White Christmas

Even though I just received my Black Friday Della Terra order, and I have two orders from Herbal Infusions on the way, I had to stop by Lupicia and get some of this tea. I also picked up some caramel and rum rooibos. :) I’ve never really liked how they package the bags, since once you cut them, they’re not resealable, but I discovered they sell little colored clips that seal the bags really well, so I picked some of those up too!

I made a huge cup of this tea this morning. I didn’t know the little “snowflakes” were actually little pieces of rock sugar, but that’s okay, they’re cute, and I sugar my black teas anyway. This was a nice cup of apricot creaminess. More like real apricot too, not like the peach apricot that you typically get. I think I may have oversteeped it though, because it was a little astringent. Guess I better stick with the 2.5 minutes next time. It also reminds me a bit of Cookie, which could be because of the base tea…not sure, but that adds a little pastry quality to it. Overall, I’m happy to have this in my cupboard!

This teabag came as a free sample in the Lupicia newsletter. I was expecting it to be a white tea like the Harney version, but it’s a flavored black tea.

This is a fairly likeable tea in my opinion, though the other reviews are not stellar. This is a lighter black tea base and the flavor notes of white chocolate and apricot are subtle but present. I don’t drink a lot of black teas without additions, but this is very good plain and would also be good with additions.

I would be tempted to buy more of this but I really do not need any more tea and hope to spend 2013 paring down some of my collection. We’ll see! hee hee.

Woot, got the blog going, muhahahahha! If you wanna see pictures with this review, check out http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/white-christmas-by-lupicia-tea-review/

FYI, this tea I’m reviewing is in bagged form, flavor might vary in loose leaf.

DRY LEAF: Smells kinda fruity. Huh? I guess I feel as if this tea should be minty. You know, like Stash’s “White Christmas”? I loved that tea until I had loose leaf tea.

STEEPED: 2 minutes over boiling water. Annoyingly, the package did not have English instructions, so I guessed the steep time. I was off my 30 seconds, oh well, I don’t want oversteeped black tea. White Christmas smells very fruity.

TASTE: Apricot! Very much like apricot and it is the first thing I taste! The apricot here is pretty natural tasting and well done, mixed with a little sweet and creamy taste. The black tea here is light and more present end of sip. No bitterness or dryness in this tea. Good clean black tea flavor too.

COMMENTS: The apricot flavoring is VERY well done here. Actually, this has to be the best apricot tea I’ve had so far. It’s not bitter and weird-dried-apricoty-sulfur taste. This tea is great on its own, Lupicia suggests using milk, but I probably won’t try this tea with milk as I think that it would take away the apricot flavor.

If you want to try a good apricot tea, give this one a shot! Even if you aren’t into black tea, this one is quite light – so it could be enjoyed by non-black tea drinkers. I could be convinced to purchase some of this, but I more so will be on the lookout for other Lupicia apricot teas. Lupicia does fruity teas VERY well and one could never have enough fruity teas.

Yum yum yum! I am tasting distinct nutty tones to this tea, even though the ingredients do not mention any nut flavoring to this blend. But I don’t care, because I love the way the toasty, nutty flavor plays with the apricot and white chocolate.

This is a really good tea. Don’t oversteep it though… I steeped this 4 minutes, and I really wish I had steeped only 3 1/2. It’s still good, but I do think it would be better with a shorter steep time.

from my shinny brand new swap with jump62359! it’s definitely past christmas time, but there is snow on the ground for the first time this season, so this tea,…still appropriate. :)
i stared at the little white nodule that was in the tea bag for a long time. still not sure what it is. haha i love a mystery. …
… but now that it’s steeped the white node is gone, so i’ll assume it’s sugar. made to be pretty!
between the bold fruit flavor and the sugar pre-added, it’s definitely a sassy cup. this really is the most apricoty apricot tea i’ve tasted. it’s very apricot. and not really chocolate at all. (but maybe steeping the bag a second time will be different.)

this cup, and the snow covered ground, and my giant office window, and my giant mug, goes well with the Bach Partitas i’m listening to. (insert ‘ilovespotify’ rant here.)
delicious.

i have a dance class tonight i’m already looking forward to. counting down the hours.

A pretty nice Christmas tea! Though I couldn’t get much white chocolate flavour until the second steep. Since white chocolate contains cocoa butter instead of cocoa solid, this tea tastes somewhat creamy and vanilla-y rather than chocolate-y! The apricot flavour was soft. Since I used a larger mug to brew this tea, it was fortunately not as strong as other reviewers even though I carelessly oversteeped it (over 5 minutes!) when I brewed it the second time!

This is probably my favorite holiday tea. (I’ve never cared for ‘spicy’ cinnamon or chai teas, so that tends to eliminate about three quarters of the holiday blends out there.)

The word that comes to mind as I drink this is creamy. Apricot flavor can go one of two ways: it can either be sharp and tangy, almost citrus-like in its intensity, or it can be very soft and mellow. This apricot definitely falls into the latter category. I’m guessing its the influence of the white chocolate, which I don’t really taste otherwise. I get the tiniest hint of vanilla, too.

Thanks to Meghann for this one!! :0)

This one is pretty good. I don’t taste much of the white chocolate but I’m def get the apricot taste. Very different taste. My first experience with Lupicia teas. Tastey!

This is a delicious tea! It calls out for cooler weather, but I wanted something sweet today. There is a hint of sweetness and nuttiness to it. Everything is blended well and nothing strikingly stands out. Its soft. It is definitely good!

Way past christmas wow.
Dude. This tea just keeps getting lost because I keep it in a little container actually in my bookshelf, not on top of the shelf with the rest of my teas! Ahh well. I rated this tea a 60 way long ago because I never really liked chocolate teas. But now I’ve tried plenty of chocolate and dessert teas soooo I’m sure I’m going to like this tea :)
Definitely running low on my Lupicia stash! I’m like… dude the only thing that’s keeping me alive these final weeks of school is the fact that I have a massive tea shopping spree planned near the end of this month. I cannot wait to go back to San Francisco! I haven’t been there since JULY and that was my last massive shopping spree. You know, now that I think of it, the last time I was in the city was to stock up on teas to bring with me to celebrate going to Orlando for the DCP. And soon, I’ll be going back to the city for the EXACT same reason!

Now that I’ve done enough rambling and I’ve let my tea steep for long enough, this tea is a pretty decent cup! Still chocolatey and sweet and hints of apricot. Definitely a tea that I’ll have to be craving for.
I still have two sachets of this left and I don’t want it to get too old sooo I’ll plan on drinking the last of it before I head out for my shopping spree!

I did find myself adding a bit of milk to it since it was on the sweet side.