Review: Hua Ki - Lupicia

Type: Flavored Black
Producer: Lupicia
Origin: India, Indonesia
Brewing Parameters: 2-2.5g; 100­°C; 2-2.5 min.
Appearance: Very small, broken-up, rolled black leaves with chunks of fruit and purple flower petals
Rating: B | 83/100
# of Brews: 2

Tasting Notes and Thoughts
Number three of the Hawaiian teas! I think for the rest of the reviews, bar one, the tea will be a flavored black tea. This one is no exception. Like yesterday (and for the rest of the black teas), I'll be brewing in the kyusu according to the brewing parameters.

Again, like most of Lupicia's flavored black teas, this has that vaguely fruity smell that is very artificial. The description only states that Hua Ki is "a tropical fruits flavored black tea... luxuriously blended with mango–" except it doesn't smell like a mango. It has the smell of tropical fruit juice, but if you didn't tell me it was mango, I wouldn't be able to guess. For some reason, it reminds me a bit of barbeque sauce, actually. Compared to yesterday's tea, the leaves were actually quite a bit smaller, with even the flower petals broken up. Also, I think yesterday's tea smelled better in general.

While I did think it smelled worse (mainly because it was just too artificial), I think it tastes much better. After brewing, the liquid came out a dark orange, clear enough to see the bottom of my cup. The mango, too, definitely came out once it brewed; the wet leaves smelled exactly of unripe mango juice (a bit sour, but still fruity). As for its flavor, it is surprisingly mellow for a black tea. The main flavor is an earthy, slightly woody taste accented by the tangy mango. It ends on a very strong chocolate note, which ends abruptly. Nothing really lingers in the mouth, but a very faint mango note stays on the breath. It made me a bit thirsty after drinking; however, it wasn't really astringent or bitter. Overall, I think this tea is good, but like yesterday's, not knock your socks off good. It doesn't seem to need any milk or sweetener to make it taste any better– in fact, I think adding any would overpower its fruit flavor.

Other Notes

Last day of summer! I just made a checklist of what I should do, like cook certain meals (french toast and tonkatsu!), prepare for school, read and study, and so on. So far, I've cleaned the new room so there aren't random boxes lying everywhere, cooked french toast and my lunch for tomorrow, had a friend come over, and wrote this review. It's a bit of a lazy day. I don't know if I should do anything special, and if I should, what it should be. I'll write about it tomorrow or later this week if I do figure that out.

As for plans this school year, I guess I have quite a bit since it's senior year after all. To go on a tangent right now (because I just really want to talk about it– I can always write my plan for the year later, and these reviews are generally streams of consciousness), there's an issue I have with my school. The thing is, being from a suburban upper class school, it's come to feel like my life depends on college admissions. I don't want to worry as much as other people– mainly, the people that I go to AP classes with– but there's just so much pressure coming from my peers (and my parents, to an extent) to go to an Ivy league. Like, it seems that UCs, the schools I want to go to (and pretty selective, too), are terrible because they don't have a less than ten percent acceptance rate. Some people even have schools like Berkeley and LA as their safeties.

This mindset has put me at odds with both my classmates and myself. On one hand, there's the idea that I won't be able to get into a "good" college (by their standards) if I don't take AP Calculus, but on the other hand, I just want to take classes I'm interested in, like African American literature. The other issue too is that I want to take a STEM major in college, but my standardized tests and coursework points toward the humanities, like English and History. Classes like AP Calculus probably would help me in the long term, but the thing is I just want to enjoy my senior year. With college admissions, it's just like everything is a rich man's game. Not an average person's. It's not easy for me to have access to the opportunities that the people at my school have (namely through family connections or just money), and in order to be competitive academically, I can't do what I'm passionate in. Don't get me wrong, I love to do math and research, but I think at this point, seeing the current state of science is making me disillusioned.

I want to make a difference in the world. But the issue is that, at this point in my life, it looks like the only people that can do that are those with money to afford fancy internships at colleges, or those with family members in science. I've tried to do what I can on a budget: do science fair projects, research on my own, join free summer camps, and so on. However, for the things that do get you into the schools for the programs I want, this isn't enough. I guess we'll see.