Jasmin Mandarin Special Grade

I love jasmine; in my garden, in my perfume, in desserts and of course in tea.

That being said, it’s a no-brainer that Lupicia’s Jasmin Mandarin Special Grade would be up my alley. The dry fragrance is strong, so if you love the scent of jasmine, you will enjoy it. If not, no worries, it mellows out when steeped.

I recommend a light steeping if you’re using a tea sachet like I did. It can get astringent relatively quickly, but the flavor is beautiful

Will consider purchasing this one once there’s room in my tea cabinet^_^

Hotel – 5:30 AM

So, I’m in France. We flew overnight from Atlanta to Paris, and then from Paris to Lyon. Then we rented a car and drove from Lyon to Grenoble, where the company we work for has its headquarters. Needless to say, I’m exhausted. And, of course, awake at this ungodly hour because of the time difference throwing off my sleep schedule. I’m sure I’ll be sleeping normally just in time to head back to the States and do it all over again in a few days. XD

At least every hotel in France has an electric kettle! Or at least, that’s been my experience. I brought my Kusmi Four Red Fruits (one of the only teas I have in sachet form) and a buffet of individually-wrapped sachets that I was keeping in my work desk drawer. It’s mostly Lupicia teas, with some Harney & Sons in there – all free samples from past orders.

I definitely mistreated this poor little sachet. Since it’s not a variable temperature kettle, I just waited a few minutes after boiling, so who knows what the actual water temperature was. And then, after adding the water, I forgot about it for several minutes… Oops…

Luckily, it seems to have come through that rather well, with only a little bitterness present. The jasmine is quite strong here, so I can’t really taste the green tea much, if at all. But it’s not overly perfumey – it definitely tastes like jasmine flowers as opposed to flavoring. It’s very relaxing, which is what I need right now.

I don’t personally feel the need to stock a plain jasmine green tea in my cupboard, as it’s not something I reach for often. Plus I really love the jasmine-spearmint combination of Bird & Blend’s Nearly Nirvana.

I was in the mood for a cup of green tea with my lunch, and I picked up a single teabag of this from Ost’s cupboard sale, so thank you Ost! This is exactly the sort of thing I want to sample first, because I actually really don’t like jasmine; typically it is always scented way too strongly for my migraine-sensitive head to handle, giving the tea a “perfumey” feel that I just can’t handle. Unless the tea has a very delicate touch of jasmine, or is blended with other flavors and scents just right, I just can’t take it, so I always avoid it in blends unless I can get a tiny sample first. Thus far I’ve only ever found one blend that hit my sweet spot just right, Bird & Blend’s Jasmine Poached Pears, but they don’t make it anymore… and the last time they blended that one, they were still Bluebird Tea Co.

I was wondering if the mandarin in this would be enough to balance out the jasmine, but sniffing the brewed cup… yaaaaaa, I’m smelling way too much jasmine. I don’t think this is going to be a tea for me, I’m afraid. The flavor is fairly pleasant (it’s never been the taste I’ve had a problem with, just the overwhelming feel that I’m inhaling grandma perfume because my head is so sensitive to strong aromas), with the strong floral flavor having a slight orange citrus tanginess toward the end of the sip. An added plus is the mandarin isn’t coming off with that extremely artificial taste like most mandarin teas I’ve tried, perhaps because the dominant flavor is the strong, sweet jasmine flavor. The base has a nice warm hay note and there is a green bean/vegetal aftertaste on the tongue, after some of the floral sweetness has died down a bit. There is no bitterness or astringency.

It’s a nice tea, and easier for me to drink than several jasmine teas I’ve tried in the past; if another sampler teabag showed up my way, I’d be able to drink it. But it’s still a little too aromatic that I don’t think I’d ever add it to my collection.

This is a very good Jasmine tea; fuller body without getting bitter and the jasmine doesn’t overtake the tea. I steeped it for about 2-3 minutes and it tastes very good; steeping it longer might make a bit too strong. Lupicia recommends 1.5-2 minutes.

I knew I was going to like this the minute I opened the package and the jasmine wafted out. Not an approximation of jasmine. It smelled like walking through a bower of blooming jasmine vines.

The aroma is divine — it’s not overpowering nor is it too subtle. It’s pretty much right in the sweet spot. The tea is just the pale side of a medium yellow and clear.

The flavor is pretty much indescribable. The jasmine flavor is juicy but not perfumy, and it’s pretty much throughly integrated with the tea base to the point where they are one. The tea isn’t the main event here, but it is not missing either. There’s just enough to keep the tea from crossing the line into mouthful of flowers territory.

It didn’t occur to me that the name could be confusing — apparently the “mandarin” confused some folks into thinking this might have orange or some other fruit flavor as well. But the ingredients list no fruit. I took it to mean Mandarin as in elite class rather than fruit.

If it means that, it deserves the name. This is a wonderful tea. I’m trying to play devil’s advocate with myself and ask myself whether I would be enjoying it so much if I hadn’t had a jasmine in so long. Jasmine green teas are among my very favorites, pretty much my guilty pleasure.

So far my answer is — who cares?

Jasmine is always a good option. And this is a very fragrant/potent jasmine.

So, clearly I was going to like this.

The base is sweet, but fickle. So definitely steep low and short.

Dirty Secret Time:

I initially thought the Mandarin part of this tea was going to be a sweet orange flavor (maybe orange blossom) mingling with the jasmine. I might be the slightest bit sad that I was very very wrong.

This was not bad – a delicate tea with fragrant jasmine which had just the taste of spring!! But I want to point out that the jasmine flavour was mostly gone after the first brew, and by the third brew it was totally gone… which suggests that the the scenting process might not be long enough.

My quest to drink more Green Tea continues.
This is nice! Turns out I quite like a Jasmin green tea. Its softly floral and just the littlest bit savory. Yum.
I really like Lupicia. I’ve found that I enjoy just about all of their blends.

Perhaps I did something wrong when brewing (although I did it for 2 min. at 185 F like the other Lupicia greens) but this is not too spectacular. It tastes like an average jasmine tea, and it is dangerously close to the unpleasant kind of bitter that makes my throat dry up.

I cannot find any redeeming or unique qualities in it. It is just okay.