King of Fruits

Rayn and I are having an exciting Friday night…of drinking teas and watching Avatar episodes. Okay, so it’s exciting for me!

I have to say that I don’t care for durian, as a fruit. The smell is, to put it nicely, kind of revolting. I once sat next to someone on the bus ride home who had a fresh durian with them, and by the time I got home I thought I was going to puke. Essentially, the taste is decent but the smell is not. However, I’d read/heard so many good things about this tea that I figured I had to at least try it. After all, I once tried durian ice cream and that was actually not so bad, since the smell was not as pervasive.

So I opened the dry tea up, smelled it, and went yuck durian! But I told myself to be brave, scooped out a few teaspoons and brewed a cup. And it’s good. Really tasty, in fact. Once the tea is brewed it’s like it loses the nasty durian smell and just retains the delicious tropical fruit smell/flavor.

It can happen…durian tea can be good!

I heard that durian is a love or hate fruit. I’m in the “love durian” camp. I love it’s overripe guava-like, vanilla-custardy scent and texture. I think it’s a delicious (and insanely healthy) fruit. And I am so happy to know that Lupicia has it in tea form!

The flavor is decidedly durian! The flavor is right-on. Yay! I am not disappointed. And it is definitely “powerfully fragrant”. :)

The aftertaste really is like a “fruity onion”, as Mad_Alyss_14 so aptly stated. I love that description. There’s this “shrill” hint of freshly cut onion in the flavor and aroma…it’s intriguing. Like melon and onions. I know oniony tea sounds weird but it’s good!

The green tea base seems fresh and is slightly astringent. My loose leaf sample looks like fannings, though—like shredded leaves from a tea bag.

I’m enjoying my sample and will buy a full tin soon!

It makes me wish good, fresh durian were easier to come by here. All we can get easily is the frozen stuff.

I got a sample of this in the mail today with my Lupicia magazine! Oooh durian… I have never tried durian fruit before, frankly because I was scared to death of the horrible stories I have heard of it having a very pungent, nasty smell so I have never bothered trying it! Getting this tea in had me scared, I thought I would open the pack of tea to smell dirty feet or something LOL, but it was actually pleasent and sweet smelling…smelled like a fruit of some sort…I guess a durian since it is a durian tea! Haha. The green tea was present as well and was enjoyable; I did have this iced and my toddler liked it as well. However, I wouldn’t buy this for me because I have other fruity green teas that I simply like better, but this one is pretty darn good!

I AM in LOVE!
Just LOVE. Lupicia NEVER lets me down!
Imagine every amazing tropical fruit EVER but it is in just ONE KING of fruits!
BLISS!!!!!!!

The Final Sipdown: Day 5
Decupboarding Total: 9

Does it count as decupboarding if I didn’t know I had this tea in the first place? It was a total surprise to me to find this tea under some sample tins. Oops.

I opened the little freebie Lupicia bag expecting a teabag. Because every Lupicia freebie since the dinosaurs died off has been a teabag. So yeah, it made a bit of a mess when I opened this because not a tea bag. Loose leaf. Double oops.

Though… it doesn’t look like actual loose leaf. The leaves are small and broken it looks like they just forgot the bag part of the teabag. Of course, I must keep in mind that I did find this little packet under some small tins. So it might not have started out so… powdery. Triple oops?

Fortunately, most of the leaf-related mess stayed on the kitchen counter where I was able to scoop it up and dump in the teapot. (I am a total nerd so I did weigh it first. 3.4g. I continue to appreciate Lupicia’s realistic grasp of how much leaf it takes to make a cup of tea.)

The packaging, leaf and tea (and now my entire kitchen) smell strongly of lychee. Not lychee tea, but actual lychee. See, a while back I had some of Samovar’s lychee tea. It was nice but I couldn’t speak to how realistic the flavor was, so when I was at the grocery store a few weeks later and saw actual lychee I picked up a couple. This tea smells exactly like a fresh lychee fruit ones it has been removed from its shell (husk? rind?). Of course, this isn’t supposed to be lychee tea. It’s supposed to be durian. But I don’t know what a durian is so to me? Lychee tea.

