Lupicia

Like drinking tea with a banana laffy taffy in your mouth. I don’t pickup on the chocolate, ok by me cause I don’t like a lot of chocolate teas.

I was so careless that I used boiling water to brew this tea! Perhaps it’s not really wrong (boiling water is actually recommended by Lupicia), but I always find the taste of oolong is at its best when it is hot instead of scalding hot. I could barely taste the flavour and sweetness of this tea when it’s freshly brewed. I waited for my tea to cool a bit and that’s when the flavour came out. Very subtle sweetness and a tiny bit of milkiness. Overall a very gentle tea, and I think it’s the kind of tea made for cold brew. It’s ok but nothing too memorable. I have tasted better oolong from Alishan.

Well now that I’ve tried Kiwi’s Big Adventure, I have to try this one to compare! Thanks to mj for providing my with samples of these lovely Lupicia teas. This one has a black base as opposed to the green base in Kiwi’s Big Adventure. I think a green base makes more sense for a kiwi tea, but we shall see! The tea leaves themselves are quite small, and there are little pieces of what looks like crushed dried green leaves? Also a small piece of candied kiwi! The dry scent is fantabulous amazing sweet fruity candy deliciousness! I steeped mine for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The brewed aroma smells exactly like a fresh kiwi! I’m amazed by how accurate it is. And the taste is the same way! There’s authentic kiwi flavor throughout the entire sip and it’s lovely. It’s a nice balance of sweet and tart just like the actual fruit. The black base is unobtrusive and fairly ho-hum to me, there’s a bit of malt but not much else. I would really like to see this kiwi flavoring used with a lighter base, such as green or white tea. I just feel like it would mesh well with a nice fresh base. But it’s still delicious as-is! :)

Ah, I love this tea! It smells wonderfully sweet in the bag, very fruity. There are little cubes of dried fruit in this blend, along with dark pink peppercorns. When you steep it, you start to smell the pepper a bit more, but the aroma remains mostly fruity. I just wish Lupicia’s site specified which fruits are included in this tea… I know there’s dried mango in here, and I also detect hints of peach and maybe even pineapple. Anyway, it’s delicious! Sweet and tropical with golden fruits and just a hint of husky pepper. Also, the tea base is surprisingly smooth, for a black tea. Not as strong or astringent as the bases in a lot of flavored black teas I’ve tried. Still has the bitter aftertaste of a black tea, though, and the pepper note accentuates this. (It’s perfect for someone like me, who craves those sweet/spicy flavors!) For anyone who wants a sweeter version, I highly recommend adding honey or some other sweetener. It eliminates the bitterness, and really brings out the fruit.

Overall, this is one of my favorite teas from Lupicia! I have to say, I’ve enjoyed all the flavored teas I’ve tried from them. Especially the sweet fruity ones. I even bought a few of the tropical blends for my friends, and they’re all hooked.

By the way, I’m not sure where the description about the monk’s eyelids came from… On the Lupicia USA site, the description for this tea is, “Black tea with refreshing sweet fruit cuts and pink peppers which look like Daruma are added.” Which I thought was really cute!

For anyone who’s curious, daruma are a type of Japanese doll. They’re round and squat, and usually red. They often start out with blank eyes. When you buy one, you’re supposed to draw the pupil in one of their eyes, and make a wish. Then you fill in the other eye when your wish comes true. (They were named after a famous monk called Bodhidharma; it looks like the eyelid reference has to do with some of the folklore surrounding him?) I just wanted to mention that here, because I thought the idea of the peppercorns being tiny daruma dolls was adorable. I’ll have to try brewing a cup around New Year’s… There’s supposed to be a tradition of buying new dolls around that time. (Sort of like New Year’s resolutions, maybe?)

Anyway, I would heartily recommend this tea! Especially to anyone who enjoys fruit-flavored blacks. (Sometimes I open up the bag just to smell the dry leaves… Yum.)

Happy (American) Thanksgiving! Today, I am thankful I found this tea. There is a nice dark chocolate scent. Good chocolate flavour as well. Will try with pumpkin pie tomorrow.

This morning, I tried this with 52 Teas’ Raspberry Birthday Cake. The flavours go so well together. It’s like having a fruity raspberry cake, with dark chocolate frosting. Nice to have while gaming, but makes me want a cupcake.

This was one I wanted to try because of the scent. It smells like a dark chocolate bar, and also a rich hot cocoa. That is what comes out the flavour- rich, smooth, and creamy chocolate. Will be nice to have chocolate in tea form for the Autumn season.

2021 sipdown no. 17

Another great tea courtesy of Cameron!

This tea is super milky today with no astringency at all. It’s kind of like milk and cookies. There’s more of a cookie-like scent than flavour, but I’m finding this enjoyable.

I’m always intrigued to order this one, but I just don’t know if I need to. Lex described this one as ‘cloying’ and didn’t enjoy it at all, sadly.

