Lupicia

Holiday Tea-son! When I visited Lupicia last November, they gave me some sampler teabags for buying so much tea, and two of them were holiday samplers, Jingle Bells and Soleil Levant, so of course I plan on trying out both this month. I planned to do the Soleil Levant since it’s a green and it’s already rather late, but accidentally grabbed the Jingle Bells and opened the package, so oops. Ah well, at least it’s the weekend. It smells very strongly of grape! Which I’ve never really associated as a holiday flavor, but honestly I’m happy to drink something that isn’t orange, spice, or almond for a change, too, so I’m not really complaining.

Since Lupicia blacks have a tendency toward getting a bit more robust than I tend to care for, I went for a briefer steep of this sachet than usual, bumping down my three minutes to two. It still looked a nice deep reddish brown color, and had a strong grape aroma.

I think the shorter steep was the right choice, since the black tea was still quite potent, but the astringency didn’t come off quite as demanding as usual for a Lupicia black. I think I would’ve had bitterness issues had I went for my usual three minute steep. The tea had a strong grape flavor, and it comes off a bit too much like the fake grape candy/Kool-Aid flavor that I’m not that big of a fan of, but it isn’t overly unpleasant, either. There are some floral background notes that add a bit of sweetness and depth which help temper the grape a bit. I’m not really getting any alcoholic/campagne notes though.

Not a terrible cup, but not a favorite. I preferred the Honey Mead and Niagra Ice Wine teas I sampled last month a lot more than this one as far as grapey-tasting teas.

I am a fresh fruit nut. My trip to the grocery store is mainly whatever fresh fruit that arrived. Green guavas, green mangos, sour tamarind… Etc. I literally like every fruit but cantaloupe, ripe papaya (green is good) and honey melon. So as I was sipping it, I wonder why I got this lol. It really tastes like cantaloupe so a cantaloupe lover will love this. I have the melon white tea on the way. Now I’m thinking “Why oh why?” hehe

The tightly rolled green balls had cute light green crystals in it and it had the wonderful aroma of watermelon jolly ranchers. I had my hopes up for watermelon but the light amber liquor had, without a doubt, the distinctive taste of canteloupe with honeydew melon hints. It’s a mild flavor, like many of the Lupicia I’ve tried. I don’t think I should rate this because the way I feel about cantaloupe. I’m going to guess it would be rated highly to those who do.

4g, 200ml, 200°F, 2 steeps, 2 min., 2.5min.

I got this from Mastress Alita! Thank you! This is just what I need after a week of heavy winter teas.

This brews up to a pretty greenish yellow. Hot, it holds onto a bit of that distinct musky oolong aroma, but what I smell is mostly peach. That fermented flavor fades away as the tea cools. I love the idea of peaches and rose, and the pieces of dried fruit and rose petals look so nice together.

As far as flavor goes, peach is in the forefront. In fact, I can’t really taste the rose notes at all. (Not that I mind – I love fruity oolong blends.) Maybe it’s just the peach, but I feel like I taste osmanthus instead of rose. I adore osmanthus, so that makes this tea pretty perfect for me. Another winner by Lupicia.

Dark black tea leaves with chopped almonds. Has a wonderful almond aroma, like those almond cookies or almond biscuits. Light almond-cookie flavor. Sweet but definitely not oversweet. It was more almond than anything which can never really be a bad thing. They suggested having it with milk but I usually never add anything to my tea. Luckily I have more of it, and maybe I will try it with a splash of heavy cream next time. :D The sweetness was more like brown sugar, caramel not honey or artificial flavoring. Had a pretty strong buttery aftertaste (which I liked), and a long finish. I wouldn’t call it thick feel though, nor a buttery slickness but more just the nice taste of butter. I think that’s what makes it cookie-like. No astringency, no bitterness (not even the dark chocolate bitterness), malty, nutty, smooth. I look forward to trying it with a splash of cream next time. I think this would make a great cup of tea after a salty meal in place of a dessert.^^

Still happily working through my first Lupicia order.

