Lèvres Épicées

Spices. Orange blossoms. Flowers.

Hmm. Interesting. Not bad, but not my favourite profile. It’s almost too complicated, and doesn’t let me wallow in anything.

Also, it says on the packet that it’s a black tea but on here it says it’s a green blend. At any rate, it’s astringent. Even with milk.

Thanks so much for letting me try, MissB. It’s a neat combination of flavours but I would not search this out…

Really loving this tea! I adore orange and that’s the main note that comes through. A tiny hint of spice in the aftertaste, and some vague green tea notes hangin around somewhere I can’t put my finger on.
Funny, I’m never one for floral teas but I don’t get much of that at all here. Definitely some in the lingering afternotes but not enough to make me notice unless I concentrate.
Hot, I quite adore this. Cooled down, I find it a bit tart but still quite tasty. Thanks for sharing MissB!

I find teas with both floral and spice profiles hard to mentally digest. I simultaneously want to add milk and go chai, while also wanting to do a low temp steep without milk and sugar. The tea is a mixed black and green blend with fruity notes, and the main spice is the cardamom so I ended going with a cold brew.

Notes of cardamom and spiced fruit draw my attention the most, like a watery homage to mango lassi, while the rose is light and more inclined to a dessert-like Turkish Delight juiciness.

The blend is more of an abstract aromatherapy/spa mix than a concrete dessert tea, but that isn’t stopping my mind from filling in gaps..

Sipdown (118)!

My daily cold brew! Sample provided by the lovely MissB.

I’m wondering if I should have prepared this one hot; I saw the rose petals in the blend and immediately thought it’d do well cold brewed but it was pretty weird. Initial flavours I noticed with the very first few sips were rose, cardamom and clove – but the more I drank the less clove-y flavour there was and the more the cardamom built along with a bit of heat from something else – chili? The rose stayed light but consistent and noticeable throughout. It took a while to actually pick up any substantial fruit notes; and the first one I noticed was the orange.

The whole thing was weird and very muddled; I knew I was tasting a fruit note other than orange, but I couldn’t tell what and the cardamom was very strong. I’m not the biggest fan of cardamom in the first place; it’s better as a supporting note rather than the dominant one, in my opinion. Eventually I went and looked up the ingredients – which I hadn’t prior. Mango! That was what I was missing. I’m not really a huge mango fan either; and paired with cardamom? The idea of that is one big shoulder shrug, at best.

Turns out this also is a green/black mix, which I definitely didn’t realize. I thought it was all black, so the confusion of thinking it was a black base but actually tasting green tea as well probably didn’t help with the weird muddled mess of flavours I was getting.

Hot definitely would have been better, as well as having a more clear idea of what was in the blend. As it stands, I didn’t dislike this one but it was a mess to get through and far from impressive. There’s a lot of ingredients here that I’m not big on in the first place, as well. I’d be up for trying it again hot – but otherwise I think this will be one that’s easily dismissed and forgotten.

Today was my last day off from my “Mini Easter Vacation”. I enjoyed the extended time off immensely; I’m so very much not ready to go back to work tomorrow. At least I get to sleep in since I’m working a night/closing shift. Oh boy, my favourite…

Another from MissB this one is a green/black blend. I am finding this one to have a floral presence….i get a little of the cardamom but it’s largely orange, fruity and floral. There’s a bit of a spice note there too but it’s very subtle. At least it’s not drowning in rose :)

Thanks for the share MissB!

Made this as a chai, and not sure what to think of it still. A bit floral, a bit spicy from the cardamom (but zero hot spicy), it’s a much milder tea than I was expecting. Perhaps need to have it as a straight tea before rating it.