Palais des Thés

Unless it was part of a blend, my poor, impaired tastebuds never equated pu-erh with much more than cave water or sweet tree roots. To see some of you mention menthol or camphor as flavor notes mystified me.

Well, today, I finally got it. Cave water first, tree roots next, but then I caught just the smallest breath of mentholated sippiness just after each swallow, which immediately created a mental image of Mama Bear lining the cave with pine and wintergreen branches so that it wouldn’t get too stinky while she hibernates. I’m ready to go back to bed now.

A very, very long overdue sipdown; nothing much to add, other than this iteration of a genmaicha held up well under reasonably careful storage (that’s spelled h-o-a-r-d-i-n-g) and has encouraged me to hunt down some more—same brand or different.

There’s spring rain and then there’s wet, damp, chill-you-inside-out spring rain. The latter was the order of the day. I had to go back out in it after church (volunteer day: kids made a Cinco De Mayo meal at our local Ronald McDonald House) and needed to preheat myself a little.

This fit the bill nicely. Could drink a bathtub-sized mug without a caffeine buzz that will keep me up tonight. Usually with genmaicha, the only thing I notice is the “popcorn,” but this has a nice toasty, grassy green tea base as well. (My first review of the same tea added “spinachy” to the description, but it’s getting a little old; the edge must have worn off a bit.)

Wrapping up my little taste-test tin. My gift set from Palais des Thes was made up of cute, skinny little metal test tubes which have protected the leaves well. I’m still not savvy enough to tell one genmaicha from another, unless I ruin one and oversteep it, but this one is very pleasant: sweet grass and Rice Krispies.

Nice day in: little snow outside; enough to be pretty but not enough to be inconvenient. A little productive writing, a slightly cleaner bathroom, beef stew for lunch, sixty-seven loads of laundry (well, maybe only forty-two). I am, however, done whether the housework is or not. Treating myself to a little time to enjoy a selection from my Palais des Thes tasting sampler.

Genmaicha may be one of those teas that are always going to taste like genmaicha; however, this tin was beautifully fresh and fragrant. The green tea is sharp and bright like fresh spinach, and the rice scent makes me want to go stick my nose in a box of Rice Krispies. A light and gentle change of pace from the heavily flavored and spiced stuff I’ve been leaning on all month.

It’s bound to get you eventually. Just like the cold. Covid has stuck our house. But so far only my son and I are positive. I’m praying my husband and and daughter stay negative because we leave for vacation soon. But this brings me to why I am drinking this blend. It is called Natural Defense, seems like a good thing to drink right now. The aroma is sweet and fruity and I love the bag! It’s cute and not full of chemicals. The taste is very soothing. Berries and different fruits. Very soothing.

The current Palais des Thes product description says, This delicious black tea, also known as “surgeon’s tea” because it awakens without overstimulating, has a honeyed scent and is ideal for the morning.

Yes on the honey scent and flavor; very smooth and mild. Eyes were open and brain was engaged, unprompted, at 4:30 a.m., so it’s going to be an uphill battle on the “awakening” aspect.

After a week of burned-out tastebuds, I’m weaning myself off the decongestant and spicy stuff and decided to try something a little subtler this morning.

For a Yunnan, which I’ve characterized as perky and zingy in the past, this is pretty sweet and mild. Other reviews mention honey and hay notes—I get the honey more than hay. There’s not quite enough heft for me to classify this as a breakfast tea strong enough to suit me, but I did get two reasonable, smooth steeps out of the leaves.

This was my second cup from the Palais Des Thes sampler. The notes that accompanied it mentioned some chocolatey notes—I caught a few, but they were pianissimo. What caught my attention was light, sweet, bread-crusty, and malty. Definitely an afternooner—wouldn’t be heavy enough to open my eyes on a winter morning. But still very, very nice.

Long overdue sipdown. I prefer my green tea on the sweet and toasty spectrum and this leans toward the vegetal; even more so because I had slightly more leaves than required for a full cup. It steeped up dark and chewy like vegetable broth, and on a whim I squeezed in the contents of a green apple honey straw, which sweetened and lightened it both. Between that and the absolutely delicious sunshine streaming directly onto my favorite chair (it’s been days!) one might believe that spring isn’t so far away after all.

Even those these leaves have been around longer than they should have, they are hanging on to their toasty, grassy personality—could be my imagination, but I’m even finding a little burnt sugar in this cup. After a heavy jag of flavored autumnal teas, it’s a nice palate cleanser.

Aha! Another scavenger hunt threebie: French, green, spinach and artichoke notes. My tastebuds are a little wonky after four days under the weather, but as I was sipping it, the fresh spinachy greens element was so strong, I was craving sliced strawberries and vinaigrette to go with it. Nice, crisp garden vegetable vibe.

