White Christmas

Oh, I wish I had included this in my recent order from Lupicia France! And I would have, if the description had been even minimally useful. grrr. On the French site this is called “Neige Blanche,” and they describe it only as “black tea inspired by baked sweets made with white chocolate and nuts for the festive season.” Nutty white chocolate did not sound terribly appealing to me.

I did get a teabag sample, though, which is how I can tell that it must be the same as the US version “White Christmas” described here, because I could taste the apricot (and because they use the same photo for the tea). How strange that neither site include that in the description! How strange and annoying.

Anyway, I love apricot, and this is yum, and I am contemplating if I should make another Lupicia order before they run out of the tin version, which is all they have left now, at the end of January. My last order was pretty spendy, though, and shipping is expensive, so maybe I should wait until next year. Or not. Or I should. Should I?

How do you say “bah humbug” in French?!

Another sample from Cameron B. :D

Took a nap, woke up and didn’t know the day, time of day/night. Haven’t done that in a long time hehe. The first sign I know when I’m hooked about something, I dream of it. For years, I played WoW (mage & priest), and I dreamt WoW all the time. I do that with all my hobbies. Well, I dreamt of opening a tea box and trying to decide which tea to try. I guess that means I’m officially hooked. ^^

Holy apricot batman! This reminded me of the Lupicia Cookie too but lots of apricot. I only wish I read the reviews beforehand.

“Next time, I think I’ll try this one with a slightly shorter steep. It becomes a little too bitter after 3 minutes because of the CTC leaves.” —Cameron B.

Little experience with CTC black tea, I steeped it at 3 minutes and it was pretty bitter. Overall, it was a pleasant experience. Apricot, butter, sweetness, nuts. It was astringent and bitter though. I learned something new in tea world about CTC black tea so I’ll know better next time. :)

I’m very thankful for after Christmas sales :D I like this tea, it’s very smooth and comforting. Taste and smell reminds me of cookies and there’s a backnote of fruityness.

Oh yum!
This doesn’t remind me of Christmas per se, but it was quite enjoyable.
The hazelnut, white chocolate and butter notes are prominent. Stone fruit though, ehhhh I think I could sense that in the aftertaste a bit, and maybe far in the distant background… but then I’ve noticed my apricot sensors aren’t very strong in general. I mean, unless it is the main focus of a tea, I tend to not taste it at all.
Also, I had this cuppa without any additions and found it quite sweet. Like one of those cookies with a heavy layer of chocolate/nutty spread on top. I do wish I had more! and that is saying something considering my recent preference for straight teas

I’m dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones I remember from Tahoe.

Recommended to me by the Oolong Owl. There is a nice scent of white chocolate and nuts. Perhaps hazelnut. The flavour is sweet, nutty, a little creamy, and reminds me of cookies. Has a good base tea too. Very enjoyable festive blend. Went well with the almond crescent cookies. Didn’t notice any apricot though.

Heureux Hiver!

I really enjoyed this tea, and I’m glad that I bought the Christmas sampler despite the name, because these teas would be good for any occasion. I think even young children would enjoy it with no complaints. The subtle hints of white chocolate and nut blended with the mild flavor of the tea makes for a soothing cup of tea. It is reminiscent of cookies, and the white chocolate is a nice alternative to vanilla.

This is one of the Lupicia holiday teas I have neglected to try. I’m sorry, lovely tea, I didn’t mean to forget you! It’s odd, because this was the one that sounded amazing to me when I was looking at their holiday teas. So you would think I would have tried this one first, but for some reason that wasn’t the case! Silly me. Anyway, this appears to be a mixture of a CTC black tea and a full-leaf black tea (Lupicia seems to like this combination, they use it in their Cookie tea and a few others). There are little white puffball things mixed in as well, though I have no idea what those are… Dry scent is delish, sweet and desserty with strong hazelnut and some apricot. I tried not to heap my teaspoon too much and shortened the steep by 30 seconds because I was worried about the CTC getting bitter.

The steeped tea has that same amazing hazelnut aroma. Yum, this is a good one. In fact, this is what I was hoping Cookie would be. The base tea is mellow and light. The overall flavor is very desserty, and a bit like a buttery cookie. I can definitely taste hazelnut here, as well as cream and just a bit of dried apricot. Overall, om nom nom! Why did I wait so long to try this?!

Sipdown (120)!

I am certainly not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, but you should all still be jealous of the pasta I just made and am very proud of! It’s “Miserable Tube” Tomato Alfredo with Red Onion and Red Pepper, and a maple cheddar “crust” on top. Yummy!

http://www.foodiggity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pasta-shapes-for-the-depressed.jpg A helpful image board for people who can’t name pasta shapes.

The Tea:

To finish this one off I made it in a timolino and brought it to work with me. To attempt to cut down on bitterness I steeped it for a slightly shorter amount of it. And, guess what!? It wasn’t bitter this time! Hoo-rah!

Instead it mostly had the flavour of sweet cream. Like, uh. Well, like Sweet Cream ice cream (which has a distinct flavour I’m struggling to describe) but without the ice cream part of thing. You know, sweet cream. And, that was totally from the white chocolate in the blend for sure.

Sadly, it seems to consequence of no bitterness is that I lose the “juice” from the apricot and instead can only taste muddled, lesser stonefruit flavour notes. And as a huge apricot fan, I’m not sure I’m ok with that trade off. I mean, I can sort of fill in the gaps in flavour because I know what it’s supposed to be, but that’s definitely NOT the same thing.

So, a bittersweet sipdown for sure.

This is soooooo delicious! Apricot and nuts for sure! I wish they had a year-round version of this at Lupicia….does anyone know if they do?? I didn’t get nearly enough of this at Christmas :( It tastes like the most mellow, nutty, apricot danishy-type of thing. I like it so so much.

Backlog from shortly after I picked up my teas from VariaTEA.

As mentioned previously, this came off to me kind of as a blend of their ‘Cookie’ tea and something else, although I haven’t quite identified what yet – in part because I have yet to brew up a non-astringent cup in spite of being quite careful to adhere to my 2 minute infusion. So, I’m not sure what I’m doing incorrectly, though I would guess that I’m overleafing a bit? It smells absolutely delicious though, so it’s been a letdown each time I take a drink from my cup :( Even my re-steeps were terribly astringent/bitter, and I tried cutting the tea with additional water to improve the flavour, but it just diluted it. Perhaps this is just a tea that requires milk/sweetener?