102 Tasting Notes
This is a delicious blend of black tea with berry and vanilla flavorings. The description says there is also caramel, but I couldn’t detect that. It’s a nice, smooth black tea — no astringency, and not super-strong. The flavors are delicate, not “in your face” like some flavored teas, and there aren’t little bits of dried fruit and such in the tea.
This tea is kind of like Mariage Freres Marco Polo’s older, more reserved sister. The two teas are quite similar, but whereas Marco Polo is practically bursting with strawberry flavor, Paul et Virginie is content to let the flavors slowly build and achieve more of a balance with the black tea. Even so, I think I slightly prefer Marco Polo, because when I want a strawberry flavored black tea, I want the flavors to be bold. I’ll definitely enjoy the rest of this tea, though; it’s a real treat.
Preparation
I was skeptical at the idea of a powdered sencha, but this wasn’t bad at all. Now, it wasn’t great, either, but for what it is, it’s perfectly good.
The preparation is simple. You tear open the pouch and dump the contents into a 16.9 oz. bottle of (presumably cold — wouldn’t want to drink this warm, or even room temp) water and shake vigorously. The water turns a cloudy, murky shade of green. The taste is like a weakly brewed sencha over ice — mildly vegetal and grassy, slightly astringent — fairly decent for an iced, unsweetened green tea. It’s comparable in terms of flavor and quality to iced tea made from bagged green tea. I’ve certainly had worse. And I do like the idea that I’m ingesting the actual tea leaf when I make this.
The powder does tend to settle at the bottom of the bottle, but a repeat shaking blends it right back in.
Preparation
My love for this tea has not dissipated. Today I was making breakfast and brewing tea at the same time. I forgot I had a cup of Milk Oolong brewing, and wound up accidentally steeping it for 10 minutes. Cursing myself, I figured I’d have to dump the overbrewed liquor, but I took a sip just for the heck of it — and it was fine. More than fine, in fact — it tasted good. Maybe just a wee bit of astringency, but I added a pinch of sweetener and was rewarded with a delicious and flavorful cup! Who would have thought this would be a tea that is not fussy about brew times? A very pleasant discovery, indeed!
This is a delicious tea. The scent when you open the pouch is intoxicating. It smells like a bakery. The flavor is like a lightly spiced bread or coffee cake on top of black tea. Some flavored teas are just too sweet or artificial-tasting, but Brioche is different. It really brings to mind biting into a flaky pastry or croissant. The flavors are well balanced; this tea contains almonds and cinnamon, but neither of those flavors overpowers the rest.
I really like this tea and plan to keep it on hand as a low-calorie indulgence — a way to handle my cravings for croissants, cookies, baked goods and other things I need to avoid, if I don’t want to put on weight!
Preparation
I wasn’t wild about this. It smelled wonderful — like a mixture of black tea and tropical fruit. But when I drank it, there was something unpleasant about it. I felt like I was drinking fruit-scented soap or some type of cleansing product. I could still taste the black tea, which was perfectly good, but that unpleasant soapy note really put me off.
Preparation
Dry: This tea is a mixture of small and large leaf pieces. Much of these leaves are already so broken, they could easily fit into a tea bag. Leaf pieces range in color from dark green to pale yellow-green, and there is a vivid medium-green dust that almost looks matcha-like. The fragrance is rich, dense and kind of herbal.
Brewed: The liquor is a vivid shade of light green. Almost fluorescent. A little cloudy. On first sip, I am struck by the intense flavor. There are notes of lemon, a grassy note, and a bit of seaweed. Further sips reveal that herbal note I noticed when I opened the pouch, and a very creamy sencha flavor. Now I’m starting to understand what reviewers mean when they say a tea is “buttery.” I’m getting a bit of spinach, as well, but it’s a fresh, raw spinach, not a cooked one. This tea has a very fresh, herbal feeling to it; it’s not “roasty.” The aftertaste is a bit dry, but not bitter or astringent. I’m the person who adds sweetener to almost every tea, but I did not sweeten this; it did not need it, and adding sweetener would have compromised the complex flavor.
Overall impression: This tea is very vegetal and the flavors are strong and savory. It is neither sweet nor astringent. If you are into flavorful green teas that reveal new notes with each sip, you should give this a try. This is an excellent one.
