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Ugh, I think I found a new poison.

I took a sip and made such an interesting face (oh, woe, that we did not have a camera to record it) that my boyfriend immediately grabbed the cup away from me and tried it himself. He described it as “hawaiian punch, but much, much worse.”

I can’t be so generous. To me, it tastes like bubble gum that’s been chewed for a while. Only the barest residual of the flavor remains, replaced with a stale nasty taste that leaves your mouth feeling funny. Old, nasty bubble gum. That’s what ‘Green Tea With Mango’ tastes like to me.

Side note: Y’know, for a green tea the liquor is awfully red. It’s about the color of caramel. I’m guessing that’s the hibiscus at work.

Thank you LiberTEAS for sending me a sample of Tropical Explosion.

The coconut and pineapple are the strongest notes. They balance well with the white tea, creating a blend that isn’t very sweet, but still decidedly fruity. There’s a bit of a mint effect from the tea, that refreshed/clean/slightly tingling feeling? I wonder what causes that. (At first I thought I was crazy, but it looks like JaneFan tasted it too.)

I don’t usually go for a lot of tropical fruit flavors, so this isn’t a blend I would have picked out myself. I’m so glad I got a chance to try it, and just might have to order more in the future!

My previous Earl Grey experience is limited to cheap tea bags, which I never enjoyed, so I always assumed I wouldn’t like this. But I’ve had a sample from Lupicia around for ages now, and I thought now was the time to try it.

Lots and lots of bergamot. I never thought of Earl Grey as a fruity tea before, but Lupicia’s blend is heavy on the citrus note. The tea is very smooth and refreshing, especially iced.

This was on sale at Mitsuwa this week, so I bought a big ol’ bottle of it. I had not tried it before.
It’s the best pre-bottled jasmine tea I’ve ever had! The floral flavor is really strong, but the tea remains very light and refreshing. Really awesome iced.

((As a comparison, the other prepackaged jasmine tea I usually drink is Adagio’s. It’s pretty good too, but if I compare it side-by-side with Ito En’s I can taste a slight bitterness in Adagio’s tea, which I believe is the preservative they add to their “pure” tea. ))

This is so refreshing. I really like how strong and vibrant the flavor is. Most pear teas I have tend to be kinda weak or lack the tartness of a true pear, but it’s all here :) The pomegranate’s pretty light. I could sorta taste it, but only as an afterthought compared to the pear.

This is a very pleasant summertime tea. Thank you, LiberTEAS, for sending the sample to me! I’ve got to see if I can get some more :)

For a cheap bagged tea, this is not bad. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s not great. The peach flavor is very strong, dominating the drink. The taste of the green tea, meanwhile, is pretty much not there. But this is drinkable. It doesn’t need any sweeteners or additives, since it’s already quite syrupy.

The tea looks like little sticks. Not at all like other green teas I’ve had. Lupicia calls this a houjicha, but it doesn’t look anything like Adagio’s houjicha (my only other exposure) so I’m not sure what to expect.

The flavor reminds me of dry roasted grain. Like puffed wheat cereal that hasn’t been sweetened. Not at all like other green teas. It is mildly sweet, actually.

Lupicia’s website recommends blending this with milk for a tea latte, and I could see the flavors complementing each other well. It also makes me think my flavor comparison to cereal is not completely off-base; we eat milk with cereal, right?

Slightly bitter aftertaste, probably because I used water that was hotter than necessary to brew the tea. We don’t have a controlled water heater at work; it just comes out off the dispenser ‘hot’ and you deal with it. I tossed a couple of small ice cubes in to lower the temp. a tad, but I don’t think I did enough.

Adagio sent me a free sample tin of Birthday tea when I made a purchase last month (my birthday is May 22nd) and it was a complete surprise. I opened up the tea and was amused by the rainbow-colored sprinkles nestled amongst the black leaves. It is described on Adagio’s website as a blend of “vanilla, cream and a hint of caramel”; if it tasted anything like cake or frosting, I would be hooked.

It took me a few weeks to get around to trying it, but I have to say I’m disappointed. It doesn’t taste like vanilla frosting. It doesn’t taste like sweet, sugary cake. It has the slightest hint of vanilla…and that’s it. It’s practically a plain black tea. If steeped over 5 minutes, it goes bitter really fast.

The lack of flavor makes me wonder if I got an old batch or something. I mean, it just doesn’t taste all that sweet to me! But hey, it’s not like I paid for it. It’s definitely a better birthday present than socks or granny underwear. ;-D

Today I made Lupicia’s Caramael Matcha au Lait mix like this:
1. Two teaspoons of matcha powder in the cup
2. Cup half-filled with hot water
3. Whisk stir whisk stir.
4. Fill the rest of the cup with 2% milk (because i don’t like drinking hot hot tea, the cold milk cooled the drink to the perfect temperature)
5. Whisk stir whisk stir.
6. GULP GULP YUM YUM.

It was pretty good. Kinda creamy. I can’t say that I get a strong sense of ‘caramel’ from the drink. Just green tea, with perhaps a hint of burnt sugar. Maybe I put too much milk in, and it was drowned out? But that doesn’t seem right, since the tea was pretty thick. shrug

Ah, Rose Green Oolong.
You make me feel like a princess!

The tea is so strongly scented that the smell of rose petals fills the entire kitchen. It’s lovely. Perfect for springtime. It kinda makes me think I should be wearing something pink, or sparkly, or at the very least a floral 1950s housewife dress.

Anyway. Definitely one of the nicer teas I own. Light, refreshing, delicate, rosy. I really don’t know what else to say about it, and besides, I have to go do something girly now like give myself a pedicure while wearing an avacado face mask.

Ciao.