Passion de Fleurs

In the bag, just what I was looking for – lushly and ripely fruity, with a nice complexity – it smells like passion fruit and apricot/peach compote, if there was ever such a thing. (The brewed tea, on the other hand, smells like wet fruit leaf.)

Taste wise, well – I tried this at 90 degrees C for 4 minutes, before reading Dinosara’s notes on bitterness. And no, this is not a particularly tolerant tea – the whites I’ve been drinking lately steep at 80 or so degrees C for 7 minutes without acquiring the slightest hint of astringency, but no such luck in this case.

Before the bitterness strikes, though, the taste mimics the scent of the dry tea very nicely – it’s seems more flavourful than the greens from DF I’ve tried lately, which is a happy surprise. However, it’s not overly complex, and this combined with the lack of steeping suggestions (always bad when it comes to a finicky tea) and my now fairly established lack of awe when it comes to DF teas, which probably makes me somewhat prejudiced, this is no favourite.

As it cools, the bitterness mellows out quite well, as previously reported. Unfortunately, so does the flavour itself.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

I haven’t had this tea in a long time and so I actually did look it up to see about my prior steeping parameters, so I found out that this is a somewhat tempermental white tea and that I should steep it at a low temp. I also reduced my leaf amount a bit this time.

Well, it turned out pretty delicious, and I have to bump my score up some notches. Way passion fruity with floral notes that don’t scream rose, but do add a nice rich floral flavor that I appreciate. At a lower temp it is a bit more complex, although I have to admit the white tea here does little for the overall flavor. I can just imagine this with a creamy yunnan white and how amazing it would be then! I will have to remember to add this to my regular rotation, although I doubt I will order more after it’s done.

ETA: ugh I had to try to submit this note like five times!

I steeped this tea for about 5-6 minutes with 70C starting heat and the tea came out just perfectly. I say this because i learnt white tea needs to be steeped at 70C degrees.

The tea was fruity and very smooth. Never had apricot peachy taste in tea before, and it was surprisingly very good. Make sure you don;t burn the leaves by steeping it 75 or higher as it will be bitter as others said it before me.

The tea itself was a delight, i would recommend to others and will reorder as it is a nice taste in my rotation.

This tea smells so amazing. No other tea has captured the passion fruit smell quite so perfectly as this. The florals blend well, also. My problem with this tea is the base, which contributes a slight sweetness but also bitterness that is difficult for me to get around without sugar. As it cools, it is much fruitier. The blend reminds me of a lighter-flavored Bali, but with a base that I just cannot brew right. Dinosara has suggested taking some home and cold-brewing it, which I most definitely will be doing, because with the smell of this tea when it was brewing, cold brewing can only be awesome.
I got a second brew out of it, but it was more bitter. Full sugar cube went into the cup and it is much more tolerable, fruity, and a little more rosey than the first steep.

This tea smells so yummy! It reminds me of a juice box I had when I was a little kid… some kind of fruit punch, only more delicate. I get the feeling that this one could get very bitter if oversteeped.

Sipping… mmm, the flavors in this tea are so special and so unique! I taste the passionfruit, but also the lovely rose. The two blend together flawlessly! They are so well balanced that the tea doesn’t taste like perfume when it very well could. The white tea stays in the background and really only comes out at the end of the sip. I’m glad that it’s not bitter, but adds just a little sharpness to the fruit and flowers.

I never would have thought to purchase this tea, but it’s delicious and unique! Quite tasty.

December 8 – Advent 2014

Dammann Frères Advent Calendar – December 8th

Ooh, this is the first white tea of the calendar! I do enjoy white tea, though it’s not something I drink often. Judging by the ingredients listed, this is a possible flower bomb tea. We shall see. I was quite surprised by how crushed the white tea leaves are inside the sachet. The pieces are very small, almost like a generic tea bag with fannings. I think I can see a few bits of flower petals, but it’s difficult to say. Dry scent is sweet-tart apricot and passion fruit with just a bit of rose. I had originally planned and started a 3-minute steep, but I was worried about bitterness from those tiny leaf pieces so I took it out about 15-20 seconds early.

Once the tea is steeped, the powdery rose is more evident in the aroma, though I can still smell the lovely fruits. The rose is definitely the strongest player here, but it’s not so overpowering as to make me not want to drink the cup. It also plays quite nicely with the hay-like, slightly creamy white tea base. I can taste a bit of apricot and passion fruit in the background, and they do come out a little more at the end of the sip. I do wish the fruit flavors had a stronger role here, and they would help temper the rose just a bit more. Overall, this is better than I thought it would be, but I’m going to withhold my rating because I know I’m biased against floral teas. :P

Day 8. A brand new tea to me.

This one smells strongly floral, rose petal floral. There were under notes of what I first assumed to be strawberry. I then read the ingredients and realized it was apricot and on tasting the tea again, I can agree that is was apricot.

This tea is fairly good. Slightly chemical tasting due to what I am assuming is the rose fragrance. But the Rose and apricot flavours go really well together. This feels like a really fancy tea. The white tea base is not terribly smooth, a bit of astringency but I had some brewing problems so it could be due to that. The tea is very thick and juicy tasting.

So it is my habit when brewing a tea bag, I always fill the cup with the hot water then put the tea bag it. I dislike when you pour hot water over a tea bag and it puffs up and floats to the tops. So I put my water in the cup, threw in the tea bag and turned my back for about 2 minutes. I could smell the beautiful aroma of the tea. When I turned out I realized that only the smaller corner of the tea bag was in the water, the rest of the bag getting somehow stuck on the rim of the cup, holding itself out of the water. So I put the tea bag in the water for another two minutes. But ther was a small portion of tea that had already been steeping. So I think that might have changed the flavour profile a bit. #teabagprobs

Same ingredients, and tastes about the same than Monoprix Gourmet’s “Blanc Parfumé”.