The Final Sipdown: Day 5
Decupboarding Total: 9
Does it count as decupboarding if I didn’t know I had this tea in the first place? It was a total surprise to me to find this tea under some sample tins. Oops.
I opened the little freebie Lupicia bag expecting a teabag. Because every Lupicia freebie since the dinosaurs died off has been a teabag. So yeah, it made a bit of a mess when I opened this because not a tea bag. Loose leaf. Double oops.
Though… it doesn’t look like actual loose leaf. The leaves are small and broken it looks like they just forgot the bag part of the teabag. Of course, I must keep in mind that I did find this little packet under some small tins. So it might not have started out so… powdery. Triple oops?
Fortunately, most of the leaf-related mess stayed on the kitchen counter where I was able to scoop it up and dump in the teapot. (I am a total nerd so I did weigh it first. 3.4g. I continue to appreciate Lupicia’s realistic grasp of how much leaf it takes to make a cup of tea.)
The packaging, leaf and tea (and now my entire kitchen) smell strongly of lychee. Not lychee tea, but actual lychee. See, a while back I had some of Samovar’s lychee tea. It was nice but I couldn’t speak to how realistic the flavor was, so when I was at the grocery store a few weeks later and saw actual lychee I picked up a couple. This tea smells exactly like a fresh lychee fruit ones it has been removed from its shell (husk? rind?). Of course, this isn’t supposed to be lychee tea. It’s supposed to be durian. But I don’t know what a durian is so to me? Lychee tea.
The tea is a bit bitter. But honestly, I don’t think that’s the tea’s fault. I think that the fault of whoever put it under some tea tins and crunched on the leaves for a while. (Yes, that’s me.) I think if the leaf were whole (or at least more than it is now), the bitterness wouldn’t be there. So leaving the bitterness aside, what about the rest of the taste?
Lychee. Full on lychee.
As always, the flavoring Lupicia does is very nice. It’s strong but I can still taste tea under there. (Aside from the bitterness from the broken leaves, yes, there is tea taste there! Yay!) Also, the durian lychee tastes absurdly natural. No chemical taste, no funky aftertaste, nothing. Like I actually just ate the fruit (or pureed it into my tea). And that’s pretty awesome.
Normally I have an issue with flavored green teas. It just seems wrong to me so it is pretty hard for me to love them. I guess I’m a green tea purist. This though? Very tasty. I could do without the bitterness but again, I’m not blaming the tea for that. In fact, the flavoring is so nicely done (and it doesn’t hurt that I apparently like lychee) that I would like to buy some of this so I can try it without the crushed-leaf-induced bitterness.
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
Durian is that fruit that smells of rot and death. I can say so because I have smelt it [and nearly vomited thereafter]. I could not bring myself to taste it, though my friend who did said it doesn’t not taste nearly as offensive as it smells. If it tastes like lychee, I see no reason to possibly subject yourself to the stench [and indeed, it is a stench] when lychee is far milder odor-wise.
Also, this log made me laugh.
Hehe. The whole tea experience seemed destined to be a fail from beginning to end. But it wasn’t! It was lychee-delicious! And I know not of the rot and death fruit but that sounds like a good thing. I spent a few minutes trying to contemplate rot and death fruit and ended up thinking about zombies, so I’m just going to stick with this being lychee tea.
Durian is that fruit that smells of rot and death. I can say so because I have smelt it [and nearly vomited thereafter]. I could not bring myself to taste it, though my friend who did said it doesn’t not taste nearly as offensive as it smells. If it tastes like lychee, I see no reason to possibly subject yourself to the stench [and indeed, it is a stench] when lychee is far milder odor-wise.
Also, this log made me laugh.
Hehe. The whole tea experience seemed destined to be a fail from beginning to end. But it wasn’t! It was lychee-delicious! And I know not of the rot and death fruit but that sounds like a good thing. I spent a few minutes trying to contemplate rot and death fruit and ended up thinking about zombies, so I’m just going to stick with this being lychee tea.