Lupicia

Having another giant Seattle mug full of this. 1TB/12oz water. I hereby name this ratio detoxifying matcha!

Now I’m probably gonna get struck by lightening, but I was reading my Bible this morning and came up with this parody of 1st Corinthians 4-7:

“Matcha is patient, matcha is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Matcha does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Matcha is truly a gift from God- especially on days like today:)

Made a BIG strong mug of this. 1 level TB/12oz hot water. Made this for several reasons- 1.) It’s YUMMY! 2.) I’m still too tired to spend a lot of mental energy on making tea. 3.) My scale is broken. 4.) Detoxing from a weekend full of DELICIOUS, but rich Russian food. Wait… I said mug, didn’t I? Yep. No chawan today. My best friend Irina gave me a gorgeous mug w/ 2 different views of Seattle on it and I miss her already!

I’ve only had matcha in a cup not shaken twice (once plain and once as an OJ matcha shot at Jamba Juice- both this weekend) so I was a bit nervous it wouldn’t fully blend- but it did! It stayed cohesive a lot longer than expected and it actually had a really thick foam on top. Woohoo! It chases away my post vacation depression that always plagues me.

Yesterday ya might as well’ve called me Alexander. It was definitely a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I mujst have slept on my neck wrong cuz I woke up in severe pain. Moving my neck at all was impossible. This meant no tea. It was literally impossible. Inspite taking 2 Motrin IB every 4 hours, my pain wasn’t touched. The simple act of getting into bed last nite caused the most intense pain I’ve ever experienced- and that’s saying a lot. By 11am, I was finally feeling a little improvement so I decided to make a variation of my dreamsicle koicha. 20ml each vanilla coffee creamer and OJ to 1tsp sifted matcha. The difference of the creamer is amazing. So much thicker! Almost like melted ice cream, if not thicker, vs a thin milk shake or flavored milk. The matcha holds up nicely, but unfortunately the OJ gets lost.

Best. Slimfast. Ever. 8oz Fat Free Smart Balance milk, 1 scoop french vanilla slimfast, 1tsp matcha, 1tsp drinking chocolate mix, and 1tsp Irish Creme instant cappuccino mix. I really wanted to add a thicker, icyier texture to it as well as a berry flavor by adding 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened raspberries, but I didn’t have any.

Decided to try koicha w/ this again, sifting this time. 1tsp/40ml water. MUCH better- not gritty or chalky at all. Although I’m not crazy about the fact that it requires sifting to be this good. One of the reasons I love matcha is the short time between “I want matcha” and “Mmmmatcha!”- but sifting adds 2 min. to the process! Which seems like a lot longer when you’re sifting.

1tsp in my tomato soup for lunch. Shocked at how light the matcha flavor is… you could probably add it w/o anyone suspecting anything- except for the odd brown color it creates. I’ve now had a total of 2tsp of matcha powder today… probably not a good idea since I need to go to bed early tonite so I can get up early tomorrow.

Decided to make my own orange matcha today. 1/2tsp matcha and 75ml orange juice.

Now I normally don’t like cold matcha, but this is very good! Smooth, orangy, w/ a slight matcha flavor. I just wish the matcha would be a bit stronger.

Note to self: Matcha Screwdrivers. I even think the green olive garnish I like in them would go well w/ the matcha.

I’m drinking this Koicha style not just for flavor today. It’s not unusual for me to wake up in a lot of back pain (it’s actually more unusual that I don’t), but instead of an intense ache that spreads over my entire back and down my arms today it came in the form of a single line of intense needle like jabbing pains along the back of my waist so I need lots of caffeine and L-theanine to deal w/ the pain.

Ok, I’m not good at distinguishing what a 1/2 of a scoop of matcha is, but I wanted to make Usucha… so? Problem solved. I made a double batch!=D There’s never such a thing as too much matcha, right? 3 scoops/5oz water. A bit bitter. Sweet. GREEN!=D

Ok, can someone explain why I did what I just did? I don’t like cold matcha. I don’t like milk in my matcha. And I don’t like slim fast. And yet… What did I do? I added 1tsp matcha to my french vanilla slim fast powder and 1 cup Smart Balance milk. (In my chawan of course) Yep. Tastes exactly like it should. Cold and matcha flavored slim fast. But… I do like it better than just adding cold milk (or even hot, I like that least). I still don’t get matcha lattes though.

