Natsukoï

I don’t usually gravitate towards lemon tea, but the scent of this one in the store blew me away a little and I grabbed a bag. Since opening the bag a few days ago I have reached for this tea several times. It has such a rich lemon scent that translates into a strong lemon flavor. It lacks the sour that fresh lemon has and is more of a lemon peel taste and that makes me think more along the lines of candy than fresh lemon. The lemon provides the high notes and the tea comes out as deeper base notes making for a well rounded sip that lingers long into the finish. I bet this tea would be great iced as well, but for now I’m enjoying it hot!

Work – 2:30 PM

So this is one of Lupicia’s summer lemon teas (they also do a green version – Hatsukoï). This tin is actually from the summer of last year (2017).

It definitely reminds me of iced tea with lemon, which is interesting. The black base is extremely light and a bit brisk – perhaps an Indian black tea. There is a strong lemon flavor combined with a distinct grassiness. I’m not sure if that grassy note is coming from the black tea itself or some kind of flavoring? The combination of the lemon and grass reminds me of lemon balm. There’s also a tiny bit of a lemon drop note that sweetens it up just a tad.

I’m very surprised that this tea is still so strongly flavored despite its age.

After my previous Lupicia order, I had thought it was a safer bet to stick with old favorites from them than to order too many new teas, but reading the description of this one, I just had to give it a try. And I’m very glad I did!

This tea has a fresh, sweet lemon drop scent right out of the bag. While steeping, the aroma of the tea base itself also came out. My last few flavored teas from Lupicia had fairly unobtrusive but also unremarkable bases, but this one seemed to be a cut above the rest. It had the definite qualities of a good black tea that is just this side of malty, and lighter than the bases of some of the other blends I’d tried from them. Combined with the lemon, it made for a nice refreshing cup. I’ll try this one iced as well!

From the GCTTB

This is recommended as an iced tea but I have enough for two servings so I wanted to try it hot first. Interestingly enough, the steeping tea smells very much like Lipton powdered iced tea mix. Thankfully it ends up tasting better – at this temperature it’s not really remarkable – black tea lightly flavoured with tangy lemon. The lemon is thankfully quite gentle and natural-tasting as there is nothing worse than tea that tastes like it could be used as an industrial-strength cleaner.

Left the tea to steep in the fridge overnight and woke up to a mellow, sugarless lemonade. Delicious! Accidentally left it in the fridge for about 14 hours before I took the leaves out, but I think my usual 8 hours would have left the tea too weak.

Fresh Lemons!

As soon as I smelled the leaves, I was reminded of fresh cut lemons and summer lemonade. This is a nice summer tea; Natsukoi is black tea with lemons. The lemon is a bit strong, so one might feel that it is overpowering but it is a nice change to the normal everyday tea.