Cupán Tae - The original Irish Tea Shop

My wife and I love this tea. The coffee beans add a nice creamy flavor but do not overwhelm the tea. It’s very smooth and goes well with a nice scone in the morning.

Rich, deep flavor. The cocoa kernels arent overpoweringly dessert-like.

Found this in my bag from Sil and thought I might give it a whirl as my second tea of the day.

That this one has an oolong base comes as a surprise to me given that it is from Sil. As for flavour, well, not really. It is mild and buttery caramel. It needs far more leaf due to the popcorn and fruit bits. It is pleasant though, reminiscent of DT’s Caramel Corn. Not a tea that leaves much of an impression aside from being an easy drinker with lunch or chocolate or something when you are not expecting that cup to shine brilliantly on its own.

Thanks, Sil, for giving me a chance to try this.

From the Great Canadian Tea Box Round 5

It really does smell like caramel popcorn. I like the caramel flavouring used, but I find the base a bit weak. I can’t taste much of the actual tea (although this could just be my fault, my scoop WAS a little popcorn heavy), and I didn’t even realize there was fruit in this until I looked at the listing (I just assumed the papaya bits and whatnot were caramel bits). I might try this again with a better tea to random bits ratio, but there’s so much other stuff in the box to try who knows if I’ll have time.

Sipdown (135)

I have no idea why but I swore this was a minty green tea for so long. As soon as I brewed it and smelled the anise, I realized how wrong I was. This is a herbal and one that tastes strongly of licorice at that. Definitely not “my cup of tea”, though it was an interesting experience so thank you MissB for the share!

this tea is all over the place. popcorn, apple bits, toffee, black tea, oolong lol… but it smells delicious. in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t bad but it’s nothing spectacular. The flavour comes across as an almost typical tofee flavoured tea. I’m not getting anything new from the popcorn, though there’s a hint of sweetness in the background of this one that makes the tea a little lighter than your usual black toffee tea. Not too shabby but not intensely amazing either :)

Drank most of the whole bag of this, and will likely buy more again someday. It’ll forever remind me of Galway, Ireland… alas, it’s done, and so it’s time to say goodbye and drink my other teas.

Not that spicy at all, more of a light chocolate warmth than anything. Nothing Kapha-esque about this (TeaGschwender).

Oooh, this is tasty. Not quite spicy (heat), more like spicy (flavorful and smooth), with a hint of chocolate and a tiny bit of kick from the … cinnamon? Yes, I like this tea very, very much. Even more so that it came straight from Galway, for less shipping than I ever thought possible.

Had a few cups of this last night, and enjoyed each one. Sweet, didn’t need anything added to it, comforting tea, and surprising taste considering the ingredients. Kind of reminded me of Kapha from TeaGschwendner, minus the spice/heat, and with a whole lot more sweetness/licorice added to it.

Normally I’m not a huge fan of licorice teas, but the smell of this one captured me when I was in Galway, Ireland. I quickly shipped it back to myself for enjoying at home, and am a bit surprised I did now… it would have served me well during my six months in Europe. Ah well, I’ll just have to drink it and grab more when I go back!

This is definitely a raspberry tea through and through. The chocolate is a little harder to find though. Still, I don’t find myself disappointed as the raspberry more than makes up for it. The oolongy flavor is present here as well but it seems to compliment the flavor as the tea so its less offensive here than I have found it to be in other teas. Thank you MissB for sending this my way and thank you Sil and Kittenna for making sure I got a sample. 274.

Holy SMOKES.

This was forgotten steeping for about 45 minutes. Whoops.

So. Strong.

Blargleargh. Peppermint is bad enough, but oversteeped peppermint? Oh well, at least it smells delicious and sweet.

Had this again this evening, with some buckwheat honey. I’m still getting over this phlegmmy grossness. Of course, having yogurt for the THIRD time today probably isn’t helping!!

Oh well. The tea is delicious and soothing and I am really enjoying it. Of course, it’s one of those fluffy ever-growing teas, so I somehow have even more of it…

This tea is SO GOOD when you’re not feeling well. The fennel and anise and (eugh) peppermint work together so well. Especially with a bit of honey.