In honor of today’s Steepster Select I had to make sure that I had my matcha before leaving for Prayer + Share this morning. I used my favorite ratio: 1 scoop/3oz water. Perfection.

I’m determined to figure out Koicha. So far I’ve tried 3 scoops and 3.75g (not the same thing even though wiki says it is) per 40ml of water. Today I tried 1tsp instead of using my matcha scoop. The result was a thick liquid that didn’t whisk well and was almost too bitter for my taste.

Decided to try Usucha with this. I’m not sure what 1/2 a chashaku scoop of match is (it calls for 1 1/2), so I went w/ the weight they list (even though it’s much more than 1 1/2 chashaku scoops) and added the ~75ml water (I had closer to 70ml). The result was an extremely thick bowla that foamed slightly with less sweetness and more bitterness and green-ness. Thank God it was smooth in texture and mouth feel and not chalky, but the bitterness was to the point of almost being too much for me. I’m hoping the extra caffeine will kick my headachey/spacey feeling.

After days of gorgeous weather I’m freezing in the house w/ a sweatshirt on. This is just want I need to warm up. Thicker than last time- 1 large scoop and 3oz of water. Very strong vegetal aroma, less sweet tasting as well… more of that vegetal wonderfulness that is matcha!

My matcha needs make me do questionable things… I’m in a new relationship which is long distance and that’s putting an even larger strain on my wallet. I’m so tight on money right now… I won’t even be purchasing my chai for a while. But… I needed my matcha so I did some research and found this- it’s only $15 (not including shipping)/100g. Now I know a lot of you must be thinking… that can’t be good. I even had my reservations (and even more so when I realized it wasn’t even in the data base), but I’m desperate.

The aroma of the bright green powder is quite strong. Of the matcha and matcha like products I’ve tried I think the aroma is closest to Den’s Tea’s powdered sencha.

2 large scoops in 16oz water as a appetiete suppressant waiting for dinner.

I need to mention that their directions were simply 1-2 teaspoons matcha and hot water (although the picture showed a chashaku- quite disappointing from a Japanese company.

Once the matcha and water kiss it reminds me of 52teas’ matchas. The color is darker and not a dingy olive, but the 2 instantly incorporate and the matcha begins to froth even before I whisk.

The flavor is very sweet- possibly the sweetest matcha I’ve had. It tastes green- not vegetal. It tastes like fresh cut grass would smell (sweet) and not like it might taste (bitter or astringent).

The mouth feel is thick, and rich, and creamy- also like 52teas… not like the watery experience I was fearing. All I could think of is when you wring out frozen spinach in a towel. I am SO glad my budget forced me to try this and would absolutely recommend this to a person on a tight budget. I could make a joke here, but I know Jason would get on my butt so I won’t lol.

??Edit: After doing a side by side color comparison in my chawan, I discovered that the mandarin is lightly brighter than the strawberry)

P.S. All their other matchas are named, but I wanted to make sure it was distinguished- that’s why I added the amount to the tea name in the database entry.

This is one of two free samples that I received in my order from Lupicia a couple of weeks ago… while rummaging through my samplings this afternoon, this one seemed to jump into my hand and beg me to brew it.

The aroma of the tea when I first opened the pouch was overwhelming – a vibrant smell of tropical fruit.

The sample came in a tea pyramid, and after seeing how much the leaf expanded, I wish I would have cut open the pyramid and infused the tea as a loose leaf. The infused leaves completely filled the pyramid to the point of looking overstuffed!

The flavor of this tea pales in comparison to the aroma of it. When I smelled how beautifully fragrant it was, I was expecting a very pronounced flavor, but, it really isn’t. The flavors are very soft. I can taste a subtle, melon-y kind of flavor to it, as well as a touch of citrus and maybe even a little coconut? Because the flavors are so soft it’s difficult to discern just what I’m tasting beyond the flavor of the bancha tea.

It’s not a bad tasting tea, it’s just a bit soft in flavor so it becomes difficult to know what I’m tasting beyond green tea. There is something there but I really wish it were stronger. It’s one that I would actually be interested in trying again, simply so that I could try to discern some of the flavor… kind of like a mystery that needs to be solved.

