I finally was able to make my way to tea desire. Very much reminded me of Teavana or Davids tea.
The way Tea Desire lets you smell the teas, is they open the canister and then wave a fan over the tea towards you. I understand why they do this, so you are not sticking your face into the tea canister, but I found it very hard to get a sense of what the teas were like.
As most of you know, I like lychee teas. This one, although difficult to smell in store, did smell of lychee. I thought I would give it a try.
At home, my package of tea has barely any smell. It has been less than 24 hours since I purchased it in store. It smells mostly of black tea, possibly a Ceylon but unsure.
The tea tastes like a malty and somewhat yeasty black tea. It is moderately astringent. There is the slightest taste of floral lychee.
A little disappointed in the flavour. But I am going to play around with the parameters to see if I can get better flavour.
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if i can’t sniff it (real world as opposed to an online leap here) then i don’t buy it. the local places know me. they know i only ever inhale. at david’s teas i always ask them to swap out their sample bit in the top of the canister because it’s always stale. they’re used to me now, lol.
sorry this tea didn’t match up with the hype!
I know what you mean. I totally get the “lets try to keep contamination out of the tea” but if that is the case I would prefer them to have small sample jars you can smell instead of the big canisters that store the tea. I am finding of the tea desire teas I have tried so far, there is not much smell to them once they are removed from the canister. I wonder if it is the way they scent their teas. They are much more perfumey and it seems to dissipate quickly.
you may wind up sending me a picture of yourself glaring evil daggers, but have you tried mariage freres or damman freres? i have plenty of western favourites, and i know technically france is western as well, but the tea from those companies…… less western, more european? does that make ANY sense?
the samples i got cam in little baggies with twist ties, not ziplocked baggies….. and i see paintings and colour and memories i thought were gone or never knew i had.
that said, i asked my mom for cash to buy them for my birthday in november! they will be special occasion teas!!!
(ie: mucho deniro)
not that i have a problem paying for art…
=0P
I have had a chance to try marriage frères and damman frères, only through swaps though. And I agree, they are wonderful teas. I quite like Nina’s Paris as well.
i have not tried nina’s paris! any particular favourite you would recommend?
Mu favorites of Ninas are: eve, tigre blanc (which is an oolong, not a white tea), and ma passion. But I haven’t had one that I don’t like. Check my cupboard, I have lots of Nina’s, I can send you some samples if you like. Also if you contact Laurent from Nina’s, he will send you free samples.
The lychee black is one of the teas I had on my list to try the very first time I went into Tea Desire. Like you, I absolutely love lychees but I opted against buying this one because it was incredibly hard to smell anything but the black tea base when they fanned the tea (especially compared to some of the other teas I did buy) and the only lychee I could smell was very perfumy and artificial smelling – nothing like any lychee I’ve ever tried irl.
Roswell – I agree. This isn’t a bad tea but there are certainly better ones out there. Harney’s makes a really good lychee tea in my opinion.
I really want to try Butiki’s Lychee Oolong – it’s definitely on my list of stuff that (eventually) I need to order from there. One of the teas I sent you from Tea Desire (Asia Cocktail) has lychee in it and it’s not too bad, but I find the taste of mango in it much stronger in comparison.
@Roswell Strange…. the best lychee on THE PLANET is stacy lim’s (butiki). i keep it as a staple in my house. for me it makes the world allright after i’ve had a terrible day and a great day even better. i did a rave review of it…. i know i put it here somewhere…. lol.
thanks for the heads up about laurent! all of my birthday money will be spent vicariously in france! i will inquire with him about samples!
I ordered the lychee oolong from Butiki, and now I’m even more excited about it. =)
all the talk about it has me sitting beside a steaming mug. it’s that powerfully suggestive!
if i can’t sniff it (real world as opposed to an online leap here) then i don’t buy it. the local places know me. they know i only ever inhale. at david’s teas i always ask them to swap out their sample bit in the top of the canister because it’s always stale. they’re used to me now, lol.
sorry this tea didn’t match up with the hype!
I know what you mean. I totally get the “lets try to keep contamination out of the tea” but if that is the case I would prefer them to have small sample jars you can smell instead of the big canisters that store the tea. I am finding of the tea desire teas I have tried so far, there is not much smell to them once they are removed from the canister. I wonder if it is the way they scent their teas. They are much more perfumey and it seems to dissipate quickly.
you may wind up sending me a picture of yourself glaring evil daggers, but have you tried mariage freres or damman freres? i have plenty of western favourites, and i know technically france is western as well, but the tea from those companies…… less western, more european? does that make ANY sense?
the samples i got cam in little baggies with twist ties, not ziplocked baggies….. and i see paintings and colour and memories i thought were gone or never knew i had.
that said, i asked my mom for cash to buy them for my birthday in november! they will be special occasion teas!!!
(ie: mucho deniro)
not that i have a problem paying for art…
=0P
I have had a chance to try marriage frères and damman frères, only through swaps though. And I agree, they are wonderful teas. I quite like Nina’s Paris as well.
i have not tried nina’s paris! any particular favourite you would recommend?
Mu favorites of Ninas are: eve, tigre blanc (which is an oolong, not a white tea), and ma passion. But I haven’t had one that I don’t like. Check my cupboard, I have lots of Nina’s, I can send you some samples if you like. Also if you contact Laurent from Nina’s, he will send you free samples.
The lychee black is one of the teas I had on my list to try the very first time I went into Tea Desire. Like you, I absolutely love lychees but I opted against buying this one because it was incredibly hard to smell anything but the black tea base when they fanned the tea (especially compared to some of the other teas I did buy) and the only lychee I could smell was very perfumy and artificial smelling – nothing like any lychee I’ve ever tried irl.
Roswell – I agree. This isn’t a bad tea but there are certainly better ones out there. Harney’s makes a really good lychee tea in my opinion.
I really want to try Butiki’s Lychee Oolong – it’s definitely on my list of stuff that (eventually) I need to order from there. One of the teas I sent you from Tea Desire (Asia Cocktail) has lychee in it and it’s not too bad, but I find the taste of mango in it much stronger in comparison.
@Roswell Strange…. the best lychee on THE PLANET is stacy lim’s (butiki). i keep it as a staple in my house. for me it makes the world allright after i’ve had a terrible day and a great day even better. i did a rave review of it…. i know i put it here somewhere…. lol.
thanks for the heads up about laurent! all of my birthday money will be spent vicariously in france! i will inquire with him about samples!
I ordered the lychee oolong from Butiki, and now I’m even more excited about it. =)
all the talk about it has me sitting beside a steaming mug. it’s that powerfully suggestive!