Nina's Paris

I really can’t seem to find my perfect steep parameters for this blend. However, this was pretty ok – 1 tsp per 8 oz at 89C for 2.5 minutes, with a bit of sweetener. Slightly fruity, slightly creamy, but not a huge overpowering presence of either.

I really really want to love Nina’s teas, but they’re just so persnickety, it makes me kind of annoyed.

Backlog from last night:

I guess I’ll just have to accept that no matter how I brew this, it will end up tasting more like vanilla and less like fruit – I really want to have the peach flavour come to the front, but it hasn’t.

Ah well, it’s still a nice tea. And I have a lot more left to finish off.

I’m still figuring out the steep parameters on this – I really want the apple and peach to come forward, but it’s still vanilla-tasting.

Maybe I’ll just have to give up and stick with the way things are. Which is sad. Nina, why is it so hard for me to figure out how to steep your teas?!

Second time steeping this. Still haven’t figured it out.

The first time I did it for 3 minutes at 90C. This time I did it for 2 minutes at boiling temp. Both times it was still not as fruity as I wanted it to be. Vanilla, chocolate and cream flavours still the most present. All I really want is for this to be a black peach tea, but I just can’t get the peach/fruit flavours to come forward.

Perhaps I should use 1 tsp for 8 oz instead?

Finally had a chance to open the package that I received last week. The dry leaf smells strongly of peach, apple, and vanilla, so I was really looking forward to testing it out!

Nina’s teas don’t come with any steeping parameters, unfortunately, so I tried the tea with 2 tsp/12 oz for 3 minutes at 90°C. I initially meant to steep it for 2 minutes, but the phone rang and I got interrupted.

Brewed, the tea still smells strongly of peaches and vanilla, as well as chocolate, with the apple being fainter. The taste is of chocolate/vanilla and possibly some cream, with the fruit tastes being less dominant. This is not astringent at all, but I think that I would have appreciated it more if it were steeped at a higher temperature for a shorter length of time. I still have 2 oz to play with to figure out the perfect steep. Withholding a rating for now.

TTB&C #1

It seems like every time I check my dashboard VariaTEA has written something amazing about this tea. NayLynn was so nice to add a sample of this to the TTB and so when I saw it in the box it was the first tea I grabbed. I would say this lives up to the wonderful reviews. Sweet, toasty, caramely, vanilla all in one cup. This is a tea I could easily drink at night as a dessert and a relaxing cup. There is enough for a few more cups and I think I am going to have to hide the rest in the box so someone else will get the pleasure to try this tea.

Hmm, I am not sure what to make of this tea. I brewed it at a hotter temp this time to try to bring out more flavor (not boiling, though not quite sure what temp; more below), and it backfired on me. It’s not bitter or astringent or anything, but it’s like a mild mannered person who is really sweet and then you make them angry and they surprise you. This cup has a burnt-toast/burnt-rice/burnt-nuts scent and flavor that actually reminds me of coffee. Um, what? Where was that mild-mannered caramel vanilla tea again? How can these be the same teas?

I’m rating this based on a combo of my two experiences. Steep it like a green tea, and it is sweet and caramelly, but lacking depth and body from the base teas. Steep it closer to a black tea, and it turns into some kind of weird caramel-flavored weak coffee. So although I wouldn’t turn down another cup or the chance to go for it again, this isn’t really doing it for me.

Finally, the reason I don’t know what temp this is really at is that my Adagio UtiliTEA kettle may have finally kicked the bucket. It worked this morning but when I tried to make some water at ~195°F, I noticed that it was just boiling forever without shutting off. It boiled so hard that I lost probably two ounces of water out of the pot through boil-off. I stopped it, let it cool for a bit, and then ended up putting in a bit of room temp water to top off my cup since the water had boiled off. Will have to try going to a lower temp and seeing if it works that way; otherwise I may be in the market for a new office kettle.

