Neptune

Sipdown!! (151)

Thank you Kat_Maria for the opportunity to try this tea. I dropped the temperature a bit and this cup is definitely much better than the last. The artificial quality of the honey taste has subsided, leaving behind a nice honey sweetness. There is also a generic fruitiness to the tea. However, it is still nothing special and thus it is not too hard to see it go. I am grateful for the chance to try something new though.

Okay… This one is kind of a bummer :(

I will admit that I got it for the name. Neptune. Isn’t that an awesome name for a tea blend? I loved the description, too: “Rich flavor of honey-preserved fruits”. Well, I don’t find much flavor in it, especially not any “rich flavor”.

The leaf, with pieces of marigold, seems to be the same black tea that Lupicia uses for their lychee tea (keemun? maybe?). I steeped it for 3 minutes @ near boiling temperature. The brew I got turned out pretty dark. I didn’t get much complex aroma out of it. It just smelled like some milder kind of black tea.

When it was hotter it tasted a little bitter, and I could not make out any characteristic flavors. It kinda tasted like the lychee tea I mentioned, except without lychee ;) It’s just… boring. Believe me, folks, I tried to focus hard on the notes, any notes. There isn’t many of them. It’s still okay, nothing to yuck at, and I did finish my cup… but I expected FAR more from this tea.

I guess Lupicia cannot be awesome at every tea they make, right? I will keep trying this one, perhaps tweak steeping times and temperature (mostly to avoid bitterness that is of the unpleasant kind). Anyone could give me any advice on this? Would it be better with milk?

The fragrance of this tea is unbelievable. It smells of sweetness, honey, and a tantalizing hint of spice.

Unfortunately, I found when we brewed it, that it tasted much like generic black tea. There was a hint of honey flavor, but none of the super fragrance of the tea came through in the liquor. Even the fragrance of the tea only smelled slightly sweet.

We tried it plain and with sugar, and thought it made little difference.

This tea was given to me by a friend, and I keep trying it, hoping I’ll like it more. There’s a strange note that stands out and keeps me from loving this blend (I think it’s the honey). It’s okay, but I wouldn’t re-purchase it. I don’t normally add sweetner to my tea, but maybe that would help mask the honey taste.