Long dark strips of Taiwanese pouchong with bright bits of pink rose petals in it. Smells delicious, a strong aroma of fresh white peach, couldn’t smell the rose which is a good thing for me. Sat by too many people in my lifetime who wore heavy cheap rose perfume. That’s an instant headache. I digress lol.

The wet leaves were the same aroma with an added mild vegetal aroma of the pouchong. The light yellow liquor aroma was a faint peach. Taste profile was a delicate, light yummy white peach with very very faint good rose hints (good as in faint lol). The 2nd & 3rd infusions, there was a little astringent effect going on, pleasant physical sensation, that very slight drying out my tongue. I didn’t taste the coconut, meringue nor was it perfumey that I saw in some of the other reviews.

4g, 200ml, 212°F, 4 steeps, 1.5m, 2m, 2.5m, 3m

I love grapefruits. I buy a bag every week. I don’t care for sweet grapefruits though. I like them tart. Well, this tea captures what grapefruit tastes like… Maybe more like a pomelo because there is a little sweetness, the citrusy blast and then the “good” bitterness that kind of lingers for quite a while after you’ve finished eating a piece. It is mellow, not too tangy which is why I think of a pomelo more.

Again as with the other Lupicia that I tried today, it has a nice mild flavor but not as faint as the others. So far I got 3 infusions out of it, and it is still flavorful to me (2m, 2.5m, 3m) so I may go for another. I have no idea about resteeps when it comes to Western brew. I start with what they recommend and add 30 secs. Give me a holler if I’m doing it wrong. lol.

The description says “This tea has a mature taste”. I guess I’m immature because I got a chuckle out it. lol, What is a mature taste? If it has a mature taste, then I’ve been really mature for as long as I can remember hehe. I suppose it’s a good way to let the buyer know that it has “good” bitterness in it… And in this case, I am glad it has it. I dislike bitter unless its good bitter.^^ I like that it’s not too sweet and it tastes as a grapefruit should.

Highly recommended if you like grapefruit.

Medium-dark liquor with chocolate, caramel, strawberry aroma with a hint of leather, hay aroma similar to other Pu-erh but when it came to the taste, the leather taste wasn’t present and if it was, I didn’t notice it. :P

Like the Kotobuki, it was very mild, but yet a very pleasant taste. I liked this one much better (no rose at all that I can tell) and had hints of chocolate, caramel, strawberries, maybe even Kahlua-like with a little bit of rum-like and vanilla bean in there. When I was drinking it, I thought of chocolate covered strawberries, and if you blended it up, added a lot of water, this is what the juice would taste like. It was sweet but not sugary. I liked it very much. Hard to believe it’s Pu-erh though.

Boo, totally over-steeped the 2nd infusion. It was much stronger though lol. o.O Cats began fighting…

porcelain gaiwan, 212F, 4g, 200ml, quick rinse, 2.5 min

Background: I have zero experience with flavored teas. Majority of my life, I’ve only drunk non-flavored. I have tried over the years one here and one there when I’m at a hotel but unfortunately never cared for them. I once bought a caramel apple tea (Yogi) and it was horrible. I still have it sitting on my shelf. So for the most part, never bought any. If I didn’t like my matcha (non-flavored), I’d use that in a smoothie with added fruits.

Since I joined this site, you all make these sound so interesting, and I think I never gave them a fair chance so… I got my first Lupicia order today and am very excited. ^^

First Impressions: Tightly rolled green ball, little bits of pink-orange bits. Smells kind of like the fruity cough syrup but with plum aroma, some sweet citrus (not orange nor grapefruit).

Will finish this after I try this :D

Back :)

Light amber liquor and it still smells a little like cough syrup but with a plum aroma. It is a very light and mild taste. I was surprised because I don’t usually do western style brewing and thought… A whole 2.5 min?? Omgosh it’s going to be too strong. It wasn’t. Yummy taste with grass, floral, light sweetness and nice plum notes. There are also hints of rose but thank goodness not overwhelming (If it wasn’t for the rose, it would’ve got higher marks. I don’t really like rose.). Very smooth mouth and throat feel. Both infusions went down fast hehe. I liked it. It is a far cry from the few I’ve tasted in the past. Doesn’t taste artificial at all, and thank goodness it didn’t have that artificial sweetener taste. It was a good experience. (Whispers: Yes!)

