Okay. So FINALLY I’m getting around to writing tasting notes for those last tricky teas in my cupboard. This is one of very few bagged teas I own. I got it on sale when I did my big Lupicia run in Hawaii; I’m generally a little cautious with flavoured roasty teas, mostly because they’re confusing to my palate, but this one was so cheap it would just have been silly not to try it.
Plus, I really love apricots. The best thing about the scent of this tea is that smelling it, I get instant apricot mouthfeel. It’s uncanny. Lupicia are so spot-on in their flavourings, and this is no exception.
The reason I label this tea tricky, is that I’ve used it as one of my travel teas. Every sip of this puts me at an airport or on a flight. The first time I drank it, I was sitting on the floor at Heathrow, waiting to catch a flight. This was the last time ever I traveled without my thermos, because Starbucks had the nerve to charge for hot water. Pff! The insolence!
Either way, I really like this tea. It instantly calms me, which – again, I know I wrote about this in one of my tasting notes yesterday – seems unfair to add to a note, because it only reflects the fact that I’ve conditioned myself to perceiving this as a post-luggage hauling, post-security check, post-travel chaos treat; something I reward myself with when all I can do is placidly wait around for someone to make a boarding call or land a plane.
But either way, the body of this still has a good roastiness, and a nice, juicy, entirely authentic apricot.
And there’s just enough of it left for my next trip.
[Purchased at Lupicia in Honolulu, December 2012.]
Boiling, 1 min 30