Lupicia

This might be one of the oldest teas in my cupboard at this point! I’ve had it a few times and wasn’t impressed. It tasted flat and alkaline beneath the fruit flavors. I couldn’t get back to sleep at 3am this morning and while cleaning the kitchen decided to dump the rest of the tea in a mason jar and cold steep a concentrate overnight. This morning I’m mixing it with oat milk and it’s delightful! It’s so interesting how finding the right preparation can make an otherwise unenjoyable tea! It’s bright and fruity… I’m getting a mango apricot flavor. The oak milk is making it sweet and creamy. It’s so bright and refreshing! I’m really glad I found a way to enjoy this tea, but it isn’t one I’d buy again knowing how little I’d turn to it over a 10 year period.

This is an interesting combination, I’m not sure if if I’ve ever come across it before. The tea contains pieces of dried yuzu and the citrus note is quite strong. However, when brewed, the chocolate is more much prominent than the yuzu. It is present but certainly takes a back seat to the gourmand note. I also get a slight note of brown sugar. Overall, a nice take on a standard dessert tea. It’d go nicely with cake or fruit tarts.

The base is the typical Lupicia black tea, well-balanced and bright but can turn very astringent quickly if overbrewed.

I give it points for the uniqueness and overall drinkability but wish the yuzu were more prominent.

September Sipdown Prompt – a tea from India

I had to ransack to fulfill this prompt. I also had to settle for something that is a blend. Tea from India can provoke my tender tummy unless prepared just exactly so, and I love so many teas from China. I found teas from Nepal and Malawi on shelf and lots of unidentified black tea blend bases but only this tea identified tea from India for sure. You don’t have to twist my arm to get me to drink it.

There is a wonderful interaction between the tongue teasing “salt” and the berry flavor. It makes a great cuppa for breakfast or afternoon. You WILL stop and notice this tea in a most surprised and pleasant way. I can not imagine picking up the cup and mindlessly sipping. It just won’t let you do that. And you wouldn’t want to.

This was a Mother’s Day gift from Superanna. Many thanks for a new “must have” tea!

On Sunday, I noticed the cherry first and there was an undercurrent of berry with a candy-like note to the berry flavor that I couldn’t pin down. I think it was the raspberry! It was so good I ordered more last night because it is a seasonal tea and I don’t to spend almost a year without it!

I made it again today to see if it was really as magical as we thought or was it the moment?
Today the salted cherry leaf was more noticeable than before, maybe because this time I know it is there and looked for it. But really, it was more prominent and it gives the tea real presence so you can drink it at breakfast even though both Nilgiri and Darjeeling are lighter black teas. This might even be Sakura Premium with flavors added.

Very good, and will probably be gone long before it comes available again.

September Sipdown Prompt – a tea from Taiwan

My mind was blown to see that I haven’t reviewed this yet on here. It was a gift from Superanna and we tried it together.

The thing is, we tried Sakura and Berry first and it had totally knocked our socks off. When we drank this one, she was super unimpressed by it but I really felt that it had a lot of merit. So much so that I immediately bought another pack of it.

It is very different in mood, type, and flavor from Sakura and Berry, but moods and cravings change. This is far more contemplative. It is a gentle tea with lovely light plum flavor. You definitely taste the green oolong and it is a somewhat floral one so those notes mix with the plum. I really love it and I consider it to be one of my “treat”teas for special occasions, like wanting to feel extra cozy while I read.

Sipdown

We finished this tonight and not only was it not in my cupboard, it was not in the database. How? I added it to database, added it to cupboard, will leave a note, and then will remove from cupboard even though I don’t get the pleasure of seeing my number go down. (Although it did briefly go up by one.)

This was okay, but there are lots of Lupicia teas I like better. This has a very strong green apple taste like Sour Apple candy and gum from my childhood. Even though it is decaf, this is a flavor profile I would prefer on a sunny afternoon, and have it with some fresh fruit. Or just an ice cold cup ln a summer day.

I doubt I would ever repurchase this. I love their green rooibos fruity blends for decaf time and would just go with one of those.

I’m sipping this one down as a cold brew. The green tea and matcha come across as rather bitter, but in a delightful way. The chestnut flavor is friendly and bright! Chestnuts are an autumn flavor, and I’m pretty sure I picked this up in autumn just before Lupicia closed their San Jose and other continental US locations, which is very sad. But I’m not one for sticking to seasons. I’ll eat soumen “summer” noodles or ice cream in the winter, and hot chili in the summer. Anyway, this is delicious, and I wish I could easily buy more.

