Holiday Tea Alert! Carol from Lupicia. . . . .

The holiday season for me might be a bit different than most but it’s what I call my own way of doing things. I don’t decorate. I focus on gifts for my parents, my sister and her husband, and my husband’s family does a Secret Santa of sorts. My husband and I don’t really focus on gifts for each other usually. We first and foremost make sure those on our lists are taken care of. There are a few Christmas songs I like but I don’t go CRAZY for the festiveness much anymore. I do like GIVING and that is mostly what I tend to do this time of year.

But I have to say one thing I enjoy is sampling different Holiday Tea Blends. When I heard that Carol from Lupicia was back in stock and our SororiTea Sisters had some floating around I was pretty excited about having a cup of it.

I had Carol from Lupicia YEARS ago but just had another cup recently and it was pretty yummy and comforting! The strawberry, vanilla, and rose trio of flavors blended well – so well, in fact – that it seemed to create a whole new flavor of its own! It was a bit fruity, a little creamy, and a tad floral…makes sense based on those 3 ingredients, eh?

Overall, I really like Carol from Lupicia. Oddly, with all of the tea I have drank over the years I have tried very few of the teas from Lupicia considering their very large selection. I’m always overjoyed when one of their teas comes across my desk! And let me tell you – I have more on the way – so more smiles and Lucipia cups are sure to be seen here – and soon, at Sororitea Sisters! CHEERS!

And for our readers mention SororiTea Sisters when checking out and Lupicia will add in a special treat!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Black Flavored Tea
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Description

Tea flavored with strawberry and vanilla and elegantly decorated with rose petals.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Tsugaru Green from Lupicia

tsugarugreenTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy: Lupicia

Tea Description:

Japanese green tea flavored with “San-Tsugaru” apples from Aomori prefecture in Japan.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Green tea is one of my favorite kinds of tea.  I love the soothing and refreshing flavor you can get out of green tea.  This tea was no exception.

Never having this tea before I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I didn’t even know what kind of tea this was since this was a sample from a tea friend.  I wanted to be surprised so I didn’t check online either.

Brewed this up with my Breville One Touch on the medium green tea setting.  A few minutes later, I had a lovely cuppa awaiting me.  I took a sip after the brew cooled for a few minutes and this tea was light and refreshing as you could ask for!

Crisp and almost apple juice like was what I would guess.  So after I finished my cuppa, I looked online and was pleased to see that I was correct.  An apple flavored green tea.  This tea is spot on with flavor and I like the fact that there are any spices included and this is a simple yet well done apple tea.  Most apple teas include cinnamon or some kind of a chai spice.  This tea let the juiciness of the apples shine thru with the backing of a slightly hay like and slightly buttery undertone.

I brewed up another infusion of this tea and experienced it as an  iced tea.  It was magnificent. This is definitely one that I’m taking note of and am loving! This would be a perfect alternative to the fall inspired teas that will soon be available.

In other news, this was sipdown #20! Woohoo!

Rose Royal from Lupicia

RoseRoyalTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy: Lupicia

Tea Description:

A black tea with enchanting aromas of sparkling wine and sweet strawberries. LUPICIA’s Signature tea.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

If you haven’t taken a whiff of this tea while its steeping, you are missing out.  This tea had such an amazing sweet candy with an almost berry dessert wine profile.

I received this tea bag from a fellow tea pal from Steepster and was excited to try it.  Lupicia has some amazing teas.  With a name like Rose Royal, I just knew this had to be amazing.

Steeped this up like a traditional black but made an error.  I left the tea bag in.  This tea turned bitter quickly.  The first few sips were fabulous.  The taste matched the aroma I was loving.  Sweet Berry Wine with a strong black tea base.  Oh so good.  Hit all the right notes.  A flavored tea that isn’t overwhelming.

But then I got distracted with a phone call here and an email there.  When I went back to the tea, it was a bitter sad brew.  I could still smell that amazing aroma but the taste had turned on me.

