Tsugaru Green

Thanks a million for the sample Amy Oh! this is a great tea!
Not something I’d want everyday, but unique enough that it stands apart from your average green fruity tea. At first sip I was reminded of sour tamarind. It has that puckery sort of green apple flavouring, with a citric acidy twist. (not in a bad way, I love sour candies!)
Most fruity green teas, I find, end up generally tasting “fruity” with very little distinction. Mind you, this is a little heavy on the flavouring. Not much green tea to be found in the first steep… but also not a “juice” tea either, like so many flavoured teas are!
Anyhow, sorry for the ramble. I am ready to drop. Been getting stuff done this week in preparation for my vacation next week. I really will need it by the time we leave on Saturday!! phew. We rented a cottage, so I fully expect to read a few books and get plenty of sleep, finally!
And… because I’m feeling silly, check out this adorable video of a dog perplexed by half a lemon. So cute! http://jezebel.com/5925001/beagle-adorably-loses-its-shit-over-a-lemon

Because my bestie is the best bestie ever in the whole world, she gave me her free sample of Lupicia tea that came in her newsletter, even though she had already given me my birthday gifts of matcha and Lupicia Chocolate and Strawberry Puerh early!

I sniffed this one and knew it was reminding me of something very specific, not just generic apples. Youngest loves apples and eats them whole….seeds, stem, and core. LOL! At first I thought this was reminding me of Honeycrisp apples, and indeed it is close. It also reminds me of the smell of super sweet apple turnovers, the kind with the crispy outer pastry dusted with sugar and cinnamon. My son says it smells like hot apple juice, and finally I settled on some kind of green apple gum that I have a very vague memory of from my childhood.

The tea really tastes excellent to me. It tastes like fresh green apple without the puckers. My son thought this would be great iced and I agree. I may have to order just for that purpose.

The green base is very smooth, not sour or astringent. It also is not hidden under the apple flavor. Noticing that the newsletter said you could use hotter water to enjoy the astringency and boldness of green tea or use cooler water for a more smooth experience, I assumed that their steeping recommendation was on the hot side. I set my Krups to 194F but then let the water sit and cool for a few minutes before steeping. I don’t ever recall seeing a teabag, especially a nice sized one like this, say to use a five ounce cup, but that is what I did. It did not make the tea too strong.

Excellent and calming.

Edited to add: second steep is lighter on the apple but really delicious. The green base gets to show off a little more now and it is really good. Probably ordering this one.

Finally getting to one of my samples from CHAroma! Sorry for taking so long! (It will continue to be this way, haha.)

This is an individually-wrapped teabag, and when I opened the package, I got a wonderful aroma of crispy green apples. It reminded me a lot of Ume Vert, which is strange… I would have thought that they’d be two totally different things. The big difference though? This one actually tastes like green apple!! In fact, this is the best green apple tea that I’ve ever encountered! It could stand to be a little more tart, IMO, but… this is good. The base tea is also pretty good – very smooth and not too… “sencha-y” or generic-gross-flavoured-green-base-tasting. I also think that a bit of sweetener would really make this one tasty, as apple are meant to have some sweetness, and there isn’t any here at all. The one negative here is that I’m getting just the slightest hint of play-dough aroma/flavour just at the beginning of the sip, but that’s something I’ve begun to associate with tea age, so that may be all it is.

This is one tea that I may look at picking up at some point, because this was quite enjoyable! Thanks so much for sharing this with me, CHAroma :)

Ugh so exhausted. This morning a half hour after I got to the museum there was a gas leak reported, so we had to evacuate for about an hour. I went with some of the staff to a coffee shop across the street and got some hot water for tea. I had a sachet of this from Lupicia’s tea of the month club that I carted along with me on my trip. I actually have a loose sample of this from ToiToi, so this isn’t a sipdown.

The scent of this tea is delicious. I was expecting green apple candy, like jolly ranchers, because others have mentioned it, but it smells way less sweet. Very tart and green apple, one of my favorites.

The flavor was definitely light in my cup but I will have to brew it under more ideal conditions to really know. Still, I really love the light green apple flavor in this that is sweet and tart and delicious. I have a feeling this one may become a favorite. And I will defintiely have to try cold brewing it since I have recently realized that I love cold brew apple teas.

