I’ve been ‘sitting on this’ review for a while. Not because I didn’t LOVE the tea – because I clearly DID – it’s because I didn’t want to throw the empty bag away. Seriously!
Cassis & Blueberry from Lupicia is a heavily flavored black tea. It’s flavored with Blueberry and Cassis…in case you don’t know what Cassis is…it’s usually a liquor made from black currants.
This flavored black tea is sweet and tart and my FAVORITE PART is that the sweet and tart come from the blueberry and currants and NOT hibiscus! Woot! NO hibiscus! I’ll say it again…NO HIBISCUS!
You can genuinely taste the fruity flavor. But with the black tea base it’s like the BEST of both worlds…a true black tea with yummy fruit. It’s not overly tart – just the right amount of tart. The tart that is present is counteracted nicely by the sweet. The flavor ratios are perfect!
This fruit flavored black tea is right up my alley…can’t they all be like this? I guess not…but I’m glad this one is! Cassis & Blueberry from Lupicia is a HIT with me! YUM!
And just for our readers, mention SororiTea Sisters when you check out from Lupicia and they will throw in a special treat!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Description
CASSIS & BLUEBERRY is a fruit-flavored black tea blended with cassis and blueberries.Rich cassis and sweet-and-tart blueberries create a clean, harmonious blend. This tea has a mature flavor; it can be a good introductory fruit-flavored tea, and a great gift for those who normally do not drink fruity tea.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
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
Tea 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!
Happiness Rooibos/Green Blend from Lupicia
Tea 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.
Watermelon Barley Herbal Tea from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Lupicia USA
Tea Description:
Aromatic six-rowed barley produced in Japan flavored with fresh watermelon. Limited flavor just for summer.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Tis the season of iced tea and delicious summer fruit! Nothing says ‘summer’ to me quite like mugicha (which is roasted barley tea, traditionally sipped on iced as cold as my heart.) and fresh, sweet, and messy watermelon. Lupicia’s Watermelon Barley tea sounded almost too good to be true on their website, I just had to bite. I’m hoping that the hype I have built up in my brain lives up to this fantasy blend.
The combination of roasted and toasted barley with fresh and juicy watermelon sounds like it could be either really great, or really awful. The only way is to drink this tea and find out!
Upon opening the bag, the sachets inside are large and offer a tiny hint of what I am about to brew. The main scent on first whiff was the roasted grain smell, rich and full. Cloyingly sweet in the background is the fruity watermelon. I didn’t let myself investigate further, I was dying to sink my teeth into the brew. I attempted the cold brew in 2 cups of cold water for 4 hours, simply out of laziness. This resulted in the toasty flavor of the barley becoming a little too overpowering for the watermelon to handle. I could only taste a whisper, it might as well have been regular old mugicha.
The next day I wanted to make it right. I knew it was just a user error on my end, and I needed this tea to taste differently than it had when I brewed it cold. So, I used one pyramid type bag in 16oz. of freshly boiled water. Steeped for 5 minutes then chilled in the refrigerator. When I brought it out the next morning and huffed the liquid, I was met with a satisfyingly sweet smell. The watermelon! Drinking it throughout the day was greatly refreshing. The watermelon was so very melon-y, juicy, thirst quenching. It leans on the side of becoming candy-like in flavor, but stays true to the actual fruit. The barley is still the forefront, but not obnoxiously so. The brew as a whole tastes like grilled watermelon, in a good way. (which is a great thing to try for your next barbeque, by the way!) Probably my new favorite go to easy iced tea for the summer!
