Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lupicia USA
Tea Description:
A black tea is scented and inspired by mimosa flowers that denote the arrival of spring. Floral and refreshing citrus aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
They say that America runs on Dunkin’, but I think that old saying needs to be updated. I manage a small breakfast-oriented restaurant and if I am not mistaken, the humble mimosa reigns supreme. Nothing like a slab of bacon, a couple waffles and a mimosa to cure a hangover. We oftentimes sell more mimosas on the weekend than coffee.
Even though, I still love the smell of orange juice and cheap champagne. It smells like breakfast to me. I don’t care for alcoholic beverages in any way, but I like the flavor profiles. The idea is much more romantic than actual execution and resulting effects it may have. When I stumbled upon the funky gold tin on Lupicia’s website, I was completely sold. tea. Now if only I could get it in bulk to sell it in my restaurant… the possibilities!
The tea leaves give off an aroma that is so eerily exact to the combination of fresh squeezed orange juice and champagne that it’s a bit confusing at first. I wouldn’t have thought that a black tea would have been the best choice for a such light and effervescent drink. But when I steeped this tea in a small teapot, it turned into a surprisingly delightful drink. Comforting, bright, it’s got that great orange zest flavor and a slightly boozy tang of the champagne. I have tried this tea both hot and cold, and while the hot version is quite nice, i like my citrus-flavored black teas iced much better.
Sometimes certain special and limited edition teas on the Lupicia website are rather hard to find. You really have to dig if you want to find any interesting or different blends than what you’d see at first glance. There is a treasure trove of cool teas and beautiful tins just waiting to be taken home and loved forever. This is a great find, and I can soundly recommend it for those of you who enjoy a great citrus flavored black tea.
Golden Honeydew from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Lupicia USA
Tea Description:
Caffeine-free green rooibos tea is scented with Californian honeydew melon.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yes, this is a rooibos. Now, I have never been a big fan of rooibos. Quite the opposite. I am such a grump about anything with even a little rooibos in it that I avoid it like the plague. While it is a green rooibos, and therefore lighter and grassier in character, I was still skeptical. But a tea friend of mine just had to have me try it. So try it I did. The dry leaf alone sent my nose and I spinning down memory lane. Funny things, noses.
This tea reminds me so much of my favorite flavor of boba, it’s unsettling. For anyone not in the know, boba, or bubble tea, is an incredible liquid substance that comes in a plastic cup. Originating from Taiwan in the early 80s, it’s not so much a tea as it is a delicious, typically creamy beverage that can be made of tea, fruits, or a powdered mix better known as milk tea. Milk tea comes in a crazy variety of flavors, one of the most popular in the world being Honeydew. It’s sickly sweet, and creamy to the core. What makes this into boba is the large, round, gummy-like tapioca pearls. Oh, and the fat straw you sip the pearls through. It’s something that I almost always sneak into a movie. I highly recommend it!
I don’t know, just something about sipping down a creamy honeydew flavored slushie followed by chewing on those yummy gummy tapioca pearls makes me feel all fuzzy inside. Cures any sadness and cools down a sweaty brow.
Everyone close to me at least knows what rooibos is, thanks to my audible distain of the stuff. Now even my man huffs at the mere mention of it. Until this one. I liked it so much, that I almost didn’t tell him what is was when he asked for a little sip. Everything about this tea is delicious, juicy honeydew. The smell of the light green rods of the green rooibos, is exactly like the ripest honeydew you could ever imagine. As I brew this cup, I can just imagine biting into a fresh slice of pale green honeydew melon. I think the realism of the flavoring is what makes this blend. I don’t get that harsh artificial flavor I could have been assaulted with. Even while sipping on a pot of this tea is bringing to mind the velvety smooth fruit and the sweet juice. It’s so uncanny how spot on this tea is! It’s rich, broad, and smooth, I can imagine how great this would be iced.
I’d wager it’s better than the boba version.
Banane Chocolat Flavored Black Tea from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lupicia Tea
Tea Description:
Banana and chocolate flavored black tea with bright yellow petals.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The aroma of this tea is delicious! I can smell the banana and the chocolate and it’s making my mouth water! Mmm!
And this is certainly tasty! The chocolate notes are a dark chocolate note, reminding me a bit of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder that you’d use to make brownies. Not bitter like that, but the chocolate flavor reminds me of that deep, rich cocoa flavor.
