Lupicia

This is a delicious tea! It calls out for cooler weather, but I wanted something sweet today. There is a hint of sweetness and nuttiness to it. Everything is blended well and nothing strikingly stands out. Its soft. It is definitely good!

This tea is fantastic served Moroccan style with a generous helping of honey and a splash of orange flower water. The jasmine combined with mint makes for a wonderful aroma, relaxing and refreshing at the same time. Nice afternoon tea.

Based on description alone (Lupicia used to describe it as having a “nostalgic” taste, whatever that is), I probably would never have purchased this tea. I received it in a Fukubukoro New Years’ bag two years ago, and it is now a firm favorite.
The green tea looks like a Japanese Sencha with chunks of white chestnut. The chestnut flavor lends the tea a very toasty and slightly sweet aroma. It is wonderful and soothing with a little honey or agave syrup. I drink this tea as much for the scent as the flavor – almost daily in fall and winter.

This is one of my top three teas. This tea has a soft peach aroma, sweetened by vanilla. The intensity of the flavors is just about perfect with the green tea – not too subtle or overwhelming. The peach smells and tastes like natural peach. The tea itself is beautiful with tiny squares of lavender-colored sugar, red and blue flower petals, and tiny flower buds that looked like heather against the shiny, dark green leaves of the tea. Perfect for cool spring days.

One of the things I’ve been noticing over the years, as I’ve ordered tea from various merchants, is that common parameters aren’t always common.

Almost every tea will have directions on the back of the packet, telling you how to brew a cup of tea. Too bad they can’t agree on the definition of the word ‘cup’. A standard English definition of the word cup could lead you to believe that it would be a measurement somewhere around 8 oz. But apparently this doesn’t count in the tea world. The general rule of thumb is 2-3 grams of tea per cup. But if you don’t have the same definition of cup, that could result in some very strange brewing parameters.

Lupicia has one of the smallest definitions of a cup I’ve ever seen. They define a cup as 5 oz., and still call for 3 grams of tea per these 5 oz. I’d be afraid of oversteeping with something like this but this cup? This was an amazing cup of tea.

The product description says “Sweet nostalgic aroma of caramel and almonds. Delicious straight or with milk.” This tea leaf smells sweet. And brewed up, it’s a beautiful medium brown and smells lovely, although much less sweet. Drinking the tea straight up, it has hints of caramel and almond flavors; a nice light cup. However, I like to add splenda or honey to my black teas. And if you sweeten this? Wow, it’s amazing. Mellow, smooth caramel flavors. Rich, creamy, and sweet with an almond finish. I also tried this tea with milk, and while nice, I didn’t find that it added as much as the sweetener did.

I strongly recommend that those who like a little sweetness with their tea give this a try. It’s a lovely yummy cup of goodness.

http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2533/tea-review-lupicia-caramele/

Finished off my 50g of this tea yesterday. If I were to put in another order for tea soon, this would definitely be on it. It was lovey, rich, creamy, and full of caramel goodness.

the instructions on this one are a little odd. I was always annoyed at SpecialTeas for assuming that I’d be drinking a 6oz cup rather than an 8oz cup. And Lupicia apparently thinks that 6oz is WAY too much, they’re prescribing a 5oz cup.

Seriously?

Anyway, per the directions, it’s 2.5-3grams of tea per 5oz cup of water. Oy. but sure, I’ll try it.

first sip – no additives. i can taste the almond, and a little floral taste that together taste a little like caramel. Not bad.

So I added some sweetener. HELLO CARAMEL! Nom.

Next cup I tried some milk. It was nice, but not necessary.

This one is lovely with sweetener and when you use a lot of leaf. I’ll have to play with it more to see if I really have to use that much leaf every time.

This came as part of the Lupicia newsletter in tea bag form, and I finally took it out for a taste.

This is a nice, well-balanced jasmine tea. Some great floral notes and aroma from the jasmine without being overpowering. The green tea base is smooth and provides a great base to the tea.

Also, I’d say that I’ve the pyramid teabags Lupicia provides are sooo convenient for the office. I’ve found that this type of tea tends to be very forgiving of water temperature to consistently create a nice cup of tea. I’d definitely recommend having this type of tea in the office especially if you have a hot water heater that doesn’t deliver the hottest water.

This tea is nice and sweet! I was surprised that it was a green tea. The liquor was a nice green tint. The scent was sweet. I had no idea what kind of flavor I was getting. It was slightly fruity but mostly sweet. Lovely tea.