This has been growing on me. For one thing, the dry leaves are really pretty – having read up a bit on Darjeelings, I am no longer baffled by the green and silver tips and general range of oxidation visible. Sharp and flavorful and pretty smooth, drinkable plain when I don’t steep it too hot or too long. Sometimes chocolatey, but definitely has the muscatel thing. Bumping the rating on this because it is tasty, and drinkable plain, and yields at least two steeps.

Huh. My first thought up upon opening this was that the dry leaves smelled chocolatey. Like, really “did I spill Florence somewhere?” chocolate. The liqueur is amber, a light tawny orange, and smells… roasted at first, like a dark oolong, then very fruity (citrus, in particular) as the aroma spreads. Sipping, this tastes fruity and like it wants to be bitter – on the tip of my tongue – but doesn’t quite have the astringency to pull it off. Makes me glad I didn’t steep it any longer, or use more leaf. I did use a heaping half tsp of leaf (about 1.7g) for 4oz, which may have been too much, but I was curious to see how this would go through multiple infusions. There’s very little tea flavor to this first infusion, mostly the fruity and astringency. Rather what I imagine a tea made of grapefruit peel would be like :P

Second steep is smoother, but flavor descriptors still elude me. This tea is all sharp edges and shadows when I’m used to something with body, and color. I’ll keep trying, and see how long it lasts. Maybe milk or sugar would help?

Hm. 3rd infusion (~3 minutes) is the best, most harmonious, yet. More of a pale gold color, and still too seems too light to add milk to, but sweet and mild enough not to need sugar. This seems temperamental – even for a Darjeeling – but maybe worth getting to know.

This note is probably much too long for the tea. But you have to understand, I have been out of sencha for what feels like ages. I don’t know how much longer I can wait on my shincha pre-orders to get harvested and turn into actual orders, especially since the weather has virtually been begging me to have sencha. Thankfully, Lupicia to the rescue! This little teabag of joy came in the mail with their newsletter – a bright spot of green in an otherwise black and murky landscape.

Opening the packaging was delightful. The smell was so sweet! Ah! Even if the tea was horrid, just having such a delicious whiff made my sencha-less existence easier to bear. The sweet smell plus the tea being in tiny little dusty particles makes me think that this is a fukamushi. Which is awesome because I much prefer fuka- to asamushi. So not only do I get random sencha in my time of need, I get random fukamushi sencha in my time of need! Rejoice!

With much anticipation, I popped the teabag in a half-way preheated cup, poured in the water and did a little I’ve-got-sencha dance for 45 seconds, pulled out the teabag, gave it very gentle hug to stop the dripping and yay! Sencha!

Oh yes. Yes. Fukamushi. Oh. How I’ve missed you. Sweet, pungent, thick. Ahhh. Just give me a moment…

This is a nice, standard (though not really stand out) fukamushi – thick, strong and sweet. I could have dealt with it being a little thicker but that’s a personal taste thing… I sometimes enjoy my sencha the consistency of used motor oil. But you can do that with a fukamushi since they tend to lack astringent, just like this one – zero astringency or bitterness. Just delightful sweetness.

Okay, it’s probably not the absolute best sencha I’ve ever had but as a teabag, it totally rocks. And I’d even pick this up loose if there was nothing else that just screamed “BUY ME!” when meandering through the virtual aisle at Lupicia. It’s not really a special tea but rather a solid daily-type tea. And considering when it came, this was probably my most perfect cup of tea ever.

Though now that I have used my free teabag, I am once again sencha-less. So sad.

I tried this at the Lupicia store in San Jose. They prepared it with soybean milk.

More of a savory flavor, on the salty side. Made me think of green tea ice cream, but instead of creamy it was salty. Slightly bitter, too. Nice but I’m not sure I’d want to drink multiple cups of the stuff.

Ended up buying the strawberry matcha au lait instead.

This is a bit of a backlog – I had some of this tea yesterday afternoon. I kind of wish I hadn’t though – not that I didn’t enjoy it, it was fine. But, my taste buds being funky and out of whack, it just didn’t taste as good as I remember it… I didn’t get much of the more delicate notes of the chestnuts.

So, I will save what I have left of this tea for when I’m feeling better so that I can truly enjoy it!

Oh, this is lovely! The black tea is robust but not so much so that it overpowers the flavor of the roasted chestnuts. The flavor is nutty and a little sweet, toasty with just a hint of smoke and malt. Full-bodied and pungent. I am really enjoying this!

I am currently on my second infusion of these leaves. Both infusions have been very flavorful and delicious.