Muscat

This came as a sample in an ancient Lupicia newsletter and I’m just getting around to trying it now.

Firstly, I am not a huge fan of grape or muscat flavored anything, a muscatel flavor is nice if it’s in a darjeeling and it’s natural, but this reminds me of bubble yum, or japanese gummy candies. Very artificial tasting. I have no idea what the base tea is here, it’s a lighter color which makes me wonder if it is an actual darjeeling with artificial muscat flavor? I like the base tea a lot, it’s smooth and light.

It’s easy to drink plain without any milk and sugar. Not my favorite due to the overwhelming flavoring but I will certainly finish the cup.

I figured I’d keep the grape theme going this morning.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this one, though, because all grape flavoring winds up tasting like Children’s Dimeatapp to me, and I understandably don’t have amazing memories of that.

While the black tea tempers it some, this definitely came out on the cusp of natural and artifical flavoring, which I expected. Fortunately, the grape flavor was more like the Japanese grape candies my friends and I were obsessed with in high school, and not the American purple grape flavor that I associate with cough medicine.

I actually really like this. Maybe once my stash is of manageable size I’d pick more of this up, but it isn’t something I need right away.

Instant favorite that has caused me to start trying to figure out how I can get an order from Lupicia to Ecuador (sadly no international shipping)… Thanks to MadelineAlyce for sending me some of this!

The scent of the tea is all Muscat. I love Muscat. I sniffed and drooled as my mind took me to the few times I have been able to enjoy Muscat grapes or Muscat flavored candies or goodies. The tea leaves looked black and plain, but the smell promised an exciting tea!

While brewing, the Muscato scent was all over. I couldn’t stop smiling as the scent filled every corner of our kitchen and seemed to brighten the night with memories of tasty things and good times. The three minutes could not pass fast enough. I wanted to try it!

Unsweetened it was a bit on the sour side. I got Muscato flavor, but it was only half there hiding behind the black tea. Sweetened it was like magic in my tea cup. The sweet Muscato was there fully in every sip. First up I tasted grape, followed by black tea and the aftertaste was pure sweet delicous Muscato! This is an instant favorite!

I can’t wait to get a chance to order this!

While I prefer the Muscat Oolong by Lupicia this is a real treat too.
Lupicia knows how to do Muscat!
Perfect natural grape flavor not candy like whatsoever but so clear clean and crisp.
Delicious.
Like fresh juice from ripe purple grapes.
It doesn’t get any better than this.
I have totally enjoyed 95% or more of the Lupicia teas I have tired with exception of maybe only one which was so-so but not bad.
Love this company for dependable high quality teas!
Oh and by the way this one is bagged – got as a sample a couple of months ago in their Snail Mail newsletter which I highly suggest everyone subscribe to for excellent free samples!
Cheers!

Sipdown that I never added to my cupboard. I got a sample of this in the last Lupicia newsletter, and cold brewed it. I really don’t like grape flavored things, and this sachet smelled like grape flavoring, although not really “purple” grape, but definitely the somewhat fake muscat candy that you can find at asian markets. True to name, I guess. It’s a bit wine-y as well, which also makes sense.

The cold steeped tea is similar in flavor/scent, although I like it more than I thought I would. I don’t mind it, is how I would say it. I don’t love it, but I don’t have problems finishing the cup. If you love muscat flavor, this is for you. If you are looking for an authentic grape flavored tea, perhaps not.

Sipdown…I’m surprised how good this tea is. The dry leaves smell exactly like sugary grape fruit snacks. But the brewed tea is a wonderful balance of smooth black tea and natural grape flavoring. It doesn’t taste artificial or like grape gummy snacks.

Second infusion is much weaker than the first, but I also didn’t increase the steeping time by much. It’s still enjoyable though. I drank this straight with just a little bit of sweetener, no milk. There’s no astringency or bitterness. It’s a lovely smooth cuppa, so I’m raising the rating from 48 to 64.

Overall, it’s really quite good, if I liked grape. Grape to me is okay. So, I won’t be replenshing this now that it’s gone. But if you love grape and want a well-balanced, authentic grape tea, try this one out! You may be surprised by how good it is too.

This came as my free monthly lupicia sample/newsletter thing recently. Man I love the newsletter, I think I’ll need to do another order soon so I can keep up with it. Though lately, I’ve just been stuffing the samples into my bagged tea jar and not drink them.

Anyways, I wanted a new tea, but not up for a full tea review as I need to save my camera battery charge for tomorrow: Disneyland and Club 33! I’m currently also busy stressing out what to wear that follows the dresscode, but also comfortable and not overly hot 93F weather. Sigh.

The smell and taste of this tea is straight up muscat grape artificial candy. If you’ve had any kind of asian muscat candy you’ll know what I’m talking about. It’s not that traditional “purple” flavor. The black tea base is smooth, pairing nicely with the muscat. I love muscat candies, and this is a great calorie saver for it!
I am tempted to buy this, however in limiting my tea stash, I’ll stick to Lupicia’s Champagne Rose.

hmm.. I wonder how the muscat oolong is?

The aroma of the dry leaf is very enticing, it smells a lot like a fruity wine. Very grape-ish.

This is really good. I must admit I was a little afraid of this tea because the Lime Darjeeling was a big disappointment yesterday, but this I like. This is also something I probably wouldn’t have purchased, so I am glad that I had the sample to try, because I really like it.

A pleasant surprise.

I love the Lupicia newsletter, with its free samples.
Grape flavored tea, eh? How very unexpected. It certainly smells just as advertised.
The taste has a slightly less bright grape flavour, but you do get the grape. Its very interesting.
I had this hot, but I imagine it would do well in a cold steep.

This smells nice…almost like a Concord Grape Juice or something. As it infuses the flavoring is less and the black tea flavor is more. This is something I would probably drink a lot of as a good old stand by for a flavored black – bagged tea. Unfortunately Lupicia isn’t very accessible if at all for me…only in swaps thus far.