Lupicia

This is one of the 30 tea bags from Lupicia’s “The Book of Tea”! It’s the Christmas gift that I purchased for myself. :) Like all of Lupicia’s tea gifts, it has a gorgeous package, with the tea bags in different shades of rainbow! I had great difficulty deciding which tea to start with because I haven’t tried most of the teas in this gift set… but then I saw this. ROSE HIP TEA! “Tartness enhanced by hibiscus”, according to the description on the package! I knew it would be the perfect tea because I would not feel sorry AT ALL to see it go!

This tea had a ruby red colour when steeped. It’s truly beautiful, but it looked dangerous too. Even though I had given myself full psychological preparation beforehand, the tartness of hibiscus was still too much to take. :0 I totally agree with other reviewers – it tasted like tomato sauce, especially when it’s hot! It’s weird that something totally unrelated to tomato could taste so strikingly similar to it. Definitely not meant to be consumed as a beverage, in my opinion…

I am sure that after the tea has cooled it would be slightly more drinkable (in my experience, the tomato flavour will be less prominent), but if tea-drinking is supposed to be enjoyable, I just can’t see the point of forcing myself to finish the whole cup! I look forward to my next tea from The Book of Tea!

YUM! I wasn’t really excited to try this sample from Lupicia because it’s a rooibos blend and rooibos isn’t my favorite. But, here, the rooibos actually works perfectly. The nutty flavor of the rooibos accents the flavor of chestnut very well, and also brings out the sweetness of the pumpkin and sweet potato very well.

I also like that this tisane didn’t turn to an abundance of spices to create their autumn flavors. While I LOVE spices, it is nice to find a tisane that is so well flavored (and it tastes very authentic too) that it doesn’t require spices to make it taste like fall.

Warm and inviting and cozy. I am loving this.

This is a lovely fruity tea. Don’t ask me which fruits because I really can’t say for sure. Rather berry-like, I think. Maybe raspberries?

Although it is a black tea, it tastes green to me; can’t put my finger on why. Maybe my tongue is just out of whack since I haven’t been drinking a lot of tea lately. (Correction: I have not been reviewing tea lately, so my critical thinking in regard to flavor is off.)

Oh my god….roasted chestnuts!!! I absolutely love this tea!!!

Such a delicious flavoring for tea.

If you love chestnuts too, you must have this.

That is all.

I’m trying a mug of this thanks to CHAroma and I have to say, I am befuddled by the strong negative responses to this tea. I can’t detect anything offensive at all. It tastes floral and fruity. It’s a bit soapy, but not unpleasantly so. It’s very nice. The sencha base seems to get astringent easily, but that’s easily remedied by more careful brewing. And, as with the other Lupicia tea I sampled, the tea base and flavor harmonize to create a better whole. I really need to clear room in my cabinet so that I can order some teas from Lupicia!

The flavor does, in fact, remind me of the sakura mochis that are wrapped in the preserved leaves. I liked the flavor, but not the texture so I guess this tea is a perfect compromise.

I received this as one of those free monthly samples in the mail. I forgot that the yellow wrapping meant rooibos. Nevertheless, I opened it and realized it was rooibos! It smelled sweet when it was dry. After steeping it, it smelled strange to me. I guess its the sweet potato, pumpkin, rooibos combination that threw me off. I don’t want to type this out… but it smells a little like vomitus… I was hesitant to taste it, but I love trying new things so I put it to my lips. The taste is nice, mild, and sweet! It was flavorful and delicious after I got over the initial scent. It is very very scarcely starchy with a chestnut type of flavor in the background. Delicious.

Sipdown! Just brewed the last pot of this.

Back from yoga class and I thought I’d steep this up before I head out for a walk. I was planning to do more cleaning but the weather is just so lovely outside. This is a great mix of strawberry and vanilla with a touch of coconut. I hope Lupicia brings this back for the holidays because it isn’t available year around. This is one of the best decafs teas i’ve ever had.

Tea of the evening here – this makes a nice dessert tea and has a lovely strawberry and vanilla flavor. I have a big day planned tomorrow with some fun things to do, I am looking forward to it!

I was cleaning out my cupboards today trying to figure out how to organize my tea collection better (HELP!!!) , and I unearthed this which I haven’t had in a while. Lupicia does a lot of nice flavored tea and this one is great for evening due to the decaf, the strawberry smells so natural and the vanilla and rose just add a nice touch. I will have to try and remember this for the evening/dessert time. :)

A very nice decaf offering from Lupicia for the holidays. I received this free (loose leaf!) sample at the store recently.

