Nina's Paris

Dry leaf aroma: Strong and pleasant orange scent.

Dry leaf appearance: http://instagram.com/p/rv49b7FcKV

Preparation: Brewed in an infuser mug.

First/only steeping: 3 minutes at 210 degrees. The aroma is fruity with hints of blackcurrant; as the cup cools I detect a bit of orange. While the tea is still quite hot the fruit flavors are muddled together with a subtle bitterness and I get a slightly tart aftertaste. After the cup cools I can pick out the orange but I do not taste the pineapple at all; the bitterness remains.

I have to confess that I dumped out my first cup as I thought I messed up the steep due to the bitterness. Unfortunately, the second cup was still bitter, though less so (I used less leaf for the second brewing).

I might try this iced to see if it makes a difference in the flavor and bitterness.

Second Nina’s sample of the day! Thank you again Laurent for the opportunity to try your teas! So far they have not disappointed!

The dry smell of this was caramelly and good, with a hint of toast. I steeped for 3 mins with 175 degree water, the whole sample again, and the steeped scent is caramel genmaicha. I love genmaicha and haven’t had any in AGES, so this is a nice change and now I want to order some plain genmaicha too lol.

As for the flavor, this is quite good, although I admit, my expectations were VERY high after reading the reviews. It mostly tastes like genmaicha, a good quality one, and then the caramel flavor comes in at the end of the sip. YUM! It’s roasty, popcorn like, nutty and caramel. Probably closest in flavor to a toffee, good stuff.

Overall, this is a tasty toffee like tea, but it is fairly sweet, and I do find it interesting that genmaicha, generally a savory tea to me, is paired with the sweet flavors of caramel and vanilla. It is tasty and good, but I am still a bit undecided on whether I would order more of it in the future. It definitely is sweet and delicious, but not an everyday tea, more of a treat one haha. Caramel popcorn reminiscent! Thanks again Laurent and everyone at Nina’s Tea for the free sample of this tea!

First of all, a big thank you to Laurent at Nina’s Tea for the free samples! I am finally getting to them :) this is the first one I had to try due to the great reviews and the fact I have a migraine today and thought some caffeine would help. The dry smell is very fruity, definitely a red fruit scent, slightly tart, with some strawberries in there too. I steeped the entire sample (not sure how much tea, probably a TBSP, give or take) with 175 degree water for 3 minutes. The resulting scent is lovely strawberries, fruit and creamy vanilla. Yum!

As for the flavor, this is very similar to the strawberry cream black tea from Zen Tea, but with a stronger vanilla aftertaste and it’s a much smoother tea. The red fruit flavor also adds a punch of fruity flavor. First taste is strawberry, and the aftertaste of sweet, soft vanilla lingers on the palate in a wonderful way. This is a soothing and delicious tea!

Overall, this is a very nicely flavored tea. The fruits and vanilla meld together in a lovely way. As the cup cools a bit of a floral flavor comes out. I like how the cup has changed but has stayed very smooth. Brewing at the low temperature definitely was a good choice! Ooh, a tiny touch of green tea flavor coming out in the far aftertaste as well. I am very pleased that I chose this as a free sample, and once again, thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Tea for the opportunity to sample his teas! :D great start to the day!

Thank you Nina’s for the samples! This one sounded very intriguing – rhubarb and violet with a keemun base. For some reason this sample was an individually wrapped pyramid tea bag. Nina’s suggests 1-2 minutes for this one, so I went with about 70 seconds. I probably should have steeped for two minutes, as the base wasn’t tough enough for me. The flavor is good but I wouldn’t say it was rhubarb. The something extra reminds me more of lychee. There is something sweet and floral to it as well, but I’m not sure what violet tastes like! I’ve tried the keemun base on its own and it’s a standard delicious keemun but I could swear this is the other base that they have. This doesn’t taste like the keemun to me. I would have liked the rhubarb to be more rhubarb-like but this is an interesting and unique idea for a blend. The same keemun that I tried before would have made this blend better though.
Steep #1 // 7 min after boiling // 70 second steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

Home – 6:30 PM

I got my Nina’s Paris order from Amazon! I figured I would order a variety of teas to try out, so I got one black tea, one green tea, and one rooibos. There are a ton of blends that I want to try from them, but I hope this is a good starting point. I’m so happy that all of their teas are available on Amazon in the US, for $9-10 for 50g with free shipping.

