Nina's Paris

Nina’s Paris really works some magic on this blend. it wasn’t a sample i requested, but i’m so glad they threw it in! in dry form, it smelled apple-y n creamy, kind of sweet…and since Nina’s Japon as well as Demain really deliver as steeped teas exactly what their aromas suggest, i had full confidence when deciding to give this one a try.

Taureau has a sweet creamy marshmallow kind of quality in addition to the fresh, dried apples in the blend. great for a rooibos tisane & one i’d recommend even to those who don’t like rooibos as a rule. there’s a slight nuttiness at the end of the sip, redolent of pecan or almond (slightly more pecan). maybe that quality comes from the inherent woodiness of the rooibos, but i really find it so subdued here. to my surprise, the flavors aren’t overwhelming yet they are substantial. i get a wonderful amalgam of sweetness & cream on a base that is decidedly more wheatish than woodsy, as might normally be expected from a rooibos. fear not! this is a good one.

overall, makes me think of apple, cream, nuts & honey. i added a tsp or 2 of brown sugar to this which really makes it delicious. a dessert tea for sure, or a great accompaniment to an afternoon snack. you can even drink this one before bed! it’s delicate yet still decadent, and caffeine-free.

as always, thank you Laurent for this free sample. i’d never have known about your wonderful teas were it not for your generosity!

today i’m really getting a buttery feel from this tea, but i’m not sure if it’s coming from the flavor or the mouthfeel. make no mistake, it’s nothing overly buttery so as to be rich or gourmand, but i feel it makes a presence worth mentioning. following that is the entrance of a very natural-tasting strawberry. not at all synthetic. it may seem slightly candied (slightly) because of the suggestion of strawberries ‘n cream, but it really is more on the natural end of things given my experience with strawberry flavoring. it really strikes the perfect balance with the green tea base, though admittedly i can’t make out a specific flavor profile for this particular one.

you can sense the green tea, though not so much taste it; then again, perhaps a very delicate base was used so as to mingle well with the fruit flavoring. personally, i think the end result is brilliant. if French teas are supposed to be delicate, this tea is positively French :)

a perfect palate cleanser, aperitif, digestif, or in-between-teas tea. it’s quite versatile in my opinion because of its lightness, yet it is something for which one can have enthusiastic cravings and drink many times throughout the day (as i do). maybe it’s just me!

N.b.- happily i’ve noticed, this resteeps well….i get 2 good cups out of 1 heaping tsp of leaf for sure.

just got my order of (2) 1.6 oz bags of Demain today! (the opportunity for stupid puns never ceases to present itself..)
what a treat to smell this beautiful green tea blend…

it is as i remember it from the samples, somewhat reminiscent of Strawberries n’ Cream oatmeal (by Quaker, i think?)
that oatmeal is my absolute favorite, and although it may be an ‘unnaturally occurring’ flavor in nature, it is by far one of the best. (IMO).
Nina’s Paris fruit & cream flavoring along with the fruit pieces impart a truly scrumptious flavor onto their tea. even the creaminess is conveyed in the aroma, which is impressive to me.

Now to steep this jewel, which i most heartily look forward to doing, after this morning’s cup of rather jolting (yet satisfactory) u・Matcha Natural by Republic of tea. umami all around in that one, if by umami you mean ‘spinach’.

this smells fantastic!!!! like a beautiful strawberry jam with a wonderful fragrance. the aroma of the dry leaf is succulent, as is the aroma of the tea liquor! i don’t know what to really say for this, except that if you had a very light green tea (in the sense of it being as delicate as some oolongs) and decided to add a tsp of strawberry jam for flavoring, you would have this!

the flavor…..magnifique!

it is so true to the aroma which is a wonderful surprise. the tea & the flavoring are exceptionally fresh, with the leaves expanding to a nice plump size. even after 4 minutes steeping there is no trace of bitterness. this is perfect. does not even need sugar or honey in order to enjoy a truly sweet experience. in fact, i would recommend this as a dessert tea even if you’re hoping for something light because the strawberry has a creaminess to it, and the tea has a slightly buttery mouthfeel, unless i’m imagining things..

if you thought Tazo’s Decaf Lotus Blossom is impressive for a flavored green, try this…you won’t be disappointed! also, if you love strawberries, rest assured that you will find them in this tea! it fully delivers from the aroma of the dry leaf right down to the last sip. i am truly impressed. will definitely place an order for Demain, aujourd’hui!

thank you so much, Laurent for your generous sample of this! i’ll surely be purchasing some, merci :)

Thanks to VariaTEA for sending some of this my way! It most definitely smells like a vanilla caramel. As a matter of fact, it smells kind of similar to the other vanilla teas I have hanging around at the moment.

