Brand: Lupicia
Type: Flavored Black
Brew Time & Temperature: 3 minutes, boiling
Leaf Appearance: Mix of dark or light green darjeeling leaves, rolled/curly
Color: Light, golden-orange; clear
Smell: Sweet, red grapes or just grape juice mainly
Recommended with/as: As is, iced
Rating: 7.5/10
Tasting notes and thoughts:
First thought on this tea is that it smells really, really nice, but then again, most of Lupicia's grape-flavored teas aren't that bad smelling (they're pretty close to the actual smell of grapes and not that artificial). As for the taste, I'd say it's pretty close to grape juice. The darjeeling mixes well with the grape flavoring, as they both enhance each others flavor. On drinking, you're met with the earthiness of the darjeeling, which is quickly followed by the tart, grape flavoring (and muscatel from the darjeeling?). It slowly dissipates afterwards, starting off slightly sweet and ending on a light bitter note. It's actually pretty close to real grapes (but not the sweet kind). The aftertaste isn't as good as the actual taste as it leaves a bit of a bitter, sour taste that lasts in the mouth for a really long time. This, combined with the astringency of the tea, makes it very drying to the mouth and throat and gives it a bit of different texture (which in my opinion, isn't that good- I'd describe it as kind of chewy and astringent). Overall, it's a decent darjeeling that has a good flavor, but leaves a feeling in the mouth that isn't too enjoyable. Maybe adding sugar or honey would fix this, but I'm not too sure.
Other notes:
Y'know, today was actually pretty great. School was pretty average again, but after school was fun. That girl and I (it sorta feels weird to call her my girlfriend now, but we're officially dating- we just haven't told our friends yet) went with some friends to Safeway and got some donuts/other food. We ended up leaving them to go hang out on our own in front of the school for a while, and we talked for an hour (?) or so about random stuff. She showed me the Harry Potter books if they were about Christianity (note to self: read the actual HP book sometime), and we talked about stuff from middle school. Man, now I can't wait until next week to do this again since we had so much fun. In somewhat related news, I think the name Lonzo is such a stupid, but hilarious name.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm trying sleep learning in preparation for the AP Bio final + exam (with actual studying too, of course). I don't really know if it'll have any effect, but it's nice to try anyway. This weekend is going to be a ton of work to do (AP bio studying and lab, history presentation, job application, Japanese cooking project, math homework, all that jazz).
Next on the 100 Days of Tea: Sencha "Omaesama"
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