Cookie

Stuff has a tendency to add up and I don’t want to stand here in a few months with the realization I would need 8 full boxes to escape with even half my stuff. So I’m doing the responsible thing and am bringing two suitcases home with me – one full of stuff I can’t possibly need. If I start jonesing for Christmas ornaments in May, you need to just tell me off.

In light of this, and the fact that I’m trying out a new flight path from Rome and hence have no idea whether I even have fast track (although, to be fair, the FT at Fiumicino is a little overrated, and they’ve checked me for explosives twice in four months, so they obviously have it in for me) I clearly need to gather some strength. Hence, Cookie. Let me tell you, with a couple of almond biscotti on the site, it’s f*cking delicious.

I bought a new carry-on and I love it so much I gave it a name and slept with it.

Lupicia is convinced, convinced that I want a lot of individual sachets of Cookie sent directly to me, whenever convienant.
Well, they are not far wrong. Its a really nice blend, a buttery little cookie in a cup.
And, this morning, its just the right thing.

Good day Steepster…
I had kind of a rough morning, I was over at my boyfriend’s house in Berkeley and woke up with itchy hives again. Decided to go home and take some Benadryl and that seems to have helped the problem, though it made me so sleepy I didn’t wake up again until almost 11:30.

I decided to have some of this as my wake up call. This is actually a fairly decent breakfast tea and goes well with a slice of gluten free toast. This really does taste like someone crushed up a cookie and threw it in the tea. Very caramel, sweet type of flavor.

I know my immune system has been out of whack lately and I’ve been very prone to stress related illnesses. I think I’ll try to focus on green teas and decafs for the rest of the day.

Thanks Azzrian for a sample of this one, which I have apparently yet to try!

The dry leaf smells quite interesting – very rich, malty and sweet. It looked to me like this could be a CTC tea/blend, so I was very cautious with the steep time, although didn’t drop down my measurement of leaf. Brewed up, the tea smells much the same. It’s one of those intriguing ones where I’m definitely wondering why on earth I didn’t try this sooner!

Onto the tea! Well, there’s a bit of astringency/bitterness, so I am glad I was super cautious with the infusion! Behind that, however, is a familiar, delicious malty flavour that I’m having trouble placing. It does not taste like cookie; I see that Dylan mentions something about hazelnut, and I can definitely agree with that. There’s also some other flavour in there (like coconutty? But not.) that again is familiar yet unplaceable.

I have a feeling that this tea would be spectacular brewed stronger with a bit of milk and sugar… and luckily I have a couple cups’ worth left to try just this!

Overall, an intriguing and tasty tea that clearly requires a bit of caution with regards to infusion parameters, but I think it’s one I’d consider picking up when I eventually make a full-scale Lupicia order (a very distant eventually, says all the tea on my floor…)

Backlogging:

Cookie comes as a surprise. I was expecting something extremely sweet from this blend. I was pleasantly surprised that someone has blended a seemingly sweet tea without all the added sugars or sweeteners! Cookie, is a tea that has a lovely dark black base, the flavor of a cookie, and reminiscent of Danish Butter Cookies. It is not sugared down or cloying like many cookie blends. Now I am not saying I do not enjoy those sweet blends, I in fact quite enjoy them, but this is a different and very welcome spin on a cookie tea! The aroma is in fact very much of a caramel cookie, however I really do not pick out any caramel in the flavor. I do get a baked goodness though which is quite pleasing. However, adding a dab of sugar in the raw did evoke more of the caramel essence. I liked it with sugar very much. Then I decided I may as well take this full tilt, finished my cup, rinsed my cup, and poured a new one. This time I added milk as suggested by Lupicia Tea. It was nice with milk although I really did not note much of a change rather than a creamy aspect which was pleasing. The flavor however remained the same. My full tilt measure was adding sugar in the raw into the cup of Cookie and milk. I had struck gold. Granted Cookie by Lupicia is a very fine tea unto itself unadulterated and perhaps I am spoiled by my expectations of this tea being like all the others, sweetened. I imagine that it is my own immature palate wanting my cookie to be sweet and I will admit while I do love Danish Butter Cookies, they are often lacking in the sweet department for me. Unfortunately for me, I was totally out of any kind of cookie to dip in this tea and I know had I had any cookies I would have loved this tea much more straight. In fact I find it refreshing that a tea company made a blend that in fact did taste of the characteristics of a cookie without all the added sugars! Kudos to Lupicia for doing something unique and doing it quite well! I am sure there are many people who would love this blend even more than I. A lot of tea lovers do not care for sweetened teas yet may enjoy something as delectable as a cookie blend! Some of the flavors this tea evokes are: Buttery, Baked Flavors, Slightly Malty, Rich, as a matter of fact it even looks like a coffee with cream in the cup when milk is added, with a deep mouthfeel.
I really love the tins Lupicia teas come in, of course they are optional, you can pay slightly less without the tin. I will of course order my refills sans tin but I really think they are quite adorable resembling a silver hockey puck! I was surprised at the size of them when I got mine in the mail. I was expecting something much smaller.
I highly recommend trying this tea. I guarantee that you will not have another cookie quite like this in a tea or otherwise!

Backlogged… I had to make this twice because I knew I had to have done something wrong. The first time it turned out too strong and nothing like a cookie. So today I was more cautious about my measuring and steep time and it turned out great. I feel like this tastes more like what I imagined a cookie would taste like while it was baking in the oven. I think this is a great fall and winter tea. It is warm, cozy, toasty, rich, and bakery fresh if that’s possible. I am glad I bought it.

Another delightful tea courtesy of the quiet life!
Wow, they picked the correct name for this tea. It smells just like a caramel cookie – so of course I’m having this with milk and a touch of sugar (who can have cookies without milk?)

This tea is smooth, rich, and includes a hint of a crust-cookie-like taste that adds a bit of balance to all the sweet flavors present in this tea. Even though this tea appears to be mostly CTC, it does resteep decently (as long as you keep the first infusion to around 3 minutes). I can only have one rating of 100 for the dessert tea category, and Marco Polo will perhaps have that distinction forever, but this tea is a close second!

Sipdown!

Ya know, I liked this tea a lot more when I first got into loose leaf. Now, I’ve kinda lost interest. It definitely has a cookie taste to it, but I think I’ll skip restocking it so I can save room for other yummier tea!

Post breakfast tea! I could right poems about how delicious this tea is! Unfortunately its purpose was to motivate me to clean so I am off to do that…

Lady 0f Spaydes sent this to me as she was my secret santa! :) She is awesome!

Nothing sounds better than having dessert for breakfast! I kept going through my banana leaf sample box, which I had received from Golden Moon Tea a long time ago, and I decided upon this tea. There were bits of cookie in the black tea! Since I can only have one small cup of caffeinated beverage per day, this was it! My husband had the first steep so the strength was a little reduced for me. Mine was still delicious! The aroma was like freshly baked cookies! Perhaps there were some nuts in there! Yum! I love the sweetness to it. I definitely added some milk and brown sugar to it. This made it more delightful. Very good tea!

Looking at the rating, it seems I’ve tried this one before! But this is a great time. I may purchase this in the future! :)