One of the few anime/manga series that I still follow is Detective Conan, partly because it’s fun and partly because I’ve invested too much time to give up now. So when I saw these Detective Conan-themed teas in Japan, I immediately bought a couple to try (this is a while ago so forgive me if the descriptions aren’t the best – the teas have definitely aged because I couldn’t bring myself to drink it all).
These teas are by Karel Capek, which I sadly do not have extensive drinking experience with. But the tea bags are insanely cute so I got the Ran’s Lemon Pie Tea and the Color Trick Tea (butterfly pea tea).
When I made this with hot water, Ran’s Lemon Pie tea didn’t smell very lemony (unlike Clipper’s Lemon Tea), but was vaguely sweet. The taste was equally vague – it wasn’t super sweet, nor was it very sour. It was sort of like a muted lemon. But, I looked back through my Dayre and apparently I thought it tasted like key lime pie, pleasantly sweet and sour, when I cold-brewed[1] this. So perhaps this tea is better cold than hot.
Ran’s Lemon Pie Tea is inspired by the Memories of First Love case (初恋の人・・・), which is in volume 18 of the manga and is episodes 100 and 101. The recommended brewing times and amount of water, should you be able to find it[2], are:
3 minutes with 150 ml for straight tea
3 minutes with 100 ml for milk tea (they recommend adding a sweetener)
3 minutes with 100ml for iced tea (pour it into a glass filled with ice)
The Color Trick Tea is the ‘fun’ tea and the one that my little brother (also a Conan fan) got excited about. It was featured in episodes 770 and 771/volume 84, in the case The Tense Tea Party. I’m totally going to give spoilers/large hint because I assume that you’re a Conan fan too, but this tea was used by the murderer to fool the detectives. At least, until Conan figured it out [3].
Taste-wise, the lemon-less version tasted sweet and minty and I would actually drink this even if it didn’t do a cool science trick. It is pretty mild, though, so with lemon (and a new colour), the tea was a lot sourer and all the original taste was lost. That said, I tend to pour in more lemon juice for the effect, so it might just be me not getting the proportions right. Have a look at this video that I managed to take:
The recommended brewing temperature for this is 70 degrees Celsius. The package also recommends adding honey or sugar to make “make it like lemonade” and you can reuse the teabag up to three times. As for brewing time and amount of water, the reccomendations are:
1 minute with 200ml of water for straight tea
1 minute with 100ml of water for iced tea (poured into a glass full of ice)
I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to find this again because I suspect that it’s a limited edition thing, but I am so glad that I bought this! If you ever see it being sold, please tell this Conan fan! (That said, you can buy butterfly pea tea from other shops – this is really for the packaging)
Links & Notes
[1] Basically I put the tea in cold water and let diffusion do its work. It takes a lot longer compared to brewing tea with hot water but it’s a cooling alternative in hot weather.
[2] If you find it please tell me!
[3] This also takes place just before a very very important development in the Black Organisation arc (which is basically the main storyline) so it was especially memorable to me.
Karel Capek Website
Web page for Memories of First Love
Web page for The Tense Tea Party