Nina's Paris

This is a free sample from “Nina’s”. Thank you!

When we had this one on Wednesday, my youngest came in apologetically and said she was distracted when she made the three teas and poured boiling water over these leaves. I told her to pull the leaves early, but she said it had been a minute or so already before she realized it. She pulled the leaves and when we served it, I poured only a little into our cups in case it had become bitter.

Wow! It was not only fine, it was delicious. The green tea base was buttery and mildly grassy, the citrus flavor was the top note for me, and there was a fruity undertone.

I tried this cold (unsweetened) after tea time and find it very refreshing. This will be a great summertime tea!

I forgot what was in this tea and when I poured it at tea party today I was afraid I had oversteeped. It was black, and I mean BLACK, in the teacup. It tasted so good, though, and my youngest daughter loved it. It definitely wasn’t oversteeped.

Now I notice in the description that it has puerh in it. Ah, thus the dark color! You don’t taste puerh though, just really nice base tea with nice natural-tasting flavoring. This was a sipdown of a large sample, but I think I may have to put this on a reorder!

Backlogging from Wednesday:

For tea time Wednesday, we had three of the new Nina’s samples served with goat cheese and Italian Herb Flatbread Crisps and grapes. We also had cookies for afters!

I did not look at any of the ingredients until after we tasted each tea. When I looked this one up, I apologized to my guest, who had already said she liked it. She hates puerh, and I had no idea there was puerh in this, even after I tasted it. It was just fruity, wonderful black tea (though I love puerh). I didn’t want her to think I was one of those people who try to sneak you things you don’t like to change their mind.

She said she didn’t mind, she really liked it. This is a delicious tea and perfect for afternoons. I had a little of it iced and that was great, too. Each tea I tasted, I thought, “This is going to be my favorite of the bunch.” Instead, they were all different and all grand, so it was really hard to choose which was my favorite!

Sipdown! I decided to have the rest of this one after chatting with Anna on Facebook earlier. Since I’m on the west coast of Canada and she is in Italy, it was bedtime for her. So I thought that Eve would be nice.

This is still a very pleasant tea, though the flavours are a little too mild for me. I can get a little of the juicy fruits and some sweetness. This is another one that I think I like better cooled rather than hot, but still good either way. I think I prefer Sur La Lune better, for the types of fruit notes.

Thanks for letting me try all these Nina’s teas, VariaTEA!

Thanks to VariaTEA for letting me try this. It’s pretty smooth and mild. The flavours are light and all sort of meld together, so I get a lightly sweet and juicy brew with this one. I think I may try it cold brewed next time.

Sip down. Thanks again, VariaTEA (and of course Nina’s Tea!). I wouldn’t hesitate to order this one if it had a different base. The fruit flavours are so well-balanced here. I have a perfume called Berry Moon which this tea reminds me of.

Thank you for the sample, VariaTEA! This blend automatically makes me think of the colour purple, and truly the moonlight. I’m expecting purple/blue fruits from the way it smells, and sure enough, the blueberry note is the strongest for me, followed by the strawberry. I do, however, get a slight smokiness in the background here too, definitely from the base. I’m not a fan of smokiness, even the slightest bit. I’m kind of whiney in that respect. But I’m really liking the fruits in here.

As this cools, I’m detecting a sparkly citrus note, but I only got that with the last two sips in the cup, and they disappeared as quickly as they showed up. No passionfruit, sadly, but you can’t win ‘em all! And frankly, it doesn’t really need it.

I’m grateful there’s no jasmine in here, because usually any sort of night-time allusion is met with night-blooming flowers, particularly jasmine, of which I am not a fan in tea.

Change the base and I’d rate this higher.

Sipdown (185/187)!

Somehow VariaTEA has managed to get her cupboard number lower than mine, again! I need to step up my sipdown game – which is sad because I thought I was doing so well!

