Yamabudo (Mountain Grape)

This was the sample that came in the September newsletter from Lupicia.

This is really good. Surprisingly good, because I’m typically not fond of grape flavored things. But here, the grape plays second to the flavor of the Oolong, and I like the way the grape notes highlight the flavors of the Oolong. The Oolong has a sweet, creamy taste to it (not buttery creaminess, exactly, but more of a sweet cream kind of taste). The vegetative qualities are there and compliment the grape tones well.

The grape tastes authentic, like a wine grape (rather the sweet grapes you’d find in the produce section of the supermarket or like the horrid grape candy confections that I try to avoid). The astringency to the Oolong give this a very wine-like quality as well. It finishes dry with a pleasant tart (but not sour) note that lingers.

I’m glad that I got to try this, I probably would not have had the opportunity if it were not for the free sample, as I don’t think I would have ordered a grape flavored Oolong.

As much as I don’t like grape flavored anything, this tea is actually fairly good. It tastes exactly like grape soda!

The dry leaves smell exactly like grape fruit snacks. I can’t stop sniffing the bag! The aroma of the brewed tea is heavenly! I can still detect the grape smell, but it’s underneath a lovely grassiness from the oolong. I can’t wait to try this!

Oh, wow! I think this is going to be a new favorite. I can’t believe how good this is! (Thus, the overuse of exclamation marks)!!!!

This is Lupicia’s tea of the month, and therefore a free sample. Grapes seem to be the theme. The newsletter lists all of their grape teas and talks about how grapes have been added to tea for years.

I’ve tried Lupicia’s Muscat tea, a grape-flavored black tea, in the past and found it undesirable. The grape was too overpowering and candy-like.

But this is delicately flavored! I can still taste the grassy oolong underneath (which actually makes it taste more like a flavored green tea than an oolong). The grape is much more subtle in the taste than in the aroma. The aroma is like gummy snacks, but the taste is more like the grape taste in wine. In fact, it could do with a little more grape!

I’m not so sure about that “clean, crisp finish” though. The finish is a little bitter to me, thus the lower rating of an otherwise wonderful tea. Perhaps a shorter steeping time would remedy that?

Nonetheless, adding this to my list of teas to buy…Thank you, Lupicia!

Lupicia has lots of fruit-flavoured blends, and a fair proportion of them re flavoured with grapes, muscat and the like. I think they are enjoyable, but sometimes they do remind me of Fanta Grape… This tea is yet another flavoured tea in the “grape spectrum”. When dried the leaves smelled intensely of Fanta Grape (hmm it should be mountain grapes, they said). I was expecting another cup that tasted like grape candy, but I was wrong this time! The grape flavour was so subtle that the sweetness and floral fragrance of the Taiwanese oolong tea base was able to stand out. To me this was a better balance between flavouring and tea base. :)