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This is a sip down, and one I do not plan to replace. It is good, people that I have served it to have liked it, but I still get that weird aroma from it.

For the last two pots I made of this, I used two tsps of Strawberry and added one of Vanilla Comoro by Harney and Sons. I liked it better that way.

I made this yesterday, I think. Sweet tea is seriously 1,000 times better on day two or even day three of sitting in the fridge. This isn’t cold steeped, it is made hot and sweetened and then chilled.

I am glad I made it ahead of time because I needed a major attitude adjustment tonight and after stewing all day and feeling frustrated by the heat and humidity on top of the mood, I wanted something that would taste like self care. This did.

It was light and sweet and playful, unlike my mood today. Existential crises need a big, cold glass of Fluffy Bunny. Maybe I will have a third glass…

This carafe is a sipdown, too.

I swear I thought I had reviewed my most recent batch of this. Well, here we go.

Once again, this smells like delicious strawberry…and then a deep, musky smell that is very unappealing to me. I had to say it, but it is really putrid on that bottom note of the sniff.

I served this not long ago to a friend and they simply remarked on lovely strawberry aroma and flavor. And that from someone who is extremely sensitive to smells and I won’t even burn a candle on the same day she is coming.

So once steeped it is very good. It still isn’t as good as Carol so today I made one little change. I dripped just a few drops of homemade vanilla extract on the leaves before steeping. I swear I didn’t taste the vanilla but I do think the tea was smoother that way. I didn’t know about Frasier when I bought this one, and eldest daughter gave me Frasier for Mother’s Day.

In order of preference of Lupicia strawberry teas tasted so far, I go with Carol as my top choice, Frasier second, and this one a decent third.

Having this for breakfast with an English muffin this morning. I started the day with watering the garden because it was still only in the 70’s and we are supposed to hit 91F later. Watering means carrying a five gallon bucket (35ish pounds) of water from the rain barrels to the garden…about eight trips usually does it. Then there was scrubbing the small garbage can and vacuuming in preparation for the day. So even though I wasn’t broiling hot, I wanted something light and lovely instead of my usual black tea.

This has lots and lots of lemongrass (which I usually grow and forgot to plant this year) and apple pieces, and I see some lavender flowers and a little oolong in there. The flavor is largely lemongrass forward with creamy vanilla and lavender rounding it out. The color is deep gold so there must be more oolong than I realized. I followed my usual Cuppageek protocol and made three steeps in the Kamjove, all combined to keep it evened out.

I really didn’t know if I would like this one, but I am enjoying it. It certainly does seem to be making me feel very chill and relaxed. I had waaaay too much caffeine yesterday and didn’t sleep much last night, so the relaxation is much needed.

Sipdown!

This tea is now four years old and needed to be finished, so I imitated more or less a video I saw online where a woman in Korea recommended making green tea with cool water in the summer.

( I have also tried ice steeping once and probably will again, but it was a tea I didn’t like and hoped ice steeping it would make it palatable. It didn’t. That tea still had vicious fangs. It was a Vietnamese green that tasted like an unruly young sheng.)

This is a tea I really liked, but it needed to go and we are way too hot to drink it hot. It is miserable and we both worked outside today. I steeped all the leaves I had left for three minutes at about 160 in about half the water I thought it needed and then poured it over ice in a carafe. That was then poured into glasses with ice.

I think we actually diluted it too much. The color is nice and golden but the tangerine is super light. That could be age, though? I definitely get lots of nice, sun-warmed hay white tea flavor, so overall it was good. It was super cold and refreshing and went well with supper, so I will call it a win, plus I get shelf space and a sipdown!

A sad sipdown. Ashman and I both enjoyed this one, especially as iced tea. It is so light and fresh and fruity. It is super hot here right now, and this has been galloping down our gullets so fast that it is now all gone.

Once again, I come on here to remove from cupboard and I had never added it to cupboard.

Was it good? It is gone quicker than most teas. First pot or two was enjoyed hot, then big, cold, sweet pitchers to beat the June heat.

Not tart, but just enough tingle to feel fruity and fresh.

Parting is such sweet sorrow…

I had surprise mail from gmathis yesterday and it contained a generous sample of this tea! (Where do you get those pouches for the tea? Much nicer than what I use.)

Oh my goodness, the dry leaves smell amazing! This was definitely the right choice for today!

The steeped tea smells equally delicious and the taste is reminiscent of Nina’s Fete de Versailles. Bright citrus but not an astringent base tea, all made lightly creamy by a hint of vanilla. This goes on the “gotta find it” list.

Thank you, gmathis!

I bought two 50 gram bags of Carol in late November and it wasn’t enough. Lesson learned.
This is a favorite of Ashman’s but there was only one teaspoon left so I finished it for breakfast this morning. Fortunately, Frasier is similar and nearly (but not quite) as good, and I have some of that I can make for him.

Carol is strawberry, vanilla, coconut, and rose petals and the strawberry part is much purer and smoother than their plain strawberry tea, which I do usually like but it has a really weird smell sometimes. The coconut is almost undetectable for me. I do not notice much floral, either, but the rose petals are gorgeous and rose usually makes tea taste sweeter to me even when it doesn’t impart a lot of floral taste and it could be that the coconut is mostly smoothing and sweetening this without being too oily or heavy.

This might be our favorite Lupicia tea of all time, but I have only tried about ten or so of their blends.

Once again, I came on here excited to click “remove from cupboard” only to discover I hadn’t added it to cupboard….along with about fifty other teas. Sigh.

Raging hot here, and lots of outside work to do with the garden going strong. I made a pitcher of this iced and sweetened and it is so good I might cry. Definitely one I need more of, and I think I have ordered it twice already.

Orange is so refreshing to me and the vanilla creamy aspect makes it so smooth. I think I could chug the whole liter with no problem.