Anyway, I cold brewed the last of this sample from Rosehips today for about seven hours – I hoped it would switch up the flavour notes a little bit. However, it’s not really doing that, which is pretty disappointing! Mostly I taste funky, weird floral black base and nothing else. I don’t even get weak orange notes!

I’d actually toss it; but the coldness of it is making me feel pretty good so I’m drinking the rest of it despite not liking the taste. I feel like I’m really burning up and am also really dehydrated; though I know the latter isn’t true – I’ve been drinking tea practically non-stop all day. Bleck.

I can’t remember who I got this sample from! Um, I think Rosehips!? If I’m wrong let me know; I’d like to give thanks where thanks is due!

That said, this really isn’t doing anything for me. The orange is present but it’s rather bland and unexciting; just mediocre. And, the black base is really putting me off – probably because it’s a Ceylon; I don’t usually do well with Ceylons. So overall I’m not really happy with this one; I’m just gonna call it a miss.

That said – it was cool to try it! As a tea which isn’t available to me I was very happy to receive the sample. I still have at least one more cup (probably more like two) left, so I think I’ll do some experimentation with that last little bit.

This was the final tea of tea party. It was really good and fruity, and I found the green base pleasant. Youngest liked it a lot and said it reminded her of cardamom.

This is a free sample sent for review by Nina’s.

First of all, I LOVE the smell! I didn’t look at the description before opening it because I wanted to see if I could guess the flavors. My first thought was CANDY! And then almost right away….CHERRY candy!

The dry leaf is so pretty with the pink rose petals!

I know Nina’s recommends only three minutes steeping for some of their black teas so I only went two minutes or a little more on this green. The result is a full bodied green tea with lots of flavor, and sweet cherry candy. I am pretty sure this is a Japanese green for the base? I didn’t have time to resteep, but I am betting this is one tea that will resteep well. Hopefully I will have more time to try it with resteeps this week.

Thank you, Nina’s!

Another sipdown.

Of all of the teas I’ve tried from Nina’s, both sample sized and 50g, I think this is my favourite. The black base is sweet and not too brisk, and the fruit flavour is gentle and sweet without being too tart or punchy or juicy. The aroma is divine, almost perfumelike.

Chances are that if I ever make another order from Nina’s, I will definitely get this in a 50g size so I can have it to sip and savour during the winter months. So glad that Laurent sent me samples of this.

Laurent gave me a lot of this to sample, and I think that of all of the Nina’s blends I’ve tried, this is my favourite because its flavour doesn’t change much from brew to brew, and is true to the tea’s name.

It took me a while to finish this since I was working on something (a HUGE backlog of articles to edit), but it was still good. I even had some fresh cherries to snack on while I was drinking this, but I don’t think that made the cherry flavour in the tea any stronger.

Happy Monday!

Ok, I think I’m zeroing in on good steep parameters for this black tea from Nina’s – and by extension, other black teas from Nina’s. Today, I used 2 tsp, 16 oz, 92C water and a 3 minute steep. I think I could have safely increased the steep to 3 mins and 30 seconds, but it was still good.

This time the tea was nice and smooth, while still being gentle enough for the fruit flavours to come forth. There’s a tiny bit of astringency at the back of the sip, but it’s minor. Now to see if this will work with my other Nina’s teas, like Je T’aime and Eve. Here’s hoping…

Backlog from yesterday:

Brewed this up and as it was brewing, I smelled that lovely smell of red fruit: cherries, raspberries, currants. However, my first sip was so scalding hot that I burned my tongue. After I let it sit for several minutes to cool down, I tried it again and couldn’t taste any red fruit at all – not even the lingering cherry aftertaste from last time. That made me very sad.

I really think I’m going to have to leave it at a 2 minute steep – I just can’t predict how to steep these well. The spent teabag smelled lovely of red fruits, though – perhaps the key is to cool it down? I don’t know.