I asked Sil for a sample of this tea and she was nice enough to oblige! Quite a while ago Nina’s offered some samples and I got some, and did not find them to be to my taste. But then Nina’s blew up on Steepster and people started loving on them hard, so I thought maybe I should give them a second chance. This is one that a lot of people love, so I thought it might be a good place to start.

This is a good reminder to check a tea on Steepster before brewing. I assumed this was a green tea, not a black/green blend, so I brewed it probably too cool. Well, I have enough for another go so I’ll have to try it a little hotter. As it is, the flavor is nice but rather light. I do get some nice buttery caramel and I can certainly see why this one is popular. Will wait to rate until I try it again at a higher temp.

The first jasmine tea I ever had was a total bust, almost a disaster. It made me feel sick, as if I had been drinking perfume. I thought I was destined to hate jasmine teas but then I tried some really good….no…..really great ones.

This is a free sample provided by Nina’s and I saved it for a game night tonight because one of my guests has spent a bit of time in China and really loves jasmine tea. I promised to save the sample until we could drink it together.

The leaves are so dark that I wasn’t sure at first if this was green or black, but definitely it is green. The scent is heavenly. I steeped one tablespoon in 22 ounces of 174F water for three minutes. We tasted the first steep and added the second steep to it.

The verdict – this is a really good jasmine green. The jasmine is rich and natural, not fake or “perfume-y”. The liquor was a deep yellow color and the resteep maintained much of the strength of the first steep. The green tea base had a lot of presence but was smooth, much better to me than the Grace Rare Tea version, which I can drink with a meal but is a bit sour for me by itself. This one is a delight on its own and is also good with food,

After tasting the tea twice – first steep by itself, then first and second mixed – we passed around a box of truffles and I must say it was a fantastic pairing.

Thank you, Nina’s!

This tea… puzzles me.

First off, it’s a green & black blend, which is pretty unusual. How in the world do you steep it? That’s one of the many occasions when Steepster is indispensable. I steeped it according to the average preparation then.

The liquor looks clear, and the color is something like coppery brown, which is what I would expect from a green & black tea mix. Smells like caramel (seriously, I’ve been on some caramel streak recently. I swear I typed this word a million times today whe writing tea reviews), sweet popcorn and vanilla toffee. Wow.

The first few sips underwhelmed me, in a way. It tasted like a really good genmaicha with a little bit of black tea’s boldness to it. I just shrugged and continued drinking and then I noticed… these shy but charming little notes of vanilla that made me reach for the cup almost compulsedly obsessively :D It’s like… having a spell put on you.

I think it’s one of these teas that is going to grown on me more and more with time – much like this first cup unraveled for me. And it’s kind of unusual because I don’t remember a tea that felt like this to me recently.

I am still puzzled, though.

What on earth did I do wrong here? It tastes like cardboard.

Thank you JustJames for sharing this. Thankfully I have more to play with.

Well, it’s decided: passionfruit is a flavor I’d just rather avoid in my teas. While this is a well-constructed, lovely fruit tea, and I really do want to give it all the credit that it’s due, I want it to be anything other than this passionfruit flavor. It’s also got some flowery Frenchness to it, which I actually like in this blend… just not the tea for me.

Thank you to JustJames who helped me assuage my guilt about trying this, and in a small enough quantity that I could justify having one cup and that’s it. :)

Saturday Sample Sipdown #3!

The first time I tried this tea, I steeped it for 3 minutes and it tasted strongly of rose with a hint of apple. The second time, I reduced the steeping time by one minute and didn’t get much flavour of anything beyond the base. This time, in a final attempt to get the apple flavour to the forefront, I steeped it for 4 minutes.

Alas, I still didn’t get the apple flavour that I was hoping for. Which is a shame, because I really wanted to make this tea work for me, and while the first steep was lovely, the rose was a bit too strong for me.

Ah well. There are some teas that you can never quite see eye-to-eye with, no matter how high-quality they are. So long, amazing-smelling tea.