Om nom nom.

Large mug last night, and a travel mug of it today.

Thanks so much for sharing, MissB!

You know, this is weird, but it’s not anywhere near as scary as I was expecting. In fact, I’d say I quite like this tea!

The licoricey flavour is from fennel seeds and “anise”, which I’m guessing is star anise. The peppermint is actually mild. The lemon balm and blackberry leaves are good.

It smells SUPER syrupy, and the fennel seeds are very strong, so there is a lingering fresh licorice-mint flavour.

I think I’d prefer it without the mint, but the mint feels like such an important component of the tea. It really balances the sweetness of the blackberry leaves and fennel with the herbacious “medicinal” flavours some of the other herbs have.

Thanks so much for sharing, MissB (and Sil and Kittenna…). Honestly, if this were easily available I’d pick some up, but I really don’t need 100g!

(Also, look at how they present their teas on their website! Aaahhh!! The tea cups! So great. http://www.cupantae.eu/shop/herbal-teas/storm-in-a-teacup/ )

This is certainly a different tea!! Not what I expected. High on the licorice, and that slight burning sensation when I have the candies. It’s sweet as well, though not overly so.
The other day I had a blend with licorice in it and I got an annoying fake sweetness there that I can barely see here.
No additives or anything, though with the amount of licorice imitating ingredients I expected to need it (help cover some of the overpowering notes).
Now, about this mushroom business. I do seem to taste a tiny bit of that, but only if I focus. Otherwise it just kinda hangs in the background and as a mild aftertaste. But then the licorice is there too so I’m noticing the menthol effect up on the roof of my mouth and the mushroom down mid tongue. Very odd indeed.
No white powder as yet, though my steep was relatively short at about two minutes.
Also, I didn’t like this hot very much at all.
Something tells me this’d go over really well if I had a head cold.
Thanks MissB!!!!!

Thanks for sharing this tea as well, MissB!

I don’t think I’m as big a fan of this one as others – it came off as fairly artificial to me, as the combination of chocolate-raspberry often does, and remind me more of my first Lip Smackers lip balm than of fruit and chocolate. (Perhaps it’s because everyone else got raspberry chunks, and I didn’t keep any for myself? :P Unlikely, haha.) It certainly wasn’t a bad tea, and the base was okay (though I’d like to taste a bit more oolong; that usually amps the yum factor for me), I just wasn’t overly keen on it. More for everyone else!

Woop woop! Sipdown.

1 cup was like 3 gulps. And GONE.

I was surprised at the rooibos floating in my strainer. I didn’t really notice it the last time. I kind of tasted it this time, but it works well with the fake chocolate and sweet candy raspberry flavours.

So.. I liked that tea. I’m not sure if I’d buy a bunch, but I liked it.

Oh, black and oolong? What?

Anyways, this is from MissB who sent it to Sil who gave it to Kittenna to mail to me. Haha.

I was a little concerned about the smell of the chocolate flavour, but it was good! Chocolate and raspberry for sure. I added a bit of milk, and kind of absentmindedly downed the whole mug before I realized what had happened. You see, I’m researching camper vans on the internets.

Yup. I don’t necessarily want to be mobile all the time, but I’d love a way to safely (because a lone woman tenting can be kinda sketchy) travel and camp so I can go to awesome hiking destinations. And I’ve gotten a little carried away, but that’s fine. If I can ever afford the vehicle, I’ll go visit my dad and he can help me. :D

So I really, surprisingly, enjoyed this tea. Thanks so much for sharing, MissB!

Sipdown (118)!

