Almond Green Tea (Thé Vert à l'Amande)

This tea is so forgiving! I accidentally left the leaves in the water for a little longer than I intended since I was cooking! It still tastes good!

After this, I have enough leaves left for one more steeping session!

So this is pretty cool. The leaves smell strongly of marzipan (and a little mint but I think that’s because it was in the sampler tube with the spearmint green sampler) but post-brewing, that smell disappointingly goes away. Fortunately, the marzipan shows up at the front of the sip (particularly when the tea is hot), then transitions to a more straight almond flavor which melds smoothly into the nuttiness of the Chinese green.

The Chinese green base in this doesn’t seem overly fancy or spectacular, but it works so great with the flavoring. As the tea cools, the marzipan sweetness fades and it becomes more raw almond and green tea, but again, the flavors meld delightfully.

Once again Kusmi surprises me and makes me like a flavored green.

Second Steep (3:00) – The flavor is softer now, predominately green tea but there is still a noticeable flavor of almond underneath it, mostly straight almond but with occasional sweet little marzipan spikes. Toward the end of the cup there was a little not-quite-bitterness, not-quite-astringency but almost thick, dark nuttiness. If it were stronger it could edge into unpleasant but as it is, it just makes it move fully away from the desserty marzipan almond and into a more natural/straight almond flavor. Honestly, it’s really tasty.
5.3g/10oz

VariaTEA was thoughtful enough to send me this sample, thank you much!

this tea has outsmarted me tonight, lol. now, i was fiddling with it trying to sort out the steeping time without searching the steepster data base…. but i didn’t think i was that challenging?

the base is a rare green, i would go so far as to say BARELY a green. it reminds me very much of mandala’s yellow tea. very light, very sweet. the base is so gracious i found myself wanting it uninterrupted, which is what the almond was doing.

on its own the almond is a very nice flavour! not too strong, very smooth, a nice combination of a fresh almond crossed with marzipan. no amaretto. the separate halves are very nice on their own…. i just don’t know if i want them together?

rather unexpected that! no numbers yet. =0)

I had a cup of this last night and another tonight. Thanks VariaTEA for sending me this sample.
Decent green tea base, it’s a bit grassy/vegital but not bitter. I’m getting some nutty/sweet but wouldn’t specifically say almond.
I would drink this again if I ran into some, but not sure I would go out of my way to restock.

I am just going to start this by saying I think I should invest in a thermometer because right now my method for testing if the water is the right temperature to brew my tea is to stick my finger in it. It really is not the best method.

Anyways, on to the tea. I bought this because in the container the dry leaf smells very strongly of marzipan. When brewed, the marzipan is still there but there is also hints of a more green/vegetal scent. The taste is close to marzipan or perhaps an almond cookie which would be great if it didn’t finish off with a dry and almost chemical note that seems to plague many of Kusmi’s teas. Luckily the chemical not for this is not nearly as bad as it was for Kusmi’s Passion Fruit White Tea so I think I will be able to get through this cup and then some but I doubt I will be able to finish the 75g of it I had to buy. If anyone is interested in trying some, feel free to message me.

I’ve wanted to try a Kusmi tea for a while now since they have so many flavors that look just up my alley. And yet, I didn’t come back from Paris with any (there’s a Kusmi store in NYC, so I decided to save room in my luggage for other teas). But I did just get a sample of this tea, which I definitely wanted to try, from Jillian!

Brewed, this reminds me of the other almond green I’ve had, from Upton, though this one lacks cinnamon. Still, the almond manages to evoke an almost bakery-style aroma. The flavor is primarily a somewhat grassy/vegetal green tea initially, and the almond blooms into that nut-meat almond flavor. Again, not a marzipan, but nutty raw almonds. It’s a combo that works well with a Chinese green, I think, though I think my cup is a tad overdone (time, temp or leaf amount, I’m not sure which). I’m still enjoying this tea quite a bit. It’s similar enough to Upton’s almond green that I’m going to have to try that one again to refresh my memory for comparsion. Thanks again to Jillian for the generous sample!

Thanks to oOTeaOo for this one.

I’ve been wanting to try some Kusmi green teas and was eyeing this one. I have their Russian sampler but I’m finding some of those to be a little too strongly scented for me.

I steeped this one at around 170 F for 2 minutes. I’m not sure what they are using for the base of this Chinese green tea – perhaps something like a Mao Feng? It’s a mild vegetal and slighty herby taste. The almond is in this blend is fairly mild and a bit sweet. I was hoping for a bit more almond but at least it isn’t knocking me over with perfume. This is a nice solid choice for anytime, I might consider getting some if order with Kusmi tea.

I did also get a second steep out of it, which is always nice!

Yes, Im still here =)
Used too much internet, so my better half “grounded” me. You won’t belive how much I had to pay on our phonebill… let’s just say I’m near damn broke. Luckly, I have collected a HUUUGE amount of tea in my three year long fascination of tea. Food? Clothes? Chocolat? I can live without for some time… But life without tea? NEVER.

Started on the school again. They have a cup-with-a-lid policy. It means no fluid must enter the class without a secure lid on it. No prob for soda drinkers and healthy geeks with bottles. Huge prob for my starbuckmug without a lid. So, yesterday I invested on a HUGE travelmug by Bodum. Did I mention it was HUGE? It’s huge. And green. I am happy.

The tea menu for today is all green starting with this almond tea…

: I like it.

In the beginning, the taste was a little off. Too hot water, made the nuance disappear.
Luckly the saying “Time heals all wounds” seems to fit on hot water too. About a lection after my steeping, the tea revealed the yummy taste of almond. OR marcipan <3 potato potato. It taste good!

Note to self: Lower the heat for next cup.

I found this tea as part of a loose-tea selection on a gourmet food website that had much more reasonable shipping fees than Kusmi’s website (score!)

As I open the tin I’m struck with the mouth-watering odor of marzipan and I’m surprised when I don’t see any almond slivers mixed in with the tea. As the tea steeps, the scent of green tea slowly creeps back in. When I take a sip I can clearly taste the nuttiness of the tea base which meshes very nicely with the almond. It’s a very sweet almond flavour too, and not artifical at all, in my opinion. As I drink more of the tea it seems to build up in the mouth, becoming more prominent.

I’m in love with sweet almond and marzipan so I seems only natural that I love this tea. It’s clearly not powerful, robust breakfast fare, but I think It would be a wonderful dessert tea.

This is another one I got from VariaTEA. It smells really nice in the bag; exactly like marzipan. I love marzipan, so I had high hopes for this one, but it actually doesn’t taste much like the smell. It’s slightly bitter, very grassy, and the almond flavor is dry. There’s no bite of nuttiness like I would expect with a more savory tea, and there’s no fruitiness like I would expect with a sweeter one. Maybe I should try cold-brewing?

ETA: As this cools it is worlds better. I think cold-brewing might do the trick.