Backlog from this afternoon:

After I got home from the accountant, I took a much needed nap, then decided to pep up with this blend. This is my second attempt at this tea. I really want to like it because it smells amazing. However, I still haven’t figured out how to make this tea taste the way I want it to (apple with rose in the background).

This time I reduced the steep time, and the rose was far less dominant, but the apple still didn’t come to the fore. I only have enough for one cup of this, so I think I’ll try steeping it for 4 minutes next. If that doesn’t do it, then so long sipdown.

I’m holding off on a rating right now until I try changing some of the steep parameters around, but I will say this: it smells amazing.

AAAAMAAAAAZZZZIIIING.

I could just inhale the scent of the dry leaf all day, with that delicate balance of rose and apple.

That said, I think I may have oversteeped this slightly. The tea smells and tastes very heavily of rose, when I really want to taste more of the apple. I didn’t add any sweetener either. In any event, I’m feeling strongly positive about this tea, but I’m going to wait until I steep it again with some sugar or honey to see how that works.

EDIT: Looking over Ashmanra’s notes about this tea, it appears that the apple flavour will come out more at a 4-minute steep, so it looks like I under steeped it. Will definitely remember that.

I don’t even want to drink this tea – I just want to smell it. It smells so deliciously fruity… OMG.

Ok, thankfully it tastes as good as it smells. Ripe strawberries, mashed raspberries, some other fruits… It’s sweet and delicious. I’m really happy Nina’s Paris threw this samples in with our last order, and that *Sil *let me have this one. DELICIOUS!

And.. that’s 199!

And.. that’s 199!ETA Many thanks to VariaTEA for pointing out that I’d posted this under the wrong note. Guys, it’s Monday. These things are forgiven. Much like the cleaning alcohol I spilled all over my hoody, and my accidentally breaking the voicemail service for our phones at work. It’s all forgiven… :P (I fixed the voicemail thingy though)

Yum!
Piping hot, this is a stunning tea. I gotta say it again. YUM!
It reminds me of red berries. Plum and strawberry and I’m not sure what else. Rather mild, but in a pleasing way.
Then as it cools, I get more citrus and spice. Very well blended. I like that part as well, but not quite as much. If only I could convince my tea to stay warmer longer. Perhaps I’ll try it in a double walled my next time. If I remember.
Thank you for the sample Lala!

It only took me two years to order this after the wonderful VariaTEA sent me a sample. Seems like the Nina’s (or La Courtisane French Gourmet these days) consumption has really died down since then.

Either it’s a batch difference or the scent of the dry leaf simply smells different when you have a substantial amount rather than a sample, but this definitely smells different than before. Before it was more straight-up vanilla caramel whereas now, I’m detecting a pop of coconut with the mix. On top of that, the vanilla reminds me of a vanilla/buttercream scented candle. You know, a vanilla birthday cake-like artificial aroma.

When it comes to the flavour, it’s also heavier on the vanilla and lighter on the caramel than before, I swear. I really love the black tea mixed in with the green genmaicha. It adds more depth and amps up the roastiness of the toasted rice. Although the flavouring is nice and sweet, somehow, it’s just not what I remembered this to be.

So glad that I finally have this, and some others, in my (well, technically my mom’s) cupboard. She has been eyeing that pink Marie Antoinette tin for ages so I thought it would be a nice Mother’s Day surprise, and she absolutely loves it. We’re planning on having a little tea party at home tomorrow with these.

Many heartfelt thanks to VariaTEA for giving me the opportunity to try this. Genmaicha is my deserted island tea. Always has and always will be. So I’m fascinated by trying these flavoured genmaichas, which are very hard to come by.

And this is seriously marvelous enrapturement in a cup. The caramel is so smooth and adds an extra dimension of depth to the toastiness of the rice. Nina’s did a smashing job blending this one. Now there is absolutely no excuse to run over to Amazon and order this beauty.