Even tho my first jaunt with this tea didn’t turn out the way I wanted to, I still loved those first few sips.  This tea will be on my list to pick more up once I sipdown some more teas.  Which this is #14.  Woot Woot!

Cookie from Lupicia

cookieTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Black

Where to Buy: Lupicia

Tea Description:

Black tea scented with an image of freshly baked caramel cookies. Best served with milk.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Yes.  You are reading the name of this tea correctly.  Cookie.  This tea smells just like a fresh baked sugar cookie with hints of caramel.  I was sticking my nose in the pouch for about a minute straight because I couldn’t believe how much this really did smell like a cookie.

Lupicia is known for their delicious flavored teas especially their green ones.  I had heard a lot of hype about this particular blend so I was excited to try it.

Brewed this up-212F-4 minutes.  Let it cool for just a moment and took a sip.  Yes, this does taste just like a fresh baked cookie.  I would love to have tried this tea with just a splash of almond milk to see what other flavors will pop out.  It is quite good on its own as well.  The black tea is solid and is quite nice in the background and their are notes of maybe cinnamon and even almond thru each sip.  Nicely done for a dessert tea. If you are in the market for a dessert tea to curb that 3pm sugar monster that you can’t avoid, try this one.

Saying all of this tho, I’m not a big cookie fan. I like them on occasion but I couldn’t see drinking this tea all the time just because I’d rather have a fruity flavor in my tea than the cookie flavor.  What I would love to see is this tea made up into a latte which I might just do tonight when I get home.  Now that could give me the wow factor I’ve been looking for.

Happiness Rooibos/Green Blend from Lupicia

happinessTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green/Green Rooibos

Where to Buy: Lupicia

Tea Description:

Rose petals, marigold and small mallow decorate this green tea and green rooibos blend scented with energizing grapefruit and luscious white peach. One sip and you will find happiness.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

In Canada Lupicia teas are fairly hard to get a hold of without swapping with someone else, which is what I did in order to try this sample. I’ve only tried a handful of their teas, but generally speaking I’ve enjoyed most if not all of them. That said, I’ve read almost entirely negative, or at least relatively critical reviews about this particular blend so know I have some expectation bias prior to trying this blend. With the sample I have, I decided I’d cold brew this tea because I thought it would work well for the fruity aspects but also the dual bases used.

My first thought upon trying this was that it tastes very familiar. I realize I drink a lot of tea, and so it’s no uncommon for new teas to bear a resemblance to ones I’ve tried before but I’m talking serious Deja Vu with this tea; I was convinced I’d had the experience of drinking this one before even though I know I haven’t.

As for the actual flavour of the blend I do have to say the peach element comes through the clearest to me: I made a recent discovery regarding peach, actually. I’ve always thought of peach as a flavor that I could go either way with but someone at work recently pointed out to me that I’m actually very consistent with some peachy things and that’s either “Peaches & Cream” or “White Peach”, both of which I regularly like. So I did a little bit of research (I asked one of our produce clerks the difference between white and yellow peaches; that counts, right?) and it turns out the main difference is the acidity – yellow peaches have a much more noticeable acidity that only levels out as they ripen while white peaches are more delicate and naturally sweet, ripe or not. They’re also a little more floral. Makes sense to me.

So in addition to the clear and enjoyable flavour of white peaches, I tasted a few other fruits – however one fruit I didn’t observe was grapefruit which is actually the flavour that’s supposed to be present. Instead I tasted a more mellow strawberry flavour which was a great compliment to the peach notes. Chef Darcy, at work, tried a little of the cold brew and said he tastes peach and green melons and while I didn’t taste that melon flavour myself I can see where he was coming from: there was a sort of “bubblegum” sweetness, and as I’ve observed from honeydew teas sometimes the flavor of of those two things can be similar. As for the bases, visually I know there was more green tea in my sample but the taste of the green rooibos was a lot stronger in my opinion. I really like the green rooibos that Lupicia uses though – it’s one of my favourite of any company’s.

Overall, this was a really great experience – not just for the flavour, but for the little journey of self discovery that it took me on.