Ilse Wouters Send Message

Just bought this tea today in a pop-up store in Madrid. I´ve longed to try Clipper tea for a while, and the raspberry – a wonderful fruit I cannot get enough of – decided! Made myself and my husband a cup, and the strong raspberry fragrance from the tea bag fades when the tea is steeping and in the final taste very little of the raspberry remains. It´s not bad, but I would ´ve preferred to get a bit of raspberry in the final taste. Enjoyable for the rest.
A funny thing I saw : the English label says to"pour water over the tea bag when it´s still boiling", while the added label in Spanish advices to boil the water, leave to cool for 1 minute and then add tea bag. Can someone please explain why there is this difference??? ;-)

I´m not a fan of red fruits based infusions, but sometimes I somehow seem to put boxes like this Twinings Fruit Bliss Infusions in my shopping cart. A gentle infusion fur winter nights, I seem to think. Today I put a cup for my husband and another for me, and it´s a hot summer day afternoon! Smells very fruity, which is confirmed in the final brew, which tastes fruit and not sirop, so it scores points for me. Hibiscus based (this seems to put some people off, and although I prefer my own rosehip infusion, it´s not the case for me), but this doesn´t dominate the fruity taste. I guess it would make a nice iced tea as well.

I think, but I might be mistaken, that this is the loose tea equivalent of the tinned China Rose Petal Leaf Tea by Taylors of Harrogate. When I was living in Yorkshire, this tea was one of my absolute favourite ones, because of its very floral fragrances, making it an easy-going afternoon tea. The leftovers of a packet I used today must have been forgotten about for some years, and this shows : it smells almost smoked now, although the rose fragrance is still present, and the taste is harder, more bitter than I remember. Still a nice cuppa though. Should get myself a new packet and compare ;-)

Soft and very easy-going…perfect to wake up gently ;-)
This being said, although there´s nothing wrong with this tea, I don´t rate it higher than 80 because according to my taste buds, it lacks some punch. I should really try to brew it the Russian style, and see how it works out that way…one day!

The thirst quenched with some iced tea, I put myself down to read a bit in my book, with a nice cuppa next to me…this tea is wonderful for all senses, starting with the lovely rather sweet smell of marzipan. A treat w/o gaining the pounds from eating marzipan ;-)

After returning home from the swimming pool, I craved for a cold drink, and had this tea iced in the fridge…very refreshing, nice taste of green tea without it being too grassy, or wooden…I immediately put another pot to cool down.

Bought years ago at a tea/cofee shop in Louvain (Belgium), I cannot be absolutely sure it´s the same brand name of tea, but it´s very similar by looking at the picture. I loved this tea from the start (before rating teas on steepster), and I rediscovered a bit of it in a tin today, and enjoyed a nice cup of it ths afternoon. Very floral, with a subtle hint of smoke, it´s an ideal afternoon tea. An added plus : even when the cup cools, it´s still a nice tea (it actually might make an enjoyable iced tea as well).

Opening the tin it might as well smell as the green variant of Kusmi´s St Petersburg, but that´s where it stops for me. This is gunpowder tea, which end up as an acceptable green tea, but most of the aroma´s (citrus fruits, especially vanilla and caramel) are gone! Need to drink it again, maybe changing the steeping parameters, because I cannot understand the good ratings by some people.

Another tea I wouldn´t have picked (but it was one of the tins of the “afternoon” series by Kusmi), but I must admit it scores way better than other teas – a priori – of my preference. It smells really nice, fruity, and not in an artificial way as is the case with many aromatised black teas. In the taste this is mainly a black tea, with subtle hints of red fruit blending in nicely, therefore making this tea a good afternoon tea.

Actually, I was quite afraid of how this tea would turn out, so the first sip was a “delicate” moment, but it tasted alright. Spicy (in the sense of the Xmas teas) whereas the chocolate blends everything well together, without giving it too much sweetness or bitterness. Very forgiving as well when leaving the cup to cool down a bit…