I just noticed that “raspberry” is the only part of this tea’s name that isn’t in French. What’s the deal with that!? You can’t like halfheartedly have a French name for your tea. Shouldn’t it be “Frambroise Mousse Au Chocolat”? That’s gonna bug me now…

And speaking of French! I was at the dollar store yesterday before I went to work, and I saw a “Learn a French Word a Day” calendar for $1 so of course I bought it! Tre called me a hoarder; but I thought it was fun! ‘Cause learning things is fun. I don’t think I’ll include the “French word of the day” into my tasting notes unless someone really, really wants to learn a french word at a time with me…

Today’s English word is Metacarpus though. Metacarpus are the five bones between the wrist (carpus) and the finger and thumb (phalanges). I actually knew this one already – not to boast or anything, but only because I watch Bones. I’m pretty sure if I didn’t I’d have no clue what metacarpus are.

But anyway, the tea was really good; my thoughts from my tasting note a few days ago pretty much echo my experience sipping this one down though. Consistent, strong raspberry flavour with natural tang to it, chocolate backdrop. A little roasty…

Like I mentioned in tasting note #1 for this; I didn’t realize it had tea types in it other than black when I had it, so I wasn’t looking out for them. Though, I do think I experienced some of the mate since it was quite roasty, and differently from last cup I thought this had a much stronger coffee/mocha flavour. Kinda characteristic of a roasted mate.

Also different from last cup; this was a touch bitter (probably ’cause it has oolong and I steeped it like a black; boiling water). Though, for me that bitterness translated into more of a Dark Chocolate kind of bitter flavour, and I found it a pleasant addition.

Made in a timolino.

Sometimes I’m bad at reading the names of teas I’m making, or paying attention to things like ingredients when I look them up on Steepster.

I’m especially guilty of that with this tea because I originally just assumed it was from Marriage Freres since it’s name is so darn similar to Mousse Au Chocolat from that company, and I received both in the same package. It just made sense to me that this was some sort of version of that blend; and I didn’t even bother to check. And then, both times I had this (the review I’m writing now, and the sipdown I had today that I’ll write about later) I didn’t realize that there was oolong in this. If I had, I likely would have steeped it a bit differently. But there’s nothing I can do about that now though, I suppose.

EDIT: I’m reading the ingredients more closely now too; apparently there’s also mate in here and rooibos. So really, it’s like a tea potluck?

Firstly; this smells amazing though the aroma is quite strong; I noticed after a day of having it in my possession that I was going to have to keep it separate from all my other samples because even with it double bagged and wrapped in tinfoil I was still smelling it. It’s so decadent though! It reminds me of rich, moist chocolate cake! With a thick layer of creamy, dark chocolate icing.

I was really impressed with the measured out leaf too; I saw a whole raspberry in what I had measured out as well as several other large chunks of raspberry, and lots of cocao shells. Yummy!

Taste wise; this is very much a raspberry focused tea. Yes; the smell of the dry leaf would have you believe that the ratio of chocolate and raspberry would be in favour of the chocolate but the opposite is true. And, the raspberry was actually a little more tart than I was expecting too; a natural sort of tart though. Kind of like raspberries straight from the garden that weren’t quite ready to be picked – but awfully darn close! And, the raspberry flavour lingers in your mouth for a very, very long time too.

And then, underneath that very intense and sharp raspberry flavour is the chocolate. It is rich and indulgent like the smell makes you think it should be; just not as intense as the raspberry, and the flavour doesn’t stick around nearly as long either. It’s like tasting raspberry, then chocolate, then raspberry again.

Like I sort of touched on; I didn’t taste anything that would’ve led me to believe there was oolong or rooibos in this; though I did taste a mild roasty flavour that reminded me loosely of coffee; knowing now that there’s mate in this that makes sense to me if it’s a roasted mate!

Overall I thought this was pretty good; definitely a little different than anticipated but in a good way! And it’s nice being surprised, too. Thanks MissB!

And, today’s pretty close to over (and may in fact already be over for some of you) but today’s word of the day was: Gait! A gait is: “A distinctive manner of walking; a particular style of such movement.” This one wasn’t a new word for me; but it was for Tre. He had a good laugh about the example sentence for this one too, which was:

‘All the male models seemed to approach the stage with a peculiar gait.’

I should have asked him to do his best model walk for me; I can pretty much guarantee it would have been a disaster.

Sipdown (115)!

