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F and I used up all our pilfered wine in the spinach risotto, so we drank the pitcher of this I’d been cold-steeping.

I can’t even tell you how much I love Lupicia’s greens iced in summer. They’re just so good. Elegant, delicate, highly drinkable.

Now I just have to figure out what to put in the fridge next. I think I’ll try the Melon White and blame TeaFairy.

This is very good, but not quite as good as last time. It has a burnt quality to it that I just don’t feel like today – I think today might just not be the right day for this tea. It’s not illicit library tea. It’s not voting day tea.

It’s not bad tea.

It’s just the wrong tea.

This is illicit library tea. Before anyone gets on my case, please know that the tea is on the windowsill, FAR away from any books and/or my desk. And I create far less of a disturbance this way than by running between the library and my apartment every time I need to have some tea. Okay? Okay. (But whatever you do, don’t tell the in-house librarians.)

Last time I reviewed this, I said I’d probably adjust this upwards rather than downwards, if I were to change the rating. And I was right – after a week of being completely spoiled by all those new Lupicia teas from my lupicia.fr order, it was probably difficult to review this one independently like the shiny gem it is.

Again, scent wise, this is sheer happiness, all plum candy and sweetness. In the cup, there’s the added element of creamy, smooth vanilla – I know I’ve compared the Kiwi Vanilla from Kränku to a liquid version of kiwi fool, and this is definitely similar.

I would like to nudge this up another five after revisiting it, but I’m excited about trying it iced, too, so I think I’ll wait until then.

I wish I had been more elaborate about picking my voting day tea – this is not like me at all. But it was hard – I mean, what does civic duty taste like? So I just picked the black tea that smelled most appealing this morning, and, apparently, civic duty tastes like Studio 54, which I guess makes sense.

There were ticket inspectors on the tram! I’ve heard of that happening, but never witnessed it. So me and F, who came along to hit up the Swedish embassy with me, got to show our crisp, newly stamped and fully legit tickets while numerous Romans threw loud hissyfits around us, because that simply wasn’t acceptable, expecting them to cough up tram fare like that. Monday! Who pays on a Monday?! &c.

I had this with a breakfasty fruit plate and some almond butter, and it was surprisingly good with it. I usually drink fruity/floral greens and whites with fruit, but this tea brought some kind of deep, smooth caramel note to the plate (HA! I wasn’t even trying!) that was really nice and unexpected.

If I had to pick one of my basic black German blends to restock, this would be the one.

I’ve been working most of the weekend, so I figured I’d take some time off before bed and watch a movie and drink a cup of tea. In terms of the tea, I’m trying to be a good decaffeinated Anna and drink my rooibos. I chose this, because it’s so luxurious and smooth and always hits the spot for me. I honestly think this might end up being a restock when I finally manage to clean out my tea stash.

As for the film, well. May I say I’ve been having the most amazing time so far – there’s roughly a quarter of an hour left of this masterpiece, and even though I was quite late to this particular party and have indeed been exposed to much of the hype, I am not disappointed. It’s such a privilege to get to watch one of the actors you adored growing up in the role of a lifetime. From teen heartthrob to this – a deeply conflicted individual, struggling to reach out to his estranged family in a time of overwhelming hardship. The enemies this man faces. The obstacles. Not to mention the stunning visuals. Finally, may I say how rare it is that I watch a movie and am consistently surprised at every twist and turn – I doubt I have leaned forward in sheer awe this many times during a screening before.

Seriously – don’t miss it; unless you’ve already seen Sharknado, hunt it down this instant.

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.

Every time I pick this up again, I’m all like, ‘I know I rated this a solid 95, but seriously, how good can it be?’ and then I smell it and I’m all, ‘Oh, right, it’s this one.’ and then I steep it and drink it and it’s just so insanely good. The florals are complex and beautifully balanced without ever becoming overpowering or cloying.

I stumbled over a tasting note by a user who’d mostly been reviewing Lupicia teas – it said that the biggest problem with Lupicia was that they recommend boiling water for all their teas… and that any true tea drinker (whatever that is) would know this to be incorrect.

Since so many of my followers find me through my Lupicia tasting notes, and since so many people ask me about Lupicia because I am, obviously, the undisputed #1 Lupicia fangirl (Those pesky Canadians are catching up, though, I have to watch that.) around here, I feel I have to stress this again, because it keeps coming up.