Afterthought: Oh yeah a few months ago, I tried Adagio grapefruit and peach oolong. Forgot about those. I guess those are classified flavored as well. I liked the grapefruit but not the peach one so much.

Holiday Tea-son! I am saving the tea that came out of my Bird & Blend advent calendar for my Doctor Who viewing this Sunday, so I’m making this sampler I got from an expired Lupicia holiday pack last April during a mottainai sale for my work thermos today

The brewed tea smells very fruity, with some spice notes. The base tea is fairly strong and produces some drying astringency after the sip. The tea has a somewhat sweet apple flavor, and there is a slight cinnamon flavor after the sip, but it is quite subtle. There is supposed to be cardamom and currant notes in this tea, but I’m not really picking up on either. The black base is quite robust, and it feels more like a weak apple/cinnamon flavoring over the top.

Not my favorite. I’m really only getting much of an apple flavor, and I prefer Lupicia’s Apple Black a lot more than this. If the other flavors had presented themselves, that may have changed my feelings some. I suspect the sampler sachet vs. the loose version of the tea may make a big difference, too; looking at the sachet I’m not seeing any full cardamom pods or cranberry pieces like in the picture here on Steepster, it pretty much just looks like plain black tea leaves. I’m assuming there are only a few flavorings in the sachet version?

Holiday Tea-son! This was included in a Lupicia holiday sampler of some sort that came out last year, and I picked up on the super-cheap from a mottainai sale last April! It’s just a classic English Breakfast black tea blend of Indian, Kenyan, and Sri Lankan black teas, but the packaging of the sampler is all cute and golden and covered in snowflakes and Christmas ornaments and a puppy with some sort of holiday-colored collar. Eh, whatever works. Good enough for me to count it under the theme, and it’s a quick-and-easy sipdown. I do enjoy an English Breakfast during my Doctor Who episode viewing. Feels so… thematic.

This was a very robust blend. It was quite malty, with very strong citrus notes, creating a strong lemony flavor, with a light peppery note at the end of the sip. The strong citrus flavor combined with the hint of pepper reminded me a bit of yuzu (just with a more subdued peppery taste). Even though I used my typical brisk steep, the black tea produced a fair amount of bitterness and a strong astringency on the tongue. Enough so that I decided to add a bit of honey to this one.

All in all, not my favorite breakfast blend. I’ve had several that came out very smooth, that I could drink plain just fine, and since I don’t really go for a breakfast blend because I want to add milk and sweetener, those are my preferred sorts of breakfast blends. This would probably be more suitable for those that like the robust sort of black blend that is more suited to adding milk and sugar or honey.

Smells so much like grapes right out of the bag! Reminds me of grape-flavored candy.

ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge – “Campfire Day – drink something smoky!”

So this prompt was technically for yesterday, but I forgot about it so here we are. I actually don’t own many smoky teas, I think including this one I have two at the moment? It’s not that I dislike smoked teas, I just don’t reach for them so generally they have to be mixed with something else to be a reorder for me.

That being said, this tea is wonderful. I adore the combination of the lapsang with bergamot and then the sweet and juicy longan. It sounds like a weird combination, but makes so much sense when I drink it ha ha. It’s very aromatic but doesn’t taste like a perfume, which I appreciate.

Anyway, love it! This one is on permanent reorder from Lupicia for me.

Sipdown! (30 | 351)

Still loving this one!

The combination of the subtle smoke and subtle bergamot with the longan is so unexpected but lovely. The longan fruit has a lychee-like juiciness that’s mouthwatering, while the slightly savory nature of the lapsang adds a nice contrast.

So, so good. Definitely on the reorder list!

This one recently made its way into my “5 oldest teas” box, being from August of 2017.

