Palekaiko

I really needed to unwind tonight, so I steeped up a cup of this tea. It’s one of my all-time favorites… A Hawaiian-inspired blend from Lupicia, which my best friend bought for me while she was on vacation there (because she’s awesome like that!). Palekaiko is a flavored black tea, with ginger pieces and passionfruit and chunks of mango. It smells mouth-watering, a nectar-sweet aroma of passionfruit and mango with hints of spicy ginger. The taste is spicier, lots of tongue-tingling ginger (which I love!) mixed with the sweetness of the fruit. I never would have guessed, but passionfruit and mango go really nicely with ginger. The tastes blend together, enhancing each other.

As for the black tea base, it’s on the lighter side, and hard to detect through the other flavors. But I get a citrus-y brightness from it that seems to complements the fruit. No bitterness that I noticed, which is something I appreciate about many of Lupicia’s black teas. All told, this is an excellent flavored tea, where all the ingredients blend together beautifully. (And I’m almost out of it, even though I haven’t had it in my cupboard that long! I will definitely be restocking this one.)

I received this in a swap from hapatite. Thank you!

This was the second of three Hawaii addition teas that hapatite sent me. This was pretty tasty. My biggest complaint is the base. It is a tad on the astringent side for me. I think on the last of the 3 teas I will try a shorter steep time to see if this helps. This seemed like it would have been a great iced tea. It was very fragrant and fruity. It was a nice afternoon cup on this sunny day.

Woot, finally reviewing the exclusive Lupicia Hawaii tea blends! Palekaiko, wowwee, is for the ginger lovers out there. The ginger here is on the strong and spicy side, that eventually smooths out with mango and passionfruit end of sip.

Sweetented, this tea tastes like eating sugar crusted dried ginger, with the odd dried mango strip. The passion fruit flavor is pretty good too. I found this blend to be pretty yummy, but yeah, you’d want to be a ginger lover or you’ll find this blend a little too potent.

Full review of this tea, and pictures of the whole Lupicia Hawaii collection, at my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/exclusive-lupicia-hawaii-original-tea-blends-collection-lupicia-oolong-owl-tea-review/

This tea is very good. It tastes more like a green or oolong tea because it is not heavily spiced or bitter. Often times with fruit teas they smell good but taste bland. You can definitely taste the passion fruit in this tea and it is naturally sweet on its own without the addition of sweetener. It would taste great as an iced tea as well.