En Visite Chez Granny

Hello hello! I spent part of the summer in France with family, and have just moved into a new flat. Since there was no wi-fi at the house in France I made tasting notes on the teas I tried there.

I picked this tea up at a market stall, the name really grabbed me, and the ingredients list sounded divine. Of course it’s always difficult to flavour black tea so it tastes more like the promised aroma than pure black tea, but I had my hopes. The dry leaves smell enticing and just like apple crumble, and after infusing it fairly lightly, the aroma only got stronger – really apple-y, with lots of cinnamon! That’s the way I make apple crumble too!

…Sadly, black, it didn’t taste anywhere near as strong as it smells. Although the ingredients list states China black tea it gives more of a Ceylon woody kind of tone (perhaps this is just because so many other flavoured teas have a Ceylon base, I’m too used to that?), and the apple becomes more sharp than the soft fruity smell. On the other hand, though, when I’m cooking apples for a crumble they do have a sharp smell because I use lots of spices and citrus… Sadly I couldn’t taste the Speculoos at all! Maybe it was lost in the slightly overpowering black tea flavour.

I’ve also tried this tea brewed much more strongly (a heaped teaspoonful, 5 mins brewing time) and with added milk, and somehow the speculoos and spices come through better that way, with the apple still strong and sharp but not clashing with the milk. It isn’t the most apple crumble-y tea I’ve ever had (Yumchaa’s Wanderlust is the winner there) but the fact that it can take milk and still have a fragrant, sweet flavour will make this one of my favourites this winter, I think!