Auggy sent me a couple of tea bags of this. I don’t think that I’ve ever had the pyramidal tea bags before, aside from the ones from Tea Forté [and I consider those to be a bit of an anomaly since they’re so structured], so I was intrigued to see how/if it was going to affect the tea. There was definitely enough room for the leaves to expand, but even with the somewhat minimal expansion that black tea leaves tend to undergo, there wasn’t much space left in the bag when the steep was over. I can’t imagine what would happen with a rolled oolong. It was a neat experience, and I think that if I was in a situation where I needed the added convenience I’d be fine with using the pyramidal bags [albeit, size-wise, I’m not sure how other companies stack up to Lupicia’s], but I still like my loose leaf.
I used both of these on consecutive nights, one at 3 minutes and one at 4 minutes, and I liked the 4 minute steep a little better.
The flavor was…eh. I’m a big fan of caramel, and the fact that Lupicia describes caramel as being “bittersweet” made me a bit edgy from the jump because the kind of caramel I like doesn’t really have any bitterness to it.
The caramel flavor I got from this was…not terribly present. It skirted around it, and dropped that it there, but I never really got it full-on. When I found it at its fullest, it was flat and strangely salty. It reminded me of peanut brittle with about half the sweetness. I’m not sure what makes this English, but maybe the English like their caramel salty? Or maybe this tea simply isn’t fantastic.
Everything in consideration, not a bad tea by any means, but not something I want more of either. Thanks for the try, Auggy! If I were putting together a Lupicia order, I could see myself ordering a large-ish size of this and it ending in crestfallen annoyance, so this was quite a save.
Hey, I never promised to send you only good teas! :P
HAHAHA, well given that you even attached a note to this one about this one not being fabulous, I wasn’t expecting a caramel epiphany!