Napa Blanc

Picked this up online. I think Lupicia has a habit of releasing things in store only to see how well they go over before putting them online. Whatever the case I am so happy I finally get to try this!
Sweet Mercy in a cup this is wine!
Lightly Jasmine and such a lovely jasmine it is.
White wine, muscat, …. I’m in heaven!
I adore this blend and once again Lupicia does not let me down.
There is a buttery feeling in the mouth, it is somewhat broth-y, absolutely lovely green tea base, a bancha or sencha perhaps … would have to take out the dry leaf again to figure it out – if I even could – who cares right now I am exhausted and could use a glass of wine errr I mean cup of tea!
:)

ETA: As this tea cools more it tastes a little like Juicy Fruit Gum!
WOWZA!

Courtesy of Sare – thank you! :) This is my first tea from Lupicia but won’t be my last. I love the blend of jasmine with a hint of grape, just enough so that it’s not artificial. It really is like wine in a cup, and it’s definitely making me feel more mellow. (Placebo effect?) My only hesitation is the smell, as it really does smell like hot wine. I’m not sure I care for that, but I can’t complain too much since it’s true to its name!

It’s also not sweet at all. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I feel like if it was wine, it should be sweet. But since it’s a tea, I appreciate the lack of sweetness. This is one I’ll have to try again in order to properly sort out my feelings.

I did enjoy it, just not sure if I’m in love yet.

EDIT/ADD: I dropped the rating considerably because I ended up dumping it out. I just couldn’t get past the smell. :(

Somehow I didn’t even realize this was a green tea until I was making it. I had to make a quick temperature switch on the kettle! Like apparently I never even looked at it and assumed it was a black tea.

The jasmine overtakes everything else in here, and not in a good way. When it’s hot, it does not smell good at all. Cold, it smells like just your usual jasmine green which is not really what I expected from something that should have white wine grape notes too.

But jasmine just overpowers everything about it and it wasn’t even a good type of jasmine tea. I couldn’t finish it. I may try having it iced, maybe try steeping for a minute instead too, but it isn’t working for me hot!

Thanks Azzrian for the sample!

Ok so this was my day 3 of new tea for the year! I was afraid of this tea cues of the grapes… I don’t know since grape dimatab as a kid I’m afraid of drinking grape but I bought this anyways lol . So the smell is of green warm grapes in the summer. So that throws me off a bit my first few sips were a little odd . Defiantly sweet wine which I love without the drink affect. My mother in law every year makes Anises cut out cookies and let me tell you dipping that cookie into this tea was wonderful!!
My only thing for next time is to take the tea bag out! I left it in and I got very bitter at the end of the tea and I had to stop but otherwise very nice tea:)

We’ve been remodeling our kitchen, and most of my tea things are packed up, so I’ve been relying on tea bags and pre-bottled drinks to get me through the renovation period. (Oh, the horror!) The pyramid-shaped Lupicia bagged teas have been some of the best for flavor.

Napa Blanc’s a great summer tea with a bright, strong aroma. The muscat grape is very sweet, but the addition of a slight floral note (jasmine according to the company’s description) tempers it nicely.

The Napa Blanc flavor is one of limited edition ‘California’ flavors, available only at Lupicia’s stores in Santa Clara and San Francisco. I’m not clear on whether these are available for a limited time only, or the limitation is only on the locations where Napa Blanc can be purchased.

First coherent descriptor that came through in my head after the surprised and delighted initial “Yum!” as I leaned over to inhale the steeping cup was … Juicy Fruit gum. Kind of honeysuckle-ish but I can see where it’s grape, too, reminding me of the wild grape vine in our backyard growing up… my dog used to love it when I peeled back the tart skin and squeezed the juicy, firm sweet inner orb into her mouth on a hot day. Forgot about that preciousness until this moment, and this tea, more than 30 years later :)

The Juicy Fruit carried through from aroma to flavor, as well, much cleaner and as sweet as the gum. Second steep is every bit as good, though with a hint of astringency on the finish that could have been due to leaving it in too long, can’t say.

I love this tea, it’s setting off the pleasure receptors in my brain, big time. A big thank you to Crystal for hooking me on this smack.

Suzi, I picked this tea up at the Santa Clara Lupicia, too, just last week. I bought the tea bags instead of the loose leaf because I was traveling. This is the first time I’ve purchased the Lupicia tea bags and I’m very impressed by them. Great tea bags.

Ok, on to the tea. This is a luscious smelling tea. The wine notes just come out of the bag and grab your nose. No, really, the fragrance of this tea is just fantastic.

Unfortunately, the taste is a bit off for me. There’s a chance I over-steeped, but this tea has a funny bite at the end of the taste that I’m not a huge fan of. I also didn’t sweeten the tea and I think I would like it much more if I added a bit of honey. Overall, I’ll drink this again, but I’ll definitely add sweetener.

This tea smells great, but for me I wasn’t a fan of the taste at all. This is why I love Lupicia though, like any good tea salon they have no problem with making you a cup to try before you buy anything, which I was definitely thankful for doing with this one (un)fortunately.

Like the Momoko, this is a flavored tea with sugar crystals in it. (These ones are lumpy instead of geometric, which makes me wonder if there’s a little of the flavor infused into the crystals and that’s why there’s a difference.)

I find I like this tea for the same reason that other reviewers didn’t: its scent, hot or straight from the tin, is strongly reminiscent of a white wine without the alcoholic bite. I don’t notice the taste of the actual tea leaves in this so much, but that may be a reflection on how well it was blended; the tea and the flavor fit together to give you something that is sweet without being too sweet, yet it has a white wine tartness which lingers in your mouth (sans the cloying qualities of actual white wine).

This is another tea where I bought some a year ago, finished it thinking maybe I’m not a fan of flavored teas like this, and then found myself wanting it again recently. It’s a flavor which grew on me over time.