The biggest problem with Lupicia is not the above. It is that prejudiced tea drinkers insist on either ignoring Lupicia’s steeping instructions and hence, in many cases, get a lesser result and/or question Lupicia’s know-how due to these steeping instructions to the extent that many avoid the company altogether.

(Also that their teas are delicious, irresistible and will eventually ruin you, because once you’re hooked, you’re hooked.)

Numerous unnamed tea-litist people have approached me and told me they definitely aren’t going to drink sub-par Lupicia teas because a company that suggests boiling water for a green tea is surely run by amateurs and why am I so excited about their teas since I clearly don’t approve of Teavana and their ilk? (This is particularly hilarious, seeing as Lupicia are Japanese, not American, as most of these people have assumed.)

So no – Lupicia know what they’re doing. Strangely, so do A.C. Perchs when they recommend 11-minute steeping times for some of their teas. And those teas were weird, yet tasty experiences I wouldn’t have had if I’d stubbornly insisted on misguided tea snobbery.

As for the above user, I challenged her to try temporarily dropping that whole all green teas are the same prejudice and to following the steeping instructions, just to see what it was like. (Let’s hope for squees of delight rather than hate mail.)

To sum this up – Bravissimo! is one insanely tasty tea, especially steeped for 1.5 minutes in boiling water.

I’m not reviewing much lately – more than anything, it’s because I currently produce so much text on a daily basis that writing more feels like a chore, plus Steepster has been a bit wonky lately. Not to mention the fact that I just haven’t been drinking that much tea at all. I’ve had exactly this: one pot of Forgeron & Blanc’s jasmine, plus one cup of the same, one pot of the Kiwi Vanilla from Kränku, plus one cup of the same, plus one more cold-steeped pitcher (it’s all been very kiwi around here), and one pot of Mariage Frères’ Thé des Impréssionistes.

Then when I was in Turkey, I brought two bags from Le Palais des Thés because I didn’t check any luggage (please take a moment to be in awe of this accomplishment) and they’re not in tins and a good size for my carry-on. (Some of you asked what I named that very bag ages ago, and I forgot to respond – it is known as The Great Otter, because that’s what it looks like – dark, fat and sleek, yet with a surprising air of delicacy. In addition it swallows anything and is fine with getting wet. Ergo – otterbag.)

So then I had some of the Thé du Hammam rooibos with some new tea frens, and then the Green Vanilla for breakfast every day. And, of course, every day the breakfast guy at the Richmond laughed at me because I didn’t know how to make Turkish tea (the actual tea pot is balanced atop the hot water dispenser and then you dilute it as much as you want) and then I had to demonstrate the delights of green tea and much sniffing and oohing and aahing ensued. I hope it wasn’t the same guy every day, but I honestly couldn’t tell and maybe we were just playing a really funny game and I didn’t even realize.

And then obviously the compulsory apple tea, but that’s not really tea as much as super-sugary granules. And, finally, the amazing new addition to the airport lounge – a tea garden, where I had something like six pots of garnet, jasmine, carnation, and whatever else they had in terms of tea. They had little individual tetsubins! (Tetsubi?) I was there for hours.

Now I’m back in Rome, though, trying to get back into the habit of… habits. This is a reliable Lupicia green – fresh, natural-tasting and delicious. I put some in the fridge to cold steep while I was at it. Again, I’m impressed by how well Lupicia’s greens age – I can’t really tell any major difference between the ones I got in 2012 and 2013, and a full year’s worth of storage can really make a difference for some teas, in my experience. Yet another reason to love Lupicia.

You and me, Lupi – forever.

I’ve always thought I would try this cold-steeped (I know one of my notes says I tried it ‘chilled’, but that’s just fancy speak for ‘I forgot my cup and when I picked it up again the tea was cold’) and now I finally have.

I left it for about 12 hours in the fridge, and it was disturbingly foamy when I took it out. Foamy and opaque. I think the most appropriate word would be ‘pondy’ – frog noises would not have been surprising.

Flavour wise, though, this cold steep makes me kick this one up the last magic five points. This is the ultimate iced tea, and I seriously cannot praise it enough. Just a pinch of sugar, and this would be the most perfect summer lemonade. I need this tea in my cupboard forever.

Congratulations, kiwi vanilla. You’re hired. I love you.