Nina's Paris

Thanks to Nina’s for the sample! This has a lovely peach aroma. The peach flavor is present, but not overwhelming. The tea has a light sweetness, but with a slightly bitter finish. I think this would make an excellent iced tea.

Thank you Laurent from Nina’s for this free sample. It is so kind when a tea company sends out samples to try. Nice variety! This is nice medium body black with some lovely fruity flavors. Feels fresh and, hum… good. The fruit is not overwhelming like some flavored teas. I was worried that there might be hibiscus in there (red teas often try to hide hibiscus) but no worries. Not overly sweet like a dessert tea but it would probably go well with a fruity dessert. I think it might be good cold brewed.

Thank you Laurent for this sample! This unfortunately isn’t the Earl Grey for me. I love a lot of bergamot and I found this tea was black tea with hint of bergamot.. Out of curiosity I tasted it hot and then let it cool down and tried it iced. Not bad either way but not a full blown Earl Grey.

Why are the only people who’ve had this tea ones who don’t like rooibos?

I picked this for one of my samples because I like orange flavour in teas, especially in the red bush blends. It has prominent citrus scent (which is really pretty nice). The flavour is a nice blend of orange and vanilla, but more on the orange side. Having this with some orange cranberry bread was really good.

Since it’s nearly summer, I will have to try a cup iced.

I went ahead and ordered a little tin of this tea because I realized how much I love having a creamy strawberry rooibos on hand. This blend in particular has a strong rooibos note, but what I love is the bright strawberry that comes out every once and a while. There could be more cream flavor, but I’m enjoying the strawberry and rooibos pairing. I have to stress, once again, that those who aren’t fond of rooibos stay away from this one.

This tea sounded like a great choice from Nina’s Paris. It has rooibos, strawberries and cream & is a part of their fun star sign collection. Even though I’m a Sagittarius, I felt like I would enjoy this blend much more than that one.. so Taurus, don’t let me down!
The scent of this tea reminded me of a dollhouse… and before you think I’m crazy, understand that I mean that it smells like craft wood and strawberry scented dolls. (Well, no.. that doesn’t make me sound any less crazy now that I think about it)

Sipping… I taste a rather even balance between the rooibos and the strawberry. The strawberry is interesting because it’s not artificial strawberry, but it’s also not an obvious natural strawberry. It’s a bit of a generalized sweetness.. more like a candy? Maybe it’s like a very faint strawberry bubble gum? I rather like this blend and appreciate it more as it cools because it becomes more creamy. I think that I would also order this tea in the future as it’s very unique and celebrates the rooibos flavor with soft strawberries. Thank you so much, Laurent for sharing this sample with me!

Thank you so much Laurent and Sophie for so graciously sending me samples from Nina’s Paris.

I’ve read such glowing reviews, so I was really excited to get into these!

This cup has definite grapefruit and orange rind components, though neither veers into bitterness or is too bold. There’s almost a spicy peppery element to the cup that I really enjoyed as well. Despite being bright flavors, the overall vibe I get from this is far more mellow, and more for a quiet summer’s night or something — it’s a nice change from a lot of citrus teas out there.

Overall, I’m really thrilled with my first Nina’s sample and really look forward to the other two!

It’s humid and warm, and I’m not quite ready for that (actually, I’m never ready for that, but…..). This weather has pushed me towards flavoured oolongs the past few days, though, and that’s made my tea cup quite happy.
This morning, I decided to try the Tigre Blanc from Nina’s Paris that Laurent so kindly sent. THANK YOU, Laurent!
My daughter Lily enjoys reading manga out loud to me, so while she was reading Yotsuba (I love Yotsuba….), I sipped this lovely tea…. The flavour reminds me of peach hard candy, like the Jolly Rancher’s I’d pick out of the multiflavour packs as a kid, often not leaving any for the next person. The brightness of the tangerine note is really nice, with no bitterness or strange flavours.
I really liked this oolong, with its forward peach notes.

Pu Erh? really? I would have not associated it as such. My previous experiences with puerh had most been kinda fishy- so that’s still what I associate puerh teas with.

This was nice, and not too deep. It was fruity and sweet, but not overbearing. I feel quite horrid at describing things at the moment. But mostly it was good. I like it.

I’m always worried about teas when they have mixed bases. I worry that I’ll end up ruining the cup somehow. It’s not so much the tea itself, but more of the potential mistakes that I could make. Luckily, I didn’t ruin this cup! It’s very sweet, with soft notes of toasted rice. It reminds me a little bit of the marshmallow treat genmaicha blend, only this one is much smoother, but lacks that nice creamy note. I pick up more on the green tea than the black, but I feel like the black comes in to add a little bit of astringency. Oh no…. where’s the tea? I seem to have finished this cup a little too quickly. I hate when that happens.. You’re enjoying a tea and then poof! You’ve hit the bottom of the mug. Well, I suppose that means that it’s a tasty tea! I would buy this in the future. Big thank you to Laurent for a sample of this tea!

