King of Fruits

Tea type
Fruit Green Blend
Ingredients
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Flavors
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Caffeine
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Certification
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Edit tea info Last updated by Janefan
Average preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 15 sec

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14 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Weirdly, when I was at the Lupicia store this tea was called “King and I”. Unless I was mixed up and they have another durian tea. I dunno. Enjoying a nice big pot of this, laughing at the memories...” Read full tasting note
    95
  • “Rayn and I are having an exciting Friday night…of drinking teas and watching Avatar episodes. Okay, so it’s exciting for me! I have to say that I don’t care for durian, as a fruit. The smell is,...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “I heard that durian is a love or hate fruit. I’m in the “love durian” camp. I love it’s overripe guava-like, vanilla-custardy scent and texture. I think it’s a delicious (and insanely healthy)...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “I got a sample of this in the mail today with my Lupicia magazine! Oooh durian… I have never tried durian fruit before, frankly because I was scared to death of the horrible stories I have heard of...” Read full tasting note
    87

From Lupicia

8253 THE KING OF FRUITS

A distinctively fresh and tropical Thai green tea blended with pieces of freeze-dried durian fruit. Tart notes of exotic fruit balance out the rich and powerfully fragrant durian. THE KING OF FRUITS definitely prevails in this one-of-a kind tea experience.

Blended with the high quality green tea served at the Royal House of Thailand

THE KING OF FRUITS has a refreshing taste when served as an iced tea. We recommend the hot brew method to extract the outstanding aroma of the durian fruit. This is where you make a strong tea by steeping the tea leaves in hot water then quickly cooling the tea down by adding ice. The hot brew method is the traditional way of making iced tea and also the quickest.

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14 Tasting Notes

95
1271 tasting notes

Weirdly, when I was at the Lupicia store this tea was called “King and I”. Unless I was mixed up and they have another durian tea. I dunno.

Enjoying a nice big pot of this, laughing at the memories of this christmas – I took a tumbler of this tea over for christmas eve dinner and terrorized everyone. I thought this tea smells tasty fruity yummy, everyone else was “uggg durian!” FOOOLS!

Something I did notice with this tea – the scent likes to linger in teaware despite rinsing. It stuck in my Steeper and my tumbler – I had to soapy water and baking soda scrub to get the smell out. I didn’t do that for my tumbler and it made my next tea taste like durian.

RahRahSan

Lupicia had two different Durian oolongs.

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88
148 tasting notes

Rayn and I are having an exciting Friday night…of drinking teas and watching Avatar episodes. Okay, so it’s exciting for me!

I have to say that I don’t care for durian, as a fruit. The smell is, to put it nicely, kind of revolting. I once sat next to someone on the bus ride home who had a fresh durian with them, and by the time I got home I thought I was going to puke. Essentially, the taste is decent but the smell is not. However, I’d read/heard so many good things about this tea that I figured I had to at least try it. After all, I once tried durian ice cream and that was actually not so bad, since the smell was not as pervasive.

So I opened the dry tea up, smelled it, and went yuck durian! But I told myself to be brave, scooped out a few teaspoons and brewed a cup. And it’s good. Really tasty, in fact. Once the tea is brewed it’s like it loses the nasty durian smell and just retains the delicious tropical fruit smell/flavor.

It can happen…durian tea can be good!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 0 sec
steelhead

Anything with durian must be good, although one must absolutly acquire tolerance for the heady aroma for sure!!!

CupofTree

I love the Avatar series! Its so good with tea, jasmine especially ;)

Terri HarpLady

I love Avatar, but I don’t care much for Durian. Nice review, though!

Claire

Uncle Iroh definitely makes the show. ;)

Nik

I had never heard of durian before reading your tasting note, so now it’s my turn to thank you for the education. :D

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88
314 tasting notes

I heard that durian is a love or hate fruit. I’m in the “love durian” camp. I love it’s overripe guava-like, vanilla-custardy scent and texture. I think it’s a delicious (and insanely healthy) fruit. And I am so happy to know that Lupicia has it in tea form!