Going right into the flavour, the base is quite smooth, as are the flavourings in here. It’s gentle and sweet, like someone plopped a piece of vanilla caramel into a cup of smooth black tea and let it melt. But granted, the Bayswater Vanilla Cream tea is similar, at least based on memory.

This calls for an experiment. Since I have one cup left, I’m going to brew up Tea Desire’s Velvety Vanilla alongside the above two and see how they all compare. I can’t help but think that if one were to engage in a blind tasting test, they would receive similar scores, at least the former two. I’m always interested in how brand labelling influences one’s perception of a product.

Thank you Variatea for the sample that led to my first Nina’s purchase. I still have not tried the others yet. I’ve been too busy drinking this the last few days in-between my normal Earl Grey’s. I need to slow done before I grow tired of it.

This yummy tea is sweet caramel and vanilla not astringent at all very smooth. It even tastes great as it cools. So of course I tried it iced and still a nice sweet caramel vanilla tea.

thank you VariaTEA (and Nina’s Paris) for letting me try this one. Sadly, this one falls a little short of expectations because i largely get a sense of creamy rooibos from this one. If i squint and think really hard, i can taste the mint ish…so maybe this one just needs to steep a lot more. or be overleafed :) Either way it’s not a bad tea because i like the roibos that Nina’s uses, so i’m ok with it but i prefer others that they have more.

So this one? THIS one is delicious… i find this caramel cream preferable to the version of caramel rooibos from Damman Freres. VariaTEA was awesome and sent this one my way.

Fun facts? This puts me at 1650 different teas tried since i joined steepster. It also brings my final count today to 204 teas after being pushed to 215 today after starting at 193. this also marks my 3807 tasting note….in uh 1 year, 8 months and uh 10 days. true story yo.

mmmm this one was sent my way by variaTEA and i am a fan! black mango…heeeyyoooo! what’s up. shakin’ that… yeah ok…clearly, i’m a little off the rails tonight. but this tea? it’s a really smooth, deliciously mango yummy smelling party in my mouth sort of tea right now. soooo YAY!

Sipdown!

I think the berries and fruits in this tea pop a bit more when the tea is cooled, though I can’t really make out individual notes, as they all seem to meld together for me. I think I like this better cooled than hot…but it is good either way.

Thanks for letting me try this one VariaTEA as I think I like this one the best of the Nina’s except for Japon. Which is pretty much perfection.

Had some of this this morning before heading out. Oddly, I got a strawberry feel. Maybe it was my headache and my senses were off?

I di find the base to be nice and dense, but not overly strong. That said, I did opt to add milk to it. I might not next time, though I think I may cold steep the rest. I’m not sure.

Maybe a future serving I’ll have a better taste of it. I did like it, even though I thought it was strawberry. Ha!

Thanks to VariaTEA for letting me try this one. I’m sure I’ll enjoy the rest of my sample.

This was another sample from Sil.
I don’t have much to say about it. It’s a nice EG, without too much “blergamot” and I liked it.

Thanks to the wonderful VariaTEA for sending me a sample of Ma Passion! I’m a sucker for passionfruit. If they weren’t so expensive, I’d eat one every single day.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t believe that this is a ceylon! My first sip was, “Huh? Smokiness? But, but…” This just has to be a keemun or something.

There’s a gentle fruitiness in the background, but I can’t help but be distracted by the slightly smoky base. But that said, I’m so glad I had a chance to try this because had I ordered before trying it, I would have automatically picked up a pouch of this, being a lover of passionfruit and all. And then I would have gotten the pouch and been all confused about life.

Sipdown! This was brewed up before it made it into my cupboard though, so count…

Thanks VariaTEA for the sample! I have a major Passion Fruit weakness, so I was really excited by the oppertunity to try this one. And, turns out, I was right to be!

I didn’t smell the dry leaf – I was too excited and skipped that step and went straight to brewing it up. Brewed up, it smells lovely; like a distinct but light Passion Fruit. As far as the taste goes, it’s totally Passion Fruit! Seriously, this blend captures the unique flavour of a passion fruit very well and if I was trying this blindly I have no doubt that I’d be able to identify what it is.

The black base is also really great; I want to say it’s just a touch malty which is providing this really interesting and unusual contrast to the sweet fruit. It works though; and the Passion Fruit really pops because of it, which still feeling light and fresh. Every sip of this was fantastic.

This is something that I would not hesitate to purchase (if I had the money to spend), and that I definitely hope will make a return to my cupboard. Back onto the shopping/wishlist!

EDIT: So, apparently this has a Ceylon base. That surprises me; I haven’t done too well with Ceylon teas in the past.

