King of Fruits is a green tea durian fruit blend from Lupicia, a lovely online japanese tea seller.
DURIAN!! O_O You know, this evil fruit:
Durian smells funky. Like sweaty onions’ gym socks. Onions wear gym socks?
I’ve had durian a handful of times, but mostly in bubble/boba tea. I could probably convince my husband to buy one, but he doesn’t have a great sense of smell so he’ll be fine – but the durian smell will probably drive the rest of my house crazy. The taste is quite exotic and kind of an acquired taste.
When I saw Lupicia had this tea, it was on my MUST TRY IT NO MATTER WHAT list as it’s simply too cool sounding of a tea to pass up.
DRY LEAF: King of Fruits is a earthy dark green leaf that is tightly rolled, accented with yellow ribbons.
Very fragrant tea! There is a sweet durian smell.. without the strong funk making fresh durian banned in airports.
STEEPED: I steeped this tea as per instructions: 45 seconds with boiling water.
Strong fruity smell with a coppery gold coloured tea.
TASTE: They weren’t joking around with the durian flavoring! Strong fruity durian flavor up front, which is a naturally slightly sweet and custardy. The green tea base is savory vegetal, mellow green tea that adds depth. The vegetal is kind of oniony and The durian really plays well with the savory green base. The after taste is dripping with MOAR durian, sharp and very slight dryness. a 4/10 on the Dry-o-meter! King of Fruits is full flavored, in your face! Longer the steep, more the dryness comes out, so stick to shorter steeps. I like this tea better at like 190F.
I find King of Fruits is a really good travel tea – it holds up well in a tumbler and resteeps a couple times decently. The flavoring is strong, so it keeps well. It is also a great conversation piece when people ask you what you are drinking, as well as “What is that smell??”
COLD STEEPED: I kinda forgot I had this in a cold steeped, so it brewed for 24 hours in the fridge. The taste? DURIAN! Lots of slabs of durian flavor with a bit of a green bitter taste (probably from being too long in the fridge). The durian is much sweeter here and the tea is less savory. Very tasty! If you don’t like the “funkyness” of durian, try King of Fruits cold steeped.
TIP: The flavoring of this tea is strong, as well as durian being a stubborn fruit, so the taste/smell of durian will linger in your tea ware! Be sure to do a baking soda scrub your tea ware to eliminate smells, unless you want your next tea to have durian in it.
COMMENTS: Looking for a really exotic, unusual, yet fruit tea? King of Fruits is for you! This tea is an adventure and is worth trying! I like this tea for it uniqueness and full flavored taste! It makes a really great cold steep too!
My main complaint with this tea is that is comes only in 2 oz/ 50g size and it is on the pricey side for Lupicia. If they sold it in 1 oz sample sizes I think more curious people would be more likely to try it.
Every time I do a tea swap, I want to include this tea however I cannot as it will contaminate every tea in the package! I think I’d need to put it in a tin or vacuum seal it. My bag of this tea is clipped shut as well as having its own tin and still cannot be packaged with other teas as the tin smells like durian.
