Sakura & Berry

Cold Brew!

This tea has really stuck in my head since I first tried it, so I made it again for today’s cold brew. Wow is it good! Very refreshing and flavourful without at all feeling heavy. I do think the cherry blossom notes come out a little bit less with this method, but the trade off was that the strawberry was less artificial/candy like than when I’d tried it hot. Also, even without as much cherry blossom, the strawberry flavouring itself has a bit of a floral undertone. Truly very delicious with either prep method, though!

This was a Mother’s Day gift from Superanna. Many thanks for a new “must have” tea!

On Sunday, I noticed the cherry first and there was an undercurrent of berry with a candy-like note to the berry flavor that I couldn’t pin down. I think it was the raspberry! It was so good I ordered more last night because it is a seasonal tea and I don’t to spend almost a year without it!

I made it again today to see if it was really as magical as we thought or was it the moment?
Today the salted cherry leaf was more noticeable than before, maybe because this time I know it is there and looked for it. But really, it was more prominent and it gives the tea real presence so you can drink it at breakfast even though both Nilgiri and Darjeeling are lighter black teas. This might even be Sakura Premium with flavors added.

Very good, and will probably be gone long before it comes available again.

I think I used too small of a cup because this ended up being a bit concentrated. It has a nice berry flavor to it with sakura in the back of the sip and in the finish. It’s ever so slightly crisp. I think I need to play with this more to get an optimal cup.

Another swapped tea from Cameron, I adored this blend! It was sweet, floral, fruity, and overall well-balanced. Another unexpected future addition to my stash for 2023!

Each year Lupicia Tea, a Japanese tea company, comes out with a Sakura collection to celebrate cherry blossom season. The collection changes each year and for 2021 the theme is traditional Japanese culture that has been handed down through the generations, such as crafts and traditional Japanese patterns. The collection is well balanced and features a green tea, a decaf tea, black tea, rooibos, even a sakura matcha! The tins this year are beautiful and feature a lovely floral motive. I have wanted to try teas from Lupicia’s Sakura collection for some time so I decided this year that I would order a few.

The first one I am reviewing is Sakura & Berry. This has a black tea base with salted cherry leaf, rose petal and flavoring. The description says that this has a “sweet strawberry flavor.” The dry leaf smells amazing and actually made me think of when my mom would make me strawberries and cream oatmeal as a kid. I steeped the tea up at 212 degrees for 3 minutes.

I really love this one. The first taste is a nice fruity strawberry flavor, nothing too strong. It actually has the same strawberry flavor as strawberries and cream oatmeal but without the cream aspect. On the second taste I get a hit of the black tea base, it is smooth and mellow. I had hoped that I would get taste of the salted cherry leaf however that didn’t come through in the flavor.

Overall this is a tasty strawberry tea in a beautiful tin and certainly worth trying if you love strawberry-flavored teas. I really enjoy Lupicia tea, in fact their rooibos-based honeydew melon tea is in my top 5 favorite teas of all time! If you are interested in the Sakura collection I would not wait as fulfillment for the US comes from the online Hawaii Lupicia store and they get very limited amounts of inventory on these special edition collections.

Another one from Cameron B! Thanks so much! This one is intriguing as the base is nilgiri and darjeeling and it’s sakura which is cherry blossom. It’s tough for me to tell these bases are here from the flavor. But the base is delicious though. I know it doesn’t taste like a usual black tea that Lupicia would usually use. It’s interesting since the description says they use salted cherry leaves which is a new one. I think cherry is the most distinct note and it’s a floral sort of cherry flavor rather than a cough drop flavor. There should also be raspberry and strawberry here but I don’t notice those at all. The flavor is fantastic, especially as it cools – it’s fruity, sharp, thirst quenching, yet a little drying like a wine might be. But I like when teas are both drying and thirst quenching. The second steep was amazing, even though I accidentally steeped it way too long. I’d suggest trying it that way.. I’d definitely brew it either minutes on the second steep again. I’m very shocked but very happy the oversteep didn’t ruin this tea!
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoons for not quite full mug // 18 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // couple minutes after boiling // 8 minute steep

Random tea of the day!

I was so happy when this was selected, this is such a nice tea from Lupicia and perfect for the time of year. I love how the strawberry flavor brings out the fruitier notes of the sakura, but I can still taste that salty-savory undertone and it makes for such a nice combo. This is my favorite of Lupicia’s sakura collection, and one that I will happily reorder.

Actually, I noticed I didn’t have a ton left in the tin when I opened it, so I was tempted to order some now while it’s still available. No, bad Cameron, LOL! Knowing me, I won’t even have finished the small amount I have left by the time next year comes around… Plus I already made an order when the sakura collection came out, and got Cerisier (because I haven’t tried it in ages and never wrote a note for it apparently) and then restocked a couple of faves. So I’m good to go, and I do not need any more tea! (she tells herself, unconvincingly…)

Happy World Milk Day! Today the prompt is “add a milk (non-dairy is fine!) to a tea.”

This is my final tea from Lupicia’s sakura line-up all the way back in 2018, when they still had a US base in California. I also like it much more than the other Lupicia sakura offerings, which waned too salty/salinic in flavor for my personal tastes due to the salt-preserves Lupicia uses on the sakura leaf. This tea, which has added strawberry flavoring, comes off sweeter and fruitier and I don’t taste the salt. I get a strawberry and sakura mochi feel, which is very pleasant! It’s probably the one sakura tea from Lupicia I’d happily restock sometime.

The only downside to it is that the base is a CTC that wanes on the strong/brisk/overly tannic side. I use a shorter steep for my black teas in general (3 minutes) and even with that, it is almost too bitey for me. I drank their other sakura teas as lattes just to combat the saltiness with the sweeter milk, but I thought this one would do well as a latte too, just because of the strength of the black base.

I prepared 12 oz. of tea to 4 oz. of vanilla almond milk (my favorite kind of non-milk to use because of its natural sweetness/creaminess and it froths nicely in my milk warmer/frother). I used extra leaf for the tea to accomodate the milk, but kept my steep to three minutes. I can still taste a bready/leafy quality from the base, but the milk does help temper that astringent bite at the end of the sip, and the strawberry and sakura flavors are still present and tasty, and perhaps even a bit more candy-like with the addition of the creamy vanilla-flavored milk.

A very satisfying latte!

This tea is a bit mild; the sakura and berry is light and the black tea base isn’t that strong too. If you want something stronger, probably need to steep this a bit more.

Well, I’ve immedietly stumbled in my “no new teas” policy. This is not the offending brew, instead a book themed tea (Pride & Peppermint) was my downfall this weekend at the bay area book festival.
Well, all the more reason to redouble my efforts in sipping down! And no more new teas for real this time.
The hidden part of my sipdown goal is to drink/try the teas that have not yet been tasted. I have some that have not yet been opened, and that has gotta be remedied!
So, my cup today was this, a pretty tin of Sakura and Berry.
This is quite a tart blend (the sakura?), but not at all unpleasant. It is almost sour, but more like a refreshing sour than an unpleasant sour.
I don’t think it will be a favorite, but I’m happy to try more from this little tin!