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I am not a huge fan of Earl Grey, though occasionally I get a craving for it. This is one of my favourites, with the Darjeeling adding a little variety. It’s a clean, airy blend which is heavy on the bergamot (both in flavour and scent). If I am drinking Earl Grey, I want it to be distinguishable. Some EG have a barely-there whiff of bergamont and are just glorified breakfast blends. This one is much more burly in that department.

This is a Lupicia classic black with fruity flavours of guava and papaya. I quite like this type of tea, but it is by no means unique. I will say the tropical fruity notes are more prominent here than in their other blends and the black tea is milder. I don’t get a particular note of papaya or guava, it’s more a generic “tropical” note.. A very safe choice and would be a solid cuppa that almost every black tea enthusiast would enjoy.

Working our way through the Book of Tea, today I’m drinking Kotobuki. It’s a “Taiwanese oolong tea scented with French mirabelle plums.” Lupicia does fruity oolongs exceeding well, and this is no exception. I am getting an apricot flavour vs a plum, though I have never tasted nor seen a Mirabelle plum. This exclusive-sounding plum seems like something the Japanese dreamt up, as they have a fondness for obscure European fruits. It’s a jammy sort of fruit note vs. a tropical. The underlying oolong is fresh and astringent. Altogether, a very nice blend. I have only one bag and I’ve used it for a hot cuppa, though this would probably make a nice iced tea as well.

I quite enjoyed this one, though I’m not a huge fan of Earl Grey. The chocolate note was prominent, quite rich and deep, working nicely with the bergamont. I’m not sure if I’d repurchase, but this was a good-quality, well blended cuppa. So many oddball blends turn out worse than their individual parts, but this worked quite nicely. It’s a good cuppa for an autumn day, somehow. A bit decadent, but somehow also…pragmatic. I imagine drinking this before a big late-night assignment, wanting to have a treat but still knowing there’s a lot of work ahead. Perhaps it’s my quintessentially British soul that equates a “treat” with “hard work.” No chocolate tea without some commensurate effort!

A bog-standard Darjeeling blend. Perfectly pleasant, good quality leaves, but it’s…Darjeeling. Nothing awful or outstanding, it’s a solid middle of the road option. It did hold up nicely to two steepings. I don’t use milk or sweetener in my tea, but I suspect this would be a nice blank canvas for syrups or milks.

It seems I am in a Steepster no-man’s land: I seem to be logged in, but can’t log out and couldn’t review teas (just kept getting redirected to a phantom dashboard.) So, I shall fire off a bunch of reviews this morning whilst I have access.

I do not like most rooibos and this poor chap is no exception. It is a wet-doggy honeybush rooibos which is thankfully offset by a good amount of ginger and lemon myrtle. It does give me a sickroom sort of image and might be nice if you’re feeling under the weather. I must say the ginger and lemon myrtle combination is quite zesty and refreshing, so I’d like to try it in a non-rooibos blend.

No fault of Lupicia, but the quest continues for a rooibos I’d actually want to drink on a regular basis. Points for the other elements but dodge this one if you are not a rooibos fan, since that note is most prominent in this blend.

This is a rather bold morning blend, rather standard Assam based but according to Lupicia, includes a “robust blend of uplifting African tea.” No further details on the specific leaf, but this one will put some hair on your chest. A fine choice for a morning tea that will get you going, but nothing I’d really pursue repurchasing. I am quite unskilled at picking up the nuances of black “breakfast” teas, though, so take that as you will. To me, they’re all variations on a theme and have to be either fantastic or awful to make a big impression.

Lupicia calls it a “Toasty and pleasantly astringent Chinese oolong scented with mango and passion fruit.” That’s pretty accurate- it’s very highly scented, but the aroma and flavour are quite natural and the astringency works well with the base tea. This is a very common type of tea (black/oolong with a tropical note) for Lupicia, but this is one of the best in the class. If you like a well-balanced, fruity oolong, look no further.

A nice fruity green by Lupicia. They mention it’s “berries” but I get more of a strawberry whiff as opposed to a more classical red berry taste. I also get a vanilla finishing note, but it’s very mild.

It’s a nice all-round choice for a fruity green with a relatively natural tasting strawberry, but I feel as though I’ve tasted this one before, particularly from Lupicia. I prefer their Paradise Green for a similar but more complex flavour profile. This is a nice choice for guests or as a safe gift, but it’s not particularly inspiring. For a brew called Tokio, I’d like something a little more….memorable?

Standard green sencha with a mild grassy/vegetal note in a fancy muslin tea bag. It’s an absolutely a bog-standard sencha for which PdT have chanced their arm by charging around $1 per bag. Almost any Japanese mass-market sencha would stack up admirably to this at a less than a quarter of the price.

It’s clear PdT and I are not meant for each other, though their single origins are passable compared to their terribly weak blends. If folks are happy to pay such a price for a very middling tea, more power to them, I suppose? I just feel the pricing is out of hand for such dull products. Even the packaging is quite bland, in my opinion. I have some more of the 2023 Advent to work through and then I shall be delighted to return to tastier tea pursuits.