Fauchon

This is not a tea I would have normally gone after but a friend bought a tin the other day at TJ Maxx because she loves thyme. I told her that I had heard that the thyme was super strong, but she was not to be swayed. She stopped by this morning and said she didn’t think the thyme was too strong and gave me a sample to try. So I am taking a break from my short list of sipdown teas to have this one. It certainly smells strongly of thyme!

I associate thyme with savory things like the chicken pot pie I made recently, so it’s a bit odd here. But I can definitely smell the sweet juiciness of the peaches under the thyme. I agree that this is weird, and for me, who is not totally in love with thyme, I am going to say “not bad” instead of “good”, haha. I agree that as it cools it gets peachier and the thyme cools down a bit, but it’s a bit too “herby” for me. This is definitely an “if you love thyme…” type of tea!

I’ve made this one a couple times now but held off on my review as I forgot and oversteeped it once which was hardly the fault of the tea. My first comment on this (picked up from Winners) is that the tin is AWESOME. It is a lovely oval with an inner and outer lid – the tin is definitely going ot be reused after it is drained of it’s glory.

The tea itself is quite nice. It is flavoured, but delicately and tastes very natural and authentic. It comes off as a lightly sweet black tea with some peach/apricot notes and the lightest hint of orange at the end. I actually would like a bit more orange in the mix, but I can understand why it isn’t stronger. I didn’t notice any rose but it did hold up well to a second steeping with similar (though muted) flavours.

It’s a nice tea that I can definitely enjoy drinking but not pine for when it is gone. I am glad to have tried one of the “fancy French teas” though. I was feeling left out. :)

Then had this one for afternoon tea before heading out to do errands and stuff. This was delicious too! At the risk of painting too broad a brushstroke my first impression of Fauchon is that it reminds me of what Kusmi teas seem to be trying to do, but done right—where there’s a uniform quality to how the flavors and scents blend with the tea base, it’s subtle and light in taste yet perfume-y, evocative more than substantial, in a specific French sort of way I can’t describe well. Honestly, with the Kusmis I’ve tried so far the connection between the fragrance and the base, that thin/weak, usually-always-tastes-the-same,-light-and-perfumed thing the tea itself has going on, doesn’t do much for me even as I can see what it’s going for. So far, Fauchon feels like it aims for similar but works in a way the Kusmis haven’t for me. Lovely. Husband loved this one too, kept putting his nose to the cup between sips. Really pleased this out-of-nowhere foray into a company I didn’t know about has been positive, not at all disappointing so far.

Dear me this tea! I love Steepster so much—I jumped on the Fauchon sale mentioned in the “Misc Sales” thread in an attempt to assuage my Dammann Freres/Frenchy perfumed tea craving. Thinking about it, it’s sorts of nuts how reasonable the teas came out to be—on par with a lot of what I think of as fair-to-midling brands right here (about $3/oz). So that’s awesome. I couldn’t help but internally squee when I opened the package—the tins are so fancy with their indented internal lid chamber and little gold pull. And the perfume. Oh my. Heady, sweet, floral, and sexy. Wonderful. I definitely smell raspberry macaron in the dry leaf.

Steeped, it’s less apparent, but the smell continues to be dreamy. Unsurprisingly the taste is not as crazy as the aroma—how could it be?—but it’s a nice tea that does evoke macarons to me, and raspberry flavoring. I am so not a girly person but ohhh I love the way this smells. My friends wanna do our very first ladylike tea party next weekend (I am SO EXCITED vknlafbvasjdln), and this would be excellent to bring (the hostess loves girly Frenchy gourmet perfumed things; before this arrived I was going to bring my coveted Butiki Champagne and Rose Cream or Rose Violet Calendula Oolong for her sake). Funny part is my husband’s bandmates wanna join in so I’m picturing guys in black gothy metal or horror t-shirts sipping from dainty cups, ha. Friend’s husband promised to make a “vat of chai” for them, so there’s that.

