Apricot Barley Tea

Thank you for the samples, Cameron B! I think I have one Lupicia sample remaining, as this is now a sipdown. I’m going to miss these barley teas. I really love having a different flavor profile choice at night, with that rich barley flavor with a hint of fruit. I was certainly tasting the apricot this time, as well as the scent of apricots drifting through the room, which for some reason took me a while to realize was the tea. I really like these Lupicia barleys — I love the various fruits paired with the earthy barley. I really need to find other tea shops who sell barley teas like these…. It’s great to see Lupicia’s USA shop up and running, but I see a ton of teas currently missing… including all the barley teas. If anyone has any barley and doesn’t like it, we can swap some teas?
2019 Sipdowns: 46

An unexpected gift from Mastress Alita :)

This is strange. I’ve had roasted barley tea before and don’t recall it being so similar to a weak coffee. The dry bag scent seems to carry more of the apricot than the liquor, where it blends ever so subtly with the roasted barley, lending it just a bit of brightness in flavor. I’ll be frank and say the smell and taste of this reminded me of my Yia-yia’s Folger’s coffee breath slurrrrp. It did bring back some memories of my early years. I enjoyed it enough but wouldn’t accommodate more. I could see some people really going for it, though.

Home – 9:30 PM

I have several pouches of these fruit-flavored barley teas from Lupicia. They’re a bit older now, but at the very least they’ll still be tasty plain barley teas.

I forgot how much I enjoy these teas, both hot and cold-brewed. This has a roasty flavor, but it’s not overpowering. There’s also a nice lingering sweet aftertaste. I can still taste a bit of apricot, and if I remember correctly, this one wasn’t very strong on the flavoring in the first place.

Yummy. I’ll have to try each of these cold-brewed as well to compare.

A Berry Frui-tea July! I was able to pick up several flavored mugicha from Lupicia during their last mottainai sale, and since the hot summer months is mugicha season in Japan, this seemed a great opportunity to try some of them. I already know I enjoy plain mugicha, but of the fruity flavors I grabbed during the sale (apricot, apple, plum, and lychee), I decided to start with apricot.

The teabags are slightly smaller than the Hida Mugicha style teabags I have, only making a half-quart, so I used two to cold steep a quart of mugicha overnight. I have to say, it does have a rather sweet apricot scent, but still has that roasted coffee aroma, as well.

The flavor is… interesting. I can still taste those deep roasted coffee notes, but there is a lighter fruity note to the tea. It’s interesting because they are flavors I wouldn’t really peg as going together, and I actually think in the case of mugicha, I prefer it plain. I don’t mind the sweetness the apricot notes bring to the cup, and it certainly isn’t bad… it just doesn’t really add anything, I suppose? The roasted barley is just such a strong flavor, and sort of has that coffee-like slightly bitter bite to it, that I guess the apricot feels out of place. I used to enjoy sugary, sweet flavored mocha coffees, and even so, this just seems an odd juxtaposition somehow. The result is something a bit bittersweet. I’ll still have no problems finishing this up this summer, and am still looking forward to trying the other flavors (maybe one of the others will work better?) but am fairly certain in the future I’ll just be sticking with plain mugicha.