Lupicia

I went through my entire package of this preparing it coldbrew, and it was absolutely delicious! The melon flavor is really sweet and juicy, that sort of hybrid cantalope/honeydew flavor I get from other Japanese melon-flavored products. The base oolong is very silky and smooth with a bit of a fresh green vibe that carries the melon flavor perfectly. I probably should’ve tried this with some added sweetener and carbonation just to see how close it could get to melon soda, but just as a straight coldbrew it was perfect. Very gulpable. I really love Lupicia’s flavored oolongs for coldbrew!

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The mango is really lovely in this tea — like a mango syrup (made of real, ripe mango) perhaps. The peppercorns provide a very true pink peppercorn flavour. There seems to be subtle hints of peach, but I think that’s a trick of the imagination with the mango. The base is really lovely with no astringency.

An interesting tea. Thank you Cameron!

This tea is very plum heavy- by that, I mean the tart Japanese green plums rather than the larger purple Western plums. If you like crisp umeboshi, you will recognize the astringent note in this tea. Just don’t expect a juicy, fruity flavour- this suggests more of a tart green dry note the Japanese call “shibui.” No bitterness, but it does have that dry slightly unripe quality overall and especially in the finish.

The tea is that perfect servicable standard Lupicia green that pairs well with the ume. This tea definitely gives me spring vibes, rather that the current autumn. I’d say give it a try if you are a fan of Japanese plums.

This is listed as “Yojo Puer” on the teabag, I am not sure if it’s different from the standard Lupicia Puer. It’s a mild puer with a level of mild smokiness and no bitterness. This one is very accessible and doesn’t require any fussing like more traditional Puer. Overall, it was slightly mushroomy and the smoke flavour was very authentic and well-balanced. It’s a very nice choice for beginners to Puer, both in taste and ease of preparation. I got 3 steeps out of it and probably could have gotten a fourth, but was all Puer’d out at that point.

I am not a huge fan of Earl Grey, though occasionally I get a craving for it. This is one of my favourites, with the Darjeeling adding a little variety. It’s a clean, airy blend which is heavy on the bergamot (both in flavour and scent). If I am drinking Earl Grey, I want it to be distinguishable. Some EG have a barely-there whiff of bergamont and are just glorified breakfast blends. This one is much more burly in that department.

This is a Lupicia classic black with fruity flavours of guava and papaya. I quite like this type of tea, but it is by no means unique. I will say the tropical fruity notes are more prominent here than in their other blends and the black tea is milder. I don’t get a particular note of papaya or guava, it’s more a generic “tropical” note.. A very safe choice and would be a solid cuppa that almost every black tea enthusiast would enjoy.

Working our way through the Book of Tea, today I’m drinking Kotobuki. It’s a “Taiwanese oolong tea scented with French mirabelle plums.” Lupicia does fruity oolongs exceeding well, and this is no exception. I am getting an apricot flavour vs a plum, though I have never tasted nor seen a Mirabelle plum. This exclusive-sounding plum seems like something the Japanese dreamt up, as they have a fondness for obscure European fruits. It’s a jammy sort of fruit note vs. a tropical. The underlying oolong is fresh and astringent. Altogether, a very nice blend. I have only one bag and I’ve used it for a hot cuppa, though this would probably make a nice iced tea as well.

I quite enjoyed this one, though I’m not a huge fan of Earl Grey. The chocolate note was prominent, quite rich and deep, working nicely with the bergamont. I’m not sure if I’d repurchase, but this was a good-quality, well blended cuppa. So many oddball blends turn out worse than their individual parts, but this worked quite nicely. It’s a good cuppa for an autumn day, somehow. A bit decadent, but somehow also…pragmatic. I imagine drinking this before a big late-night assignment, wanting to have a treat but still knowing there’s a lot of work ahead. Perhaps it’s my quintessentially British soul that equates a “treat” with “hard work.” No chocolate tea without some commensurate effort!

A bog-standard Darjeeling blend. Perfectly pleasant, good quality leaves, but it’s…Darjeeling. Nothing awful or outstanding, it’s a solid middle of the road option. It did hold up nicely to two steepings. I don’t use milk or sweetener in my tea, but I suspect this would be a nice blank canvas for syrups or milks.