The flavor is decidedly durian! The flavor is right-on. Yay! I am not disappointed. And it is definitely “powerfully fragrant”. :)

The aftertaste really is like a “fruity onion”, as Mad_Alyss_14 so aptly stated. I love that description. There’s this “shrill” hint of freshly cut onion in the flavor and aroma…it’s intriguing. Like melon and onions. I know oniony tea sounds weird but it’s good!

The green tea base seems fresh and is slightly astringent. My loose leaf sample looks like fannings, though—like shredded leaves from a tea bag.

I’m enjoying my sample and will buy a full tin soon!

It makes me wish good, fresh durian were easier to come by here. All we can get easily is the frozen stuff.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Thomas Smith

Is it like the outside or inside of the durian? If the latter, I may give this a try…

Angrboda

Durian, isn’t that the fruit that stinks to high heaven? :)

Thomas Smith

I can’t get past the cat urine smell of the outside to get to the inside, which is supposed to taste great. If this tastes like the inside without the bad smell, I’ll try it just for that.

Angrboda

I thought that was the one. I heard something once about some hotels where it grows having rules about it not being allowed inside the building. But I can’t remember where I heard it though.

sophistre

Maybe in another tasting note. I think I posted a wikipedia link about this fruit somewhere on steepster at some point in time. Still haven’t worked up to trying the durian shake at the local Vietnamese place I like so much…

Stephanie

@Thomas Smith: This tastes like the inside of the durian. The scent is like the whole durian. But then again, I don’t get “cat urine” from the smell, fortunately. :)

@Angroboda: Yeah, when I was in Thailand, there were signs in our hotel prohibiting durian to be brought inside. Apparently the smell can be pretty prevalent.

@sophistre: Those durian shakes are actually really good! Try it!

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87
132 tasting notes

I got a sample of this in the mail today with my Lupicia magazine! Oooh durian… I have never tried durian fruit before, frankly because I was scared to death of the horrible stories I have heard of it having a very pungent, nasty smell so I have never bothered trying it! Getting this tea in had me scared, I thought I would open the pack of tea to smell dirty feet or something LOL, but it was actually pleasent and sweet smelling…smelled like a fruit of some sort…I guess a durian since it is a durian tea! Haha. The green tea was present as well and was enjoyable; I did have this iced and my toddler liked it as well. However, I wouldn’t buy this for me because I have other fruity green teas that I simply like better, but this one is pretty darn good!

Lori

I can state that I have tried durian-and trust that I am open-minded- and it was the most vile taste ever ….

Pages2Read while sipping tea

I am in need of help and suggestions. I have switched from coffee to tea and in the process of selecting tea to try. This looks like the place I need to be to learn more about tea. Have A Joyful Day!

-Jessica-

Oooh I am an avid coffee drinker…well espresso actually! I still can’t seem to kick my morning espresso habit. BUT, I think it is more because I am in such of a routine of going to the drive thru at Starbucks on my way in to work (old habits die hard)! LOL, if I decided to stop and acutally make me a thermos of tea in the morning I am almost positive I could make the transition from morning espresso to tea. IMO if you are looking for something similar to coffee try Hojicha de la Creme from Art of Tea or Milk Caramel from Lupica I love both and they remind me of having a caramel macchiato from Starbucks :-) Another thing you could try would be pu-erh, although it is a very acquired taste and you may love it or hate it! But I think it has a lot of depth as coffee, but it does not taste like coffee at all…it’s just very bold and smooth with interesting tastes. But if you are looking for just any old tea that is just plain good there are many out their to chose from and it will just depend on your personal prefs. as to what you like better. Feel free to take a look at my tasting log or anyone else’s. You can PM me if you have other questions, I’d be happy to help :-)

-Jessica-

@Lori – That is what I have heard!!!! The tea doesn’t taste bad or smell bad…it’s fairly sweet and pleasent! Maybe they’re heavily sugared pieces of durian?! LOL

Cloudwalker Teas

I saw this note and couldn’t help but post a comment… I have to agree with Lori: I also tend to think I have a fairly open mind but durian? Yuck! It ranks up there with stinky tofu!! I’m glad the tea didn’t smell/taste like the fruit!

