Lupicia

Alright, a real sipdown for the day – 177/397.

This one found me through the EU TTB and Anna forever ago, and I’ve been putting off drinking it because it just terrifies me. I’m biased against grapefruit at the best of times because of the bitterness, and green tea because of the astringency I usually associate with it, so combined… don’t ask me why I picked it out of the box, I really have no idea (it was just a small sample, though). The fact that Lupicia recommend brewing this in boiling water made me super wary, but I also had a small sample of Happiness, another green tea which Lupicia recommend at boiling point, at ignored their instructions and got nowhere with the tea. So this time, instead of my usual parameters for green tea, I compromised and went with 90C. I honestly don’t know how long it was steeping because I forgot to set my timer, but I’m guessing around 3 minutes, so a little longer than recommended. I held my breath, took a sip and… surprisingly tasty! I don’t know why I was so worried. The green tea has held up well against the hotter temperature, and the grapefruit is bright and citrusy without being too bitter to enjoy. It has a slight sting and a bitterness to the end of the sip, but very manageable and it adds to the overall ‘grapefruit’ effect nicely. Surprisingly I enjoy this one much more than Happiness, which adds peach to the grapefruit and green tea, a flavour I typically love. It’s not something I would actively seek out, but I am impressed and happy I picked it out to try. I would definitely drink it again – I can see myself starting my day with a cup of this tea, a bowl of natural yoghurt and some toast while sitting on the veranda of a fancy apartment in a foreign city, stealing a moment of peace and quiet with a good book while my boyfriend walks our (imaginary) dog. Yes, I am very glad to have tried this one!

I swear I’ve grown up with this tea when I lived in Hawaii. I got a free sample of it, and it’s very similar to the Oolong version, but that one is a little bit more tropical and stonefruit in vibes, whereas this one is arguably peachier with the vanilla addition. It’s very smooth and sweet. I slightly prefer the oolong, but the flavoring of this peach is creamier with the vanilla.

I finally got one of the most rated teas on Steepster!

I’ve been meaning to try this one for a while, since I got started on steepster in the first place. The high price and shipping has made me delay for years, especially since I’ve spent most of it on What-Cha. People are usually divided on this one from what I see. Either it tastes refreshing; the natural peach blends the florals effortlessly with the oolong; it tastes fake and the peach overpowers the oolong; OR the peach is the weakest thing about the tea. I eventually was going to try it to see what I thought myself; it’s inevitable.

Since I had slightly more income, I decided to get a few sachets of this tea with the mango oolong. I’ve been using the flavor=sachet, high grade tea=loose leaf rule. I was very close to getting either the Melon and the Queen’s Muscat Oolongs, but I don’t need more than 50 grams of tea , and the current expiration date for the Muscat oolong was in July of this year…I was not going to risk a long shipping time on that. My greedy thirst does want to try EVERYTHING, but I cannot have TOO much more tea.

The nice thing about this tea sachet is that it really does not oversteep in large mugs for me. I had about 12 oz of this one, and I’ve had it twice. The second brew is weaker, but it’s still peachy. The rose is subtle, but I can definitely taste it. I am glad they used flowers instead of a rose flavor since it could have been too perfumey.

As for the teabase, it was not as high grade leaf as it advertises. I think it would have been had I gotten the loose leaf version of it. It’s possible that the Baozhong leaves ARE high grade, but got broken up in the bags. There is some dust, however. It luckily does not make the tea astringent. They could have used a little bit more Baozhong in the sachets or a different source for better leaves, but it would have been extremely easy to make this tea too astringent with a baozhong base.

Baozhongs are one of my favorite oolongs, and they blend really well with fruit flavors, but even on their own, they can become astringent like Green Teas. I think the sachet was made with the notion that someone might leave it in their mug.

So to finally wrap up my ramble, this was the nice refreshing oolong sachet I hoped it would be. It reminds me of home, sunshine, spring and summer. I do agree that the flavor could have been drawn out a little bit more, but I enjoy that it’s intentionally light. I do not think it deserves to cost $1 per sachet, but it’s a unique tea that I do not regret getting. It’s a 75 in terms of tea quality, a near 90 for in terms of aroma, 80 in terms of taste, so I personally rate it 85.

