Nina's Paris

First sip down in a while! Had a cup of this yesterday and it was good, but today’s cup isn’t fantastic. Maybe it’s a symptom of the bottom of the bag dust. I do love this tea, but I’m feeling like there are other orange flavored teas that I’d prefer having in my life. I’m cool with saying goodbye to this one for a long while.

I was worried. I purchased this after enjoying a sample of it years ago, but I wasn’t getting the flavors I remembered from it. I stuck it in my cupboard and ignored it for many months. The other day I tried it again and remembering my previous disappointment I added a minute onto the steeping time. That was the right decision. 4 minutes at 205F is perfect! I get a really nice rich mix of chocolate and orange. Adding creamer makes it, well… creamy. And delicious. I’m really enjoying this tea now!

I recently got a bag of this and am having a hard time getting an awesome cup out of it. I tried 212 for 3 minutes, which was eh. This cup is 200 for 4 minutes, which is better, but I was much more enthusiastic about it in my previous review. I get the orange and a hint of chocolate, but the flavors aren’t as popping as I am wanting. It is reminding me of Mariage Freres Wedding Imperial that took a lot of refining to get a kick ass cup out of. Tea struggles!

This was one of my picks for Nina’s samples. I tried the other two quickly, but saved this one until now. I don’t remember what the description of it was, so it will be interesting to see what I detect. I think I’m smelling a little chocolate in the tea when dry. Not getting much while it’s brewing, but my nose is a bit stuffy. First thing I taste is orange. Strong orange, but not puckering, overpowering or bitter. Adding a little sugar makes each sip juicy and taste like the chocolate oranges that you smack to break up. This tea is balanced well. The black base is almost undetectable leaving the chocolate orange to take the lead. On it’s own, it’s really good, but when compared to the other two Nina’s teas I tried, it is my least favorite.

1.5 tablespoons for 375 ml

Smooth black tea flavour. The apple, apricot, peach and vanilla are very well blended although I feel that they aren’t as bold as I would like. I feel that these flavours work very well together.

Mmm…I adore this tea! The dry leaf smells fruity and sweet. The tea leaves are a lovely dark green and I appreciate how much TEA is actually in this blend. This blend is mostly tea with a sprinkling of fruit pieces.

Once it’s steeped, the tea smells much like the dry leaf, only more subtle. It brews a pale yellow-green (almost clear). The pineapple flavor takes center stage with delicate notes of coconut and grass in the background. The fruit flavors taste very natural and work well together.

I drank this tea hot with no additions. It’s wonderful that way, although I look forward to experimenting more with it as an iced tea and with sweetener.

This sample was amazing!

I wish I took pictures of this blend! More if I could capture the smell to show everyone! Very amazing apple scent!

Taste? Great black tea base, loads of natural and fresh apple flavor. I sat there awhile trying to figure out what kind of apple I was tasting. The apple was crisp, like a golden delicious, but the skin tasted sweet like a red delicious or gala. The floral is really low here but melded with the apple.

Love it! I need more of this tea sometime.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

Mmm, Nina’s Japon smelled amazing before steeping!

I do like the combination of the black tea and genmaicha, plus it was creamy! Those flavors really worked well with the creamy, caramel and coconut aftertaste. I’d personally like a little less black in this blend, but I did like the extra depth it added.

This one seemed picky to steep and needs a shorter steeping time.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

1.05 tablespoons 248 ml.

The mild smokiness of the sencha is able to come through. I’m detecting a definite chocolately note near the end of the sip into the aftertaste. Roasted rice flavour closer to the middle of the sip. Vanilla overtones from the middle of sip to the end. Vanilla and caramel sweetness.

Went out for a wonderful dinner tonight. I ate far too much and still came home with enough food for my lunch tomorrow. Oy!

Since I had over indulged I decided to skip dessert and coffee at the restaurant and have this at home instead. It’s a nice Moroccan Mint. I like that the mint doesn’t overwhelm the tea. I do wish there was more smokiness from the gunpowder green, but the tea was still nice without it. For people who want to try Moroccan Mint but don’t like smokey teas this could be a great option.

This isn’t my favorite Moroccan Mint, but it is a good one.

Thank you to Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA for this sample.

Dry tea smells like buttery, vegetal green tea with cherry flavor. There are flower petals mixed in with the green tea.

As the tea brews, the green tea and flower petals unfurl. Nina’s Paris tea is so beautiful to watch while brewing.

The smell of the tea is like sweet candied cherries.

The tea tastes like a mild green tea vegetal base. There is a sweet , candy, cherry taste. There is not much flowery taste, but I think the flower blunts the taste of the cherry. This tea is much less tart then similar teas of different brands. I actually quite like this as it is less artificial tasting with the cherry flavor. There is a slight peppery finish to the tea.

Thank you to Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA for this free sample. It only took 23 days to get to me. The anticipation was killing me.

The dry tea smells very flowery and perfumey. There are small yellow flower petals mixed throughout the black tea.

The brewed tea smells very flowery but no so much of a perfume smell, more like a natural rose scent. There is a slight sweet vegetal smell. The yellow petals have unfurled and float in the liquor. Looks beautiful.
The tea tastes slightly sweet, some rose flavor but not overpowering. The sweetness comes from an apple flavor, its very light. Reminds me of smelling the ripe red apples at a fruit stand. Smooth and creamy. This tea feels very luxurious and I can totally understand why it is named after Marie Antoinette. I would not necessarily drink this tea in the morning, it feels like more of an afternoon tea.

Definitely going on the shopping list.

Dry, this smells wonderful! Juicy raspberries and strawberries abound.

Steeped, it tastes like mellow green tea and a titch of raspberries. The berries come through more in scent than taste, which is still lovely.

