Lanikai

This is one that Auggy shared with me recently. I don’t know if she had been peeking in my posts when making that decision or not and seen that I had been rather vanilla interested lately. Even to the point of having an exchange of comments with someone (who were you?) about the sugar-y sort of vanilla versus the coconut-y sort of vanilla flavouring and them liking the former, me leaning towards the latter. This one has coconut in it as well as dried pineapple, so it must surely be the right sort of vanilla flavouring for me.

But how did she know?

Oh yeah. Taste twins. :D

There’s something in the leaves. Some sort of crystallic blue-y white thing. I can’t tell what it is and the description of the gives no clue. So I ate one. It tastes sugar-y and vanilla like, and it looks like after after steeping they have been dissolved as I can’t spot any in the spent leaf.

It smells like cake. There’s tons of vanilla in this aroma and the pineapple underneath it all, at the very bottom of the aroma, giving it substance. It makes me want upside down cake. And custard. The coconut is there in the aroma as well, but it works more like a booster for the vanilla and a filler for the the pineapple rather than a note by itself. I suspect this is what creates the whole ‘cake’ thing.

Oh Auggy! You sent me happiness in a tin. It’s so vanilla-y, so fruity, so sweet, so thick and creamy, so ME!

It definitely confirms for me that my perfect vanilla tea does indeed have those coconut notes to it. The coconut is really carrying this vanilla and enhancing it in most wonderful way.

The pineapple is still taking a backseat to the other flavours here. It’s there at the bottom being juicy and fruity and reminding me of cake (I want caaaaaaake!!!), but it’s not the star of the show and it’s not trying to be either.

This is very very good indeed. I shall hoard the remainder of Auggy’s generous gift.

Holy monkey, smell that vanilla!

The vanilla scent is immediately intoxicating upon opening the package. There’s something pretty and blue amongst the leaves, too, and I’m not quite sure what it is…along with the chunklets of dried pineapple and coconut shavings in the tea.

The vanilla scent vanishes directly after pouring the water over the tea, but comes back in a slightly mellower way after a minute or so of steeping. Pineapple and coconut scents aren’t really evident, but you do get some mellow, sweet pineapple flavour, as well as a hint of coconut toward the end of each sip. The coconut is the only flavour that lingers in the aftertaste as well. It’s not strong, but it’s definitely there—-more like an intangible idea than an actuality.

As for the tea itself, it’s slightly weaker than I usually like. Perhaps I should have flouted Lupicia’s rules and gone for 6 minutes. If the tea were stronger, I’d probably have liked this more. I was worried the vanilla might be overpowering since it smelled so strongly when first opened, but it was actually quite nice.

It’s quite nice to look at, a rather nice dark gold with coppery undertones. :)

(Side note: Lupicia recommends 3-5 minutes for steep time, using boiling water. Generally, when I brew most teas, I tend to veer toward the longest time suggested because I prefer a stronger brew. )

Calling all Vanilla fans! This is an amazingly beautiful marriage of Vanilla and Coconut. So tasty. So good. I happen to adore this tea. I only wish the pineapple were a little more… present. I think that would definitely make it a favorite of mine, but as it is, it’s quite nice. The color is a pale yellow, almost like dull gold, and there is something cute and small and purplish/blue in the mix but I’m not quite sure what. It doesn’t seem to affect the taste in any drastic way. This tea screams Hawaii for me and I only hope that on my next trip, I’ll be packing a lot more to bring home with me.

The smell when you open the vacuum sealed bag takes you back to Hawaii. Once you brew the leaves, the scent draws you in with it’s toasted coconut-like aroma. I steeped this one for 4 minutes and had a cup. I couldn’t taste the pineapple at all, but the aftertaste and scent of coconut and vanilla was so pleasant I couldn’t put the steaming cup down.

This tea reminded me of a sunny day spent on Kaanapali beach laying on a towel taking in the deliciously salty sea breeze interlaced with the scent of my coconut sunscreen. YUM!