Oolong is just the cutest tea, but I never buy it for myself, so I decided to make myself a small mug of this one from the tea box. It tastes rather grassy and green. I tend to prefer buttery oolongs myself, but it was refreshing to have this along with the two heavier chais I was drinking at the same time!

I’m still on the hunt for the greatest strawberry tea in all the land. Strawberry black tea, to be precise. And I had high hopes for this one. When I made my purchase from Lupicia in December, I bought one of each of their strawberry black teas. Anything with strawberry in the description went right into my cart.

I’m not necessarily looking for an authentic strawberry fruit flavor. Strawberries are delicious, but tart and bright. I’m looking for something more candy-like, sweet and intense. This has that candy flavor; it smells like strawberry bubblicious. And yeah, that’s what I’m going for. But still, there’s something missing.

I’m not exactly being fair, to be fair. I’m trying to find a copycat of my favorite strawberry tea that has now gone extinct. This is a good tea in its own right, though it doesn’t quite meet the high expectations I had for it. I’ll keep looking. Maybe one of the other Lupicia teas will hit the mark for me.

Cold Brew Sipdown (332)

Last time I made this, it was way too concentrated. This time I used 1 teabag for 16 ounces but I think I steeped it too long. That, and I think I just don’t love this tea.

It is a bit like coffee to me in light of the roastiness. The plum actually starts the sip so it has a bit of a dense syrup quality to it. Unfortunately, that denseness is grounded in the stronger roasted flavor of the barley which is what takes over and lingers on your tongue.

I could see this being great for some people but for me, I am not too happy. However, despite not enjoying this tea all that much, I am very grateful to Cameron B for giving me the chance to try it. Thank you!

Decided to make this single-serving teabag I got as a sampler from Lupicia with some long-ago order before the California flagship closed down for my Doctor Who-watching afternoon teatime (at least the name fits). It is a typical malty black tea blend, and a rather nice one, at that. I get notes of malt, baked bread, grapes, raisins, and autumn leaf. It’s a pleasant breakfast blend black tea, the sort that appeals to me by being smooth and with mild astringency and pleasant to take plain.

Thanks to tea-sipper for this tea! I was planning to add milk, but it really doesn’t need it! The flavor is lightly chocolatey and so nice! This is how a chocolate tea should be done. It’s not fake at all. You get that feeling of chocolate while also enjoying the nice light tea.

This was my free teabag with my order a while ago, so this is now a sipdown.  (yes, sometimes I add single teabags to my Steepster cupboard because I am ridiculous.)  It’s a nice one to try, but probably don’t need it stocked.  Happy to try it!  I used bottled water to boil in my kettle for the first steep and the peach flavor is extravagant.  Maybe a little bitey, as I probably shouldn’t have used such hot water.  But the peach even could possibly have a bit of a peach pit flavor even?  Somewhere between authentic peach and not…  Looking at the steeped teabag, it looks like there are tiny pieces of oolong though, and not actual full leaves, so how the heck is this “super grade”??  This tea went through the ringer of the varieties of ways I steep tea: second steep was boiled in my kettle with sink water, third steep was boiled for twenty minutes on the stove, fourth was steeped back in the kettle with sink water.  Honestly, all of the steeps were delicious and consistently PEACH.  This gets credit for some lasting peachiness. So that gives me more confidence that the variety of ways I’m steeping teas isn’t harming them TOO much… it probably mostly depends on each tea — how they will be with my crazy steeping methods. But it’s also sad that the flavor is so one note for me. Why only peach? I’d like the flavor of the oolong to peak through. Even more sad, I’m noticing the base is pouchong which is my favorite type of oolong. I can’t taste that at all.
Steep #1 // 1 teabag // 18 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 17 minutes after boiling  // 1 1/2 minute steep   
Steep #3 //  8 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep 
Steep #4 // just boiled // 2-3 min steep
2020 Sipdowns: 2