Kuuipo

I got this small tin of tea at the Lupicia store a few months ago, they gave it to me as a freebie and I more or less forgot about it until I was digging through my stash looking for something this morning.

A while ago they were doing a bunch of Hawaiian themed teas, which I think were a limited edition and have since been discontinued. But I tend to like tropical fruit flavored things, so thought I’d give this a whirl today.

The tin I got has rose petals in it and a small chunk or two of fruit. I didn’t overload the tea with leaf (as I am wont to do), but had about a respectable 2 tsp. for 12 oz or so of water.

I steeped this for 4 minutes with nearly boiling water. I was definitely a bit worried after reading the other tasting note that said the tea was bitter. Thankfully I am not picking that up here.

I liked this actually. I seriously have no clue what the base tea here is but I’m thinking after looking at the leaf it is a Ceylon or an Indian tea of some sort, perhaps a Nilgiri. My cup is fairly light, it’s kind of a dark orange-y color. The tropical fruit flavors are present but do not overwhelm you at all. I’m getting a bit of mango & papaya and the guava scent is nice. I am drinking this hot but I think it would definitely shine as an iced tea. I will have to try doing that soon!

This smells really tropical and yummy! I can clearly taste mango and papaya. But it’s unfortunate that I detect a distinctive bitter and tart taste in the tea… which I am going to attribute to hibiscus. It’s weird enough to turn a near-perfect cup into a disaster. Shame. The black tea base is a bit too strong as well, so I’d suggest a shorter brewing time (~2 minutes).

TTB Tea #6

Ok… I have no clue what this is. No steeping directions on the bag or on here… I can’t even find it on their website. I do know that it isn’t the flowering tea it used to say here (I changed it), and it’s black. It does smell like the discription here though- nice and fruity w/ hints of rose.

The liquor is a darkish read color and the aroma is that of the raw leaf only I can smell more of the base.

This isn’t anything special. More fruity than floral… and unfortunately the base does come thrue… as a tad bitter.

1 bag (3.14g)/6oz just below boiling water.

I don’t get much aroma from the leaves, though there are chunks of dried fruit and hibiscus flowers in it.

Overall, this blend is a little confusing. Lupicia says it’s guava flavoured but has mango and papaya fruits in it (no dried guava?). I get no mango notes, just a hint of papaya and guava, which are not always super flavourful fruits even on their own. Between that and the hibiscus, there’s a somewhat sharp, astringent blast to the tea, which leads to an overall dry impression. The aftertaste is nice and refreshing, not cloying like some fruit blends can be. The fruit notes are not distinct nor particularly tropical, and there’s a slight underlying ashiness that creeps out as the brew cools down (hibiscus/marigold is a prime culprit for this).

Lupicia suggests brewing it cold, I may try that instead. While it’s by no means bad hot, it’s not one of Lupicia’s best offerings. I’m just not getting any tropical vibes here, more of a “neglected fruity teabag that’s been sitting in the bottom of a tea basket for three years.” It tastes like something you’d drink in a random hotel when you ask for tea at breakfast, but they never serve any, so they have to scrounge around in the back for something. Serviceable but not something you’d seek out again.

K is for… Kuuipo!

Not bad, but tasted a bit more “generically-fruity” to me than I would have preferred from a guava tea.

Cold Brew Sipdown (520)!

It’s been a while since I’ve done a ‘true’ blind taste test – basically a taste test for a flavoured tea where I didn’t look up what it was supposed to be flavoured like prior to trying it. So, I figured since I knew nothing about this tea I’d do that and test my ability to figure out what it’s supposed to taste like.

I do know it’s a black tea, but that would be apparent based on the taste even if I hadn’t seen the dry leaf to be able to visually identify that. Flavour wise it’s very tropical and intense with a nice sweetness to it. The finish reads as just a touch artificial to me; but not aggressively or unpleasantly so. It’s actually reminding me a lot of Hoku, which is the other Lupicia tea I recieved from Kittenna. That one was pineapple/guava, so because they taste so similar it makes me feel like this one also has one of those two flavour notes. I’d wager pineapple over guava though; this doesn’t have the flavour that I normally associate with guava blends.