This sample came to me via the wonderful and ever so thoughtful JustJames, who is so much more than just anything (I’ve said that before, I know, but it’s still true).

I decided to have this tea this morning because another steepsterite wanted to potentially send me some in a swap, and I had to figure out if I actually liked it enough to acquire more. I did enjoy the cup, although I did find it quite thin, even at a four-minute steep. In fairness, I wrecked the first sample because I used a huge mug and the water wasn’t close enough to the top to really soak the leaves sufficiently, but I did follow it up with another properly brewed cup. Don’t get me wrong—this tea does indeed taste of caramel and vanilla—but, I don’t know, there’s an underlying sharpness (which is not to be confused at all with bitterness or astringency—it’s more, I don’t know, it’s more something that I find to be present in all of NP’s teas). But I’m so so happy to have tried this, JustJames. Thank you so so much!

2/2 of the teas I ordered from Nina’s, again I love the little red tins!

This smells heavenly in the tin and the brewed cup; I love the aroma of tart apple and rose. I tried to be slightly conservative in my leafing and steeping as I know this is a strong blend. 2 minutes, 30 seconds seems like a good time for this but I might step it slightly longer next time. I never would have thought to put apple and rose together but it is nice. This is a very girly tea and will be good for the afternoon time. It’s a nice one to sip on plain… although I am getting a touch of bitterness from the ceylon base that is easily remedied with a touch of sweetener. Another tea from Nina’s that seems very elegant but I’m not sure if I would add this to my list of “must haves”.

Definitely it is more appropriate for an afternoon tea than a morning tea. I liked their strawberry tea a bit better than this blend which comes across a tad bit perfume-y for yours truly.

I received a sample of this in my swap with Marcel Duchamp. Thank you!

This to me tasted like a Ceylon. I was actually wondering if this by chance was labeled incorrectly. It was a nice tea base with a fruity honey flavor. I actually added honey to the cup this morning just like I would a cup of Ceylon. This was a nice cup. Thank you!

Tea of the morning. I’m about to go to something called “Ageless Yoga” at the Iyengar Yoga studio which is made for people 55+. I’m not that old (yet) but with my recent history of injuries I thought it might be good to start out with something easy… ;)

This tea is just O.K. in my opinion. I like the black tea base but the strawberry flavor is pretty tart. It is a berry natural flavor which is good, but I prefer the strawberry teas from Lupicia. I will probably finish the tin some day but not very quickly… Maybe I should try this iced.

Tea of the afternoon here, this is a pleasant strawberry tea that I am enjoying a lot with soymilk today. I haven’t been up to doing much today, the ongoing drama with my office about their paperwork has me feeling totally drained and I haven’t slept very well in almost 3 months anyway. Paying a visit to the acupuncturist this afternoon, maybe he can help me.

In the meantime I’m kind of happy to have some quiet moments to enjoy teeeea on this beautiful sunny day!

1 of 2 teas I ordered online from Nina’s Paris. I have to admit, I love the little red tins the tea came in because they match my red stump teapot… he he!

I am tired this morning, another night of not sleeping well due to stupid arm pain. I was really looking forward to trying this. The dry leaf in this tin definitely smells fruity. Compared to some other strawberry teas I’ve had the flavor is a bit more on the subtle side. The creaminess of the vanilla is nice, especially as I added some soymilk to this. I believe the ceylon is lending a bright, citrusy note. The aftertaste is slightly tart and drying, and overall this would be a better afternoon tea ’though I am enjoying it this morning. Elegant and refreshing are two words that come to mind with this.

Had this as part of a jasmine green tea side-by-side comparison found here: http://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/236019.

Of the three, this was most subtle on flavor but has a delicious buttery smooth base. Yum!

I have a few tsps left in my sample that I am happy to share with anyone who is interested in jasmine teas and wants to give it a try :)

Thank you Laurent and Sophie at Nina’s Paris for a sample of this tea. It is not one I would have tried on my own because I am not a lover of floral teas. This one in particular is like sweet, candied flowers – along the lines of Violette by Dammann Freres. Not for me but definitely something I believe others should try if they are into floral teas.

Sipdown!! (147)

Made myself a cup of this to see if I would want to get more before I sent the rest of the sample off to Cavocorax. It has a great passion fruit flavor – not too sweet, not too bitter but rather a perfect balance between the two that pairs wonderfully with the base. I am not running out to get more right now as I have quite a bit of tea but this is something I could see stocking in the future.

Mmm… this is a tasty tea. A touch floral with a nice candied fruit flavor. Definitely captures the taste of passion fruit quite nicely. I am very glad I got a chance to try this one. Thank you Laurent and Sophie at Nina’s Paris for the sample!