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I am finally busting into these pearls after having them for a while! Mmmm, my favorite pearls. I’ve been drinking a lot of flavored teas lately so it’s always nice to go back to the basics.

I actually had a cup of this yesterday and another today since yesterday’s cup was at “tea time” and made with unfiltered water. But it turns out that that one was the better cup! This morning I wanted robustness so I added an extra pearl to my steeping basket and I think that was my mistake. I didn’t get nearly enough sweet chocolate goodness from this. But I do know that it’s there, it just got overwhelmed by being too robust. I still drank the whole cup, of course! But in the future I have to remember to get my parameters right.

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed how much weird stuff is in this sachet. Not only the green oolong balls and some flower petals, but chunks of dried pineapple, a ton of little silver dragees, pink peppercorns, and some bizarre spiky light blue candy thing (?).

I accidentally steeped this a little longer than I normally would but it seems to have suffered no ill effects. Lupicia’s flavored oolongs seem to be remarkably robust to differences in steep time and temp. This certainly makes them good traveling teas! I know I can take this oolong sachet with me and not have to worry about fussing with water temps or things like that.

I tend to like Lupicia’s flavored green oolongs and this one is no exception. It’s like their pineapple oolong, but instead of pineapple and coconut it’s pineapple and guava. So it makes a fruitier and more refreshing cup rather than the creaminess that the coconut brings. Also I love guava so it’s extra awesome. I would love to have enough of this to try cold steeping it as well because I bet it would be outstanding. Maybe I’ll be able to pick some more up eventually!

Hey hey, I remembered to bring in my Hawaiian Lupicia sachets today for work. I bought these in sachets because by the time I got around to purchasing them all the loose leaf was sold out, but that just means I have them for travel, which is kind of nice. I’ve even drank this one in stupidly cool water at a crappy hotel breakfast and it was pretty tasty even then.

This was quite delicious today, and I would gladly pick up more of it if I get a chance. C’mon Lupicia, put them back on your site! :D This is a nice change from a usual Earl Grey, as the passion fruit adds a softer side and a sweetness that is very pleasant. Definite yum!

I’m doing a bit of a leap frog over one of my Verdant reserve teas (at home) and the white tea that I accidentally got from Golden Moon but am really not that interested in drinking today.

So this is the tea I actually ordered and got a few days later when when I brought the mistake to their attention. I haven’t had this tea in forever but I remembered enjoying it so I figured I would get a small pouch of it. It does smell way more like sugary caramel than it tastes. Definitely a lightly flavored tea, but I am enjoying the cup anyway.

The main part of the sip basically tastes like a lightly roasted tieguanyin, or perhaps a Taiwanese oolong. It’s a bit nondescript except for the roastiness. The sugar caramel really comes out in the aftertaste when you are just sitting around not thinking about it. It’s not astounding, but it’s pretty tasty. I wonder how it would come out cold-brewed?

Apparently I’m bad at writing tasting notes in the afternoon, unless, like today, I teach all morning and so only get to my computer in the afternoon. I drank this tea yesterday afternoon but never logged it. So! We are on to Black Friday orders. How about that?? I only have two pages of teas in my cupboard left to go.

I love this tea so much. Definitely it is my favorite coconut pouchong, though I am interested to try the coconut greens I recently got from MissB. This is absolutely like a coconut macaroon, baked cookie-ish flavor and all. I have to remember not to sit on this one, though, since as a pouchong it has the potential to lose flavor faster than my black blends.

Behold, the only minty tea that I actually really like. It’s minty, but it’s not overly minty. I think it’s the creaminess that really smooths it over and makes it work for me. Granted, I don’t reach for it that often because I often have to be in the mood for a minty tea, but I do enjoy it. I should probably keep it in mind for after lunches out where I come back with onion breath, or if I need a stomach settler. I never think of mint for that, but it is an obvious choice!

This was SO DELICIOUS this morning. Tons of almond flavor, sweet and creamy. Almond cake with a hint of rose icing, that’s what this tea tasted like this morning. Without a doubt one of my favorite teas ever. Why do I have to fall so hard for a tea that’s so hard to acquire? If this tea ever shows up on Vente-privee I am so buying a stock to last me.

I drank this one yesterday afternoon but didn’t log it as I got wrapped up in work. I had to skip my two Hawaiian Lupicia blends in my chronology because they live at home and I keep forgetting to bring some of the sachets in to have at work. Must try to remember!

By smell of the dry leaf alone, this tea seems like it will be overwhelming in the flavoring and floral department. It’s INTENSE. But once it’s brewed it mellows considerably. I had this one yesterday when it was still le printemps outside (today it is l’hiver again! snowing!), and it was so pleasant. Fruity, creamy, and a nice helping of rose; yes please! I thought I didn’t like rose and vanilla together (bad previous tea experiences) but this one (and a few other French teas) proves me wrong.

So I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t been drinking this one all out of order for my chronology lately. It’s been “coming up” in the list for a while now and there were a number of teas I thought I was going to have to skip because they were at home (but then I actually drank them this weekend). I never got around to writing a tasting note for this any time recently, though, so it’s still in order.

All of which is to say, I apparently like this tea quite a bit. The flavors don’t quite stick out at me, but It’s fruity, it’s rosey, it’s just a pleasant blend that I enjoy enough to reach for it fairly frequently. Funny how some blends get like that! I guess it’s a good thing that the blend I reach for frequently is one that I have a large amount of, although it would probably be good to reach for some of the other 100g tins occasionally as well!

Out of my chronology for a moment. After working out in the yard this afternoon I was hot and tired so I came in, shook some of this with ice and water and basically chugged it. I probably used a bit too much matcha for the amount of water I had, but it was still pretty tasty. Grassy with tasty sea buckthorn accompanying it. This is one of the only matchas that I never drink with milk because milk and sea buckthorn don’t go together for me. Thankfully I like it plenty on it’s own with just water.