Thanks to Nina’s Tea for a sample of this tea!

Brewed up, this smells insanely fruity. It’s like…. sour wildberry gummy candies? Like, the little 5 cent berries you can buy at convenience stores. The flavour is equally fruity; the predominant flavour I’m tasting is probably raspberry. There is supposed to be cream in here; I suppose it’s contributing to the smoothness of the tea, but it’s not really obvious otherwise.

For some strange reason, I’m typically not fond of wildberry-flavoured things (I’m really not sure why), so this tea isn’t my favourite, but for anyone looking for a very, VERY fruity, tasty flavoured black, I’d definitely point you towards this one! Keeping my prejudice out of the way, it’s a really fantastic tea!

This tea’s claim to fame is that it uses apples from King Louis XVI’s kitchen garden in Versailles, which is pretty damn cool. After sampling this blend, I’m wondering whether Marie-Antoinette ordered her husband’s apple trees to be watered with wine? ;)

Dry, this smelled like a cheap sauvignon blanc. Bleh!
Steeped it smells a bit better, like mulled wine and there’s the Jolly Rancher note that others are mentioning. Taste, hint of light rose, but overall just fermented.

Kind thanks to Laurent for the sample, but this one isn’t for me.

A wonderful tea, both in aroma and flavor. I drank two steeps and thoroughly enjoyed both. It tasted mainly like caramel and toasted rice. Ever so slight grassy notes from the green tea peeked through at the end of each sip. The tea base was hardly noticeable.

Trying this one now, my last sample from the Nina’s Paris catalogue. The cherry flavour in this is a bit overwhelming to me. It’s really really there, and I can taste hints of rose too but it’s very faint. The cherry on the other hand, I mostly taste the sour cherry, which is fine, I love sour cherries, but it’s faintly artificial tasting to me and although it doesn’t taste exactly like a cough drop, it does remind me of one. That sounds more terrible than it is, really. I like this some, but not a lot. Glad I got to try it, but I won’t be ordering it.

Got this sample from Nina’s Paris during their sample promotion. Just enough for one oversized mug, plus another steep after as soon as I finish this cup.

This is SO STRAWBERRY! And in a good way, not that terribly artificial stuff that plagues a lot of strawberry tasting teas. This is really good! I was a bit disappointed with my first Nina’s tea, but this one totally makes up for it, and I heard that it resteeps well too, though I haven’t tried it yet. But I will in a few minutes! This tea is pretty brilliant. I pick up faint hints of vanilla, but mostly just strawberry and that’s interesting, but not a bad thing. Mostly the vanilla just leaves a creamy edge to the taste. I approve of this tea.

The second steep has a stronger fruit flavour, with a nice blend between strawberry,and red grapefruit. The vanilla is still present. The tea is less creamy and is oddly sweeter. Still has very nice flavour.

This was really lovely. It has the creamy taste of a really good homemade strawberry ice cream where the cream is allowed to shine and the strawberries are accents. This flavour hits many of the accents that I love in Zen Tea’s raspberry vanilla and fans of that tea would probably love this one as well.

The dry tea smells of fresh strawberries and vanilla whey powder. Once brewed the tea smells of rooibos, vanilla, faint red grapefruit and a sweetness that comes from strawberry. Despite the ingredient list the tea tastes soft not tart. It is creamy with a thick mouth feel for a rooibos. The first note is a creamy cool vanilla, with faint grapefruit top note followed by a strawberry and cream flavour. The vanilla flavour is very natural. The rooibos flavour is well covered by flavouring leaving only a tingling on the tongue as an aftertaste. I am glad Nina’s offered me the opportunity to sample this tea. Thanks again! I would love to keep this tea in my cupboard!

Tea smelled good dry and made. The tea was quite bitter though. And it was only brewed 3 minutes. Not a fan of my first Nina’s and was glad it came as a sample.

mmm final sample from Nina’s tea and i wish i had enough of this to try a cold brew. While this is a nice hot tea with a nice blend of fruits, i think i’d really enjoy this cold. It’s very similar to Hepburn, though it is clearly a different tea. I don’t pick up on the pineapple but there is an overall fruitiness to this that speak of something more than just orange.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this sample!

oh yum! Thank you again to Nina’s Paris for their willingness to send out samples to us. I am always on the lookout for new delicious strawberry cream teas, so this one was a clear pick for me.
The dry smell is very “fruity” and not a clear strawberry smell. Once brewed, the strawberry flavour is super resent in both the aroma and the tea. I am enjoying very much the fact that although these teas are flavoured tea, the base of the team is present in the drink. This is a really nice strawberry tea that I will likely order when i am allowed to order more teas lol (ie i get my cupboard back down to under 200 since technically i’m for sure over 250 at the moment with all the teas that i can’t log because steepster hates new teas being added).

Thank you again Nina’s Paris for this sample!

Edit: As this tea cools it gets even better as the strawberry flavours come out even more. Also – the second steep is quiet delicious as well, and helps bring out more of the strawberry flavour and blends even better with the tea base.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this sample. I am a huge fan of chocolate and orange, though apparently I don’t have a lot of luck in this department’s flavour when it comes to tea. The loose tea smell of this tea is wonderful! While not quite as orange chocolate as Butiki’s three friends, it’s still a wonderful smelling tea.

Steeped, I really like how teh orange smells – not really artificial at all. And that is where my love ends. The tea is not a bad tea. But it’s not what i hoped for. It’s a really nice blend of orange and black tea, though i’m missing the chocolate. It’s not bitter, and i do appreciate that i can taste the base of the tea. I would for sure drink this again, it just won’t be that elusive must have chocolate orange tea that needs to be in my cupboard. The hunt continues! :)