There is so no question that this is what my boyfriend calls a “gummy bear” tea. It’s so so sweet and festive though and the strawberry flavor really comes shining through. The coconut and vanilla round out the flavor very nicely. Ok, it is hard to taste any actual tea here especially after I added soymilk. But what a delicious, low calorie dessert drink! Lupicia does strawberry well – I also suggest trying their strawberry and rhubarb tea if you are a fan of strawberry tea. =)

wow- when you brew this up it smells exactly like a cinnamon cookie, I wonder how Lupicia does it…

This is kind of a pu-er for people who don’t really like pu-erhs since it is so heavily masked with other things. There is lots of sweet cinnamon here as well as some vanilla-y and coconut-y type notes. I love cinnamon so I enjoyed that aspect of it pretty well. Pu-erh was an interesting choice for the base of this tea – it does add a malty and earthy note here. This would be good with some biscotti to dunk in it. It is a tad bit too sweet for me, especially in the morning. I will need to try this as an after lunch or dessert tea instead.

This was the sample that came in the September newsletter from Lupicia.

This is really good. Surprisingly good, because I’m typically not fond of grape flavored things. But here, the grape plays second to the flavor of the Oolong, and I like the way the grape notes highlight the flavors of the Oolong. The Oolong has a sweet, creamy taste to it (not buttery creaminess, exactly, but more of a sweet cream kind of taste). The vegetative qualities are there and compliment the grape tones well.

The grape tastes authentic, like a wine grape (rather the sweet grapes you’d find in the produce section of the supermarket or like the horrid grape candy confections that I try to avoid). The astringency to the Oolong give this a very wine-like quality as well. It finishes dry with a pleasant tart (but not sour) note that lingers.

I’m glad that I got to try this, I probably would not have had the opportunity if it were not for the free sample, as I don’t think I would have ordered a grape flavored Oolong.

I like this a lot. The smells of these teas are very strong and pleasant. This one smells like candy and nesquik powder. I do taste similar hints, though a little less sweet. I don’t like to steep this very long though, b/c the actual green tea becomes too bitter to me (I use 1 tsp per 8oz). I also use a lower temp b/c I feel more comfortable steeping just about any green tea around 160-180 if I can help it, under boiling if I can’t. It is a bit creamy, and of course, floral. I don’t use milk to save myself some calories, and I don’t particularly care to sweeten it. i’m sure it’s even better though.

Sipdown… finally finishing off a bag of this today. I have a lot more Japanese green tea at home. I wonder if I will ever drink it all but at least I have stopped buying more (for the time being). This is an enjoyable afternoon cuppa. I like that this sencha is a bit sweeter than some others I have tried.

This is one of my favorite senchas to date… of course since I like this one so much I haven’t been motivated to experiment and buy a whole lot of others. It’s very vegetal but definitely on the sweeter and more mild side than some I’ve tried. My allergies are going crazy today so I am just drinking a big glass of this.

check out the beautiful color:
http://instagram.com/p/x2BR-RILUs/

Sipdown of the day…

Sometimes there is nothing like a big mug of sencha to get your day going, especially when you have the sniffles. I’ve bought this particular sencha a few times over the years. I like the fact that it has a bit of underlying sweetness and is not as “seaweedy” as some senchas. This resteeps nicely as well.

I might restock this again but for now I have a lot of green teas I need to focus on drinking, including my shinchas from Den’s. Farewell for now, Sencha Chiran!

Tea of the morning here! My Boyfriend is trying to transition off of coffee to green tea because of stress issues so I thought we would try this one to start with. As far as senchas are concerned it is slightly sweeter than some I have tried but it definitely has a seaweed-y type of flavor. I liked it and so did he. I sent him home with some sencha teabags. I might make this a green tea day myself.

In other news, I went to the doctor yesterday and he has signed me off of work for an additional two months…. :-/

Green tea of the morning here! I did well yesterday with having a few servings of green tea and am hoping the theanine keeps my stress levels at bay. This is one of my favorite senchas because it has an underlying sweetness like sweet potatoes and is not as seaweed-y as other senchas I’ve tried.

Tea of the morning here. I’m not usually a sencha in the morning type of gal, but I’m all out of soy milk and the flax milk I last got at Whole Foods was so disgusting I threw it out. Mostly sugar and additives. Blecch! Anyway this is a nice sencha especially if you prefer things a it more on the mellow side. I should probably make a point to finish this off soon although it’s been sitting in my refrigerator, I hope that keeps it fresh for longer.

This is one of my favorite senchas to date, I am enjoying the lovely sweetness of this tea this morning. It’s foggy here as usual – ick!

I am all out of this now. It was delicious and a very good price, time to go back to Lupicia!

I am drinking this again today. I’m so glad I finally found a sencha which I really enjoy. I’ve almost finished the bag already! I upped the rating a wee bit too.