I feel like the name is half of the reason I chose this tea (it means magician, and specifically the feminine form). I find it charming for some reason, and it makes me picture a cutesy anime girl magician with a top hat and fluffy rabbit. I have no idea why, it’s a strange association for me to have… I’m not even really that into anime. :P

Anyway, this is a piña colada green tea. Coconut is not generally one of my favorite flavors, but I do enjoy it occasionally, and it’s tasty with pineapple.

This is yummy! I’m glad I have a reason to like it other than the name, heh! The coconut is definitely the stronger of the two flavors, but it’s lovely and creamy. I do taste the pineapple as well, and it’s not tart but it does have a nice refreshing and juicy pineapple flavor that complements the smoother coconut well. The base tea is extremely mild, just adding a subtle and sweet grassy note to the blend, as well as a bit of body.

I’m very happy with my green tea choice! I see myself ordering more Nina’s teas in the near future. :)

Another sample from Stephanie! I generally like to jump on any chance I get to try one of the famous French brands (Nina’s, Mariage Freres, Fauchon, etc) because they tend to be a pain in the ass to get ahold of. Although this is not true with Nina’s anymore, since they have a lovely new store website (http://www.ninasteastore.com). Flavored green teas aren’t generally something I ever consider when purchasing tea, just because I usually only drink green tea as a digestive or palate cleanser. But I love pina colada, so I had to try this one! The leaf appears to be sencha. It smells quite sweet and vaguely coconutty.

Brewed aroma is mostly coconut. I added a little bit of sugar (and noticed there was still golden Yunnan fairy dust on my teaspoon, cute!) just because I almost always end up adding it anything with flavored teas. Hmm… I’m finding the flavoring to be fairly light, which I suppose I should expect from French teas. The coconut is very present at the front of the sip, and then I start to get pineapple near the end. The base tea itself tastes grassy and has a slight autumn leaf element.

Overall, quite lovely and light for a coconut tea, and I do enjoy that little hint of pineapple near the end, but I wish there was more pineapple in general!

I got a sample of this from NayLynn the other day, and since I’m feeling under the weather I thought it would be a good time to have a tea called “I love you”! This is a deep, rich caramel, almost like the burnt sugar on top of a creme brulee. It’s not actually as sweet as I was expecting from the smell, but it’s delicious. Definitely a great pick-me-up for today!

Sipdown (110)!

Well, finished this one off. I have to say, this wasn’t the best cup to end on but it’s totally my fault. I was steeping it alongside two herbals, and because of that I got sloppy with the steep time and this oversteeped. As a result, it was fairly astringent and bitter – though I felt that was less exaggerated as it cooled so I was able to actually finish the cup. It’s a shame, though.

And now I’ve got this super cute, teeny tiny little lime green Nina’s Paris tin since VariaTEA was so generous and sent this to me in the tin. I cleaned out the tin, but I’m not sure what I should be putting inside of it. It doesn’t have the room for anything in large quantity, but it feels like it’d be a waste to just shove it back in the closet and forget about it, or just keep it on display in the living room with nothing in it.

Tins are meant to hold things!

Prepped a round of four teas to enjoy while catching up on Australian Big Brother; a mix of new things, old things and sipdowns. This falls somewhere in between all of those categories; it’s new but not among my newest teas and I thought it was a sipdown but I actually have enough left for one more cup.

I’ve had this a couple times and not written about it; oops. Although prior to now I had logged it once, so good for me for at least doing that. Past times, like now, I’ve found this to be more floral that other EGs with a kinda of mid level strength of Bergamot and then fruit notes like plums. Stone Fruits for sure, but definitely sorta more plummy than otherwise. It’s also very, very smooth.

I really like the EG and I’ll be sad when it’s gone; though I know I wont try and replace it because EG, while something I enjoy, is not a staple tea for me like it is for others and not something I often crave. But as far as EG goes, this is definitely a good one.

Thank you again VariaTEA for the sample of this! The cute little tin has been hanging out in my kitchen most of the week while I’ve been trying this one out; and I have to say that I actually really liked it, not that I didn’t expect to. It just feel’s like there’s a little “extra” to this EG over others.

This note specifically is for a batch I made in my timolino with milk. It was very smooth with a really nice black base, with strong notes of lavendar and jasmine in addition to a somewhat milder bergamot flavour and a sort of plum-y fruitiness to it. Honestly, it was just so good and it had some many unexpected flavours in it.