Next time I might try this at a slightly lower temp a la Kusmis. We’ll see. It’s still a lovely cuppa. I could be in the throes of new excitement but my initial impression is I like this more than the Mariage Freres flavored blends I got earlier this year (and these were a heck of a lot more affordable!). Teas like this are always a bittersweet moment for me—when I love them it’s with the knowledge I likely won’t ever be able to restock, alas.

Au revoir, tea! We had a good run.

Possibly too long, but shh. We won’t speak of that.

Still a delicious tea I’m super happy to have had. Would get again.

Yum.

Sadly, though, this tea is almost gone.

I had this after the Chinese black tea today, and I must say… its texture is lacking. It’s so thin in comparison!

However, the flavour is lovely as usual. And I’m sure I could supplement the texture by overleafing somewhat or steeping longer. But I didn’t.

I still really like this tea, with its orange and apricot flavours. However, I think Naissance is better. It’s just… more. Fancier. Dessertier. Other adjectives that don’t really exist-ier as well.

Apricots and cream. So delicious.

I keep forgetting about these teas because the tins don’t really fit in my main cupboard (tins take up a lot of room!). But I was looking for something this morning and found this and decided to try it. So perfect. I’ve already had a coffee from one of those Vietnamese drip-through coffee makers. And now this creamy fruity deliciousness.

Yum. :)

I can’t really taste it, but I can smell it! Or at least, that’s the excuse I’m using for making some of this tea.

I also cleaned out the Zojirushi water heater and set it up tonight. Too bad its only temperatures are 208F and 140F. I don’t know what I’d steep at 140F! The nicest thing is it has a timer, so I can set it for 6 hours and have hot water all evening with minimal effort. If I ate instant soups, this would be pretty much perfect.

So. This tea steeped at 208F for 2.5 minutes… goes a bit astringent/overdone. It’s better at 195F for 3 minutes, which is my standard for black teas these days. Still, it smells delightful. :) And that’s mostly why I’m drinking it, so I can’t really complain.

Mmm, tea. I hadn’t had this one in a while, and decided to pull the tin out so it was front-and-centre for this week.

Delicious. Nice and fruity. Not too floral, even considering the amount of rose petals in it.

Good with milk. :)

Oh wow! I don’t think I’ve had this one with cream before. It’s so good this way! Apricot and orange are NOT a flavour combo I thought I’d fall for, but I did.

Still, I think the 100g tin will be enough. Fauchon teas are expensive even in Europe, I think mostly for the seriously lovely tins. (I’m still looking at Madeleine de Miel, just because I’ve never seen these flavours before, and… honey tea! <3 http://www.fauchon.com/en/the-madeleine-au-miel.html)

Today I have decided to have teas I really like, even if I can’t completely taste them.

My BFF has gone grocery shopping for me (club soda, OJ, cat food) and is getting me breakfast (spicy Vietnamese beef stew with rice noodles).

I can breathe through my nose.

Things are looking up.

Tea, your texture is amazing. I can tell you taste like delicious things, even if I can’t really taste you. You’re sort of hinting at a bake shop today, which is interesting. I’m guessing that’s the black tea and honey commingling and making something delicious.

Mmm.

I steeped it up and immediately batted it off the pedestal it had placed itself on with the addition of a spoon of sugar and a lot of milk.

You see, I’ve had a bad week and tea with milk and sugar is comfort. I’m trying to give love to all my cupboard, so I’m not just having breakfast teas… I’m having ALL the teas.

This one is delicious any way I have it. I love the citrus and apricot flavours together. The base is nice and strong, but not “in your face”. So glad I found this tea.

So far I really like this one. Apricot, oranges, good with a little honey. I can see this being an excellent tea latte as well.

Win! Glad I accidentally ended up with this one instead of Après-midi a Paris. :)

Cold steeped this last night with a tiny bit of honey.

So so good. Yes, I will drink ALL this tea and then look around for more.

I didn’t have a chance to drink it at work, so I’m chugging it right now so I can move on to something else. :)

(2 tsp in my DavidsTea steeper, a tiny bit of honey, overnight. It doesn’t colour a lot, but the flavour certainly transfers!)

This is SO GOOD iced.

