Une journée à la campagne

This is a very beautiful tea leaf : a lot of yellow flowers (sunflowers) are mixed in, and it smells delicious.

Drinking it, I had difficulties to isolate the flavours : for sure there is orange but don’t get especially a blood orange.
Originally, I bought this one because it was with chestnuts- I cannot really say I get a huge chestnut taste. It is quite weird. It is here, but light and very very mixed with the other ingredients.

Having said that there is no reason to be picky : the taste is delicious, everything is very well balanced and the tea base (always the same with perfumed black teas with B&B) is nice and goes very well with these flavours.
The tea name is perfect and you are really in Autumn with this blend.
As it seems Autumn in coming back here in the middle of the Spring…this tea is perfect today.

I think this one could have been a very great tea but just stops before reaching the top. A little plus of je ne sais quoi would have permitted it to reach the top.

Another sample sent to me by ysaurella – thanks! I’m still limiting the notes, but I definitely liked both the Betjeman & Barton blends ysaurella sent me (this and Pouchkine) a lot more than the ones I bought myself – Luxury & Hanami (also Courtisanes, but that’s green). I like the orange, though I agree that I wouldn’t be able to distinguish it as blood orange, I like the more subtle taste of the chestnuts (compared to Luxury), and the cinnamon is a very nice addition to the mix. Good black base too. Definitely a pleasure drinking this – thanks again, Ysaurella!

Have been so busy lately that I haven’t properly enjoyed tea for a while! I am now having a long weekend, and I decide that it will be perfect to start it with a tea sample that I received in a recent tea swap with the very generous Steepsterite Ysaurella. :)

One thing I really love about French teas is that they always have pretty, poetic names! This tea (“A day in the countryside”) is no exception. I was expecting a really floral tea (cos there should be lots of flowers in the countryside right?), but it’s nothing like that. Rather, the dry leaves have a tangy smell of cinnamon and dried fruits.

When brewed, this is a warming tea with dominant flavours of cinnamon and orange. Both flavours are very natural, which is good news as I am normally put off by artificial “Fanta”-like orange. But seriously I can’t detect any chestnut in the tea… a real pity. The black tea base is fairly astringent so I am happy that I have kept the brewing time short.

Overall, I am glad to have the chance to taste this tea, which is not available in Hong Kong. Thanks again, Ysaurella! Sharing tea with people around the world is such a beautiful thing. :)

When I first made this tea, I couldn’t taste the chestnuts at all… I can’t say I have the most refined tea palate, but still. Then I got a cold one time and decided to have this as my ‘get better’ tea, with some honey, and suddenly the chestnut was there! Doesn’t work the same way at all if I just add sugar. So I love this with a bit of honey. Not too much, though, otherwise it overpowers the tea flavour.