It had been a while since I’d had it, and oh my goodness I’d forgotten how much I love this one. It seems quite rare for me to enjoy a flavored lapsang, but this is such a lovely combination of gentle smoke, subtle bergamot, and tropical, floral lychee. Apparently it’s longan, but I’ve never had longan, and to me it tastes just like lychee.

Such a weird-sounding combination and yet so, so good… A definite reorder when I run out!

This is from the “sipdown-in-progress” box. To be honest, I was hesitant to try this one, as I find myself not enjoying smoky teas as much lately as I used to…

But I actually really like the smoke here, it pairs so nicely with the bergamot. The overall taste is a bit light, I think this would be ideal for afternoon tea. The bergamot is not overpowering, and has a nice citrusy zing. The smoke is fairly light as well, a nice savory smoked food sort of note. I’ve never had a longan fruit, but to me the fruit here tastes quite a bit like lychee, with that unique juicy sort of floral tropical flavor. It seems an odd pairing with the other two flavors but goes over well, happily I am a fan of lychee in general.

Raising the rating a bit here because I like this one more than I remember. Happily, I see that the US website still offers it, in the case that I find I need it in my cupboard later on.

In other news, I seem to be amassing quite a stockpile of freeze-dried miso soup. I fell in love with it a few months ago after I think discovering it through Kickstarter? So now I’ve ordered some alternate brands through Amazon and am in miso heaven. The freeze-dried variety is so much better than the instant kind I’ve had in the past, with actual big chonks of veggies and such. And the flavor variety is amazing! Today I had an eggplant version that was delish… (drool)

Home – 8:00 PM

The Great Cupboard Excavation
Untasted teas remaining: 3

So this is an interesting one – an Earl Grey made with lapsang and longan fruit. According to the description, this is meant to be an ode to the original Earl Grey blend. Interesting!

Woof, the bergamot is quite strong in this one! I do taste a bit of smoke, but the bergamot is by far the dominant flavor. Apparently the longan fruit is from the same family as the lychee, which totally makes sense as this does have a lychee-esque note to it. It’s almost a bit floral, but tropical fruity at the same time.

I will say, the bergamot here is a bit too strong for me. It goes to a harsh and perfumey place, and actually makes the blend taste more bitter. I’m a fan of more subtle bergamot in my Earl Grey.

Maybe I’ll just leave the tin open a bit and hope some of the bergamot dissipates… Because otherwise I really like this tea! It’s a really interesting mix of sweet, savory, smoky, floral, and fruity…

I got this from Cameron B.! Yay, thank you for my first barley tea!

The aroma has me confused. Watermelon, yes, but also… coffee? Is that what barley smells like in tea? There’s also something kinda oceanic, like roasted seaweed. I have gone from confused to a little apprehensive.

The brew looks like black tea. Dark brown. My first sip is not as horrifying as I expected. However, it is nothing like any tea I’ve ever had before. It does taste like coffee. Like a somewhat sour, dark roast, but without that acrid bite. Just the flavor. And then there’s watermelon. I’m left wondering why this is a thing. Who thought these two flavors were meant for each other? It’s like I’m tasting some kind of culinary accident.

Sipdown 116/395

Chosen by the boyfriend, who raved about it and said that it tasted chocolatey (??). I remember getting this a couple of years ago and really enjoying it, then saving the last of my sample to savour it, and we all know that that means leaving it for two or three years while I acquire hundreds of other teas and it loses flavour. It also didn’t help that I didn’t really have enough leaf left for a pot for two, but I’m encouraging Ryan to get more into tea so I wasn’t going to say no. What kind of monster would do that to a fledgling tea enthusiast? I was disappointed that it was a shadow of the tea I remembered, but enjoyed the pot nonetheless. I do love chestnut teas, it’s one of my favourite flavours.

Sample from my swap with WhatSheSaid.

Home – 4:30 PM

The Great Cupboard Excavation
Untasted teas remaining: 7

This is another one from Lupicia’s summer iced tea collection. I’m not sure what flavors it’s meant to have other than mint – my packet is in Japanese and there’s not much in the description here on Steepster.