Thanks MissB for the sample!

This one has a very, very pronounced dry aroma; the leaf practically oozes with the scent of sweet, black licorice! Not licorice root or anise, mind you, but black licorice. While I have no problem with either anise or licorice root – I love black licorice and I’ve found few teas that convey it well.

That love for black licorice probably comes from my Grandpa; before he passed that was his absolute favourite self indulgent treat in the world. He kept pails of licorice allsorts by his lazy boy that he’d snack on during Blue Jays games, and he’d buy black jellybeans in bulk. And he’d sneak me these licorice candies under the kitchen table during supper or let me grab big greedy hand fulls from the buckets. It’s a really good memory I have of him from when I was a child; one of few since when I wasn’t really too old he started to get very, very crotchety and unpleasant for anyone to be around.

We found out years later when I was close to graduating highschool that he had Parkinsons as well as some other degenerative diseases, and that’s why his friendly, enthusiastic demeanor had faded so much over time. Even listening to my mom (who is the youngest of six) talk about him compared with my Aunt Nancy (the oldest) it’s obvious he was more ‘warm’ with Aunt Nancy that Mom, and more involved in Nancy’s childhood – and likely this is why.

But anyway; I know there’s not actually black licorice in the blend and it’s a trick that the fennel, combined with the aniseed, is playing on me. But I’m gonna try and be willfully blind to that; because I want this to taste like black licorice.

Steeped up, sadly, it doesn’t taste like black licorice though; not in the same way it smells like it, anyway. I do get heavy doses of both fennel and anise flavour but it’s fairly overtaken by a very savory, herbaceous note and the peppermint. It tastes very, very weird to me; and I’m wondering if that’s the ribwort leaves. I’ve never had another tea with ribwort leaves and after a very quick Google search I’ve learned that apparently they can have a mushroomy flavour. I have really, really minimal exposure to what mushrooms taste like given that I am pretty allergic to them; any time I’ve had them it’s been really involuntary and, upon realizing I’ve ingested them I’ve had much more pressing things on my mind other than the flavour.

I’m a little disappointed this isn’t as black licorice-y as I wanted it to be, but I know I was projecting unfair expectations onto the tea. It’s definitely not a bad tea; just so weird. Am I actually tasting mushrooms!?

EDIT: I forgot to mention; there was this weird aspect of this one that wasn’t taste related. It left a very thick, powdery white residue all along the inside of my mug and I can’t figure out why – I’ve never had that issue with any of the listed ingredients so unless, again, it’s from the ribwort I can’t explain it.

It was annoying though; almost as bad as gross melted down chocolate goop.

Ohhhhh my goodness! Tasty doesn’t begin to describe this. I’m in love, surely!
Thank you MissB for the sample!!!
This is definitely mousse. Not just chocolate, but the texture of mousse, with that extra berry tartness as well.
Towards the end, my cup showed more berry than chocolate, which was nice as well. A little tart since I added no sugar.
Very smooth as well. Excuse me while I go fawn over my cup…

NOMS! figured i’d have this one, one more time before i let the rest sail off to the others in the group :) I rather enjoyed this one. Thanks for sharing MissB! just the right tastiness level for the raspberry imo.

This one was sent my way by MissB who is off galavanting across the world, in a trip of epic proportions that i am totally jealous of. Her way of smoothing things over is to send back random tea for myself and the rest of us to share. :) So i’m gradually trying to go through the teas she’s sending so i can divy them up and get them sent out to the rest of the group of folks who are sharing the teas with me. I generally find raspberry to be fairly artificial in most teas…or have a taste that i just don’t like. even stacy’s raspberry tea was NOT my favourite.

this tea, straight is very much a raspberry tea, with the hint of chocolate mousse coming through at the end. The dry leaf reminds me of MF’s mousse au chocolat just a little. However, when i added just a touch of sugar to this, the rasberries really POPPED and the chocolate came out of hiding to create a delicious cup of chocolate raspberry tea. It was the perfect cup of tea last night. (also there are giant real dried raspberries in this..so yay! for that!)