One of my Christmas treats from my son was a beautifully boxed tasting set from Palais des Thes—all single-origin teas in little metal tubes that scratch the itch to fidget and play with toys. All of these are ones I want to pay attention to, so I took a little attention break after a morning of post-holiday pitching and organizing.

The dry leaves were a delicious, deep pine green and the fresh scent reminded me of the big bowls of peas and green beans Mom would bring in for us to snap and shell. (Shelling peas is the most satisfying sensory experience—you really need to try it once.) Tasted almost exactly the same as its scent, with the addition of a little sweet, woody aftertaste on the tip of the tongue.

I keep forgetting that un-tampered, fresh, unflavored green teas can be really fine. I think I’ll hang on to the rest for a gloomy, freezing winter day when I need a reminder that spring is out there somewhere.

I used a tea bag “Darjeeling Finest” from Palais des Thés (one I got in my hotel when staying in Calais last time), but I cannot find the blend with that name on PdT´s website, so was looking for the description (a sweet and floral blend from the top Darjeeling tea gardens) instead and figure it must be this one.
This is definitely a stronger character sweet (malty) darjeeling to take in the morning, prone to getting bitter when oversteeping. Nice but once you´ve tried an elegant first flush darjeeling, you tend to ignore these “other” darjeeling teas ;-)

I very much enjoy this. A bit thin for my typical tastes, especially during the workday when I prefer a stronger flavor. But tonight it’s hitting all the right notes. Lightly peachy, not a lot of green flavor, but it’s there in the background.

Very delicate

The #cuppateaathon on Instagram ends Sunday so I’m trying to get in another prompt. This was about drinking a tea from your favourite mug. I wasn’t sure if the mug I picked was actually my favourite, but it’s the one I thought of when I read the prompt.

Since the mug was the focus, I could go with any tea so I did my random number generator to randomly select a tea. This was the randomly selected option. I have to say, I don’t love it. It was a touch astringent and sort of flat maple nut flavour. Just meh. I think it’s going into the swap box since someone else will probably enjoy this more than me.

Second round of my mini tournament is underway. The options were either two caffeine free teas or two caffeinated teas and Roswell Strange suggested caffeinated made more sense for Sunday morning. Granted, I asked her hours ago but stuck with the caffeinated teas anyways. So it’s this tea, Chocomint vs Radioactive Marshmallow by 52 Teas. I do think I know which is winning even before drinking but…

The chocolate flavour is more cocoa powder and a lot stronger than it was last time. This is cocoa forward today with lingering mint. Costco sold a pack of fancy hot chocolates years ago. I feel like they were maybe Starbucks brand but maybe not and this reminds me of the mint hot chocolate but made in water so it’s on the thinner side.

It’s good today…unfortunately it’s up against a tea that is also really good and will just always appeal to me more. Check out the tasting note for Radioactive Marshmallow here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/423475

Final battle of the first round of my mini tournament is this tea, Chocomint vs Dirty Girl Scout by The NecessiTeas. Check out the tasting note for Dirty Girl Scout here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/423103

This is an oolong chocolate mint tea that goes with cacao pieces instead of actual chocolate to get the flavour across. Between the base and the cacao, this is at a slight disadvantage based on my preferences. That said, it is a cleaner/lighter mouthfeel than Dirty Girl Scout. It brews up lighter and no oil dots on top.

Tastewise it is smooth and very natural tasting. Dark chocolate with a slight mint finish. It makes me think of an after eight with a hint of floral from the base. This is compared to a more Andes inspired milk chocolate mint of Dirty Girl Scout.

Both are pretty even so ultimately it was based on my mood and today the lighter/cleaner flavour is speaking to me more. Chocomint wins!

Sipdown (1460)!

I mean there’s not much to say for this one – it’s a pretty normal and average tasting Genmaicha. I had it as a late in the workday cuppa a few days ago, and it was just an overall pleasantly light and comforting tea, but nothing fancy or bad. Thanks for sharing though VariaTEA!

I’m enjoying this one more than I expected. I taste the lemon verbena mostly. I don’t really get turmeric. It doesn’t need sugar. It’s mostly fresh and herbal and a little savory. I wouldn’t want it all the time, but I like it. It’s a pleasant tea box find.

Strange VariaTEA TTB Box: Tea #16

Last one that I pulled to taste! Felt a little weird drinking a Christmas tea, but Christmas in July is a thing – right!? It was tasty with some sweeter forefront cinnamon flavours and undertones of orange. Very cozy and smooth, would have been good with milk but I just had it straight up while cooking.

This was a fun find from the tea box. The flavor is lightly orangey and mildly spiced. It’s mild, but maybe there’s a hint of almond in there too. I like it! There are plenty of blends like this, so I’m not sure I’d order it, but it was tasty. Pretty typical for a Christmas blend, but well done.