And on that note, I shall go back to having zero life for a while. To go with such an exquisite tea, I shall leave thee with one of the most beautiful songs (longer than what the average human is used to, but complex and sheerly brilliant, with a spine-tingling build-up) on this planet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLS-EM3kCKo

This was a super teensy sample that wheezybee sent to me.

Sadly, it was a bust. I steeped it 4 minutes in 4 oz liquid, and the result was a sour watery mess.

:(

Possibly something to try in the future.

Sipdown (184/186)!

Well, kind of a sipdown. I’ll get to that.

Anyway, thanks to VariaTEA for this sample. I was pretty “meh” about it as a hot tea, mostly because the coconut was coming off as incredibly buttery in a really unwelcome way. I thought I’d try cold brewing it, because Coconut typically cold brews well. So this was cold brewed then brought to work.

I still found it to be really buttery – in fact maybe more so this way. I really didn’t enjoy it that much; buttered pineapple should not be a thing. Ick. This is definitely better hot, but still pretty mediocre overall.

The reason this is only “sort of” a sipdown because I left half a thermos of this at work, along with another Timolino. They’re in a safe place – but I had just finished arming the store/locking everything when I realized I’d left them behind. So, my tea gets to sit and hang out in store until I work again on Tuesday morning.

Welp.

Hmm…

I can sort of see what VariaTEA meant by finding Nina’s rooibos blends a little, uh how did she word it, distinct? The rooibos sticks out in a really noticeable way – although I don’t think it tastes bad, just present. Other than that I think this is pretty enjoyable; the pineapple is sweet and maybe a bit tangy. I love that I could see the large pineapple chunks in the dry leaf!

The coconut is really what I find most interesting about this one; it’s really buttery, especially in the aftertaste. Like, seriously buttery: the way my mouth feels about I’ve swallowed the tea is as if I’ve literally licked a block of butter. It’s maybe more distracting than the rooibos in the blend.

I think the pineapple would have to be a lot stronger to negate this buttery weirdness.

So overall, I think this is good and I feel like I’ll be able to drink the rest of the cup and my sample from VariaTEA without much problem – but assuming this buttery trait is a consistent one in all subsequent cups of this, then this is a blend I wouldn’t really seek out more of.

My youngest daughter has been spoiling me with breakfast in bed since my surgery. Almost every day I have chosen an omelette made with eggs from my French Black Copper Marans, French thyme, peas, and cheese, accompanied by a piece of whole wheat toast with Bon Maman cherry preserves, and tea. With all the French goodness on my tray, I thought I should add a French tea!

I really, really like this one. For starters, I love the Keemun base that Nina’s uses. I had my daughter steep it for three minutes in boiling water and we had just enough leaf left for two good sized cups of tea. Youngest tried it and said she really liked it. She has just started taking her teas without milk and sugar which has me excited, of course! Hoorah! Hooray!

Although drinking the tea with a hearty breakfast made me miss some of the nuances of the tea, I enjoyed it very much. It was strong enough for breakfast but the fruity flavors still came through.

Drinking this also makes me realize how much I miss Nina’s Earl Grey. I need to order some more soon! Youngest loves Earl Grey tea and Keemun so I will justify buying it by pretending it is for her and not for my stash.

Backlogging three of the free tea samples from Nina’s that were tasted Wednesday.

I know I said that every tea I tried I was sure would be my favorite of the batch, but I think I can pin it down. This is it. The third tea I tried was my favorite because I really love the Keemun base that Nina’s uses. I had it in their Earl Grey, and the friend I shared it with went wild for it and ordered a tin.

Here I find that same, more-unsweetened-cocoa than-smoke, Keemun that I loved in the Earl. And paired with these lovely, exotic fruit flavors? Yes, please!

My secret is out. This is my favorite from the newest tasting batch….so far. I am saving the jasmine to taste with a friend. I try to share my free samples with other people because I feel it helps give the generous companies who send it more exposure, it gives me the opportunity to see the honest reactions of other people, and it hopefully makes other people happy to get to try them! Besides, tea is a really great accessory in my friendship, as well as being a great companion in solitutde.