(I’m drinking the bagged version of this tea)

All of those bad things I’ve said about “flavors”? I’m not sure if it’s because it’s green tea or because it’s Lupicia, but they don’t apply to this cup (or the other Lupicia green flavored teas I’ve had). The ingredients list on this one is “green tea, flavors”. I still like it.

Their brewing instructions are also NOT BRILLIANT and say to use boiling water. Haha, NO. Also “put the lid on while brewing for better tasting tea” which I’ve never heard before. My mug does have a lid (somewhere?) but in the office I usually just take small sips until I think it’s ready. I don’t have a timer.

I’m trying to break myself of the sweetener habit, at least with the greens, because I know it’s WRONG, so there’s less apple flavor and more grass flavor than what I generally get with this tea. The first taste (and scent) is grassy green flavor and the after taste is of mild apples. The longer it brews the more the apple disappears.

I am far behind on trying all of the things I received in swaps plus some things I have recently purchased so I’ll try to get on it, I swear. :)

I was a bit worried about this one after reading the reviews but I actually don’t mind it. It really smells like apple gummy candy or jolly ranchers when you open the bag but the flavor is a lot more mellow. It certainly isn’t the most natural apple flavor I’ve ever had and I’m not sure I can even taste the bancha. I mean, yes it tastes like a green tea but personally I’m a bit overwhelmed by the flavoring. I think this really needs to be made into an iced tea where it would be much nicer, a cold brew experiment would seem to be in order soon.

Not too bad but probably not a repurchase for me.

Opening it up, this smells like green apple. But not like an apple. Like pretend apple. Like green apple candy. Not a huge fan of that flavoring so things aren’t looking good. It smells better in my cup, though. Still like candy green apple but with a little real green apple juicy to it.

The taste is not happy making. It’s like green apple schnapps but without the sweetness and the alcohol that makes it worthwhile. It’s not horrible but I’m not a fan. Not only is it green apple flavored (a mark against it in my book), it’s lacking the sweetness I’d need to get through the green apple. It doesn’t taste as strong as the smell (thankfully) and there is an obvious tea taste to it (which is good) but I would rather see this paired with a sweeter green. Maybe as a sencha it would be tasty.

On the other hand, the husband approves of the tea. I could finish it, but I don’t really want to so the rest of the cup goes to him. And he’s okay with the fact that it tastes like an unsweetened apple gummy.

^{1 teabag (3.2g – go Lupicia!)/6oz}

I thought that this would be a good tea as Lupicia does fruit blends so well. I had wished for a stronger apple flavor.. but this one was so mellow. Even though the apple flavor is so soft, I can detect all of the different parts of the apple: tart skin and sweet center. The green tea base is smooth and just a little bit grassy. It seems to have all of the components for a delicious tea, but each one is so weak. Disappointing… I’m left wanting a lot more flavor!

I love free samples. This has a tangy apple flavor, like a Jolly Rancher candy. The flavor of the tea hides behind it a bit, but I liked it anyway. Kind of an inoffensive comfort-drink to remind you of things you liked when you were a kid.

I can’t help but take deep breaths of the dry leaves. Mmm, apples!

As it starts to steep, the sweet aroma reminds me of apple cider. I’m already smiling.

Upon tasting it, there’s no bitterness. Definite acidity from the apples. Green apple comes to mind, these can’t be red. But those are all pros.

This tea brings me to an all-apple happy place. Apple pancakes, apple pie, apple picking in early autumn. The more I drink it, the more I notice sweeter notes. This is a really lovely tea. Maybe the best of all the flavored green teas I’ve tasted.

I know lots of people have complained about the bancha base, but I really like it. In my opinion, a fresher sencha would not complement the pairing with San-Tsugaru apples as much. (But I don’t particularly love the grassiness of senchas in the first place).

This is one of those teas where freshness is paramount! I found a few forgotten tea bags in the back of my cupboard, still sealed air tight. But upon brewing, the aroma and flavor was quite bland. It had lost all its apple flavor and acidity, leaving my mouth dry & almost flaky feeling. Make sure to drink all this tea upon receiving it because it won’t keep for long periods of time.

I’m curious to see how it would turn out when brewed at a lower temperature. Lots of people said they like this tea iced, but I’m not sure. It seems best enjoyed piping hot. As my cup cooled off, I couldn’t taste the apple as much.