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100
807 tasting notes

I AM in LOVE!
Just LOVE. Lupicia NEVER lets me down!
Imagine every amazing tropical fruit EVER but it is in just ONE KING of fruits!
BLISS!!!!!!!

Ze_Teamaker

Sounds awesome!!!

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79
911 tasting notes

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
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec
takgoti

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.

Auggy

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.

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85
4843 tasting notes

I received this sample in the mail a couple of weeks ago.

The aroma of this tea is amazing… so delicious that it made my mouth water just smelling the dry leaf. This fragrance softens a little with the brewed liquor, but, fortunately, it doesn’t soften a lot. I can still smell a delicious fruity scent that is unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before.

Delicious! The green tea is a little buttery, sweet, and lends itself well to the Durian fruit – something I’ve never actually tasted, but am enjoying the taste of it now! Sweet, juicy and delicious. Tropical-like. Very good.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec
sophistre

Interesting! I’ve been told that durian is pretty polarizing…people either absolutely love it, or they hate it. It’s banned on public transit systems and in public in many places, because of its odor. There are some awesome quotes about it on this wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian#Flavour_and_odour

There’s a Vietnamese place here that actually serves durian shakes. I’ve been so, so curious…but also too chicken to order it and try it, in case it makes my apartment reek…

Maybe durian tea is a good halfway step!

sophistre

Errr, half step. Ha. It’s late. >.>

Shinobi_cha

There is a restaurant near us that serves Durian juice (more like a slush or icee?), and the odor is very light. However, the flavor is VERY good. If you’re curious to try it, I definitely recommend it in a liquid form; I’ve seen mochi-like desserts with durian inside and it smelled awful and was not good (in my opinion). However, I enjoyed the juice and would order it again.

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64
2036 tasting notes

Sipdown no. 48 for the year 2014. A sample of loose tea in a single serving packet rather than a teabag. Guessing at water temp, and I also think I slightly oversteeped though I was shooting for 1.5 minutes.

Sometimes I wonder how I managed to live as long as I have on this planet, have been reasonably well-educated, etc. and not have knowingly eaten certain things. One of these is durian. I’ve heard of it, but never tried it. I looked it up and found a lot of references to “the world’s stinkiest fruit.”

The dry leaf smells like a forest—like pine or fir trees. Steeped, there’s more of a melon-y aroma, sort of like… mango? Not a lot of aroma attributable to the green tea base. The liquor is orangish-yellow.

The flavor is not tart so much as a tad bitter; to carry on with the tree description, it rather reminds me of the bitterness in the flavor of pine needles when I crunched them between my teeth as a kid. There’s a sort of mellowness underneath the bitterness, though that isn’t entirely unpleasant.

Not really for me, but I’m glad I got a chance to try it and I’d also now like to try an actual durian.

Preparation
1 min, 30 sec
Kirkoneill1988

i should try it someday :P about the pine needle taste, have you ever tried pine needle tea?

__Morgana__

Nope. Is it good?

Kirkoneill1988

i wouldn’t know either. :( but we should try it someday. :D the natives drank a lot of pine needle tea

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78
24 tasting notes

Lupicia has a new tea for all you to try; Durian Tea! I have had the unpleasant pleasure of trying the Durian fruit before when someone brought it to work and i still occasionally have nightmares about it :/
So naturally I was a little skeptical to try this tea. Right when you open the package your nose is greeted with the most amazing sweet aroma. Lupicia was able to take that pungent, icky smell out and replace it with the more fruity and sweeter notes that the Durian has. The taste is also awesome. It sends me to a tropical paradise! The Thai green tea i think is a perfect match for this tea since it isn’t harsh on the flavours or doesnt mask them either. The after taste is kind of interesting, to me its kinda like a fruity onion, but with not so much onion, but still pleasent and enjoyable. This tea is also awesome as iced tea, so i recommend you try both ways. If you have had Durian before and actually like it this tea might not be what your looking for. I definetly would recommend this tea to anyone. Don’t knock it until you try it!

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec

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100
12 tasting notes

Omg loved it! It tasted just like the durian fruit

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec

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