Nina's Paris

Received my samples almost 2months after shipment, a bit late but then again a very very nice surprise! Thanks Laurent for the samples!

First up is je t’aime!

The dry leaf smells strongly to vanilla and caramel, very strong even. I’m brewing this 2 times like i do with all my blacks. First cup is a brew for 3min on boiling water.

The color of the brew is very dark and smells more like vanilla and less caramel. My first sips off the tea reveal a soft tasting vanilla aroma with hints off caramel. The caramel is not ruling the cup but thats maybe because its still a bit to hot. When its cooled alot more i’m noticing the caramel as a very nice after taste.

This is a very good first cup and i’m enjoying how smooth it tastes, pretty sure i’m going to order this in near future. But from nina’s european branch in paris…

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this fantastic sample!

The dry leaf has an intoxicating spearmint fragrance that is absolutely fantastic. I love spearmint things so I’m assuming already that I’ll thoroughly enjoy this tea.

Yummy! It’s a refreshing, soothing tea. Something that I’d imagine would be wonderful iced for a warm spring day. This is a perfect “de-stressing” tea, because to me, spearmint helps me relax!

Must. have. one. more. sipdown. tonight. Oh man… good thing i’ve got conference calls tonight because i need at least one more tonight to get myself back down to 300 tonight after my swaps arrived (i’m ignoring the fact that i also received some bagged teas that need to go into my cupboard and i say NO!).

Anyway…SIPDOWN! Thank you Nina’s paris for this sample…my last of the bunch that were sent to me.

Edit: So about the tea… I quite enjoy the caramel mixing with the fruity taste. I prefer it just a little more than je t’aime because of the fruitiness, though if i wanted a straight up caramel tea i’d stick with the other one. This reminds me of one of the other teas that i purchased from Damman Frere’s but i’ll have to give it some thought before i say which one it is.

Overall, the black base is present in this one along with the caramel notes AND the fruity notes. The vanilla is also present, though less so imo than the caramel.

Thank you so much Nina’s Paris for providing me with this tasty sample!

The dry leaf smells intensely of creamy, decadent caramel with a lovely vanilla note added in. It smells like a fantastic tea to begin with!

You can taste the base black tea which is already a good base to begin with. I am getting an amazing caramel aftertaste that lingers and transforms into a vanilla aftertaste. This is good stuff!

Enjoying a cup of this today – though i think i’ve given up on this. Seems to be hit or miss for me more often than not and it’s sad. Some days i get a deliciously amazing wonderful cup and other days there’s a bitterness there that i don’t like. I’ll stick with Nina’s Japon :)

Had a cup of this today in order to see how i still feel about it. It’s one of those teas that sometimes i really LOVE and other times it’s a little “meh.” today it’s a tasty cup of tea, though sadly it went a little cold while i got distracted with wedding planning lol

another backlog from yesterday – i’ll get through them eventually. i added a little vanilla powder to this one and it made it that much tastier yesterday! i’ll need to remember that in future…now if i could just find my vanilla bean so that i could add it to my vanilla citrus spice. :(

another backlog from yesterday. While i enjoy this one quite a bit, i think i prefer nina’s japon when it comes to that vanilla/caramel sort of taste. I think once i’m through this bag, i’ll have to restock a much larger quantity of Japon :)

this + caramel from Tea G = even more delicious caramel vanilla goodness. yay for happy places and vacation planning…

I figured i should bust this out to have again since i bought it a while back and while i blew through the japon i bought, i hadn’t even had this one yet. Not my favourite of the nin’as teas but one that i do like. I wish i could get the full caramel/vanilla intensity that i get in Japon, but in this black base. Still, it’s a nice treat to have, though maybe not a reorder by the time i finish the package heh

Sipdown! (sample)

Thank you to Nina’s Paris for another wonderful sample! This is a tasty tasty cup of tea! It reminds me quite a bit of creme caramel from della terra, only with a stronger base and a better flavour to it. The scent of the tea is a little off but the liquid delicious makes up for that. I’d be willing to pick this up again for sure. LOoking forward to trying grand amour as well given how nice this one is!

after the major influx of teas today i find myself jumping from 211 to 241, not including a couple of samples from nina’s that i’m going to drink right away so they don’t bump up my total. That number will go up on monday, so goal is to try and get through as many of the 1-2 cup samples that nicole sent me as possible this weekend. That way when i place my butiki order i won’t feel so guilty. lol

Soooo welcome to 241. More math to be done on sunday lol

I am enjoying this one from nina’s paris. This sample came in teabag form, which was pretty great to try out. I have a feeling that their tea bags are something i may add a few of to my cupboard for work, once i get around to placing an order. I think this could be a fairly good cold brew at the end of the day.

Thank you again to Nina’s Paris! I picked this one because I had contemplated getting the same tea by betjeman and Barton but hadn’t. Since quatre fruits rouges seems to be one of those teas that a lot of Parisienne shops have, now was as good a time as any to try it.

I’m sad to say that I’m pretty sure I lost track of time and steeped this for too long. As a result its a bit of a bitter cup BUT if I focus on the taste beyond the bitterness I can tell that this would be a tasty cup of tea, well suited for my tastes. It really is red fruit tea instead of being that weird artificial “berry” taste that is present in a lot of teas. The base is quite nice as well, though, as I said I steeped it too long. Even the red liquor of the cup is pretty.