Somehow I didn’t drink any tea at all yesterday, so I was really looking forward to this cup of tea. I really wanted to like it, and so it was a shame that this tea didn’t quite get there.

As a fairly standard green tea – the base is bancha – it’s okay. As a flavoured tea, it leaves quite a bit to be desired. There’s a very slight apple aroma to the tea that you really have be looking for to notice, and very little apple in the taste. I like my fruit teas to be more… fruity.

So, yeah, this tea is drinkable, but if I’m in the mood for a green tea or a fruit tea or a green fruit tea there are plenty of others out there that I vastly prefer.

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

Wow this is a great one! Lupicia suggests using boiling water for brewing, which worried me a bit but I followed anyway… I just kept the brewing time as short as possible. The brewed cup turned out to be fine and free from bitterness – whew! Fresh Japanese apple aroma and taste, which was wonderful. Remember the Karel Capek apple tea I tried years ago, the apple flavour was soooo artificial and sooooo overpowering, but this tea tasted completed natural. Great job Lupicia! I enjoyed this after having a bowl of salty instant noodles and felt totally refreshed :)

Yay, samples! This came in the monthly newsletter, and I was very pleased when I took it out of its package! This is, again, another very impressive fruit flavored tea from Lupicia. The apple definitely makes itself known, both in the smell of the loose leaf and after it’s been steeped. Even unsweetened, the mouthfeel of the tea is very much like the juice from a tart, fresh apple. The green tea base is quite lovely, too—vegetal and slightly astringent, which pairs quite well with the apple. Well done!

hmm nom nom delicious, one of my favorites from Lupicia.

The was a very light tasting tea with a hint of green apple. The apple taste was tart and sour. I infused it a second time, and that infusion had more of a green tea flavor than an apple flavor. A nice tea, but I like something a little more assertive.

Freebie bag from their store.

The dry pyramid smells amazingly of tart green apples, and while that scent doesn’t completely survive brewing, it persists. I spent the first few minutes waiting for this to cool enough to drink just breathing in the steam and its green apple aroma.

Comparatively, the flavor disappoints, but I do get a sense of apple contrasting nicely with the bancha, and as the tea cooled further, the apple flavor grew more pronounced. This makes me think that cold-brewing might be more successful. I’ll try that if I ever get another tea bag.

Finally, something I can write a good review on – (I know, right?)

So, my girlfriend chose this one out when we were at the mall together. She HATES malls, but we were forced into with the pressure of mother’s day shopping, and she proved that she’s 100 times better than me at gift shopping, even for MY mother and sister. While we were there, I decided to take her up to Lupicia, because she’s slowly been coming around to tea.

She chose this one out herself, and I have to admit, I’ve never tried it – I usually kept company with more pure teas. She wanted an iced tea, and the guy (who has been working there FOREVER) suggested that one. So, I bought her a small iced tea brewer, and we cold-brewed this at my place.

It’s got a real pleasant smell, and the flavor’s good too – subtle, maybe a little watery, but it’s definitely more enjoyable than drinking plain cold H2O. What else can I say? It smells like green apple – as someone mentioned earlier, not so much REAL apple as artificial “green apple” flavor – and it tastes like you’d probably expect.
The only thing I could say against it, though not form experience, is that when my girlfriend tried making it hot, she said it wasn’t good at all – even after she chilled it. Whether she misbrewed it, or it’s just not a good tea to drink hot, I don’t know, but it’s something to look out for.

While this tea is really nothing special, it’s another one of those things she’s picked up as our lives begin to overlap – sharing interests, friends, family, certain other things I really shouldn’t mention on this site…
Anyway, it’s nice to be with her during her first steps into the great adventure that is Tea – an adventure I need to get back into.

Mixed feelings about this tea. The scent is not a true apple, but more along the lines of apple candy, like Jolly Ranchers. Really couldn’t detect the apple note with the second steeping. It tastes much better iced. I took the remaining tea to work and everyone immediately devoured the rest of it. Looking to try other teas from Lupicia but probably won’t repurchase this one.

Nice green apple aroma that really stays close to the cup. You have to hold th cup under your nose to fully enjoy it. Perfect for a cold rainy day like today. Plus it has a nice clean finish.