Napa Blanc

So, I decided to have some of this tea the other day and made a fascinating discovery. The first steep was still a bit charcoal-y on the backend. However, I used the same tea bag (mostly because I was being thrifty) and made a second cup of tea, and guess what !?

No more charcoal on the back end!

The second steep was smooth and had all of the flavor and none of what I didn’t like. I highly recommend trying a second steep of the same tea bag if you’re a bit turned off by some of the backend on the first steep.

:-) :-)

First coherent descriptor that came through in my head after the surprised and delighted initial “Yum!” as I leaned over to inhale the steeping cup was … Juicy Fruit gum. Kind of honeysuckle-ish but I can see where it’s grape, too, reminding me of the wild grape vine in our backyard growing up… my dog used to love it when I peeled back the tart skin and squeezed the juicy, firm sweet inner orb into her mouth on a hot day. Forgot about that preciousness until this moment, and this tea, more than 30 years later :)

The Juicy Fruit carried through from aroma to flavor, as well, much cleaner and as sweet as the gum. Second steep is every bit as good, though with a hint of astringency on the finish that could have been due to leaving it in too long, can’t say.

I love this tea, it’s setting off the pleasure receptors in my brain, big time. A big thank you to Crystal for hooking me on this smack.

This tea smells great, but for me I wasn’t a fan of the taste at all. This is why I love Lupicia though, like any good tea salon they have no problem with making you a cup to try before you buy anything, which I was definitely thankful for doing with this one (un)fortunately.

Happy National Pinot Noir Day! Today the prompt is to drink a Darjeeling or a tea with muscatel/grape flavor notes!

So, I found this old Lupicia bag in my stash, and it seemed good for the prompt. I steeped the tea warm to dissolve the sugar crystals, but then iced the tea in my fridge. It has that same grape candy flavor that is in several other Lupicia teas… nothing about it really makes me think of “white wine” like the description claims. There is no effervescent quality and the flavor is strongly sweet/artificial grape. The base tea is old now, and while perhaps at once time was a fresh and grassy green, it’s now more of a subdued dry hay. But, the flavoring is potent enough it hides the fact the green tea base is now long out of its prime.

I found it a bit average as a plain iced tea… that grape flavor is in other Lupicia teas, and I didn’t taste any of the jasmine flowers or anything wine-like. It doesn’t taste bad or anything, it just isn’t stand out to me among Lupicia’s offerings.

I will say that adding carbonation to this tea bumps the rating much more highly for me than I would have given it otherwise. Egads, it is such a major improvement! Grape soda without the gobs of sweetener. YUM!

Advent from Dustin Day 17
Another new-to-me Lupicia blend! The white grape is pretty mild, with jasmine being the predominant flavor. Nice and mild, and quite easy to drink.

From the Green Tea/ Matcha TTB

I’ve had this before instore and remember thinking it was too sweet and didn’t pick it up. This time it tasted like bubblegum. I don’t even know how/why, there it is. Not my cup of tea.

I tried this tea from a traveling tea box. From the name, I assumed it was a white tea, and I thought that even after drinking it the first time. It’s light for a green tea, close to the color of white grape juice or white wine. The green tea is very subtle, so I could have mistaken it for an oolong or white tea. I haven’t really drunk enough of those to tell them apart from the more floral green teas. Once I drink more white tea, I will probably be able to distinguish between them, but I found it easy enough to believe this tea to be a white tea. It doesn’t get very bitter, and I think it tastes good with splenda. I don’t always add splenda to teas since not every tea seems to taste as nice with it added. It doesn’t have a strong vegetal taste, but I suppose it has a more defined flavor than the few white teas I’ve drunk in the past. The tannin in the green tea may be strong enough to contrast the grape and to give it that wine flavor, and I doubt white tea would be noticeable in its place.

I don’t drink much wine, but I would say the taste is comparable, though not as strong or as astringent as white wine. The grape is more obvious than the jasmine, but I think they work well together, and I wouldn’t describe the taste as artificial or overpowering. I would buy this tea when I next buy tea from Lupicia. I already have a growing list of teas to buy.

This is one of the special edition Lupicia teas that I’d been curious about for a long time, but never committed to buying because I don’t always enjoy grape flavor. As it turns out, I did like this one, thanks beelicious for the sample!

The blend looks like it’s made up of sencha, jasmine flowers, and konpeito. The scent is that of white grape juice or grape candy. After brewing, more of a jasmine aroma emerges. The tea itself is light and smooth, with a good, slightly grassy base, and the jasmine and grape flavors balance it nicely. There is nothing artificial about the grape, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it not being the dominant flavor but rather playing well with the others. Overall, it’s a very refreshing, bright-tasting tea, and would be great as an iced tea as well.

At a minute in boiling water, somehow this does manage to taste and smell like those little hard grape candies. So much nostalgia! Some burnt bitterness does creep out near the end but it’s not as bad as I anticipated when I saw the suggested steeping parameters.

Thanks, OMGsrsly (and MissB)!

Cooking TTB #9

I probably came in to this one with too high of expectations after having tried their Jingle Bells blend and falling in love with the sparly grape flavor it had. I wanted more a more complex flavor out of this than I felt like I got. It was nearly there when I had it cold, but I wasn’t as happy with it hot as I had hoped to be. I’d pick Jingle Bells over this, but this is growing on me as the cup goes on. This is another one I’ve been hoping to try since finding Lupicia!