Finished of the rest of this sample yesterday, iced and resteeped once, with a cup of cloud mist green tea as well, just to stretch the cup. I’m definitely sad to see this one go. I’m going on a cruise next week with my family, and we ship off from Miami, so I’m going to see if I can convince my dad to drive across the city to go to a tea shop either before leaving or after getting back. Here’s hoping!

Oh wow, this is good. Opening up the sample bag, the first thing I noticed was the sweet berry smell. I just wanted to smell it forever, it’s so intoxicating. Even after steeping, the smell is still so strong and delectable. I nearly burnt my tongue on the first sip because I was to excited to blow on it or let it cool a little. So yum, I literally had to force myself to savor it instead of downing it instantly. I must try this iced, I’m not a “sweet iced tea”(like the kind at restaurants or McD’s) type of girl, but I LOVE fruity iced tea, and I have high hopes for this one!

Thanks to VariaTEA for sending me a sample of this in a swap :)

I am generally unimpressed with rooibos blends, although once in a while I find something really good. I really wanted to try this one because… my husband is pisces. ;) This one turned out to belong to the delicious rooibos blends group!

It is very caramely and the rooibos base seems to be just perfect. There’s no pencil shavings, no moldy wood, no other odd flavors. Just fresh, slightly sweet, unobtrusive rooibos expertly flavored with caramel bits. I enjoyed this one very much!

Completed my isometrics this morning with Tony Horton’s P90X3. I chose this tea to go along with my exercise routine even though it’s been a few hours in between. Got that idea from you Christina with your books and tea. Thanks for this lovely sample. Isometrics is about strength and balance. Balance certainly fits with this tea. I brewed for 3 min at 185. The strawberry/raspberry flavouring reminds me of jello but doesn’t come across as artificial. It’s balanced well with the green tea. The green tea itself is vegetal with a little bite at the end (which I like). It went down pretty fast!

Sipdown of an old sample provided by Nina’s Tea….drank in the movie theatre while we watched Neighbors…which is pretty much my life. Well not so much but I could definitely relate. Hilarious movie, if you were wondering!

This was a pretty decent chocolate orange tea, but the thing is I already have Butiki’s Three Friends and Kusmi’s Euphoria, so this tea didn’t stand too much of a chance.

Maybe had I never met the others……

I tried this tea without looking at the description or reviews. I enjoy doing that from time to time, to see what flavors I can make out for myself.

This brews up a lovely pale gold. The taste is fruity… berries? peach? apricot? Yup, definitely apricot. Dry mouthfeel. Not bad hot, but so much better iced. The apricot stays natural tasting, with a hint of astringency that evokes the apricot pit. There’s a lingering dryness, but it’s pleasant.

Apparently this is supposed to be a berry tea. Looking at the other tasting notes, seems like I should try again at a strict 3 min steep to see if I can get the berry flavor. Or the parameters Lala suggested: “1.5 tsp for a 8 oz mug, 3-4 pieces of brown rock sugar, 190F (definitely hotter than what would be recommended for a green), 1-1.5 minutes.” (Hope you don’t mind my quoting your tasting note, Lala!).

Thanks for sending me some of this, Christina! I did enjoy this tea, even if I got the “wrong” flavor out of it. Thankfully, I’ve got enough left to play around with.

P.S. I used 2.5 tsps, but the tasting note thingy won’t accept decimal points.

Another Nina’s rooibos sample from Variatea! :)
I definitely get strawberries from this cup! I guess it is kind of creamy for a rooibos. I get a bit of the woody rooibos base. It is a nice cup, but it isn’t captivating me right now.

I received a sample of this from Variatea! Thanks! :)

On the first sip, my immediate thought was “pickle juice?!”. What the? Even after reading that it is supposed to be apricot and cream, I still get that. There is this tang that is mildly pickley. When I sweeten it, it just tastes like a sweet version of what I was tasting. I don’t know what I did to this sample or what I had it next to that it may have been absorbing odd flavors from, but this is not right! It is actually making me laugh a bit. My husband tried a sip and said that he tastes fruit, but also what I was talking about. I will definitely give this another go someday and see what I make of it then!

From the queue, written April 5th 2014

Camp NaNoWriMo is having an unforseen good effect on the queue growth, in that it stops it from being too explosive. I’m only doing 15K, so it’s 500 word per day minimum. This has been going well for me so far and I’m nearly a full day ahead. However, that takes priority over writing tea posts, and after I’m done I just want to do something mindless like playing a Facebook game or on Neopets or something like that.

It’s not very good for getting through the yet-to-try box though. The goal is to reach the bottom of it. Try every last thing in it before being allowed to buy new stuff. This is going to take me a very long time, but I reckon I can do it before 2014 is out.

I’ve already done my words this morning, though, so there aren’t any trouble with trying new things today.

This one Courtney shared with me, and it’s another variation on the caramel and vanilla theme. In this version there is also genmaicha in it. I’m not very experienced with that, but I did have a rather nice one that Kitty blended recently, so this makes me quite interested in how it fares in a blend such as this.