It seems I am in a Steepster no-man’s land: I seem to be logged in, but can’t log out and couldn’t review teas (just kept getting redirected to a phantom dashboard.) So, I shall fire off a bunch of reviews this morning whilst I have access.

I do not like most rooibos and this poor chap is no exception. It is a wet-doggy honeybush rooibos which is thankfully offset by a good amount of ginger and lemon myrtle. It does give me a sickroom sort of image and might be nice if you’re feeling under the weather. I must say the ginger and lemon myrtle combination is quite zesty and refreshing, so I’d like to try it in a non-rooibos blend.

No fault of Lupicia, but the quest continues for a rooibos I’d actually want to drink on a regular basis. Points for the other elements but dodge this one if you are not a rooibos fan, since that note is most prominent in this blend.

This is a rather bold morning blend, rather standard Assam based but according to Lupicia, includes a “robust blend of uplifting African tea.” No further details on the specific leaf, but this one will put some hair on your chest. A fine choice for a morning tea that will get you going, but nothing I’d really pursue repurchasing. I am quite unskilled at picking up the nuances of black “breakfast” teas, though, so take that as you will. To me, they’re all variations on a theme and have to be either fantastic or awful to make a big impression.

It’s still warm enough that I’m drinking iced tea in the afternoon, and I’ve been enjoying this one cold brewed. I typically don’t find the flavor overwhelming in Lupicia blends, but the mango really pops in this particular tea… it really does have a very fresh and juicy note that tastes great as an ice-cold tea. The oolong base adds a very complementary “green” note and a touch of florality and mineral water. Extremely thirst-quenching!

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Lupicia really knocked it out of the park with this tea. The blueberry has never been more real <3. The black currant falls more to the background, but adds complexity and a subtle hint of tartness. I adore this tea, actually. Goodness, now I’ll have to make a list towards a Lupicia cart.

Thank you so much for sharing Cameron :)

A nice fruity green by Lupicia. They mention it’s “berries” but I get more of a strawberry whiff as opposed to a more classical red berry taste. I also get a vanilla finishing note, but it’s very mild.

It’s a nice all-round choice for a fruity green with a relatively natural tasting strawberry, but I feel as though I’ve tasted this one before, particularly from Lupicia. I prefer their Paradise Green for a similar but more complex flavour profile. This is a nice choice for guests or as a safe gift, but it’s not particularly inspiring. For a brew called Tokio, I’d like something a little more….memorable?

This tea has been my morning cuppa on those mornings cool enough for hot tea. It has that same strong CTC base that most of Lupicia’s black teas have, which is malty and tends toward astringency even with a shorter steep. The flavoring surprisingly holds up pretty well given Lupicia tends to be a bit lighter-handed and their black base is really strong; the chocolate is similar to that from the “Chocolate and Strawberry Pu’erh” I just finished off, lacking that “liquor” taste and instead adding a sort of fudgy quality to the black tea without tasting particularly chocolately. The orange stands out a lot more; I like it a lot more than I usually find orange flavorings, but my main issue is it has a sort of bitter quality to it that really makes the astringency of the base stand out. I get a sort of coating, drying sensation on my tongue. It’s not bad (at least prepared hot, but I found the tea downright unpleasant once the cup had gone cold), but I definitely prefer Lupicia’s chocolate+strawberry or chocolate+raspberry to this.

Not one of my favorite Lupicia offerings. Perhaps the age is effecting it at this point, but it’s missing some of the authenticity that always impresses me with Lupicia fruit flavors.

I’m jealous of all of you that are already getting fall weather… it is still decidedly summer here, though it has finally cooled down a bit first thing in the morning, at least enough so that I’ve been craving a hot cuppa tea to start the day, before then switching to whatever I have coldbrewing in the fridge (lately that has been Lupicia’s “Happiness” and “Kotobuki”).

I’m not a big pu’erh fan, but I do tend to like most flavored offerings, and this is no exception. The pu’erh base is quite earthy but tastes a lot “cleaner” than I tend to find pu’erh, which often tastes a bit dirt/mud-like to me. Steeped strongly, the black tea in the blend comes out more and smooths the flavor a bit more by adding some subtle smokiness, but that also gives the tea a slight astringency. As far as the flavor, it isn’t really strong in typical Lupicia fashion, but it is present; the chocolate doesn’t have that weird liquor note and is more of a fudgy/nutty flavor that blends nicely with the base notes, and the strawberry is that light candy-esque strawberry flavor found in Lupicia’s other strawberry teas. It’s really satisfying (especially during a rare summer rainstorm) and gives me a lot more alert energy than I typically get from caffeinated teas.

