Chestnut

I bought this when I was stocking up on White Christmas, mostly based on the reviews. When I opened the bag, I was immediately surprised by how sweet it smelled. I suppose I expected a nuttier profile based on what I read and the ingredients in the tea itself. My assumption was that the saccharine scent would wear off once it was brewed up. Not so much. This tastes like sugar to me with a warm, grain-like undertone. I tried a second steep with pretty much the same result, and puzzled over what it was this tea reminded me of. After a few more sips, it occurred to me: Lucky Charms, the breakfast cereal I occasionally indulged in as a kid. It’s like a spoonful of the marshmallows with that weird, cardboard-ish oat grain that’s been soaked in 2% milk. It isn’t bad, per se, but after that HIMYM-style glass shattering revelation, I can’t really bring myself to drink it. Fortunately, my sib really seems to enjoy it, so I’ll just pawn it off on her.

I went into this one blind and wow is it good. The ultimate rich and nutty treat. The green base is perfectly light and complements the buttery flavor really nicely. I won’t be reaching for this one every day but it would be excellent for a comforting treat in the winter.

I didn’t write it down, but if I were to guess, I think this sample was from Ost. It’s definitely one I got from the Xmas Cards swap.

A full nutty flavor with a sweet finish. Honestly I’ve never had much in the way of chestnuts. I tend to avoid water chestnuts in stir fry at any cost, but I think the idea would be regular or roasted chestnuts. At least those sound more appealing. I like it, the little white bit in the tea was weird, but I’m guessing that was a chestnut piece… I hope.

I’m still having problems reviewing teas. Apparently even when you delete a tasting note before it’s posted, the website thinks you posted it anyway. I hope I don’t have empty or half written tasting notes floating around.

Anyway, I really like this. I think I’ll have to add it to my list of teas to buy from Lupicia whenever I do buy teas from them. Is there sencha in this tea? I like that this has a balanced flavor. It kind of reminds me of Itoen teas, but with a more nutty flavor kind of like toasted sesame. It resteeps well.

I’ve been drinking this tea daily for the last two weeks. It’s absolutely delicious. The dry tea leaves smell cloyingly sweet. Once it’s brewed, it has a wonderful toasty and slightly sweet taste. The smell as it steeps is heavenly as well. I’m a new customer with this tea company and I already purchased more!

This is another Lupicia tea that came my way via the Great Canadian Traveling Teabox. I was a bit skeptical at the steeping directions as it seems like too long and hot a steep for a green tea – but somehow the tea comes out tasting fine. It has a delicious savory flavour with a toasted, nutty undertone and it’s a distinctly chestnut sort of nutty – rich and strong and distinctive.

Soo this tea definitely tastes like chestnut, but the green tea base is incredibly apparent in this tea. Half of the flavor in this is the green tea base.
And as many of you know, I’m not too big on green tea. :S
This one might take a while to grow on me. But I really do like the chestnut flavor in this one, just wish it were stronger! Maybe I should steep for shorter time next time…
I will mess around more with it.
Thanks for the generous sample, Stephanie! :D

YUM! I am really impressed with this tea!

It tastes like buttery sweet sencha, with caramelized sugar or butter toffee and nuts. SO GOOD! It tastes more like cookies than the two Lupicia teas I’ve tried that actually had the word cookie in the name :)

Thanks so much for sending me this sample, Cameron B.! Chestnut isn’t the kind of flavor I tend to go for in teas—it’s usually all about the fruits and florals for me—but the rave reviews piqued my attention. Plus, I do love roasted chestnuts. This sample comes at the perfect time, both because we’re getting into chestnut season and because I’ve just finalized my plans to go to LA for Thanksgiving! Century City Lupicia, here I come!

So, this tea. It doesn’t really taste like chestnut to me. It’s sweet, with maybe a bit of caramel, but there’s nothing as rich as chestnut here. This blend reminds me a little bit of Nina’s Japon, which I liked well enough but didn’t fall in love with. The sencha base is, predictably, somewhat grassy, and it comes through pretty strongly; as in Japon, it goes better with caramel-ish notes than I might’ve guessed. It’s not bad, by any means, but not what I’d hoped for either.

Lupicia fans: do you follow the official instructions to use boiling water with every tea, or do you steep their greens at a lower temperature? I turned my kettle off just before boiling, and I’m wondering if the high temperature was too much for this one. Fortunately I have enough for a second cup to test my hypothesis.