Cassis & Blueberry

I got a couple free pyramid bags of this in my order and I’m really in the mood for a low-maintenance tea so into the cup this went! Like others have said the smell of this is intoxicating, like fresh jam that you’re just about to spread on wonderfully crusty toast. Steeped, it has almost a candy aspect. There are these Japanese cassis hard candies that I really like and this smells just like them!

I think the reviews on this one are spot on: it doesn’t taste nearly as strong as the smell (either of the dry leaves or the steep). However, it’s a nice mellow black with a prominent cassis flavor and a hint of blueberry, and like all teas that I’ve tried from Lupicia it has no artificialness at all. I also really overseeped it and it came out fine, not bitter at all! I’m honestly kind of glad it doesn’t smell as strong as the leaves, since that would be kind of like drinking candy! I love berry teas and this is definitely a nice one: I’d actually consider getting this in bagged form rather than loose since it’s so darn convenient.

Oh boy, I should have been in bed long ago, but I just don’t want to go – like a little kid fighting sleep, but I am not very sleepy.

What better way to pass the time than tea with Pinterest? I came home from work last week to discover that my bestie, the best bestie in the world, had left a gift for me…a card and two Lupicia teas! This is one of the surprise teas I got.

I wish I knew more about cassis. I really am not sure what it is. I saw one description here that mentioned black currant, another flavor that is relatively new to my palate. I can really see comparing this to black currant flavor. The blueberry flavor is there, too, and one of the berry flavors is really lingering but I can’t discern which it is!

I drank two small cups of this plain, and since several people mentioned that it would be good iced I added sugar to get a feel for how I would like it that way. I thought I didn’t add much, but it tasted super sweet to me. I bet this really would be amazing iced and sweetened for those who like sweet tea. I have come to love my hot tea with no sugar, but I can definitely still enjoy some good old Southern sweet tea! I have to say this is another win for Lupicia in my book.

Edited to add: duh! Just googled and I guess cassis IS black currant flavor, not just some thing like it.

Oops, I never added this sample to my cupboard. Sipdown anyway.

Even though I bought my teas in store in San Francisco, they still gave me a free sample sachet with my purchase. I love black currants (cassis) and black currant flavor, but dislike blueberry flavor and only like the actual berries occasionally, so I was feeling kind of meh about this tea.

I agree with others that this smells much more balanced blueberry:cassis when dry. It is unsurprising that I am pleased that the black currant takes over the blueberry in the steeped tea, even though others were not. However, the blueberry is there, in the background, keeping this from pure cassis glory (see how I am biased against blueberry). But I do find it to be a decently tasty berry tea, not too overly strongly flavored or artificial.

I love Lupicia but this tea was not to my liking whatsoever. The Cassis totally over shadowed the blueberry even though as others have said the dry leaf smelled AMAZING.

Agree with people that say this is not as tasty as it smells. This was one of the make up samples Lupicia sent and I’m on the lookout for a black currant tea I like. This one would not be it.

I’m not sure if it’s the base tea or the flavorings themselves but the taste is just kind of meh. It’s very, very berry but it just seems kind of fake tasting. The base tea started off okay but has fallen flat in my opinion to holding up the flavors. It doesn’t help either that as it’s cooled it’s gotten a bit bitter.

Oh well, plenty more out there to try.

After reading the other reviews here I was wondering if I made a mistake in purchasing this. I have been shying away from flavored teas lately but I still like the fruity ones.

This I steeped up with boiling water in an infuser mug for 3 minutes. It’s a black tea and the fragrance is very strong, it smells a bit like black currents and cherries to me. As it cools off I am getting more blueberry flavor. It’s true that the flavor of the tea is not as strong as the smell but I don’t really mind that. If the flavor was stronger I might find it sickening, to be honest. I don’t really drink a lot of black teas without soymilk but this one is just kind of pleasant to sip on plain. Drinking it with soymilk is making it more of a dessert-type flavor.

Overall, I am pleased with this purchase. Will definitely have to try it as an iced tea also.

It’s almost midnight and I was looking for something free of caffeine… I picked this from my cupboard, thought it was a tisane without paying attention to the description on the package. Was surprised to see tea leaves when I got the tea bag out! The dry leaves had an intense aroma of berries. When brewed the berry aroma gave way to that of blackcurrant. The fruity flavour was less prominent than the fragrance, but it was still a delicious tea. I particularly liked the sweet, gummy flavour at the end of each sip! Interesting.

Got this in teabag form as a sample the last time I was in the Lupicia store. I thought I was in the mood for this one this morning, as I usually like dark berry flavored teas. I may have pversteeped it, since I’m used to steeping parameters for loose leaf rather than teabags now. It got dark really fast. The dark berry flavor was very pronounced…good, but not as well rounded as i would like. Unfortunately, it turns out I really don’t like the Lupicia black tea base. Oh well, at least I know that now!

Oh, that blueberry smell from the dry leaves is amazing!

The brewed tea still has a strong aroma of blueberry with something else now too. I guess that’s the cassis. I didn’t have any idea what cassis was, so I googled it. Turns out, cassis is blackcurrant, a small perennial shrub with edible berries.

The aroma is definitely berry-laden! But I’m a little let down upon tasting it. That magnificent berry-ness was virtually gone in the first sip.

My second sip had a heavy sweetness to it that the first sip lacked. The third sip was more like the first. Strange. And now I’m getting black tea bitterness.

This review may be little off today since I’m slightly stuffy from allergies. But I agree with LP that the taste is a letdown after the aroma.

What a shame. I really wanted to like this more.

A sample from one of my online orders. Lovely blueberry smell, nice black tea with a hint of flavor. Can’t decide if this is one I would buy. Nice, just not wowed.

The more I try of Lupicia’s stuff, the more excited I get about the idea that I might be able to visit their store when I study abroad this summer. This is really tasty, and I think because of the combination of flavors it would make a really good cold-weather or warm-weather tea (I think of blackcurrant as a winter thing but blueberry as a spring thing). It’s got kind of a colder-weather feel to it, but it’s really light and springy, and it does the thing that tea manages to do sometimes where it tricks me into liking a flavor I normally hate—in this case blueberry. So sad I’m out of samples now!

It smells amazing, and you can really tell the cassis and blueberry. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold the taste nearly as well as the smell. Still good, but a bit disappointing against the smell.