Lupicia

One of the teas that my coworker brought back from her Japan trip!

I believe this is a Japan exclusive blend, though I’m not 100% sure of that. The dry leaf smells fucking incredible though. Just the most absolutely mouthwatering fresh, juicy and effervescent sweet orange and zesty lemon notes. I was basically drooling just smelling it…

The base appears to be sencha and usually I’d be wary of that, but lately I’ve been on a really hot streak when it comes to my enjoyment of Japanese green teas. So, I just went for it. Eh. It’s not that I disliked the taste, but certainly it wasn’t the smashing success I hoped it would be. The oceanic and kind of kelp-y taste of the sencha was really strong and I immediately found the savory notes of it quite at odds with this otherwise really sweet citrus profile. Steeped it was a more yuzu/lemon than orange which, at least in aroma, I had expected to be stronger. I like yuzu though.

I think this might be smoother and more up my alley is cold brewed!? I don’t know. I still feel like there’s something really promising here if I can just find a way to taper the notes of the sencha a bit to better suit my own tastes. If I’m able to, I’d like to keep experimenting with steeping parameters. Will definitely depend on whether my friend/coworker lets me, though…

Iced Latte!

This was something that my coworker brought back from her Japan trip, and I was excited to try it because I’ve never had a matcha from Lupicia before. It comes in a stick pack format, and I wasn’t sure if there would be a built in dairy/creamer component since it’s advertised as a bit of a matcha latte mix – but, though it was sweetened, there wasn’t any dairy element so I added in my own.

I tried it as a “plain” (ie. just the mix and my milk) iced latte first, and I thought it was fine. Not a super strong taste, but smooth with a bit of a grassier umami note. After trying it on its own I did add in some strawberry jam/syrup because social media has successfully influenced me into being obsessed with that drink right now. Definitely tastier with the strawberry, but also obviously less matcha forward too.

I’m having a very weird last few weeks because I’ve been really gravitating towards green teas in a way that I so incredibly not typical of me…

This was one I pulled out specifically because I was craving that more umami heavy, unctuous note of a steamed green tea. The toasty nuttiness of the genmai and the more savory soybean were an added bonus. Overall just incredibly smooth with an almost oily/brothy kind of quality to the liquor and this absolutely dreamy combo of nori, roasted grains and nuts, and something almost sesame oil or seed-like in flavour. I wanted to melt in the mug.

Damn it was good!

My coworker who was recently in Tokyo stopped at a Lupicia store and brought a few different teas back with her. I’m honestly not totally sure why she picked this one, but it’s a new to me Lupicia blend so I figured I’d give it a try…

It came in sachet form, but was definitely a pretty generous portion of tea for the sachet. Steeped up I find this mostly tart, with a very bright and sour top note of hibiscus and lemongrass. Very citrusy! There’s a little bit of a slight ginger heat to the back end of the sip, but it’s mild. Not really very distinct tasting, in my opinion. However, for what is clearly meant to be a wellness blend using some fairly unpleasant tasting ingredients (ie. Lady’s Mantle) I think it’s pretty palatable/approachable. So if you think of the taste in isolation to the function I think it’s a bit “whelming” but given the actual ingredient composition for the function I think it’s fairly nice…

Sipdown

This tea smells so good and I have tried so hard to like it. I just don’t.

I like Lupicia’s grape flavors. I love their Muscat and Jingle Bells teas, but this one is probably my least favorite tea of all that I own right now. I have had other green tea blends that taste like this and I don’t know what the base is, but I dislike it. For a long time I thought all Japanese green tea tasted like this so I avoided them. After trying many Japanese greens that I like very much, I know that is not the case.

I have tried this tea several times and every time I have high hopes based on the dry leaf smell and I am disappointed every time. The aroma reminds me of Pomegranate Oolong from Harney but the taste certainly does not.

They mention it being great for iced tea so I cold steeped it for lunch today hoping it would shine this time. Nope. Just as bad if not worse.

I have one serving left and I am going to both cold steep it AND sweeten it and see if that salvages it at all. Counting it as a sipdown tonight as the tin is now empty while the cold steep waits for the verdict tomorrow.

Edited to add: cold steeped and sweetened heavily it will do as tomorrow’s lunch drink. I can’t recommend this one and I hope someone can tell me what the sharp, angry taste is. I steeped at 175F and then dropped temp to 165F for future steeps then resorted to cold steeping and the sharpness is still there, so it is not temp related. Must be the base.

Sipdown

I like this one best full strength and not making a resteep and combining the two. You seem to get more rich chocolate that way. Some teas I don’t notice a big change in flavor doing the “two steeps and combine” method, but I do with this one.

