Strawberry & Vanilla

Finally opened up my bag of this one that I’d been saving. It’s a year past its best by date but still tasted fresh. This is such a delicious strawberry vanilla green tea and really reminds me of a strawberry milkshake both in taste and creaminess all on its own. Perfect to drink in the springtime and the dry leaf is pretty as well with rose petals.

Another belated tasting note.

I got a whole bunch of Lupicia’s teas before they sold out of everything and this one I decided t only get the 10 teabags so I don’t have 25+ cups worth in a tin taking up precious space. I’ve had this twice, one with soy milk and once plain. Both were good. The vanilla/strawberry combo is something I hadn’t considered before but wow is it ever stellar. The rose is very gentle and I found in most sips it was barely present. The vanilla was sweet and creamy, the strawberry was very sweet and natural tasting. It reminded me of a milkshake. I’m not crazy about the green base (a bit too vegetal and astringent), I think a herbal base would have been much better.

I’m so bad at remembering to unsteep teas. I bought a cute kitchen timer at a little shop, but it doesn’t ring unless the times are longer than five minutes. So anyway I oversteeped this tea horribly the first time, and it was undrinkable. I had enough leaf left for a small second cup, and that was very nice. The green is mild, and the vanilla is pleasant. There may be a little bit of fruitiness. I wish I hadn’t ruined my first cup, but thanks to tea-sipper for sharing!

I was reminded by the ongoing group order that I have this is my cupboard. Poor Lupicia tins, doomed to be forgotten about at the back of the cupboard… This one is an interesting tin because it doesn’t appear to be specifically for this tea. It has pretty red, pink, and green plum blossoms and butterflies on it, and says よろこび (yorokobi), which apparently means “joy”. Very lovely.

It’s interesting to me that there’s apparently matcha in this blend, because I can’t see it at all. Unfortunately this tea is a bit meh for me. The flavoring is quite light, with candylike strawberry and a little hint of vanilla-esque creaminess. The base is fairly unimpressive, mellow with a soft grassy flavor. I do taste a little matcha (I think) at the end of the sip, with a sweeter and more intense grassiness and perhaps a hint of spinach.

So this one is a bit ho-hum. I definitely prefer Lupicia’s Tochiotome Green for a strawberry green tea, although I’m not sure if they offer that one seasonally on the US website anymore… Luckily I think I still have a tin of it kicking around in the back-of-cupboard abyss. ;)

Backlog, sipdown by discard.
I’ve been cold brewing this because I knew I’d hate it hot. I don’t like strawberry flavored things.
This tea was cloying even cold brewed. I find flavoring on this blend to be unpleasant. Most of Lupicia’s flavored teas that I’ve tried have not been to my taste.

Can’t remember what # this is right now.

1st smell is nice…a touch fake strawberryish but not bad. 1st taste: Meh. Not terribly inspiring I’m afraid. Another for the summer iced teas pile.

Or maybe I will try this again as a latte as another person has tried.

Sometimes a cup of tea is just what you meed even when you don’t realize it. Wasn’t so fond of the flavor at first but as its cooled off I’m finding more of the flavors introducing themselves. Quite enjoyable.

The loose leaf version of this was in my 2016 Happy Bag. I’ve been drinking loose leaf at the office much more often since my office mate got me a steeper mug for Hannukah. I just use the water cooler hot water. I don’t know what temperature it is but it’s hot enough to provide for a decent brew. It’s also cool enough that I can generally get more steps than usual out of the leaf. In this case, I got four good steeps outs of the blend. Each one was grassy and candy sweet but not cloying. This is a nice substitute when I’m craving bubble tea. It’s also interesting enough that I can savor it but not so phenomenal as to distract from my work.

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable day planned! The mailman finally delivered my new Seasame Street pajamas from Australia and I’m planning on not getting out of them all day since this is my last free weekend until, oh, about September!!

I forgot that I put this in the fridge to cold brew a couple of days ago (tea bags still in place). I found it this morning lurking in the back corner this morning and decided to give it a taste to see if I’d ruined it or if it was still ok… Not bad at all… The green tea definitely overpowers the delicate strawberry and vanilla flavors however they’re still there, just not front and center… This would be a great middle of summer, stupid long heat wave, need a refreshing kinda tea, tea! Which I can look forward to real soon here… But I won’t be in a rush to pick up another bag of this anytime soon.

Inkling was gracious enough to send me a sample of this one, and boy am I glad that she did! I didn’t have super high expectations for this since I haven’t tried very many strawberry teas that didn’t taste like candy. But, that was my mistake because I have had Lupicia’s Chocolate & Strawberry Puer and know already that the strawberry in that is a very fresh tasting strawberry flavor. That’s exactly what I got with this one as well. In fact, I tried it while teaching an adult ESL class and, when they asked what I was tasting, I responded “The exact flavor of frolicking through a field of warm strawberries that have been basking in sunshine!!” (Which…may have been a little too much since I had to explain the meanings of three of the words in that sentence lol) Anyway, this is definitely one I’d pick up next time I am at Lupicia. Thanks Inkling!