes soooo good. Like a Werther’s caramel candy but with a light rummy taste. Just awesome this morning.

I got a tea sachet of this from Lupicia. It is a tasty tea but the rum is more pronounced in smell and taste. It has a pleasing smell and aftertaste. I added sugar to the last half but it doesn’t add anything special. I wish I had more to try with some milk.

Found some tea I had forgotten about, one small sampler pack of “Hawaiian Flavored” tea from Lupicia… Haha, it just makes me laugh a little, right under the name “ANUENUE” it says that. It’s an individually wrapped tea bag in a foil type packaging, so even though I’m pretty sure it’s over a year old the smell was awesomely strong. It has an intense fruity smell kind of like candy. 2 steepings, the first one was very sweet, fruity and the second one more green tea flavor came out than fruitiness. I like this one, too bad the store is a plane-ride away.

Loose
Appearance: large broken leaf med green
Aroma when Dry: slight sweetness, fruity floral, apple noticeable
After water is first poured: desert apple-y fruity
At end of first steep: apples, slightly sweet, slight tart note
Tea liquor:
At end of steep: very light green
Staple? No
Time of day preferred: unsure, first tasting
Taste:
At first: faint sweetness, light floral apple
As it cools? apple notes get more aggressive, tea gets “busy”
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? yes, sweet apple taste, no notes of green tea base

Might try chilled

This is really nice! Warm and toasty, and the caramel flavor is just subtle enough that it doesn’t overpower. There’s a nutty-ness to the taste. I had some of it unsweetened, and it was nice, but with a little bit of milk and sugar, the caramel comes out more and it’s super creamy and dessert-like. A nice pick-me-up drink. I’ve never really tried houjicha before and wasn’t sure what I would think of it, but this is fantastic.

Sipdown, so sad. It lasted until March, but barely! Juicy as usual, really refreshing. I love this stuff (though I have to move it down a peg or two since I’ve spent some time refining my score criteria…it’s just so dang subjective).

Claire sent me this for Christmas and she really must love me because it’s a-m-a-z-i-n-g. It smells like sweet apple cider and tastes juicier than actual juice. Basically, it’s the best apple cider you’ve ever had, minus all the pesky sour sugar flavor, plus a healthy dose of black tea. I imagine it would be pretty meta if you brewed it with boiled apple juice, but I like it exactly the way it is. So does everyone else in my house, which means I may have to hide the tin soon so there will be some left for the cold days of February and March.