When it comes to summer, watermelon and barley tea are a quintessential fruit and drink. There are few episodes of anime set in summer that doesn’t show the characters either enjoying a slice of fresh watermelon or a glass of cold barley tea. Combine the two, and Lupicia Watermelon Barley Tea is bound to be refreshing.

The tisane comes in a tea bag of barley scented with watermelon. The scent from the dry tea bag suggests strong nutty barley notes flavoured with a cloyingly sweet watermelon flavour. Watermelon would understandably be difficult to flavour a tea with a bold flavour like barley, given that the fruit is mostly water, so the candy-like watermelon smell of the dry tea bag is a welcome sign. The watermelon flavour was achieved using freeze dried fruit, a technique that concentrates flavours.

One tea bag is recommended to make 500 mL either as a cold infusion for 1-2 hours or a hot infusion for 2-3 minutes.

Infusing one tea bag in 800 mL of cold water in the fridge for 2 hours yields a golden liquor. Served chilled, the infusion reveals a refreshingly balanced flavour with fresh, mildly sweet watermelon notes in the head.  A nuttiness from the barley came through in the body, complementing the refreshing notes of the watermelon and suggesting the flavour of grilled and caramelised watermelon. The flavour of the barley recedes in the finish, leaving the refreshing watermelon notes lingering in the aftertaste. It is very much a summer beverage.

This Lupicia Watermelon Barley Tea contained 10 tea bags. It was sourced from Japan, packaged in Japan, and purchased in Kanazawa, Japan in 2015.