After all this talk of Lupicia’s Melon White I obviously had to have a cup. (TeaFairy, I hold you entirely responsible for this.)
Hilariously, in my latest review of this tea, I commented that I could probably dump 300 degree water on it, and it would still taste perfect. I’ve tried steeping Lupicia’s greens and whites in various temp/steep time constellations just for kicks, and in my opinion, their flavoured greens and whites underperform at lower temperatures. The strength and complexity of flavour diminish, there is the occasional weird aftertaste, and more often than not, the kind of bitterness I generally associate with temperatures being too high rather than too low.
But what I think is really cool is that these teas seem to be so resilient and flexible – this one is a good example – I mean, there are stellar reviews with steeping temps and times covering the full ranges between 100 and 70 degrees, and 1.5 and 11-something minutes.
To be fair, how many teas perform so consistently? In my cupboard there are only a few aside from Lupicia, particularly in terms of greens and whites.
Either way, this is as melony as ever, but not as delicious as the oolong. I miss the wildcard ripeness of the oolong in this one – it lacks a little bit of punch. I’m going to experiment with this one a bit more when I get home, though – I’m pretty sure I use very little leaf compared to most people (probably because I’m overcompensating for a long time of overleafing everything) so I’m going to get one of those fancy little scales so I can be more scientific about the whole thing.
Also, I seriously need to try this iced sometime very very soon.