The tea is a bit bitter. But honestly, I don’t think that’s the tea’s fault. I think that the fault of whoever put it under some tea tins and crunched on the leaves for a while. (Yes, that’s me.) I think if the leaf were whole (or at least more than it is now), the bitterness wouldn’t be there. So leaving the bitterness aside, what about the rest of the taste?

Lychee. Full on lychee.

As always, the flavoring Lupicia does is very nice. It’s strong but I can still taste tea under there. (Aside from the bitterness from the broken leaves, yes, there is tea taste there! Yay!) Also, the durian lychee tastes absurdly natural. No chemical taste, no funky aftertaste, nothing. Like I actually just ate the fruit (or pureed it into my tea). And that’s pretty awesome.

Normally I have an issue with flavored green teas. It just seems wrong to me so it is pretty hard for me to love them. I guess I’m a green tea purist. This though? Very tasty. I could do without the bitterness but again, I’m not blaming the tea for that. In fact, the flavoring is so nicely done (and it doesn’t hurt that I apparently like lychee) that I would like to buy some of this so I can try it without the crushed-leaf-induced bitterness.

I received this sample in the mail a couple of weeks ago.

The aroma of this tea is amazing… so delicious that it made my mouth water just smelling the dry leaf. This fragrance softens a little with the brewed liquor, but, fortunately, it doesn’t soften a lot. I can still smell a delicious fruity scent that is unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before.

Delicious! The green tea is a little buttery, sweet, and lends itself well to the Durian fruit – something I’ve never actually tasted, but am enjoying the taste of it now! Sweet, juicy and delicious. Tropical-like. Very good.

DURIAN! you know, that big spikey fruit thing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian
I’ve often ordered durian smoothies at Pho houses (or avocado or jackfruit smoothies – all delicious) and have had fresh durian bubble tea. I haven’t purchased a durian on its own, but no one in my household has ever supported me in this idea (probably for good reason).

When I heard about this tea, I was all over it – fruity tea? check. WEIRD EXOTIC FRUIT? OH HELLS YES!

DRY: sweet durian smell.. without the strong funk making fresh durian banned in airports.

STEEPED: Smells deliciously fruity durian and sweet. No funk.

TASTE: Strong fruity durian flavor up front, naturally slightly sweet, custardy savory like base (bit duriany but also from the green tea), mellow green tea that adds depth. After taste is MOAR durian, sharp and very slight dryness. Full flavor!

RESTEEP: Tea lost its sweetness, with green tea being the front of the party – on the more veg savory flavor, with a durian aftertaste. Kind of uninteresting.

COMMENTS: Man, Lupicia does fruity very well. The flavor is spot on and one can enjoy durian without it’s crazy smell. I’m thinking cold steeped or ice would turn out very well using King of Fruits.

I’d say the downfall in this tea is the price, being one of the more expensive teas there (that I saw), and coming only in 50g is a hefty price to try a more interesting fruity tea. It might do better as a sample size for the curious types to try. I’m unsure if I have any friends who would even try this tea – but whatever, more for me!

The steep times are boil / 45sec – I’d like to mess with this a bit, maybe to reduce the dry aftertaste.

Finally, I’m thinking we need more durian blended tea. I guess the more adventurous tea peeps would try it, but combining durian with creamyness I think would be amazing.

Lupicia has a new tea for all you to try; Durian Tea! I have had the unpleasant pleasure of trying the Durian fruit before when someone brought it to work and i still occasionally have nightmares about it :/
So naturally I was a little skeptical to try this tea. Right when you open the package your nose is greeted with the most amazing sweet aroma. Lupicia was able to take that pungent, icky smell out and replace it with the more fruity and sweeter notes that the Durian has. The taste is also awesome. It sends me to a tropical paradise! The Thai green tea i think is a perfect match for this tea since it isn’t harsh on the flavours or doesnt mask them either. The after taste is kind of interesting, to me its kinda like a fruity onion, but with not so much onion, but still pleasent and enjoyable. This tea is also awesome as iced tea, so i recommend you try both ways. If you have had Durian before and actually like it this tea might not be what your looking for. I definetly would recommend this tea to anyone. Don’t knock it until you try it!

Omg loved it! It tasted just like the durian fruit