If you are a berries-and-cream-loving little lad, this is the tea for you.

This smooth blend tastes and smells just like sugared strawberries – the tartness of the fruit is subdued in the manner of a fruity syrup without being artificial, and the coconut isn’t prominent but works to emphasize a sweet cream element that makes this cup truly dessert-like.

I’ve made this tea a couple of ways, once following the directions, and then again in an infuser stuffed with fresh cilantro. This is probably a product of lunacy on my part, but I swear it works and would probably feel the same with a sprig of mint or some basil leaves – the citrusy, herby note is the perfect garnish to balance an otherwise quite indulgent sip.

The weather was so favorable this morning that I had no choice but to agree with its prediction for the tone of the day, which calls for a very special tea indeed and can only mean one of a few from the selection in my cupboard. I have had this tea for two or three years and have quite simply been too excited about the prospect of drinking it to dare crack it open, but sitting down to an episode of ‘Murder, She Wrote’ after a leisurely drive through sunny and verdant scenery, I could hear this tea crying out in indignation demanding to be tasted.

First impression unsealing the bag: delight. The scent wafting to greet me is nothing short of a summer day spent over a pitcher of sugary-sweet grape Kool-Aid, but the complexity of the flavors really blossom in the cup, where the artificial grape candy flavor assumes a muscatel character and the rich depth of warm jelly that takes me back to a delectable Polish blueberry jagodzianka. Even a pervasive effervescence seems to emulate the crackle of a delicate pastry glaze, but it pulls me in a few different directions: on one hand, it’s giving the crispy candy shell of grape Nerds candy and the scintillating spark of sourness that follows it, but on the other hand, the intermingled strawberry notes point me toward a bubbly rosé. A little astringency cuts the sweetness to perfection. I have no choice but to be obsessed.

I love this tea. It has a great flavor and mouthfeel. I wish it did better on the second brew though.

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day, although we did have a few spells of clouds. Mostly it was warm and lightly breezy. Ashman and I had a little pre-lunch rest in the backyard beach chairs and lo and behold, we were descended upon by grandkids and kids! They had decided to surprise by coming for my birthday and brought food and all sorts of goodies.

This tea was one of Superanna’s birthday gifts to me and this was my first time trying it. The other two teas that she gave me at the same time (I had received one other tea earlier) were two beloved favorites that I had run out of but this one is new to me.

I have found another Lupicia favorite. The oolong base is pure silky green oolong, not at all roasty or toasty like Dong Ding or Da Hong Pao, but on the green side and so, so smooth. The white peach flavor, which is light rather than KAPOW, blends almost seamlessly with the gentle fruit notes of the tea so that they are perfectly intertwined. I am in love.

Edit to add: my package was fully in Japanese because it was purchased in Tokyo. I could tell the amount and time but not temp and made it at 190F instead of the recommended 212F which I just saw on the Lupicia Hawaii site. Didn’t matter. It was fabulous. It is also on sale right now and I am so tempted….

Thank you, Superanna!

March Sipdown Challenge Prompt – Pi Day and Einstein’s Birthday

Superanna gave me this tea and said I could go ahead and unwrap it, but I decided to save it for my birthday and have it be my breakfast tea. This was purchased in Tokyo, I believe, so I had to add it to the data base. The Hawaii store doesn’t sell it.

Pi Day is my actual birthday, but I tip my cup to all of the March babies here, and there are so many of us!

As for the tea, the dry leaves unfurl to quite an impressive size on steeping. The steeped tea has a rich aroma, a lot of body, and a thick, creamy mouthfeel. Lightly steamed asparagus is the leading flavor note to me, and I love asparagus. This has a richness that I associate with the word umami, but I don’t know if I am using that correctly as this has none of the seaweed or briny notes you might find in some teas that carry that description.

Many thanks, Superanna, for a rare and delightful tea treat that I might never have been able to try without your trip to Japan!

Another fruity Lupicia black from the Book of Tea. It has small pink peppercorns which Lupicia says look like the namesake Daruma dolls, as well as sweetened mango pieces (my bag had a minimal amount of these.) The peppercorns do not impart any peppery sensation or flavour.

