Paradise Green

Backlog. I realized that this is getting to be one of my older teas, so I gotta get on sipping it down! I brought it to school in my tumbler. Oversteeped, of course, because of all the school. It kind of gave a thicker mouthfeel to it than usual without being bitter. Nice! And as always, that punch of tropical flavor. I also stuck some new leaves in the fridge for a cold brew in the interest of sipping down (it’s still a while away), so we will see how that turns out!

This reminds me a lot of Paradise Tropical Tea, that fruity iced tea restaurants always used to serve (and maybe still do), but with a green base. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given the name. I like that stuff a lot, and I like this too. It’s got that generic tropical fruit flavor – I’m not able to pull out particular notes, although the pineapple and mango I see others mentioning seem reasonable. The flavoring is quite strong – and also quite floral, even verging on perfumey. I don’t mind this, but I know it’s not to everyone’s taste.

The bancha works nicely as a base, I think; it stands up reasonably well to the flavoring. I cold-steeped this – I can’t imagine drinking a tea with this flavor profile hot. I may have steeped it for too long – I wasn’t keeping track, but probably something like 9 or 10 hours – and there is some astringency, but I think that’s entirely my fault. This came in my happy bag in January, and it’s easily my favorite of the bunch.

Probably shouldn’t have used boiling water, but it’s too late now! After my earlier Muscat experience, I wanted to try a lighter green tea.

This tea’s aroma is very flowery & fruity! I wish I knew exactly what was in it. I can’t identify individual flavors myself.

It seems more flowery than fruity though upon tasting. Part of me feels like I’m drinking a liquefied Amazon Lily. It’s a little too much flower for me. It makes the tea heavy, not the light green I was looking for.

It reminds me of pollen coating everything in the springtime. Sure people think flowers smell great. But when there’s so much pollen that your black car looks yellow, people’s opinions on flowers shift. That’s what this tea is like.

This is a time when I would prefer a higher-grade sencha base. I did follow the instructions of steeping this in only 3.7 oz of water. I’m sure that’s a contributing factor in why I found the taste so much stronger than other users.

With this much flower going on, I couldn’t begin to call this tea weak! It might be a good idea to water it down a bit.

This was a pyramid sachet free sample that arrived today with my Lupicia order. I was looking for something convenient to steep, and having tried the Tropical Green from Revolution Tea this morning, my palate was ready for a comparison.

The aroma is pineapple and green tea leaf. There are blue and pink flower petals mixed in with the fruit bits. I’m particularly fond of the aesthetics of blue petals with tea, so this got my attention.

I was expecting a super sweet cup, but pleasantly suprised that the actual cup had a subdued flavor. I could still taste the fruit as a secondary note, but the tea was recognizable. Pineapple was the dominant fruit in my experience. The green in combination probably lends itself to the melon other people might pick up on.

A nice blend, an experience for nose, eye, and palate. I’d try it again if I were looking for a sweet tea, though I’m not a big fanatic of fruited teas in general. Peach and cherry are my standards, with pear being a distant third.

I received this in a swap a while ago! I saw this in the bottom of my sample box. I am assuming because it was in a plastic bag that the flavor would be weaker. This is actually a pleasant tea. Granted, I did not use boiling water and I only steeped this for 1 minute.

The leaves were a little crushed and green in color. I wasn’t sure initially what type of green this is, but now that I saw the description it is bancha. There are bits of colors in the mix like yellow and blue. Very pretty. I wish the leaves were crushed up. Again, I think this is because it was in a plastic bag at the bottom of my sample box! I couldn’t smell anything in particular.

Once brewed, it was a medium yellow in color. The green tea base took precedent over the blend, which was good. The base was a little vegetal in flavor but mild. There is a mild sweetness and fruitiness to it. Delicious. I like that this is mild. Good tea blend overall, although, not my favorite.

Let the record show that I have tried this one. Once. I got a sample from Lupicia through the newsletter thingummy, I used boiling water, and I’m pretty sure I overbrewed it… and it’s okay. I’m pretty sure I like the black version better, though. If I buy this again I’ll get the black version.

this tea makes my cubicle smell very girly.

Pretty fragrance, weak flavor.

It smells very fresh and clean. Green grass and pineapple…that’s what the scent makes me think about.
But when I drink the tea…I don’t really taste anything. Maybe a vague sort of citrus note.

The real selling point for this blend, besides the smell, is the colorful flower petals that make the tea leaves colorful. But the effect of all that gets completely lost when you use a teabag, as I did.

Well, at least this smelled nice!

Lupicia newsletter sample! I do like this one, green and fruity! ..and awesome with cookies :)

This tea smells so amazing dry, sort of like Juicy Fruit gum. It’s that mystery ‘tropical fruits’ flavor Lupicia has for their teas. Smelling it, I’d guess mango, pineapple, and …strawberry? Like I said: a mystery.

With that strong aroma, I was expecting some of that fruity essence to carry over to the brewed tea, but alas. The first few times I had this tea, I followed the brewing instructions on the bag and ended up with a pleasant green tea with a muted fruity aftertaste. Very disappointing because it smelled so good.

However, last night I was distracted and measured the tea out with a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon and, woah. Huge difference. The tea finally tastes a little more like it smells, though still not as strongly. Made this way, the tea is a lot fruitier.

But yeah, getting that better cup of tea requires nearly 3-4x as much tea leaf as Lupicia (or anybody) thinks is appropriate. Given the price point of this tea, I’d rather spend money on other fruity green blends where I could just use 1.5-2 teaspoons instead of over a tablespoon and get better value.