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Alright, this is weird. I just clicked on this tea because of how pretty it looked (while I was looking at Yumchaa’s Enchanted Forest tea), and I realized that it has exactly the same ingredients as TeaBar’s (Amsterdam tea company) Zoete Amandel Thee. And it’s a rather unusual ingredient mix, too! What’s up with that? Are there some fancy tea combinations floating around the world under different names? Are there tea mix thieves? I’m confused… and intrigued!

By the way, I love Zoete Amandel tea, so if this is anything like it, thumbs up.

I just got this one, but my first try wasn’t that great. I did have it after Fleurilege, which was yummy, so I think there might have been some disappointment from comparison. Still, I’m pretty sure I can make this taste better, so I’ll have to play around with brewing methods. I’m thinking more tea, more time. It wasn’t at all bitter this time, so I’m hoping it can handle more.

I am always quite impressed by all the Steepster folk who make their black tea with a tsp per 250ml and 4 or more minutes and then say it’s not bitter. I don’t even know how many times I’ve dared to even try that… but I may need to, especially with the really good, low astringency blends.

Huh, just realized that Steepster doesn’t let me say I put in 1.5 tsp of tea. Well, I did.

This tea reminds me quite a bit of how I remember The Des Riads (also Dammann) tasting. I do seem to remember Riads being more sweet, whereas this one… funnily enough, reminds me of grapefruit, which it doesn’t contain, whereas Riads does. I think what it actually is is the lime and coconut combination.

I don’t usually go for coconut in my green teas – I find that it tastes very different from my idea of coconut, and not in a way I like. But this one seems to do that green coconut thing better than other teas I’ve tried (e.g. the Dutch one from TeaBar whose name I now can’t remember for the life of me). There’s also definitely a background of spices, though I don’t recognize any particular spice. It’s more like a subtle bitter quality that isn’t actually bitter. If that makes any sense.

As for the mango, I don’t think I taste it specifically, but there may be a bit of very subtle sweetness that comes from it. It’s funny, this tea. I feel like it has this very complex but not very strong flavour. It has shades of sour, bitter, and sweet, without actually being any of those. But I also feel like it doesn’t really taste very strongly of anything ‘real’. Then again, I’m not this tea’s target audience – which is why I only asked for 1/3 of a bag when a friend of mine was ordering it for herself.

I’ll play around with brewing methods, though, and see what happens. Also I think I’ll have to do a side-by-side comparison with Riads (which I am quite fond of).

Also, is it me or do the Mariage Freres steeping instructions not make much sense? I never seem to do what they tell me to with their teas… cause when I do, it just tastes plain weird to me.

This tea just didn’t work for me. It’s one of those that smells amazing – like hot cider – but just doesn’t do much for me flavour-wise. I steeped it at work, though, which means I couldn’t watch the temperature as precisely, and did 3 minutes as I usually do for flavoured greens. It was just kind of like slightly flavoured water. Eh. It’s quite possible that I just did it wrong, but I can’t be bothered buying it just to give it another chance. Sorry tea.

I seem to keep going up and down with my perception of Yumchaa teas. I first thought they weren’t that impressive, but then I decided I liked a number of them a lot (Ginseng Guardian, Red Christmas, Red Chai, Chelsea Chai, Enchanted Forest), and then I decided I was really quite disappointed in a lot of them (Wanderlust, the whites don’t really blow my mind, Caramel Sweetheart, the Earl Greys are ok but not that special – though a few friends love it, Blueberry Hill didn’t really live up to its reputation, neither did Regent’s Park).

And then I went and developed an aversion to both the Chai-y rooiboses, which about halfs my chosen Yumchaa teas. And Enchanted Forest doesn’t seem as enchanting as it first did. So yeah… I think I may be over Yumchaa. Too many other teas in the ‘pond’, especially with all the ‘free shipping for orders over…’ options :)

So, I’ve been looking at this tea a bit more and I could swear some of those flower buds are lavender. I did actually do a side-by-side comparison of this and Oosterse Liefde, and they weren’t actually that similar. There definitely are some similarities, but not anywhere close to the same. I think it’s more that Impressionnistes reminds me of how I remember Oosterse Liefde. Interesting.

I’m knocking the score down a tiny bit just because I think I got a bit too excited when I first had it. It’s lovely, but I’m not sure it’s quite in my 90s yet. Let’s see if that changes again.

This tea reminds me of Pleine Lune’s (Mariage Freres) poor cousin. I get what it’s trying to do, but it doesn’t quite do it well enough. I think I’ve been spoiled by better teas – and I’m glad :) Especially since I just had one sample of this one, so I can instead spend my money on, oh, so many other yummy teas….