But the banana is the real star of this show. The banana comes through strong with a really good banana flavor. It tastes very true to the fruit. It’s sweet and I can almost feel the creamy texture of the banana in this.
One of the better banana teas that I’ve yet to try.
The black tea is more of a background flavor here – and if I were to offer any complaint about the tea, that would be it. I think that a slightly stronger black tea base might be nice. Maybe a malty Assam (I would love to see how that malty flavor tastes with the banana notes!)
I found that this tea is best served hot. When it’s still fresh from the teapot hot, I found that the flavors were less distinct. The banana was strong but I didn’t get a strong chocolate-y presence. So let it cool a few minutes, and then taste it again. The chocolate notes start to come forward, and the banana is really well defined.
This one might just end up being my favorite from Lupicia! Or, at the very least, this belongs in my top five of favorites from Lupicia.
Cache-Cache Black Tea from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Lupicia Tea
Tea Description:
“CACHE-CACHE” means “hide-and-seek” in French. This is a tea where various flavors are hidden and found.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a most unusual tea, this Cache-Cache Black Tea from Lupicia! I’ve tried it a few times, and it’s a tea that every time I taste it, I taste something a little different, so it certainly does present a challenge when it comes to writing a review for it.
The best way I can think of to describe what I’m tasting is to say that it is a tasty black tea with some very unique profiles within its layers of flavor. The black tea base is pleasant and smooth. It’s a medium-to-full bodied tea that seems to “fill in the gaps” in the background to provide a delicious black tea “canvas” for the unique flavors “hiding” within this tea to present themselves.
Fruity is the first word that comes to mind after I take a sip of this tea. What fruit? That’s where the challenge comes in. I taste notes that are similar to mango and melon. It’s a bit like a melange of fruit flavors that have all been blended into one cup – sort of like a fruit smoothie. There’s a sort of creamy type of flavor to this as well, but not so much a creamy “vanilla” type of flavor or even a creamy “milky” or “buttery” flavor, instead, it’s more like the creaminess you would taste from that banana in the aforementioned smoothie.
Previous tastings of this tea offered notes of spice. Gentle notes of spice, mind you, not something strong like you’d probably experience from a chai blend where the spices dominate the cup, but, more like a subtle hint of pepper with and a soft warmth like you might experience from cardamom or clove.
This is really an enjoyable tea – and I like that it offers you a different experience every time you taste it. I don’t know that this would necessarily be the tea for purists, but, for someone who is really looking for a tea time adventure, this would be a fun tea to try.
Peach Melba from Lupicia
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Lupicia
Tea Description:
The delicious aroma of peaches and cream brings out the sweetness of the rooibos tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Peach Melba from Lupicia – WOW! Okay so if you read the blog regularly you may know I do not do reviews on rooibos tea. Okay maybe I have once before, maybe, I don’t recall to be honest, but I really do not care for rooibos at all. However, I have to admit, this rooibos is not only drinkable for me, it is extremely good! The flavor additives in this tea make it so that it blends in perfect harmony with the rooibos. It is peachy, it is creamy, it is sweet, it is like dessert in a cup. It makes me feel happy, soothed, and satisfies any sweet tooth, and I mean that. I know people often say that a tea can satisfy a sweet craving, and really we are just fooling ourselves most of the time. Even after a dessert tea I still want dessert dangit! With this one though, its different. There is something quite magical about this blend.
I got this in my Happy Bag from Lupicia this year. I love the Happy Bags and highly recommend them. Lupicia sells them every year right after midnight on the 1st of January. I got the 60.00 bag this year but next year I will be saving up for the 100.00 bag! Lupicia also offers a 30.00 bag as well.
Now another way you can know just how yummy this rooibos is, is that it is 12:30 am. I am tired, and I really had no intentions of doing a review at this hour. However, when I made this cup I just had to jump on here and do this review because it inspired me! I even rated it 100 on steepster because if a rooibos impresses me it deserves the highest rating possible.
There really isn’t much more I can say about this rooibos from Lupicia other than once again, Lupicia has not disappointed me! Well there was one tea, one time from Lupicia that I did not care for but it was also a rooibos blend. I passed onto one of my SororiTea Sisters because I did not care for it but that was because as usual I can’t tolerate rooibos. Which is only more proof that this one is really darn good!
If you love peaches, and you love cream, and you like rooibos, then get some because this is just the cream of the peach crop here!