I am not the world’s biggest fan of Earl Grey but I do like it on a Keemun or other base with deeper notes, and I also like it with orange, cream, or vanilla flavor added. The chocolate was good, too, and I shared a sample with a friend who adores almost all Earl Grey and she really loved it.

This reminds me a bit of their Hawaiian tea series in that it’s definitely tropical but a bit difficult to pick out the individual flavors. Apparently it’s supposed to be mango and pineapple with “other fruits”. I do get something mango-esque, though it also leans a bit more toward peach IMO. Not sure I can taste pineapple, but there is a slight tang.

I think this is one that would be nice as a milk tea, as the base is quite strong and has CTC leaves included. I’ll have to try it that way soon!

Not my absolute favourite of the Lupicia flavoured barley teas but that’s only because the bar is so high! The lychee surprised me with how well it went with the barley, although I might be biased because I love lychee anything. I would still usually choose the apricot or apple barley teas over this one but a good tea nonetheless.

To get through sampling more teas from the 2025 TTB, I made a small cup of each one rather than a full-sized mug. Since I still have a bit of Cookie, I thought it would be fun to do a comparison with the Deb Cookie Butter in the TTB. Surprisingly, I think I prefer the Cookie Butter! Lupicia’s base tea is very brisk, which isn’t bad, it’s just how a lot of Lupicia black teas seem to be. The base on the Cookie Butter blends in with the flavoring more, which means that the creamy, sweet, cookie-ness can take center stage.

Sipdown! (2 | 36)

Another one with that weird soapy thing going on, I assume the green tangerine here had some sort of essential oil component. Ah well.

Sipdown! (11 | 88)

Another Valhallow rehome finished off!

This one tastes very similar to Tochiotome Black to me, though I never did try them side by side. Very fresh and tangy strawberry flavor, as opposed to sweet and candylike. The base is smooth despite being mostly CTC. I also had it as an iced milk tea, which was delicious!

I figured I would try another of these Lupicia Japan teas since the last one didn’t really count ha ha…

This one is nice enough. It pretty much tastes the same as their Tochiotome Black to me, and has a similar CTC base as well. Nice sweet-tart strawberry flavor that reminds me of freeze-dried strawberries. The base is brisk but not overly tannic, and I think they probably intend for this to be prepared as a milk tea anyway. Ooh, that sounds good… Might have to make one later! XD

Sipdown! (1 | 35)

Was excited to try this one (passion fruit, lime, grapefruit black tea) but I could tell from the smell of the dry leaf that something was off. They have some teas where they use essential oils or something for citrus flavors (their Grapefruit Green and Kumquat come to mind) and they tend to have a much shorter shelf life, and in less than a year they get this weird soapy flavor to them, I’m assuming because the oil degrades or goes rancid in some way.

Anyway, this has that soapy flavor so I’m assuming maybe the grapefruit here is the same one in Grapefruit Green. So sadly, tossing the rest of this… :(

I sincerely loved this tea, which I bought some time ago in Japan. A strong floral scent, with a fair amount of peach, hides an unexpected depth of flavor, with light bitter tones that are appreciated throughout the drink. I don’t particularly appreciate this type of tea, but I must say that it really surprised me with its beautiful character!

So Vallhallow was kind enough to gift me a bunch of Lupicia teas that she wanted to rehome, thank you! And a bunch of them are from her Japan order, including this one! Yeeee! This is named after and inspired by Portuguese glass, which is apparently a popular souvenir in Nagasaki. Interesting! The pink and blue konpeito are so cute and festive, and I love the colors together.

Flavor-wise, it’s a lychee and grapefruit black tea, and it’s delightful! I can taste both flavors clearly, and the bright grapefruit and syrupy, floral lychee make a great pairing. The grapefruit is prominent at the beginning of the sip, but then there’s a lovely sweet lychee finish. I will say it looks like there’s some Darjeeling here, as there are a few green leaves interspersed among the brown ones in the spent leaf. So maybe next time I’ll experiment with a slightly lower temperature to see how that affects the flavor of the base. Looking forward to sipping through this one, and trying the others as well!

Sipdown! (7)

One of my oldest teas down, yay! This was purchased in the spring of 2021.

For some reason I’ve just never loved this tea, which is why it stuck around for so long. I think it’s the salted aspect of it, which I do enjoy with sencha, but find a bit odd with hojicha. There is a noticeable salinity and slippery texture, and I just don’t love it with the toasty base. Obubu has a hoji sakura sencha sometimes and I definitely prefer that one, but I do tend to prefer Obubu’s sakura teas in general because there is no sugar or salt, only dried blossoms and leaves. But Lupicia’s Sakura & Berry is still a favorite, and one that I will repurchase in the spring! :)

Day 23 of the Lupicia advent calendar, a single sachet. Lupicia recommends having this blend with milk, so I added a splash of oat milk. Despite my hesitations due to this being an Assam and likely to hurt my stomach, I’m finding it hard not to finish the whole mug! It’s just a very smooth, easy drink. Nutty, malty, with a caramel note that really rounds it out. Bad for me but I’d recommend it for others!

