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Sipdown! (11 | 332)

A friend from Instagram kindly gifted me a mini tin of this tea, along with some other Hawaiian teas. Finishing it off today as both an iced milk tea and a hot cuppa.

Like most of Lupicia’s Hawaii exclusive teas, it’s sort of generically tropical. There is some peach as well though. Apparently it’s meant to be a mango, peach, and orange black tea, but I definitely don’t get orange.

It does make a pleasant milk tea because of the orange and and mango and the fairly strong base tea with a CTC component. It’s not something I would order just because they have far better mango teas (Alphonso Mango comes to mind) and honestly I don’t find myself to be much into peach these days.

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Finishing off this packet from an Instagram swap. I prepared it cold brew, just shaken with ice and cold water.

It’s quite good really. I happen to love genmaicha hot and iced, so this is sort of like a more concentrated version. It has a lovely pronounced nuttiness from the toasted rice, and the matcha gives the green tea base a bit more body and umami.

I think Obubu has a powdered version of their genmaicha, I may have to try it sometime. And really, I should cold brew some genmaicha next because it’s so tasty cold. ❤

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I made this pot last night but never got around to drinking it (oops), so I’m now drinking it cold.

For me, it’s too much ginger. I love those crackly dark spiced molasses cookies, my grandmother used to make them all the time. So I was hoping this tea would taste more similar to the cookie, but mostly I just get ginger with a bit of brown sugar sweetness. I’m not sure I can taste the honeybush at all, perhaps a hint of woodiness?

I can see where Deb was going with this, but I feel like it would’ve been more successful with a bit less ginger and maybe a touch of cinnamon to make the spice profile more well-rounded and truer to the cookie.

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I think I’m over halfway through my S&V holiday teas, hooray! Honestly most of them have been better than I remembered so far, which is a nice surprise when I’m trying to sip them down.

This one is a sort of light mulled wine flavor with some hibiscus. I really appreciate the restraint with the hibiscus though, it adds just enough tartness to make this feel like a spiced fruit juice – maybe cranberry and orange, and I can see plum as well. But it’s not overly sour, which is lovely. The clove makes it taste quite festive.

Honestly, one of the most pleasant mulled wine teas I’ve had, as it doesn’t overdo the hibiscus or the spice and is very well-balanced. Probably not something I would reorder as I just don’t really crave spiced teas, but I would consider having some around for the winter/holidays.

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Finishing this one off as a milk tea, as it’s my favorite way to have Lupicia’s cookie-flavored teas.

This one is actually extra good, because it also has a nice rich nutty flavor. It’s like a combination of Cookie and Joyeux Noël, which is a roasted chestnut black tea and quite possibly my very favorite for a milk tea. So anyway, it’s like a nutty, slightly caramelly cookie. Needless to say, scumptious. I love Lupicia’s chestnut flavor and it’s strong enough to still stand out even with quite a bit of milk added.

That being said, I’m not sure it’s different enough to warrant having it around in addition to the others I mentioned, plus I’m not holding my breath for it being available because I don’t remember seeing it often on the USA website even when it was still being managed in California and had better stock.

Hmm…

Not a huge fan of this to be honest. It’s been a long time since I last tried a Nilgiri, so I didn’t know what to expect, but this is definitely reminding me of a Darjeeling. It’s quite astringent with an almost muscatel flavor to it. There’s some bread and hay as well. I’m finding it quite difficult to describe, honestly…

But it’s too light and too astringent for me. I’ll have to see how it fares as a milk tea…

I starting making some cold brew pitchers for the fridge today, because lately I’ve been craving sugary cold drinks for some reason. So hopefully these will make good alternatives.

Anyway, I forgot how much I love these flavored barley teas! Mugicha in general makes a delicious cold brew, and the watermelon here is so juicy and refreshing. And there’s a subtle sweetness at the end of the sip, so no sweetener is needed.

Yummy! I hope the Hawaii website will offer these at some point this summer… :/

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Prepared the rest of my pouch of this as a cold brew pitcher.

It’s just okay. There’s still too much turmeric for my taste, it overpowers the lemongrass and ginger and I don’t taste pear at all.

I’m mostly just tasting turmeric and ginger. So not a winner for me unfortunately.

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This has been my morning tea of the day for the past couple of weeks! I ordered a few straight black teas from Capital Tea Ltd. a few months back, just to get me out of my little Chinese and Taiwanese black tea comfort zone. This is one of the two Ceylons I chose. I’ve pulled out the Nilgiri to try next, which should be interesting!

Anyway. This is apparently supposed to have cocoa and cherry notes, which I don’t really get at all. Other people did mention them though, so not sure if it’s this batch or if I’m just bad at this, heh… Mostly I taste malt and thick grainy bread notes. There’s a strong metallic note, which I think is characteristic of Ceylon, at least in my experience. Now that the cup has cooled off, there’s a medium astringency as well that’s not my favorite. I do taste a touch of dark brown sugar that adds a bit of richness.

Overall, it’s pleasant and I haven’t minded sipping down the 35g sample, but it’s not one that I would reorder.

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Finding this one to be quite meh unfortunately.

I’m having it iced in oat milk and it just doesn’t compare to the banana version. I’m not sure I really get chocolate at all, and there’s a weird chalkiness to it. I don’t know if that’s coming from the flavoring or what.

Anyway, it’s not terrible or anything but definitely not one I would reorder…