I’m definitely tasting some citrus – I’m thinking grapefruit mostly. It pairs very well with the herbal peppermint to create a refreshing afternoon tea. The two flavors are quite well-balanced. I can taste a bit of the gunpowder green tea underneath the added flavoring.

It’s a perfectly nice minty green tea. Personally, I prefer spearmint to peppermint, so it’s not one I would stock. But I can imagine it would be very good iced.

I have a sniffle and it is starting to get cooler here, so I thought a hot cup of something would perhaps help.

I am pretty sure this is the last untasted and unwritten about herbal in my current stash. So yay, there’s that.

There’s a strong citrus aroma from the dry mix. After steeping, it’s an orange Fanta color and to the extent my sniffer can discern anything in its runny state, it smells a little lemony, a little more grapefruity.

The flavor reminds me of why I generally find green rooibos blends superior to red ones. It’s a pretty clean flavor delivery mechanism, without much in the way of its own to distract. To the extent I taste it, it’s a slightly reedy taste and completely inoffensive.

I like this quite a bit. I’d like it more if it was a bit sweeter, but hey, it’s grapefruit.

Sipdown! (4 | 4)

Another nice tea from Lupicia… ❤

I love osmanthus, and here it has such a sweet and fruity apricot-esque flavor. There’s a nectarous quality to it that reminds me of honey, but in a very subtle way. Delicate, yet ripe and juicy at the same time. The black tea is nothing to write home about, but it’s smooth and slightly earthy, and mellow enough to let the flavor of the osmanthus shine.

I will say, I think I prefer osmanthus paired with oolong, as it just meshes a bit better in my opinion. So I’m not sure if I would reorder this tea because of that, but it is a wonderful tea. :)

Home – 2:30 PM

The Great Cupboard Excavation
Untasted teas remaining: 11

This is an interesting one from Lupicia. I was intrigued, so I had to order some – it’s simply a black tea with a generous amount of tiny golden osmanthus petals. I’m not sure I know what osmanthus tastes like? I’ve had it in teas before, but never as a main flavor. The dry scent is nectar-like with notes of honey – it makes me think of bee pollen.

Hmm… I like this but I’m not quite sure how to describe the flavor. It sort of tastes like the way dandelions smell? So I guess that means it tastes like pollen? But that sounds weird to say, ha ha. Nectar is probably a better descriptor. It’s sweet and a touch fruit-like – closest to an apricot flavor, even down to the slight dryness reminding me of their fuzzy skins. There’s a touch of tropical presence as well (passion fruit?). The tea itself is mild, with malt and baked bread notes.

This is such an unusual tea, I’m not quite sure how to rate it… :P

As a category, cherry green teas are in my personal pantheon of flavored greens. Jasmine will probably always and forever be no. 1, and I like a good grapefruit green, too. But it’s really a toss up where cherry fits in. I want to say second, but I worry that the minute I say that something will change my mind. Let’s say top 3-ish?

This one has a strong, medicinal cherry smell in the tin, but after steeping it is much mellower and more subtle. The tea is pale yellow and clear, with a tinge of green.

I was a little worried because someone else compared this to Kotobuki, which I didn’t care for. But I like how this tastes. In any case, I like it better than the Kotobuki.

I’ve had some cherry green teas that were sweeter, and I think on balance I prefer a little more sweetness. But there’s a place for a cherry that’s not really sweet but still captures the essence of cherry. I don’t find this tart or bitter at all. Just not sweet.

Which makes it interesting. As we head in to winter, I don’t think this is the best seasonal choice - it’s spring-like and refreshing - but if I don’t run out of green tea before spring I’ll try to hold onto it until then when it will hit the spot.

I’m sure I’ve had this before, I just didn’t write a note about it.

There’s a strong smell of almonds from the dry leaf. The caramel is secondary, but it’s there.

After steeping, the tea is chestnut colored and surprisingly clear for a caramel tea. It smells pretty much like the dry leaf, but more diffuse.

The flavor is really interesting. It isn’t strong, and it’s an almost exact balance between caramel and almond. It’s not sweet, but it is mellow and smooth.

I really like it.