This was the last tea in this calendar. Day 22 was a small handkerchief bag with a pattern similar to the calendar graphic. Very pretty, very cute, definitely going into the rotation as a tea towel (it can be folded flat). Day 24 is a tiny ceramic plate with a dove holding a holly branch in his beak. It’s beautiful and precious. I’m not sure what its purpose is, tbh. Maybe a spoon rest? It’s a bit too small to be a teabag rest. Pretty enough to just be something I add to my teaware display shelf more than use practically. Or maybe use it as a plate for a small tea pet.

This calendar turned out to be delightful! When I opened the first couple of days and they were just single servings of tea, I started to worry that I had radically overspent. Including the cost of shipping, etc., this ran me about $130. If it turned out that I had paid $5.42 for a single serving a day, I would have been… disappointed. But that wasn’t the case! This turned out to be full of variety and surprises – tasty snacks, fun items, and a tin. There were blends in here that I can’t get in the US at all. The packaging itself is stunning and sturdy. The boxes make a beautiful image when they’re all turned around. I’ll probably keep the box and refill it myself next year – it’s too pretty to only use once. I’m not really sure how to assess whether I got my money’s worth because so much of this is unquantifiable. How do I calculate the monetary value of trying a tea that I otherwise can’t get? Or a calendar-exclusive item? In an objective sense, it probably wasn’t quite worth the money. In Lupicia’s defense, the cost of the calendar sans shipping was $76, which it was definitely worth. Subjectively, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this! I won’t pretend that I actually regret spending the money. If it wasn’t for the shipping cost, I would put this on my list for next year, but given that added expense I’ll probably try something different in this slot next time.

Day 21 of the Lupicia advent calendar. Five sachets of this one! Plus it’s an herbal, which means I’ll likely get through it pretty quickly. More than anything this makes me think of churchkhela. This makes no sense because there’s no grape or nuts in here! Maybe it’s the texture or the exact degree of sweetness? If I really focus my palate and actively tell it to ignore the association, I can tell that peach and mandarin orange are the two dominant notes in my cup. In this case, though, I don’t really want to do that! First of all because it’s pretty hard, and second because I’m enjoying it exactly as it is so why torture myself in order to get less pleasure from the cup in the interest of having a more accurate tasting experience while sitting around watching Star Trek?

Day 20 of the Lupicia advent calendar. Another single-serving loose leaf fruit tisane. This one reminds me so strongly of jelly fruit slices. Candied orange with a sweet yuzu tartness. Right on the verge of being too sweet, but it isn’t. The Jus T’aime blends seem to be a candy-fruit range of tisanes, all on the sweet side with some tipping into syrupy (looking at you, Mystique). I really like some of these, though, and think they’d be great as iced teas for hot weather!

Day 19 of the Lupicia advent calendar. This is a rooibos blend and came in a single sachet. So fruit tisanes have all been loose, but I guess not all herbal blends fall into that category. I’m a sucker for sparkly sprinkles. That was a fun part of this blend! Flavor-wise, I’m getting peach and plum. For some reason, the aroma of the two together read as “fresh mango” at first. I think this might be the first rooibos in this calendar so far!

Catching up on tasting notes! I haven’t been able to post much in the past few days, but I’ve been jotting down notes as I drink.

Day 18 of the Lupicia advent calendar. Day 17 was a three-dimensional pin shaped like a Lupicia travel tin. It took a lot of restraint to not try to open it! It’s very cute though. This blend comes in a single serving of loose leaf. The wrapper says “pear & lychee.” Flavor’s pretty accurate to that! It’s a very candy-like pear and lychee, but not sickly sweet. I’d buy this! I bet it would be great as an iced tea in the summer.

Day 16 of the Lupicia advent calendar. Just a single sachet, thankfully. I have done it, everyone. I have found Lupicia’s worst tea by a mile (or kilometer, or any other measure of distance). I brewed this as instructed, which feels really important to note here. This was not an overbrew. Upon taking my first sip, I exclaimed “WHY” to an empty room. It’s just a mouthful of clove. The cloviest clove that ever cloved. Somewhere behind the clove is maybe a hint of citrus, if you can make it past the sea of clove to find it. I think my cup personally has all of the clove flavor that others could barely detect in theirs. I felt guilty about pouring this out because the calendar was so expensive, but I found it literally undrinkable. I forced down a few sips for science. That was the most I could manage.