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I’ve had a couple of unsuccessful attempts preparing this with milk. Lupicia’s instructions are simple: put matcha in cup, put milk in cup, stir, heat, and stir some more. Every time, it’s left the tea rather clumpy and it separates pretty quickly from the milk. Bleah.

So I tried it with just hot water today. It worked out…decently. Something about the milk really brings the flavor of the strawberries out. When I drank the tea as prepared today, it was green and slightly bitter up until I swallowed, after which there was a hint of a strawberry aftertaste. That was a little disappointing, because it is a LOT easier to prepare with hot water.

Maybe I’ll try mixing the tea with water and the blending milk in? I don’t know. I haven’t given up on Strawberry Matcha au Lait, but it definitely isn’t working yet.

I’ve ordered this before, and I know I wasn’t crazy about it, but I can’t remember why…

As I drink the tea, it’s light. Has a very nutty note to it.
Whoa. WHOA. That is a funky aftertaste going on. It makes me think of…barley or something. It’s kinda nasty, actually. The taste makes me wish I had some honey to sweeten the brew, maybe it would help. But all I have is sugar grains, and I don’t think they’d dissolve in cold tea. Guess I could try it, though.

My tongue’s not particularly sophisticated, so I couldn’t tell you what specific sort of Oolong tea this is. The aroma has a slightly floral note to it, like jasmine. On the tongue it is a little astringent. Oolong is a very difficult tea to pre-brew and package, I think. The flavor is complex and something always seems missing from the final bottled beverage. This is not as great as a freshly-brewed cup of tea, but it is good. It is very light and I feel refreshed as I sit here, drinking it. It’d probably be even nicer with some ice.

We’ve been remodeling our kitchen, and most of my tea things are packed up, so I’ve been relying on tea bags and pre-bottled drinks to get me through the renovation period. (Oh, the horror!) The pyramid-shaped Lupicia bagged teas have been some of the best for flavor.

Napa Blanc’s a great summer tea with a bright, strong aroma. The muscat grape is very sweet, but the addition of a slight floral note (jasmine according to the company’s description) tempers it nicely.

The Napa Blanc flavor is one of limited edition ‘California’ flavors, available only at Lupicia’s stores in Santa Clara and San Francisco. I’m not clear on whether these are available for a limited time only, or the limitation is only on the locations where Napa Blanc can be purchased.

I tried this at the Lupicia store in San Jose. They prepared it with soybean milk.

More of a savory flavor, on the salty side. Made me think of green tea ice cream, but instead of creamy it was salty. Slightly bitter, too. Nice but I’m not sure I’d want to drink multiple cups of the stuff.

Ended up buying the strawberry matcha au lait instead.

This is Lupicia’s April 2010 ‘Tea of the Month’, so I got a free teabag with their newsletter. It uses very small shavings in the teabag; the leaves are nearly dust and leak out of the teabag. That’s rather annoying.

This is a salty tea. I drink it and instead of my thirst being quenched, I feel like drinking more. I wonder if I prepared this wrong? Three minutes, hot-but-not-boiling water…

Salty and grassy. A little bitter. Meh.

(Also, hi everybody! I haven’t been here for a while now…stupid school takes over EVERYTHING.)

Very basic jasmine tea. It’s like the ‘default’ version. The jasmine tea you get served in Chinese restaurants. It’s light and floral, fragrant and flavorful, but the brew doesn’t blow me away with awesome.

Of course, maybe the only reason I’m thinking of Chinese restaurants is because I’m using a metal teapot today that I found in the back of a cupboard at work.

This is one of those teas that I like and drink frequently, but never get around to talking about. It’s like drinking this relaxes me to the point that I just don’t want to be bothered with forming sentences and figuring out how to write about it.

Momo Oolong Super Grade is a very fresh-off-the-tree sort of peach, light and refreshing. The oolong gives this a slightly floral flavor. It’s just the sort of thing to drink on a dull afternoon; it tastes good whether hot or iced.

Doesn’t work so hot for multiple steeps. The second brew is noticeably weaker than the first, and the third is basically colored water.

Pretty fragrance, weak flavor.

It smells very fresh and clean. Green grass and pineapple…that’s what the scent makes me think about.
But when I drink the tea…I don’t really taste anything. Maybe a vague sort of citrus note.

The real selling point for this blend, besides the smell, is the colorful flower petals that make the tea leaves colorful. But the effect of all that gets completely lost when you use a teabag, as I did.

Well, at least this smelled nice!

The tea looks like little rolled-up balls of oolong leaf, with the occasional rosebud mixed in. When I sniffed it in the store, I couldn’t detect the rose but my boyfriend claimed it was dead-on, so I bought it. ($12.99 for 2 oz seemed pretty pricey, but the owner of MV Tea Village was so sweet that I wanted to get something.) The owner emphasized that the teas he carries come from higher altitudes, away from the pollution. So that’s cool.

The brew is light and refreshing. To my delight, it smells like a freshly-cut pink rose. The taste is also quite rose-y, but a little green, too. Drinking this makes me feel like a fairy princess sipping flower nectar or something equally girly.