Welcome to the fourth, and for now last, installment of the Lupicia Quick Tea Reviews series. I’ve finished all the teas that my friend gave me, so I won’t have more to try until I meet her again. This also means this post is a bit of a bumper post because rather than split it into two shorter posts, I decided to put all the remaining reviews into this one.
Makkari Nupuri is a tisane with lemongrass, rosemary, and chamomile and it smelled really different from the typical Lupicia blend. This one smelled a bit more herbal, but thankfully tasted mostly of lemongrass and chamomile. It actually tastes very local; quite a few south east asian blends like to use lemongrass, and it’s a comforting drink for me.
The Muscat sample smelled and tasted like the muscat grape. It looks like but packs quite a punch in terms of flavour, being sweet as well. It’s also really familiar and I’m fairly sure I’ve had this tea before.
The Niseko is a black tea with puer (which, come to think of it, makes it resemble the blend for a hongkong milk tea) and tasted like a regular black tea. It’s not malty or sweet – basically it’s just woody. It’s fine with milk but not exceptional. Overall a rather forgettable tea.
On the other hand, the Hanagasa was a bit more memorable. A black tea with cherries blended with safflower and rooibos, this tea was sweet, fruity, and a little floral. I didn’t quite get the rooibos notes but I generally enjoyed this tea.
The Star Festival was a green tea with green rooibos. It smelled like vanilla but tasted like ramune, a traditional Japanese soda. I actually like ramune, but not in tea and I had a bit of a hard time finishing this.
The last tea was the Niseko Annupuri, a black tea with melon and blueberry. The melon smell was very strong and from the scent, I feared that the tea would be too sweet but that’s not the case. There’s a distinct melon note accompanied with some sweetness, and while I couldn’t discern any blueberry, I still really enjoyed the tea! I did notice that if you brew the tea for too long, you’ll get a musty smell (taste was unaffected) so this tea is one for shorter steeps!
Hopefully now that I’ve finished this, I can go back to trying my other teas (I have a new subscription too) and will be able to share more tea reviews and tea related posts.