I made the tea this morning(ish) by using 1.5 tsp tea and 1 cup 195F water and about 1 tsp honey. Steeped 5 min, then poured it over ice in a cold drink container. I think it’s 600ml. I topped it up with cold filtered water.

SO GOOD. Really. Peach and honey to start, with a lingering nice herbal taste of thyme and honey. A little dry feeling from the tea, very very refreshing. I can see me going through this super fast in the summer.

So… this is weird. Weird but good? Good but weird? Something like that.

The thyme is so strong. Dry, the smell of the peaches come through, but after steeping I mostly get thyme. I added 1/4 tsp sugar to try to bring out some sweetness of the fruit, but I’m not so sure it’s working.

As it cools, the peach comes out a bit. I can see this being an amazing iced tea in the summer. I’ll have to try cold steeping it soon-ish, even though it’s now the cold and rainy season here. :)

(2 tsp in ~15 oz)

The flavouring in this tea is like a cross between Italian Torrone and Turkish Delight. I quite like it, but I find that if you want the flavouring to pop brew it for less than the recommended four or 5 minutes. I can definitely taste the marzipan which blends well with a slightly fruity, slightly bitter rose and Jasmine. For those who hate floral teas this is not overly floral, it’s more candy like. The almond flavour is part marzipan, part nougat and part cake ( if you’ve had a cake baked with almond flour). It is not overly sweet, which is nice as I prefer to be able to sweeten a tea to my own tastes. The Tea is quite pretty with a scattering of rose buds, jasmine pieces and sliced almonds. The base is a chinese black but it brews up to that thick sort of consistency that assams often have.

The tea brews up to a dark amber and smells of a rich white cake. The base tea underneath brews up to a thick, slightly tannic and malty fruity tea. It adds a slightly bready texture to the tea and would handle milk or cream well. I find that if allowed to brew too long the base overtakes the flavouring of the tea.

The tea re-steeps nicely. The more I sip this tea it reminds me of cake, which is nice and fitting since it’s my ‘jour de naissance’.

I drank the whole mug before I got to writing this, which is a bit of a shame because I tend to forget quite quickly what’s happening with my first impressions of a tea… while there’s a zoo going on around me. You know the drill, a teenager who wants to DO something, a 5-year-old that spilled the liquid chocolate popsicle mix all over the kitchen, a client emergency, and a phlegmy cold. Yep, that’s my Sunday.

The tin for this tea was ingenious, and offered a little cardboard hello as I opened it, basically saying it’s packaged this way to retain the flavors. Neat! I had to slide the top off sideways, then lift a sealed jewelbox -like door to get to the tea, which was filled to the brim. The scent of raspberries wafted up to me, and a touch of… cake?

Steeped, this still smells mostly of raspberries with something else a bit floral in the background. My first taste threw me off, as there was little raspberry. More of a… cakey, minty floral something or other. Intrigued, I drank more, and it evolved. Raspberries did come into the mix, and much more so once sweetened with Truvia. I can taste the rose in there, and the aftertaste is definitely dry raspberries, with maybe, mint? Cooling, dry.

I like this a lot, even though I’m struggling to describe it well. Surprised me, as I was expecting more of a birthday cake kind of tea, like DAVID`s maybe, and this is so much more complex and intriguing.

Felt like this was a long time to steep a black, so I may try for 3-4 minutes next time.

Why do I bother with any other chocolate tea when I have this?

Had this the other night – I forget which. Tasted less amazing than it has in the past… which is weird because I really thought this was one of those teas I couldn’t mess up. I’m thinking my tastebuds were off.

1.5 tsp in 12oz.

Amazing! Must steep at a lower temperature from now on in. It takes an amazing tea and makes it truly special. Now I get chocolate first, then orange, and all of it delicious.

Tea #3 of indulging myself. Still surprised at how cocoa-like this is.

This is a very different experience from the last time I drank this, and I’m puzzled as to why. Still great, still lovely with lots of depth, however it’s lacking in flavor.

Am I getting sick? Is my general poopiness bringing my tastebuds down? Hm. Weird. Going to add some Truvia and enjoy the liter I brewed.