Carol

Yummmmmm. This is so tasty. Smells strongly of strawberry candy. Tastes like strawberry creme savers- milky and creamy+strawberry. Definitely not a fresh, authentic strawberry, but a strawberry candy. Not tasting any coconut or rose (guessing those are more decorative).

What a week, whew. Wednesday took an unexpected turn toward busy and today has been my first day since to really sit down and take a breath. My body knew long before today that I’d done too much so, of course, it decided to feel like utter crap on my first real day off. Yay me. Then it’s back to work tomorrow. I seriously need a vacation. Anyway, I’m working on boxing up the TTB today since I was supposed to do that days ago. Probably won’t get anywhere close to finished though because, again, I feel ugh. So if you’re on the TTB list and wondering what in the world is taking me so long, there you go. I promise I’ll get it out just as quick as I can manage.

I was scrolling through my list to see which tea I wanted this morning, and this one jumped out at me. If anyone saw my post about decaf tea and you’re wondering why I’m drinking this fully caffeinated delight, I’m putting off doctor’s orders until I my new decaf stash starts rolling in. She didn’t say I had to start immediately, after all. ;)

This tea is near absolute perfection. I mean, it probably is perfection. It’s about as good as it gets for me, at least. Not sure why I only rated it an 81 the last time I had it, but I’m bumping it up. All the way up. This is one I don’t ever want to be without. I was a little worried about the coconut since I’ve had this awhile, but there is no hint of any issue whatsoever. I’m in love with this.

I bought two 50 gram bags of Carol in late November and it wasn’t enough. Lesson learned.
This is a favorite of Ashman’s but there was only one teaspoon left so I finished it for breakfast this morning. Fortunately, Frasier is similar and nearly (but not quite) as good, and I have some of that I can make for him.

Carol is strawberry, vanilla, coconut, and rose petals and the strawberry part is much purer and smoother than their plain strawberry tea, which I do usually like but it has a really weird smell sometimes. The coconut is almost undetectable for me. I do not notice much floral, either, but the rose petals are gorgeous and rose usually makes tea taste sweeter to me even when it doesn’t impart a lot of floral taste and it could be that the coconut is mostly smoothing and sweetening this without being too oily or heavy.

This might be our favorite Lupicia tea of all time, but I have only tried about ten or so of their blends.

Once again, I came on here excited to click “remove from cupboard” only to discover I hadn’t added it to cupboard….along with about fifty other teas. Sigh.

Hmm. So this is a review for an individually-wrapped teabag, which may have been fairly old… the coconut was definitely off in it. Brewed it up anyhow, and the taste is incredibly strange. The coconut off-flavours aren’t overly apparent (it’s a little soapy), but the tea is really strongly, darkly flavoured. But not astringent. Maybe I just haven’t had a fresh Lupicia black in a while? Maybe I should have used more water? This is really odd, it’s just really strong in a direction I wasn’t expecting. I can’t tell if I like it or hate it. There’s also strawberry here, which tastes like it would be good if not for the off-coconut. The brew does smell of delicious strawberries.

This is so strange; I feel like I have more of this tea elsewhere (if not just in another single-serve teabag format) that I’d like to try before passing judgment. Maybe it’s a tea that should have milk?

Another free Lupicia sample. Really cool they send 3 free samples with orders.

The sachet had little specks of coconut in it, some pink rose. It had a strong strawberry aroma with a little coconut, sweetness, maybe some vanilla. I couldn’t really smell the rose from the sachet. It smells good. Overall, Lupicia teas sure smell good. I had thought “If the aroma holds up, I will like it but if it takes a vicious turn and brings in strong rose…” Well, you know. lol

The aroma held up concerning the rose. A nice taste of strawberry (not artificial) and a slight tartness like real strawberries have. I think Lupicia has strawberry down pretty well. The coconut and vanilla notes were light but were there, same with cream notes. Although not a favorite of those I tried so far, I’m glad I was able to sample it as I saw they were sold out of it on their site.

Sachet in 130 ml, boiling water for 3 steeps 2.5m, 3m, 3.5m.

I am not a fan of Lupicia’s black tea base. This tea reminds me of their Strawberry and Vanilla tea which has an awesome strawberry milkshake flavor. Alas, the black base drags this down and makes it taste more processed and astringent. Cute teabags though. Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/05/03/a-tea-tastes-like-strawberry-milkshakes-lupicia/

Holiday TTB

I received the decaf version of this tea in my Happy Bag last year and wasn’t a fan…the base tea had an odd aftertaste that really ruined the experience for me. I definitely prefer this one! The strawberry vanilla flavoring is sweet and natural and the base tea is nice and smooth. I still like Lupicia’s Strawberry Vanilla Green Tea better, but this one is good too!

Happy Winter Solstice! Last night, I attended a Solstice Festival. There were farolitos (festive paper lanterns), and some were set up as a labyrinth. Very fun.

Today, I made the usual almond crescent cookies. And my new cookbook came in the post. Decided I would try this tea. It smells nicely like strawberry pastry with some coconuts notes. There is a sweet strawberry flavour, and hints of floral.

Don’t know what’s happening with my Habs but it’s sickening.

It was a funny thing waking up to SNOW this morning. So today ended up being an ultra lazy day where I’m moping around the house trying to warm up and adjust. Can this warm me up? Not really, but I’d like to think it’s helping just a little bit.

I agree with others that the dry leaf smells like strawberry candy. A little artificial but in a nice way. The kind of artificial strawberry that I enjoy. The shreds of coconut were a pleasant surprise, as well. Maybe it’ll bring out some creaminess.

But alas, it does not. No coconut, just a touch of strawberry candy buried underneath an ultra strong, astringent base. I even let the water cool a little more than suggested but it didn’t seem to save it at all. Perhaps next time I’ll add a little less leaf and steep in even cooler water, maybe for a shorter time too. Clearly the suggested parameters don’t work.

I bought the small christmas sampler when I placed my first order, so this is my first time drinking the Christmas blends. It came in a cute bag with lovely pictures for the three blends. They don’t really sound like Christmas blends, which is nice. I tried this first, though I was unable to use boiling water to brew it. it smells and tastes like strawberry candy, and was rather mild, but in a good way. I would consider buying it though I hope it brews stronger than my first cup.
I’ve moved onto Jingle Bells, which also smells lovely, and I look forward to trying white Christmas.

I’ve realized that this tea is more like the tea I would imagine Sarah Crewe or Anne Shirley would drink with Alice and Wendy Darling if they had tea together.