It’s not just pineapple though – what I’m getting is like floral, rosey undertones and then like a passionfruit sort of quality in the body, minus the tang/acidity that sometimes comes along with passionfruit blends. So I guess I’d say overall that my ‘guess’ is that this is pineapple/passionfruit? Regardless of whether I’m right or not it’s quite smooth and tasty though, and it would make a lovely tea to have around in the summer for iced or cold brewed tea.

Alright, moment of truth; time to look up what was actually in the tea!

…

Pineapple, Mango, Guava.

Huh, guess I was a little off with my guess – but to be fair I didn’t think the guava was strong in Hoku at all either. The mango I totally missed though; but in hind sight as I’m sipping on the last little bit of my brew I guess I can see how this would be mango instead of passionfruit. I don’t know – this is always just a fun little experiment, and it’s always neat seeing how accurate I can get with my guesses.

It totally feels like it has been longer than a year since I last reviewed a tea, but my tealog says otherwise. Several things contributed to my absence: I took a new job that has kept me insanely busy and without much time to drink tea; I moved away from Equusfell so I lost my tea buddy; and I have settled into a certain cupboard of teas, haven’t branched into many new ones, and decided that I didn’t want to do tasting notes the same teas over and over again. I almost exclusively drink few companies these days: Dammann, MF, Fauchon, Lupicia, with my occasional unflavored by Verdant or Teavivre. Finally, I just got out of the habit, and have been spending way more time knitting than drinking tea. But I do have a handful of teas I have never reviewed, so I figured I would jump back in for a bit (short lived though it may be).

I recently restocked some Lupicia flavored oolongs for cold steeping (since I do still do a cold steep every night to drink with lunch) and I threw this one in because I love guava, and I miss Lupicia’s guava-flavored oolong (also a Hawaiian edition). It smells powerfully tropical and tasty, and I can definitely pick out guava. I think I have gotten very used to the same black tea base (Dammann/Fauchon, with some select MF thrown in), and I’m really not digging this base tea. It’s pretty bitter, and has some notes that don’t sit well with me. I think there must be some Assam (or something Indian that isn’t Ceylon) in the blend, which is not my friend. Otherwise the flavors are pretty nice: guava, some mango. I was a little worried about the papaya in the blend (because papaya tastes like feet), but it’s not really present, thankfully, or at least isn’t offensive.

Looks like I will be cold brewing this one to tame the base. These days I prefer to cold brew greens and oolongs, but black tea is ok, and I think I will enjoy this one a lot better that way.

Another from the Holidays TTB, I initially put this back in the box without trying some and I’m really really glad I took it back out. It’s not a typical fruity tea for me but it’s really good!

Supposedly, there’s hibiscus in this blend and I honestly can’t taste it, there’s a bit more mango and tropical fruit flavors. The black base is on point, definitely not tannic, it actually tastes a bit sweet (or maybe that’s just the fruit) – overall I really enjoy this.

I’m extremely disappointed that there is no guava in this tea. I would have assumed they would have used that delicious pink guava that grows in Hawai’i in this tea. Honestly, this doesn’t even taste like guava. Black tea, hibiscus and rose. Not even that much rose really…. Sigh…

Kuuipo… You are not my sweetheart

Sipdown! (16 | 293)

A very sweet Instagram friend, who happens to be staying in Hawaii at the moment, sent me a lovely care package of Hawaiian treats. Among them were two mini tins and two wrapped sachets of Lupicia tea – this was one of the sachets. I was curious about this tea, but it didn’t make the group order, so I’m so thankful for the chance to try it! Ahh, the generosity of tea friends… ❤

To be honest, I’m finding this similar to a couple of the other Hawaii blends in that it’s sort of generically tropical fruit-y… I don’t get hibiscus at all, which is mentioned in the description. This is meant to be a guava tea, and honestly I don’t have a ton of experience with guava so I’m not sure I would be able to tell even if it were accurate.

But like Hua Ki and Lanikai, this is sort of just a generic tropical black tea. Not bad, just nondescript.

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