I enjoyed sipping on it at home while curled up on the couch munching out on pizza and stuff. I also met a new person; Tre’s friend Kaitlyn (I may have spelled it wrong; there are so many variations) came over to watch movies with him and stuff and it was the first time I’ve actually met her, though I’ve heard a lot about her. The two of them have a weird relationship; he was (maybe still is sorta?) super infatuated with her but she has a boyfriend – still they’re super flirty with each other. They had a bit of a falling out when he called her out on it and said he couldn’t just be friends with her if she was going to continue to treat him like she does Nigel (her boyfriend), but they’re working past it now and are back on track to being friends again.

It’s complicated, and a source of great entertainment for me – but I honestly feel bad for them both too. He’s right; she can be sorta aggressively flirty with him, but on the other hand he can also be one of those guys who does the whole “friend zoned” thing where he acts super charming/like an awesome friend, but has sorta “ulterior motives”. Bleck.

Before today I had not been enjoying this as much as I would have liked. It reminds me of strawberry/cherry chapstick. Today it is wonderfully uplifting iced in this hot humid weather with a wonky AC. I added a little sugar today hoping it would be more pleasant. So perfect I’m about to make another glass and sadly it will be gone.

Thank you to Laurent/Nina’s for this sample!

Dry: Small tightly rolled black tea leaves. The dry leaves smell divine to me- I was really excited to try it! A touch of caramel, stone fruits, vanilla, and almost a cocoa note as well in the little ziploc baggie. I didn’t have enough for a full teapot, but I was still in great anticipation.

Steeped: Clear brown liquor. This reminds me a LOT of Harney’s Paris and the scent is very similar. I think the aroma on this one is more raspberry though- very fruity and pleasant.

Taste: I wanted to have a true love forever affair with this one from the dry scent, but the taste is a little bit less than I hoped for. It is still a good cup of tea, but I didn’t really get any caramel notes from it as described. Red fruits are the most prominent along with a nice maltiness, a touch of vanilla, and a somewhat unusual perfume aftertaste. The samples arrived in an opened enveloped that USPS had taped back together and one of the 3 was missing entirely. Maybe the tea was in the truck next to perfume samples? I don’t really know what to make of the perfume aspect, but I am glad I was able to try it. I have one other tea from the company to try another time, so I will keep my fingers crossed!

Holy oranges, Batman! No chocolate or cream in this hot cup if tea. Just orange, orange, and more orange. Not that that’s bad but it’s definitely different than all the other cups I have had. Oh, and this is a sipdown. Thanks Cavocorax for sending this my way :)

So I never really liked chocolate and orange which is why I passed on asking for a sample of this while I was at Nina’s. However, the combination of positive reviews and the fact that I enjoyed Three Friends piqued my interest enough that I asked Cavocorax for a sample. Now that I have tried it for myself, I think I agree with Cavo in saying this is the best chocolate orange tea out there. Really. It is good. Very good. Smooth, creamy, chocolatey and with a bright citrus flavor. Yum! Thank you Cavo!!

Oddly enough I got no strawberries out of this, only apples.

I don’t like apple flavouring very much, so I didn’t love this. Perhaps my tastebuds are messed up.

I also cannot recall where I got this! Courtney perhaps??

Happy to have tried it though!

Weird, apple.

Received samples of this from Nina’s Tea and Courtney.

I checked Steepster ahead of time to determine the best temperature, rather, to see what everyone else did. I went with boiling for 2-3 min.

I found this pretty astringent. Not as smooth nor as creamy as I’d hoped, I found the strawberry taste seemed a bit artificial to me, but the main issue was the bitterness. Perhaps at a lesser temperature it would be softer and creamier, but as I prepared it, this tea was not particularly angelic!

Happy to have tried it out, thanks to Nina’s and Courtney!

I received a surprise package from JustJames quite some time ago, and I’ve been remiss in posting any notes on the lovely tea’s that were generously sent my way. Partly because I’ve been turning away from flavoured tea’s in favour of straight up tea’s. But once in a while I indulge and reach for flavoured.

On opening the sample packet I could immediately detect the sweetness and vanilla. I used to be fanatical about vanilla tea’s, and this just reawakened my love for all things vanilla.

Sweet, delicious caramel and vanilla. Mmmm.