Cold Brew!

This tea has really stuck in my head since I first tried it, so I made it again for today’s cold brew. Wow is it good! Very refreshing and flavourful without at all feeling heavy. I do think the cherry blossom notes come out a little bit less with this method, but the trade off was that the strawberry was less artificial/candy like than when I’d tried it hot. Also, even without as much cherry blossom, the strawberry flavouring itself has a bit of a floral undertone. Truly very delicious with either prep method, though!

I love when my local T&T imports limited edition blends from Lupicia, so when I saw this one there over the weekend I had to grab it. It’s just so tricky to get Lupicia here in Canada!

I steeped it up basically as soon as I got home from grocery shopping and the thing that really caught me off guard was how intense and fresh smelling the strawberry flavouring in the blend was. Not fresh in the sense of freshly picked strawberries, either. More fresh as in freshly blended where the slight alcohol edge from the carrier of the flavouring hasn’t totally aired out yet.

It made a very wonderful cup when steeped though. Potent, aromatic notes of sakura with a slight saline edge – though not as much as the “straight” sakura black tea blend I also have from Lupicia. In both blends the cherry blossom leaves are salted. The straberry is pretty strong. Maybe a little more than the cherry blossom itself, though very complimentary. It reminds me more of a strawberry candy than real strawberries. Maybe with a very subtle creamy floral undertone. Full bodied black base and just a little tannic.

Very happy with this purchase!

Another from Cameron B!  Thanks again!  Lupicia never fails — the scent of the leaf here was very faint, but of course steeping it, the Lupicia magic happens and it’s full red apple!  Also a hint of champagne.  So good.  (And of course, Lupicia also has a fantastic GREEN apple flavor…)

Lupicia calls it a “Toasty and pleasantly astringent Chinese oolong scented with mango and passion fruit.” That’s pretty accurate- it’s very highly scented, but the aroma and flavour are quite natural and the astringency works well with the base tea. This is a very common type of tea (black/oolong with a tropical note) for Lupicia, but this is one of the best in the class. If you like a well-balanced, fruity oolong, look no further.

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So this is a pear and bergamot oolong, which sounds good to me in theory. But I find that the bergamot overpowers the pear, and the combination of the bergamot with the floral notes of the oolong is just a bit too perfumey/flowery for me. I do taste a bit of crisp pear in the finish, but since Lupicia does such amazing fruity oolongs, I was hoping for more of a fruit presence here.

Ah well, I should be relieved not to love this, since I assume it’ll never be available again. :P

I’ve been enjoying this orange-flavored oolong mostly as a coldbrew due to the blazing temperatures, but have tried a stray warm cup here and there as well. I often find orange-flavored teas either a very artificial sort of flavor, or super pithy due to orange peel, but this tea manages to be neither. It’s a more subtle sort of citrus, but still has a noticable tang at the end of the sip. The oolong base is very green and smooth, with a touch of florality which, mixed with the orange, gives an “orange blossom” sort of vibe. It’s a nice choice for someone looking for a citrus tea that isn’t overbearing, and very refreshing as an iced tea.

With the unending triple-digit heat here, I’ve mostly been exclusively drinking cold brew or iced tea, but I wanted to try at least one hot cup of this tea before the leaf is out.

I love green apple, and never seem to find enough things with that flavor for my liking. This tea has a really lovely green apple flavor, and the sencha Lupicia uses as a base always appeals to me, falling on the grassy and buttery side rather than the oceanic side, which blends well with the apple flavor. My biggest complaint is that the soft, pillowy approach to fruit flavoring Lupicia uses is just not strong enough for me in this case… I just want moar green apple! I want to be slapped across the face with it, rather than a soft and subtle background note.

Makes a very nice coldbrew! I’ve tried preparing it cold a few different ways but didn’t find any noteworthy differences when brewing it hot and then icing over just coldbrewing the leaf, nor with adding sweetener (it tastes nice with a bit of honey, but is fine without). Makes a good guzzle-tea.