Producer: Lupicia
Origin: Japan
Brewing Parameters: 3g tea bag, 90-100°C, 1-1.5 min. (recommended)
Appearance: Rolled, dark green leaves (sencha) with yellow and purple flower petals and red spheres (no idea what they are– dried berries?)
Rating: B- | 80/100
# of Brews: 2
Tasting Notes and Thoughts
So, I got a sample tea bag of this tea in the mail since I'm subsribed to Lupicia's monthly newsletter. I'm reviewing this the way I used to during the 100 Days of Tea– just an easy Western style brew im a large mug. Now, onto the review.
Holy crap, this tea has a ridiculously strong smell. The moment I opened the sample wrapper, the aroma of grape sucker punched my nose; if you know what grape Hi-Chew smells like, it's definitely that. This tea is very similar to Lupicia's other grape teas (Budou Green is the one that comes to mind) in terms of the concept and smell– it's a sencha with grape flavoring and apparently some matcha.
Surprisingly, it brewed up as a nice, dark yellowish-green considering that it's a sencha and I used boiling water. The aroma was relatively the same as the dry leaf, and the liquid itself was cloudy, probably due to the matcha. As for the flavor, I'm actually really surprised at how sour it was; I'm not sure if it was the grape flavoring or the sencha itself, but the closest thing I can relate it to is a very diluted lemon juice. When drinking, the first thing you taste is the sour kick, which transitions into the somewhat sweeter grape flavor (which isn't artificial at all– the Japanese are pretty good at recreating fruit flavors) with some grassy notes. It leaves a slightly dry feeling in the mouth, but not the throat, with a floral and grapefruit aftertaste.
Overall, it's alright. It's definitely been a while since I've had a flavored tea (except for Earl Grey), so I'm iffy on this. One issue I've noticed with these types of teas–the ones with matcha mixed in– is that they become bitter if left alone too long. You can take the leaves out, but the matcha powder stays in and continues to brew. I wouldn't drink this as a daily thing, but if friends were over, I'd take it out.
As a side note, I decided to brew this tea a second time, and it was a lot better– sweeter and smoother (probably because most of the flavoring washed off). If you ever buy this, I suggest trying to brew it at least a few times to see how the flavor tastes.
Other Notes
Today's album is Scenery 1976 by Ryo Fukui. This randomly showed up on my Recommended feed on Youtube a couple of weeks back, and it's a pretty good jazz album (very piano oriented).
Talking about jazz, that leads me into my next point! I watched La La Land with my family and a friend last night and it was really good. Romantic movies aren't usually my thing, but, damn, the ending hit way too close to home for both me and my friend. We both went home feeling pretty down; I still love the movie though. The next movie I plan to see is Moonlight; I'm waiting for it to start playing at the local theatres, but I've heard good things about it. I'm excited.
Anyway, today is the last day of Winter break. I don't really have that many plans; I have comp civics practice again, this review, maybe a lunch with some friends, and studying for a chem quiz tomorrow. It's weird, thinking about how this is the last winter break I'll ever have (in high school, at least). I'm kind of worried because it'll be my last semester– I want to finish with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, win state for comp civics, and do so much more– but at the same time, it's nice to finally get back to seeing people and having stuff to do. Oh well. Five months to go.
Talking about jazz, that leads me into my next point! I watched La La Land with my family and a friend last night and it was really good. Romantic movies aren't usually my thing, but, damn, the ending hit way too close to home for both me and my friend. We both went home feeling pretty down; I still love the movie though. The next movie I plan to see is Moonlight; I'm waiting for it to start playing at the local theatres, but I've heard good things about it. I'm excited.
Anyway, today is the last day of Winter break. I don't really have that many plans; I have comp civics practice again, this review, maybe a lunch with some friends, and studying for a chem quiz tomorrow. It's weird, thinking about how this is the last winter break I'll ever have (in high school, at least). I'm kind of worried because it'll be my last semester– I want to finish with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, win state for comp civics, and do so much more– but at the same time, it's nice to finally get back to seeing people and having stuff to do. Oh well. Five months to go.
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