The aroma is certainly genmaicha-y. The popped rice has a certain salty aroma and while at first this strikes me as an odd combination with the caramel and vanilla, after having sniffed it for a little while they begin to come together and the sweet ingredients take over. They are very strong at this point, both the caramel and the vanilla. I have to say I’m quite enjoying that hint of salt behind it. It makes the whole thing seem more… what shall we say? Robust, perhaps, is a good word. Sturdy.

At first when I sip, I’m mostly getting a flavour like a roasty-toasty genmaicha, not disimilar to the one that Kitty blended. After a while I’m getting a good strong caramel note, but not until the tea has cooled a bit. The genmaicha-y note of the popped rice is still there, though, and it makes me feel like I’m having grain with toffee sauce on it, which frankly I’m finding a rather peculiar experience.

I know you American lot frequently put all kinds of odd things on popcorn that have no business being there (butter? Seriously? Ew….) and perhaps this is what it’s trying to emulate. Where I come from you get popcorn with salt on them, however. And that’s it. That’s the only option. To be quite honest with you, it is also the only sort of popcorn that I am willing to eat.

Therefore my overall impression of this tea is that it’s mysterious. I like the caramel note in it. Not so much the genmaicha addition.

On an unrelated note, in the 2-3 minutes it took me to steep my current cup I managed to completely forget what I made… It’s flavoured, but seriously, that’s all I’ve got! I think it’s something with vanilla, but that doesn’t really narrow it down at all. This does not bode well from staying awake for the Eurovision finale tonight! O.O

Thank you Nina’s Paris for offering up a few samples on the discussion board.

I had marked this on my wishlist after reading VariaTEA’s review. I was very curious about this one.

This smells like popcorn to me. I don’t know what I expected it to smell like, but definitely I did not expect popcorn! And it reminds me of carmel corn. The taste at the front is a nice sweetness from the carmel, and then it starts to taste buttery, and the finish and aftertaste and the same as if I just ate popcorn.

It’s tasty and different from anything I own, but probably not something I would stock in my cupboard. Grateful that I got to try it though!

From the queue, written April 2nd 2014

This one was one that Courtney shared with me, and it has vanilla and caramel in it. Right up my alley. I drank this cup quite quickly while I was cooking, but I shall try to recall what I noticed about it.

What? Yes, I know I said I’d been paying more attention to the suitable tea for the suitable time of day. I said more. I didn’t say all the time.

The flavour of it was equal parts caramel, a strong dark almost burnt sugar type of caramel, and vanilla. The vanilla worked to smoothe out the dark caramel in a way that it didn’t seem jarring in the base tea. The base struck me as a fairly strong blend with a touch of astringency. I should not be surprised if it was full of Ceylon. Possibly even some Assam, maybe.

The flavouring was quite strong, but didn’t disguise the base completely. I should have liked the vanilla to be even stronger so that it could stand out against the caramel instead of just aiding it, but as it was it was very enjoyable too.

I’ve just raided my stash to pack a tea parcel for my hapatite swapping buddy. A great excuse to send a ton of teas that are just not to my taste. Not sure if my buddy is on Steepster but if you’re reading this then know you will have a large package shortly :)

Reading the ingredients I am lead to believe this is a Genmaicha with a difference, with the toffee and vanilla I’m expecting it to be sweet and toasty which sounds like a nice combination. The blend certainly smells sweet and toasty, vanilla is strong but so is the toffee/caramel and without any green tea likeness. It is a nice scent though and strong at that.

Steeped it takes on a different scent, still sweet but also toasty, like vanilla and toffee popcorn (which sounds amazing and is now my new craving).

Flavour is toasty at first though light before creamy vanilla and sweet caramel ooze into the after taste and cover the slight grassy green tea. It tastes like a mild Genmaicha at first but it develops into a sort of Genmaicha ice cream with toffee sprinkles. I’m making myself drool as I write this. I never thought vanilla in Genmaicha would taste this good, it’s revolutionary.

I need more of this in my life. Don’t think it’s possible unless I visit France as they don’t sell online. :(

Sipdown (119)!

So, I actually asked VariaTEA to send more of this one because it’s been on my wishlist for a while, and I knew she had more of it – and before delving into the huge task of seeking more out in a larger quantity I wanted to try it again to make sure my tastes have not drastically changed. For prep, I made it into a cold brew.

- So I must have been romanticizing this one…
- BECAUSE THIS COLD BREW WAS AWFUL
- VERY green, surprisingly sour/tart pineapple taste, and actually quite bitter
- Couldn’t even finish it
- So really disappointed overall
- Coconut tasted off too; but not like “turned coconut” off…
- Just, OFF

Man; my two impressions of this are REALLY drastic, and now I’m just not quite sure what to think overall. I should have prepared it the same way as I last had it, but alas I went a different route and now I’m just not sure…