Thank you very much to Laurent for the generous pile of Nina’s samples! The empty envelope that the samples came in is still positively fragrant with the smell of fruit tea. Quatre Fruits Rouges was the tea that smelled most like the remaining smell in the envelope – sweet, fruity, somewhat powdery – so into a teacup it went.

The leaf, both wet and dry, smelled wonderfully of fruits mingled together. I let this tea cool a lot before I started drinking it, though, so that sweet smell doesn’t translate as strongly into the taste. It’s well-balanced; I could taste the fruits, but they didn’t overpower the black base. The base itself has an aroma of chocolate/vanilla. I’m not sure which fruit gives off the strongest taste – perhaps the red currant or the cherry.

I still have half of the sample left, so I’m holding off on a rating for now. But yes, consider this a very red, fruity, almost candy-scented cup!

Edit: I’m definitely getting a cherry flavour in the aftertaste. It’s not artificial like candy or cough-drops, though – it’s more rounded, like real cherries or cherry juice.

Sad to say, but this one is not a favourite. I was concerned about the rose petals in the blend, though thankfully they were not too strong….though they did border on making this blend too floral for me, as I have very little tolerance for floral teas, especially rose. Because of this, I was not able to pick up on the other flavours much…I’m just so super sensitive to florals. I was hoping this one was mild enough, and while mild, not mild enough for me.

It is a highly lovely tea to look at though, and I’m grateful for the chance to try it, so thanks VariaTEA for sending it. I’m not sure if I will make the last serving or set it aside for a swap.

thanks VariaTEA for sharing this one with me. Turns out, i prefer christmas teas from MF. There’s something about the spices in this one that has me wanting other christmas teas instead. Maybe it’s the way the vanilla is blending with them, or the sprinkles… lol that being said, I will be picking up more of this next winter to try and see if it’s just due to the fact that we’re coming out of the cold weather and my taste buds are looking for more spring/summer like teas. I have the same issue with chais as well heh they’re my fall/winter beverage!

Had a cup of this today to say farewell! I’m sending this one off as part of the travelling teabox as someone after me has asked to try it and i’m happy enough to let someone exlse explore this one. A really nice cup of tea, but i don’t need it in my cupboard all the time!

tea from this evening and not much to say about it that hasn’t been said better by lots of other people. this likely won’t be a restock for me but i AM enjoying it as a gradually sip it down when the mood strikes!

haha i’m backlogging from yesterday while listening to a serial podcast/miley cyrus mashup. oh the things the internet does… too funny. still enjoying this one, though likely not a reorder as it’s knock your socks out of t he water sort of tea. I would for sure pck this one up from time to time just to revisit though.

I figured that i should get around to trying this one since i randomly added it to my purchase a while back based largely on some of the glowing reviews here on steepster. I have to say, that while this will never be more amazing than nina’s japon for me, this IS quite lovely. I am digging the base and the fruity taste. Of course, this also makes me want to try this cold brewed because it seems like this would be really tasty cold, with a little sweetner :)

I’ve come to the conclusion that i’ve pretty sure i don’t much like “red fruits” Give me a specific strawberry or raspberry and i’m ok. But the “red fruit” that many of the french companies create, just isn’t for me. There’s something about that flavour that reminds me of something trying to be everything and successfully being nothing. That being said, if you like that sort of thing, this would be a great cup of tea. Thanks for sharing this one with me VariaTEA! I’m glad i had the chance to try it first.

Thank you Laurent and Sophie at Nina’s Paris for a generous sample of this tea.

I was conflicted over this one because I don’t usually like oolongs but this smelled absolutely amazing – like fuzzy peaches. Plus, I really like the way Nina’s does peach so I decided to give it a try. However, sipping on it now, the peach is lovely but mellow which is causing the oolong to be a little more prominent than I would like. It is not bad but it is not for me. However, I am sure there is someone out there who will enjoy this so feel free to let me know if you are interested and I will pass it along :).