Thé Joséphine

I have a pot of this tea, a piece of icebox coconut cake, a good book to read, and candles glowing on the mantel. Life is fine. Other than the fact that my nose is threatening to stuff up in a big way.

This is from Cameron B., who generously sent a bunch of samples and then sent a bunch more! Having read the other two reviews and being dreadfully afriad of astringent tea, I went with 185F and three minutes. I am glad I did.

The description is baffling. It says it is Chinese tea, even when you look at the French website. (Even I with my dreadful college French can figure out that much.) But then the ingredient list says it is 90% Ceylon tea. Tasting it, I would say it is Ceylon, which is not in China last time I looked at a map.

I am enjoying it, but I would not purchase this. It tastes a bit soapy. There is an oooo aaaah moment with some of the flavors and then the lemon goes HA and squirts you in the eye. Well, it just is puckery lemon. And that really distracts from the nice orange and jasmine I was enjoying.

Honestly, if you told me I was drinking Twinings Lady Grey I would totally believe you. I think this is my first Laduree and I was expecting something more along the lines of Dammann Freres.

Thank you, Cameron B, for the chance to try it!

Oh, Joséphine, you are such a diva.

Even reducing both the temperature and the steep time (to 2 minutes!) this is still a touch bitter. It is better than it was last time, but really?!

Anyway, the citrus is still lovely and zingy here. But the bitterness is also compounded by the sharp flavors… Hmm…

My birthday gift to myself – Josephine!

I contemplated between this and the chai – I’m SO thrilled I picked this. Was a touch concerned about the jasmine, and I needn’t be. Grapefruit, orange are both very present and juicy, strong malty black base, sweet finish with a hint of jasmine – but only lending some smoothness, nothing more.

Expensive, and soooo worth it.

Plus, it reminded me of the time – I can’t make this up – where an American in Paris and I bought every single Laduree macaron, brought them to a nearby park (it’s famous but I can’t for the life of me remember the name), and sat next to it, eating half each of every single one.