It’s a very familiar Lupicia tea, a standard tannic black tea blend with a zingy vaguely “tropical” fruit flavour. It reminds me a lot of Sakurambo as they both share the pink peppercorns and a vague sort of tropical black tea suggestion. Daruma is much milder, though, so if you like Sakurambo but thought it was a little too powerful, this might be a nice choice. I would not be unhappy to get this in a tea house, but I personally prefer a little more flavour in tea that’s supposed to have it.

All together, a nice cuppa of classic Lupicia.

For the last few weeks I’ve really been craving fruit/chocolate combos, and have been making a lot of choco-berry smoothies. Looking through my tea, I only had this and Lupicia’s Strawberry and Chocolate pu’erh that fit the bill, so I decided to try this.

I always forget that Lupicia often uses a CTC base on their blacks, so I’ve been a bit mindful to not overleaf or oversteep. It is still quite a rich black tea, but not so much as to hide the flavor. The chocolate is a little softer than I was imagining, but is more cocoa sweet/bittersweet than that strong chocolate liquor flavor usually found in teas, and the raspberry is simply lovely… a little jammy, a little candy sweet. I’ve had many nice hot ’n plain cups of this in my work thermos the last few weeks.

This morning I decided to make a latte, since I figured the strong CTC base would be up to it. 3 parts tea (double the leaf), 1 part warm frothed vanilla almond milk, and it is very nice! It’s very creamy and full of sweet raspberry, but still has a nice classic black tea body in the undertones.

Sipdown 13 – 2024

Finished off a bag that I purchased in Paris. Lupicia fruit flavors are so, so good. This is no exception. I don’t really drink green tea anymore, but Lupicia flavored green blends are the exception.

I have to start off saying I am not a fan of red rooibos and have yet to find one I truly enjoy- except for Gryphon Apple Strudel, which is very hard to get hands on now that I’m living outside Singapore.

Piccolo has a weird medicinal fruit cordial note in it, like some unholy alliance of stonefruit marmalade and cough syrup distilled into some sort of wretched jam. Lupicia claims it has a “lovely scent and flavors of honey, apricot, and sweet berries,” but I am not detecting any of those flavours except the apricot which at least serves to mask the rooibos note somewhat. They further go on to recommend it for children (apparently ones you don’t much like) and adding milk. I am a child-free vegan, so into the trash Piccolo must go.

I can’t blame Lupicia for my personal tastes and this does seem to be a nice quality rooibos- it’s just got that prominent red rooibos note that personally overrides any other good qualities. It does brew up to a lovely colour and seems like it’d be good for multiple steeps, if you’re into that sort of self-flagellation.

Whoa, this is a black that will put hair on your chest- a proper bracing cuppa that will get you going. It’s got a woody, earthy aftertaste after the initial tannin-heavy opening that lets you know THIS IS TEA! I imagine lumberjacks or other similar manly men drinking it. It feels like this should be advertised with one of those ridiculous American portmanteaux, like “Real Men Drink Kilimanjaro Tea for MENERGY!” You could probably also use the teabag to staunch bleeding after you’ve cut off a limb with those manly power tools.

If you find other standard black breakfast-style too wimpy, give this a try. Can’t say the taste is outstanding- it’s rather standard- but it will get you out of bed.

According to Lupicia, this is a black tea with savoury caramel, honey and fruit flavours. I get some rather standard caramel aftertaste and that generic fruit blend Lupicia seems to favour in a lot of their mixed black tea blends. It has a rather fruit candy-like aroma, though the fruit taste is somewhere between natural and artifical.

Overall, a pleasant cuppa but I feel as though I’ve tasted this one before many times. I imagine it would be a nice pairing with a cake or dessert.

Cracking open another oolong and what an amazing experience this is. The delicate scent of white peach and buttery oolong. My favorite way to drink this tea is to breathe deeply over the cup to maximize the peach flavoring, which is done so naturally in this tea. Oftentimes with flavored teas I worry about the acrid taste of a chemical flavoring, but it’s a beautiful and natural tasting flavor. If pressed, if I only could have one tea in my cupboard for the rest of my life, I would have to say it would be this one.

My go to decaf tea for night. I usually enjoy this in the evenings with a Stroopwafel or some other light snack.

The begamont note is fairly strong, but blends well enough with the rooibos for me. Maybe not the trickiest/most complex rooibos out there, but good enough to savor late at night.

I imagine this would be a hit among other guests who want something warm to drink at night, but without the caffeine to keep them up.

Would rate the tea itself like a 78-83, but it’s just such a versatile decaf that I’m bumping it higher – I pretty much always keep this in stock at home now.