Thanks JustJames!

Made this one again, used a bit more tea and a bit longer steep. It actually turned out really good. Definitely has that smooth sencha taste. But it was kind of weird. My initial thought was that this tastes like a light black tea. But it wasn’t oolong’y tasting, not a roasted oolong. More like a black tea. Kind of hard to explain. But it is good.

This is a pretty good sencha. I quite like sencha and I find it hard to find a good one. This one is not as buttery as I would like. But it is smooth. There is definitely a bit more spinachy, slightly woody flavour to this sencha, but it is still good.

I had brewed this one up hot and then put it in the fridge after to make it “iced” for a recipe. Iced it is ok. I have never been a huge fan of iced greens. It is just slightly bitter as iced. But it still maintains that nice sencha flavour.

Ok to the recipe. I found the best recipe for home made Bubble Tea. YES!!!!!
So here is the recipe for 4-6 servings:
1/2cup tapioca pearls
2 TBSP honey
1/3 cup Marscapone
1 1/2 cup green or black tea, iced
2 cups juice
1 cup milk.

You are supposed to cook the tapioca as per the package. Whisk honey and marscapone together, and slowly add tea, milk, and juice. Add tapioca and serve over ice.

Well of course I could not find tapioca pearls anywhere. The only thing I could find was the tapioca that is mixed up with starch so it makes the pudding or is used as a thickener. So my bubble tea had no bubbles, but that is ok. I also used this green tea and I used strawberry-kiwi juice. I served it with fresh farmers market strawberries.

It is so good. The liquor actually has minimal colour, which I think is good. Kind of goes to show how the mass produced type bubble teas have some sort of ridiculous dye in them. It is smooth and milky. The green tea is very light underneath the milky flavour. I think next time I would use a bit more green tea. The juice adds a very light fruity flavour, mostly strawberry. The marscapone makes it thick and luxurious and the honey adds just a bit of natural tasting sweetness.

I think next time I would like to try this with a fruit flavoured tea and omit the juice part.

Enjoying the day :)

I drank this today courtesy of VariaTEA and our pre-arranged tea box drops – the stealthiest swap ever! It was a nice passionfruit blend that I enjoyed, but it didn’t wow me enough to make me want more. Still, I’m very happy to have tried it because there are lots of Nina’s teas I enjoy and I need some way to narrow it down!

From a far this tea smells like a caramel pudding my aunt made when I was a kid. On the other hand up close it smells a little like those caramel rum lifesavers ( do they even make those anymore?). It brews up to a rich mahogany colour after 3 minutes.

Hot it does taste of a rum laced caramel, with vanilla over a thin but fruity tea base. As it cools the base tea becomes denser in texture and maltier. Its quite fruity with cherry and plum notes, and a little bit of cocoa, and a floral note. The tea becomes fairly spicy, with a nutmeg and cinnamon note with a touch of pepper. There is a bit of astringency and a good dose of tannins, but the tea remains smooth and easily drinkable. It still makes me think more of a rum laced caramel, than vanilla, but at this steep time the base and flavouring compliment each other and it is quite delicious!

Thanks Laurent for the chance to try this wonderful tea!

Thanks to Laurent and Dorian @ Nina’s Paris USA for this sample! I have to admit that I didn’t pay much attention to the dry leaves because I was in morning autopilot other than to notice that there were fruity chunks included. However, when I poured the water on, I turned away to continue slicing a banana, the aroma caught up to me, and I then literally whipped my head back around to take a huge whiff. That is how heavenly this tea smells! Oh, and the taste does not disappoint either! I think I may be apple insensitive because I often don’t taste the apple flavor in tea and this is no exception. I really don’t care at all though, because this is lovely peachy-apricoty goodness with the vanilla to soften and enhance the fruit flavors. As with the other teas I’ve tried from this company, you still get a nice dose of the base tea so you know you are drinking tea and not fruit juice. The flavors are beautifully and subtly present. This is another win for Nina’s Paris! So good!!

All the previous Nina’s Paris teas I’ve tried I have really liked because the flavors were subtle, but still definitely present. In my opinion, this tea has gone over too far into subtle territory. It just seems vaguely fruity, in tropical kind of way. The keemun base really takes over. I’m not saying this tea is bad- it’s not at all. It’s just not what I expected given the description and doesn’t live up to the other Nina’s teas that I’ve tried.