I used the last of this sample to make a latte. This is weird, though, because every time I make a green tea latte, they always end up tasting like some type of biscuit or pastry, which, although nice, is bizzare. So, this was good as a latte, I got plenty of strawberry but not much vanilla, making the latte taste just like heated NesQuik strawberry milkshake. There was quite a lot of matcha at the bottom of the cup, but I still I couldn’t shake the pastry/biscuit taste.

Thanks LiberTeas!

The dry leaf of this smells exactly like strawberry milkshake mix! Steeped, it smells less strong and I can mostly smell the green tea. The matcha in this cup has settled at the bottom so the liquid is a clear, light green. The taste is very pleasant – the strawberry and vanilla flavours are subtle but this is a very smooth, enjoyable cup with no grassiness that I sometimes get with greens.

Yum yum yum! This tea has such a beautiful caramel-y taste to it. Sweet and delicious – but also a robust tea – strong and sturdy! I like this one a lot!

Perfect with biscotti – this one is a favorite: http://biscottibari.foodzie.com/authentic-almond-biscotti.html

I had a slow beginning with this tea, but after several attempts (with different times, temps and tea amounts) I have found the right combination. Not the very rounded tsp I use for most teas, rather a leveled tsp. Not the suggested 3-5 minutes, rather 1.5-2 minutes.
I guess my taste buds are just a little different.

Those first couple of cups also helped me get accustomed to the idea of flavored houjicha. I love houjicha, just never considered it as a base for flavored tea. But the flavoring works so well with this tea.

Now I can say that this tea is TOTALLY worth the effort. It’s got the roastiness of the houjicha, and the sweetness of the pear and honey, all blending together for a good cuppa. A unique tea.

In a word: DELICIOUS.

This was another sample I ordered from Rachel.

Made this hot, had a few sips, and iced the rest.
This is a very juicy tea, and the aroma of the leaves, both before and after steeping, is really pleasant and light. It is most definitely peachy – but it also has some floral notes from the rose petals that are blended in. Normally I really don’t like floral teas – I find that they remind me of drinking perfume. This is a very happy exception.

The few hot sips that I had were extremely juicy and flavorful, and since I used my whole sample on them, I decided just to take my chances and throw it into the fridge. I knew that from the reviews here and my own tasting (and the fact it got up to 90 today), I would love this iced.

It is so perfect for summer iced tea that I promptly went on Lupicia’s website and am in the midst of placing an order. Summers are long and hot here, people, and this tea is going to be one of the ways I make due.

My first order from Lupicia just arrived, and I wanted to try this sencha. I am usually hesitant to brew at such a hot temperature, but I wanted to try their recommended parameters first.

Pleasantly grassy aroma, a medium green color that tends slightly towards amber. To my pleasant surprise the resulting tea is not bitter at all, as senchas brewed too hot tend to be. An excellent cup!

I have to say, when I first set foot inside Lupicia, I was sad. A store like that really makes me worry for tea going the way of coffee. But this isn’t about the store, it’s about the tea.

This lapsang souchong was really enjoyable. When I first discovered this tea at a cafe back home, I immediately fell in love with its highly recognizable aroma. I make this tea on special occasions, for people who I really care about. Partly because it’s really good, partly because it’s pretty expensive.

Upon opening the container, you really get a blast of that smokey scent. I was astounded by how aromatic all Lupicia’s teas were while I was in the store; almost too aromatic, like they were somehow altered. I knew this one would be a good takeaway, because I knew it was supposed to be this strong.

When steeping, I go shorter than a usual steeping, varying from 2-4 minutes. At a shorter time, you really get the essence and stand alone of that smokey scent. It almost feels like drinking a smokey campfire. When kept on a little longer, say 3 or 4 mins, it picks up an earthy flavor as well, a damp woody taste that makes you feel like you’re in the dirt of Fujian. All around, a very enjoyable tea.

This tastes really good. It doesn’t taste chemical-y or thin (although it is a little – just slightly! – thinner than the caffeinated version of Momo). It has a very pleasant peach taste. Sweet, juicy and delicious. YUM!!!

A very fruity and light tea that would be delightful on a hot, sunny day! The berry flavors come out strong and are good if you enjoy the berry taste. The underlying base of green tea is very subtle but rounds out the overall flavor.

As the tea cools, it tasted sweeter to me. I’d definitely echo the recommendations of trying this tea iced.

Tastes like bergamot and japanese candies. So damn good.

I’ve grown up with unsweetened Asian teas, and this one made me feel as thought I was sitting in my grandmother’s garden, watching her koi fish. Perhaps I’m partial to loose-leaf teas, but Lupicia certainly brought flavor to the table. It is dark and rich, with a definite sweet and sour taste; however, steeping it too long can cause it to become bitter.