This tea smells caramel-like when dry, and there is a somewhat caramel flavour there steeped too. Caramel, yet cookie. I’ve had to finangle with all the steeping parameters to finally get a cup I’m nearly fully enjoying though.

This cup had 2.8g of dry tea/14 oz. of just under boiling water. Not actually 205 degrees, I only waited a few moments until the majority of steam was gone from the open kettle. Then a quick steep of 2.5 minutes.

I’m finding I want just a little bit more of something. Maybe adding milk would bring something out, though I’m not one for adding milk. Maybe my next cup I’ll be brave enough.

Got this one in my last swap with mj! Was going to try it like a month ago…but somehow it got lost on my shelf. Finally recovered it while organizing my tea the other day. So finally getting to try it!
Holy Shanghai!!
This is so chocolatey! So much dark chocolate…wow. xD
It’s so strong and rich…Don’t think I had expected it to be this chocolatey!
Definitely a winner!
Thanks again for the sample, mj! :D

Sipdown!

Ah, this is lovely. Light, fresh, juicy, melon & cucumber. Sweet smelling but less so on the palate. The finish is melon and cucumber, very light.

When I’m not up to my eyeballs in tea, I’ll have to place a Lupcia order. This is fantastic.

MmmMmmMmmMmmelon! This is sweet but not artificial, and very, very melony. Cantaloupe and honeydew. The white tea part is very mild, really only noticeable mid-sip. There’s a hint of breadyness on the nose.

I’ve had a couple of hints of odd notes of olive that were only there for a split second, but they seem to be gone.

Quite nice, fresh and easy to drink. Thank you to Dexter for the sample!

This was not bad – a delicate tea with fragrant jasmine which had just the taste of spring!! But I want to point out that the jasmine flavour was mostly gone after the first brew, and by the third brew it was totally gone… which suggests that the the scenting process might not be long enough.

I am more a fan of light and floral Taiwanese oolong, but I’ve got to admit that this is not bad. A warm, roasted flavour that reminds me of houjicha, with an unexpectedly sweet finish characteristic of Taiwanese oolong. Would really love to have some traditional Taiwanese pastries to go with it…

Another that came as a sample from my classmate. It smelled so nice as leaves. Brewed- there is mostly a berry scent, with some apple. In the flavour, the berry still comes out more. Mostly, it’s just a sweet green tea.

This is drinkable perfume! The special oolong and white tea base gives this classic favourite a great twist. It is lighter and sweeter than traditional Earl Grey – great for hot summer days!

Because I wanted to try some green tea, I got this one too. Apples! It smells so nicely like apples. Not so much Autumn apples, but Japanese apple candies. The flavour is fruity, mildly sweet, apple, and I like the base green.

This would be something I’d like to try iced.

I got to try this iced. Mmm… grapes. There is a nice, fruity scent. The flavour is sweet, and certainly tastes like muscat. Somehow a lot of their fruit flavoured teas end up tasting like Japanese candies I like. This one reminds me of a certain gummy candy.

Liked it, but I prefer the oolong.

I like to have green tea while watching anime, it just seems to fit. So I made this before a few episodes of the The Slayers. It has a nice, creamy custard scent. There is also some roast nuts. The flavour doesn’t seem as strong now, but I really like the mild caramel.

This is one of the teas my classmate sent when she went back to the store.

Such an interesting sounding tea, so I had to try. There is a nice roasted, sweet scent, slightly nutty scent. The caramel came out more in the flavour, it made for a very different tasting pairing with the houjicha. I was surprised how much I liked it, and it made me think of dessert. Perhaps a dessert I need to make. (Now I want to try other flavoured houjicha.)

wow, so glad i decided to spring for some of this in my first Lupicia order! it’s effing delicious. it smells beyond divine. like apples so fresh and juicy you just wanna cold-steep this in an ice bath and chug the pitcher when it’s done.

the smell of the dry leaf. i can’t even talk about the smell. so appley luscious and rosy. i wouldn’t normally consider myself an apple fiend, especially when it comes to flavored things but this is by far the exception.

i mean i’m always open to wonderfully scented and flavored teas that are fruity, gourmand/sweet and what have you, but i really like this one. now i wanna give their Apple & Berry green a try as well….and of course their Grapefruit Green. i’m a grapefruit fiend & every now and again, i crave grapefruit like i crave oxygen. anyway, if Tsugaru Green is any indication of the quality of Lupicia’s flavored greens, i should have no trouble exploring their other green offerings! (Not least of all their matcha, hehe.)

i also got their Strawberry & Vanilla green which smelled so amazing i could have passed out. so yea, totally looking forward to fainting.

ETA— my brother’s on vacation right now in Japan & he just climbed Mount Fuji with his friend! he said it was one of the most challenging yet rewarding things he’s ever done in his life. i told him about this tea & the famed San Tsugaru apples from Aomori Prefecture and said he should try and procure some if there are any in Tokyo!

how i wish i had a bowl of them in front of me right now, i would not cease to attack it and eat at least 3!!