Paradise Green

Well, nerts. K S sent a sample bag of this and I messed up the water temp. Too hot. It smells like a fruity little party, and even though I made the green tea go bitter, the floral-fruity stuff is still dancing around on my tongue and it smells like a fruit punch candle. Reminds me a lot of a Korean Wedding tea by O’Sulloc.

Well, everybody messes up a cup now and then…

This tea is nice! It is very tropical flavored with mango being predominant. It tastes like some french teas I have had. A little like Mariage Freres’s The A L Opera and a Palais De Thes tea too. It is well rounded, but light on the base notes. It is pretty good without sugar and I bet it would be fantastic cold brewed. There is a little tang from the green tea, but not so much that it makes things unpleasant or my mouth pucker. If I make it through the other teas that I have that are similar, I may turn to this one for a less pricey option!

Thanks for the sample Lupicia!

I had received two bag of this from momo back when I purchased from her stash sale, and then a little loose leaf from JennKay when she sent me some teas. I finally tried it the other day and have to say that I am not as impressed as I’d hoped to be with this. I guess it’s because I really didn’t taste anything other than the green tea. I wanted more of the “paradise.” I only tried it hot and, since I often find that fruit flavors in green tea come out more for me when cold, I won’t rate this until I get the chance to try it again.

Pretty decent for a fruity flavoured green, but sencha bases really just don’t appeal to me, and that’s what most tea companies use. Anyhow, the tea was fairly floral/aromatic, sweet, and juicy – probably too floral for me, actually. Base was, for the most part, not overly present. Not bad, and not badly flavoured, but I’m glad I only had 5 teabags from my Happy Bag a couple years ago. (Down to 3 now, and I cut open the two to brew this time. Don’t really care for teabags…)

This was a bonus sample that greenteafairy included in my swap package. It’s in sachet form. I could see some orange peel and flowers mixed in with the green tea leaves. In dry form, it smelled like some kind of very sugary tropical fruit candy or gum.

Hmm, this is an interesting one. Once steeped, it smells and tastes similar to starfruit. Now for anyone who’s never had a fresh starfruit, I would describe it as a combination of apples and grapes in both flavor and texture. It has that wetness about it like a grape, but the texture is somewhat crisp like an apple. Overall, they’re very mild in flavor and somewhat tart. This is a fairly lightly flavored tea, especially for Lupicia. I can taste the green tea base and then what tastes like starfruit on top of it. The aftertaste reminds me of tart peaches. Quite nice and mild for a relaxing tea. :)

I’m having this while watching the newest episode of Once Upon a Time. It smells pretty fruity. The flavour is similar, but more mild. Green tea works better with the fruit flavours. Still tastes like Summer, but it’s nice than the black tea version.

This tea should definitely be had as an iced tea. I kept on getting sample tea bags as part of my Lupicia newsletter subscription, and kept on lamenting the fact because as a hot tea it’s nothing special—even a little overpowering in the fruitiness. But! It’s perfect as a lightly sweetened iced tea. I find that adding milk ( have it iced with half a cup of almond milk and a few drops of liquid stevia) and sweetening it a bit really mellows out the flavor. It makes an addictive iced latte. I use the almond milk that’s only 30 calories per 8 oz serving, and stevia is zero calories, so I can have many of these a day (and do!)

Steeped this one for the hubby and myself while we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking (navy beans and sausage, yum!). I really love how this tea smells—like Tropical Skittles and fresh flowers, with a slight grassy note from the green tea. I decided not to sweeten mine this time, and I really liked it. I got lots of floral notes, sweet rose and honeysuckle… hmm, honeysuckle… so I added a little bit of honey halfway through the cup. Yep, good decision. The honey woke it up just enough to take it from enjoyable to sublime. I used wildflower honey, because clover honey just isn’t my thing, but I got the feeling that clover honey might have been quite tasty in this tea as well (I guess because the smells of clover and honeysuckle kind of go together? My brain works in mysterious ways). Anyway, I really like this, but I may or may not buy more. I could live without it, but it would also be nice to have around.

I tried “Paradise” and I wasn’t a fan. I need strong, non-floral flavors in my tea. I’m a fan of oolongs and chais mostly, though I have found some green teas that I enjoy.

Green tea and tropical flavors. This smelled good tropical like. I steeped it up. And the taste was too melon like. So not my kind of tea.