Christmas (Rois Mages)

Hi everyone! (Arms waving wildly and happy dancing!) I am finally back after a long hiatus due to lots of work, skating in an ice skating show for the first time in a long time, general holiday insanity, and trips. So, settled down with my tea and terrified at how behind I have become in tasting notes! I missed everyone! I hope I haven’t missed out on anything exciting!

Now for the tea… I bought this tea during my New York tea with intentions of showing off the nice Christmasy tin during the holidays. Sadly, I was so busy that I only opened it this past week! Oh well… I have heard so much hype and good things about Kusmi, that when I was in New York and saw the store, I had to stop in and get some teas! I was really excited about them, especially this one.

The scent is sweet and spicy with a strong ginger scent. The black tea scent is also there, but the main note is the spice. Once brewed, the scent becomes creamy and spicy, it reminds me of the smell of oatmeal cookies before you bake them.

The flavor is less spicy than I imagined it would be. It is like you can taste the spice flavor but don’t get any of the tingly spice sensation (I hope that makes sense!). The creamy flavor is great, and it is both a flavor and a sensation. I love how the vanilla and almond are strong enough to be evident over the flavor of the spices. It is a great tea for breakfast time, it makes me smile!

As far as I can tell from other people’s reviews, most aren’t as happy with this brew as I am. I guess I am lucky to enjoy it! I would recommend it if you like vanilla almond and don’t mid that the spices aren’t super strong. :)

I am so happy to be back!

this was an insightful inclusion by one miss VariaTEA in a return swap.

this blend calls old fashioned christmas trees to mind, the ones decorated with oranges studded with cloves in eccentric patterns, hung by huge loops of ribbon. the air is always spicy when i see them, almost sharp; cloves, orange peel and some invented element when they combine that i have never been able to identify… hmmmm a few tweaks and this could be a chai!

heavy spice, but beautifully balanced. a very good way to wake up, especially if you’re feeling rotten. very smooth base, very smooth transition into and out of the spice. the orange has a strong presence…. THERE IS NO PITH!!!! i am getting no lingering bitter after taste. full marks for that kusmi!

honestly, i am wondering where i can buy some of this. this could absolutely be my seasonal theme tea. thanks so much VariaTEA! such a thoughtful inclusion.

Second note for this tea.More indulgent.

Thé des rois mages was the only tea remaining in my office this morning. Don’t know what I did this week end but simply forgot to refill my empty tins for work.

The dry leaf was promissing as any Kusmi tea : the head note was spicy very spicy (clove I think)
I found this tea too mild the first time, so I added more leaf and left it steep longer this time.
It was better,really better.
But it is supposed to be Xmas tea…and my reference for this is Esprit de Noël de Mariage Frères. Let’s say we are very far from any Christmas Spirit with this one. Still too mild.Lack of perfumes to my opinion.

So I did an heresy…but a typical French sacrilege…I dove my croissant in this tea…not bad !

Have a backlog, since I’m not capable of tasting anything properly at the moment, the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) of this morning being proof thereof, and also it seems like it’s been a while since I wrote a proper post that wasn’t just a ‘poor me’ kind of thing.

So here is a tea that Auggy has shared with me, and which I have tasted rather out of season, because I didn’t really feel like waiting. And I’d already done the Thirsty Elf too which was also out of season, so…

It was, according to my notes, a chilly day when I had it, though, so I thought at the time that a Christmas tea seemed appropriate.

The leaf smelled of Christmas spices and particularly of ginger. There was a funny almost soapy note in it as well, but I’m not sure that wasn’t just another aspect of the ginger. Other thoughts I had were of clove, cinnamon and cardamom, but really it was mostly ginger. It’s supposed to have orange as well, but I only found that as a whiff of an accent to the other notes.

Not super-confident about this, I sipped with caution. Gosh, ginger! And soap. Now I definitely think the soapyness is a ginger aspect. As for the other ingredients, I could only find a weak orange and the shadow of an almond in the aftertaste. That’s it. No vanilla, no spices, no nothing. Just ginger.

So not a blend for me, this.

I picked this up a couple weeks ago at Kusmi and have yet to try it. I grabbed the bag when I got home but my roommate told me it was not Christmas yet and so I should have a different tea. However, after the sample I sent JustJames got such a nice review I gave in and decided to try some.

This is the first tea with a prominent orange presence that I don’t mind at all. I think that is because unlike many other orange teas, this has other flavors going on that help to provide depth to the tea rather than it being one strong orange note. The spices tone down the orange while the vanilla adds some sweetness. I am even getting a bit of cake-yness in the mouth feel that is quiet enjoyable.

All in all, this is definitely a nice cup of tea and I can certainly see how this might be reminiscent of Christmas. The smells are what I would imagine (being Jewish I don’t have much experience in the matter) the combination of a Christmas tree and Christmas cooking would smell like – very warm and cozy.

Sipdown from VariaTEA. :)

I only had 1 tsp left, so I made half a mug. Then I sweetened it with cranberry honey. Yes. Honey made from cranberry blossoms.

It’s actually really really good with the tea – makes it fruitier, goes well with the orange.

I also had an orange drizzled with this honey. :)

Not sure I’d repurchase, but if I saw a small tin somewhere I might pick it up.

(236)

Thanks VariaTEA for sending this my way.
I’ll be honest I don’t like names such as Christmas – that doesn’t tell me anything. What is this suppose to be? The only flavor that I can pick out is citrus. There is more going on but I think it’s all muddled together.
Read the ingredient list here, and almond? Nope, can’t pick that out. Vanilla? Nope can’t find that either. Christmas cake? Ewwwww I hate Christmas Cake, glad I didn’t read that first. Not getting cake either.
This is a sweet, citrus dessert tea. I don’t hate it, I don’t love it – it’s strange to me. Thanks VarieTEA for sending me this sample.

christmas in May!
orange yay, almond yay, vanilla yay, and spices…hmmm i’m skeptical of you “spices”.
tasting…
and it’s pretty mild.
i probably need to steep it longer.
i was worried there would be cinnamon with a capital C.
instead it’s just nothin to write home about.

(This will be my attempt to write a brief(er than normal) tea log. Wish me luck!)

The set up: I’ve had a bit of an uncheerful time lately and today is no different. Fortunately, my Kusmi order showed up a day earlier than expected so I will be able to cheer myself up with tea!

The smell: The dry leaves give me marzipan with a hint of spice and a flash of soft floral and bakey. The tea smells of… tea (like some sort of Lipton-esque blend that just comes across as “tea”) with a little soft spice (thankfully not enough to make me think of potpourri) and something that reminds me of pancakes (sweet and bready).

The taste: It’s mild. I can detect rose and spice when I slurp but otherwise it’s faintly marzipan and orange with a cinnamon-like sweetness of spice at the end. But the notes all sort of blend to give a smooth, rather softly flavored, afternoon tea.

The verdict: I had hoped that this would be a little stronger on the almond and orange (as I love those flavors) but I do like the mild-ness and smooth-ness of this. I probably won’t buy this one again as it’s fairly un-wowing, but the smoothness and mild flavor is relaxing to me on this grumpy day.

This was part of a sampler set I got from Kusmi last year and evidently I never logged or rated this tea so here goes!

Tea of the morning. :) Smells like orange and spices in the tin. Leaves are dark, small and slender. I’m not generally a huge fan of orange spice teas, but this isn’t bad. I’m finding it to be a bit thin on flavor but the orange is nice and juicy. I detect a bit of vanilla but it is light on some of the other spices you might expect in a blend like this, such as clove. I tried it both with additions and without and it seemed fine either way, but i just can’t imagine drinking this on a regular basis.