Thank you again Nina’s tea!

Thank you Nina’s Paris USA via Kittenna for this sample.

The dry tea smells strongly of rooibos, there is a nutty or woody scent.

The flavour of the brewed tea is very strongly rooibos. There is still a nutty flavour. The tea is very creamy. There is a very slight fruit flavour. I am not sure if I would say it was peach or apricot without reading the description of this tea first.

Overall the tea is good. I am just not a huge rooibos fan.

Another tea from Laurent. This was my second go at this tea and it’s just not the tea for me. this is a little better the second time but it’s not my favourite tea. i taste a lot more peach in this blend than other fruits, which is maybe why it’s not quite the tea for me. it’s a decent enough tea but as far as peach teas go, there are others i prefer. I just wish i could figure out how to get the other flavours to pop a bit more.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for these samples!

I’m not sure this one is the tea for me. I really like the way the black base is blending with the flavours, but I’m getting more of an orange cherry than being able to pick up the strawberry as well. The result is a strangely weird citrusy bolder black tea. The strawberry is lingering in the after taste the more I drink this one. Not one I’d purchase, but I’d never turn down a cup. :)

Also…sip down! Lol

Love it’s taste !!!

Thank you to Nina’s Paris USA via Kittenna for this free sample.

When I was growing up, we had red currants growing in our yard. My dad used to make wine from them. I can remember going out and picking the currants off of the bush when they were ripe.

The dry and brewed tea smell like red currant. There is also a hint of raspberry. The brewed tea has a smell of strong caramel.

The tea tastes like red currants and caramel. It is not sweet but also not bitter or tart. I like it this way.

J’adore Grand Amour!

Eghhh…this isn’t my cup of tea.

I’m mostly tasting the rice puffs and maybe a little caramel. It reminds of watered down coffee. I used the entire sample (about 2.5tsp) and made about 14-16oz worth. I may have used too hot of water or for two long…but even if I had used different temp water I don’t think I’d like it…something about the rice puffs in it. I much prefer all the other samples I recieved:)

Smells lovely!

Tastes pretty good too…there is a nice balance with the fruity flavors and black tea. I wish it was just a tad bit stronger but then again I won’t have to ration out a little 1-2 tsp sample, lol.

This is pretty good!

I love the smell of both the dry and steeped leaves. I was hoping more of the apple flavor would come through but…after leaving it sit awhile it came through more. There is a nice balance of black tea and apple. It’s a smooth tea that makes me think of luxury and fine things. I didn’t notice any astringency. I used 1tsp worth (so I could stretch my little sample out) for 3 minutes…so maybe that’s why it may not have been as strong as I would have liked. This is a yummy tea though…very delicate. It would seem fitting as an afternoon tea:)

This tea smells exactly like this type of pipe tobacco I used to smoke. I like it.

I don’t generally go for flavored teas, unless they are sophisticated and classy like this one. This tea is vanilla and caramel for grown ups. It’s not over powering or artificial-tasting.

I would keep this on hand for blends.

Thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris for sending a sample of this tea!

I read ashmanra’s tasting note about it earlier, which spurred me to try my sample of it sooner rather than later. While the tea was brewing, I noticed a bit of a metallic aroma that screamed “oversteeped! astringent! blech!” to me… and the infuser had only been in the cup for about 15 seconds. Not good. I figured I’d keep at it and just hope for the best.

Good thing, because although that aroma didn’t really dissipate, it was joined by a delicious aroma of candied pineapple, and just a hint of coconut. Mmm.

I didn’t manage to drink any of this before it cooled completely (familiar story), but am drinking it now, and enjoying it more than I thought I would. The predominant flavour is a sweet sort of pineapple, which is really quite pleasant. It’s joined by a touch of creamy coconut, and some green tea notes… and unfortunately, a dose of astringency. It’s not all that bad, but given my careful infusion, I definitely hoped for less.

Now, I haven’t had a cup of DavidsTea’s Toasted Walnut in ages (bad bad bad, I probably have about 90g of it left!), but that’s what this cup reminds me of. I don’t think the pineapple is quite as prevalent in DT’s version, and the base, though finicky, isn’t quite as bad… but they’re pretty similar IMO. Perhaps I’ll have a cup of TW tomorrow or something to check.

thanks so much Nina’s Paris for these samples! I really wanted to try a sample of the Nina’s Japon as soon as I saw someone else’s tasting note for it, then later that day I saw an offer for samples! I thought I’d try the straight assam first, so I can try the base of the others by itself. There was maybe a teaspoon and a half in my sample, so I just used every last leaf for this steep. Four minutes later, I get a reddish brown color and quite the kick! I might have used too much tea or steeped too long, but this is brisk and a bit astringent, yet still a bit above medium bodied. I’m reminded of a dark rye bread.. so this would have been perfect for a couple days ago on St. Patrick’s Day! It’s a bit malty, but less than I would expect from an assam. It’s very delicious! The second steep at just boiled for four minutes tames the briskness down a bit. Now there is more of that assam sweet, and a bit of a unique fragrance. Now it kind of seems like it would be a chocolate rye bread. I really love this one… can’t wait to try the others from Nina’s!