18 Tasting Notes
In the tin, Hoku is a tightly rolled green oolong with yellow flower petals, pineapple chunks, green sugar bits, pink peppercorns, and tiny silver balls that represent the stars that are Hoku’s namesake. The scent is pure tropical fruit, and the visual and the scent together are perfect for a Hawaiian tea.
This makes a medium yellow brew, with a lovely tropical fruit aroma. Unsweetened, the flavor is a medium oolong with a little fruit – most of the fruitiness is in the scent. Hoku practically begs for a little sweetener to accentuate the tropical fruit flavor. I think this would also be nice iced.
This is one of my tea staples. I like peach teas, and this smells like a ripe, juicy peach. The peach flavor is strong but doesn’t overwhelm the excellent oolong tea. The peach flavor is much more pronounced here than in Lupicia’s regular Momo tea. This is a “big” tea, in that the leaves are loosely rolled and unfurl to enormous size. Like most of Lupicia’s teas, it’s very pleasing to look at in the tin – rosey flower petals against large, deep green leaves of oolong.
I probably rated this tea lower than I would have if it had been less expensive or come from a tea shop that I dislike less than Teavana.
I don’t really know what possessed me to buy this, other that I’d been in the shop for a while and, and perhaps my olfactory receptors were burnt out. Anyway, I was in the Mall of America, so I probably don’t have very good judgement anyway. At any rate, I bought some, resisting the aggressive sales pitch to buy overpriced tea tins.
The tea is pretty, but it smells and tastes exactly like Luden’s cough drops. I love Luden’s cough drops, but not in tea. The artificial “cherry” flavor completely overwhelms any taste or scent of tea. This tea might be nice with a lot of honey if you have a cold. Otherwise I’d recommend avoiding it entirely.
This tea makes a fantastic chai. This tea is really to strong for me to drink without adding milk and sugar. This is how I prepare it –
Bring to a boil 2 cups of water and 8 tsp turbinado sugar (more or less, depending on your taste).
Add 2-4 teaspoons 500 mile chai and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Add two cups of milk and gently simmer for 5 minutes, or until the milk makes a bit of a skin.
Stir, strain and enjoy.
This tea has been my unchallenged favorite for several years. It’s the perfect blend when I need a little caffeine boost – just about every weekday morning. It’s a strong black tea mixed with wonderfully-scented rose petals. I’ve had other flower-scented teas, but they were always too floral and cloying. This one somehow manages to convey the scent of roses in foody, non-floral way. This tea is lightly sweet even without sugar, but is robust enough stand up to extra sugar and a splash of milk. It’s also wonderful on its own.
Based on description alone (Lupicia used to describe it as having a “nostalgic” taste, whatever that is), I probably would never have purchased this tea. I received it in a Fukubukoro New Years’ bag two years ago, and it is now a firm favorite.
The green tea looks like a Japanese Sencha with chunks of white chestnut. The chestnut flavor lends the tea a very toasty and slightly sweet aroma. It is wonderful and soothing with a little honey or agave syrup. I drink this tea as much for the scent as the flavor – almost daily in fall and winter.
This is one of my top three teas. This tea has a soft peach aroma, sweetened by vanilla. The intensity of the flavors is just about perfect with the green tea – not too subtle or overwhelming. The peach smells and tastes like natural peach. The tea itself is beautiful with tiny squares of lavender-colored sugar, red and blue flower petals, and tiny flower buds that looked like heather against the shiny, dark green leaves of the tea. Perfect for cool spring days.