Pleine Lune - Full Moon

Going to have to try this one again. For now, though I don’t notice any spices or honey. Smells of cinnamon when steeping, though. And there is a kind of bubble gum sweet smell to the dry leaves.

This is again, a very mild black tea (to my palate anyway) and it is nicely fruity and sweet. Nothing jarring or bitter about this. Mellow and smooth. Given my tastes in tea and my (admittedly limited) previous experiences with Mariage Freres I did use more than a teaspoon for this cup.

I’m very glad I got to try this. Thanks, Ysaurella!

EDIT: I tried this again out here on vacation. I definitely get notes of cinnamon, vanilla and what tastes to me like almond. A very complex and interesting tea! This steep I used boiling water but still steeped for about 5 minutes.

Clue No. 3 “Full Moon” to those of you who are Francophobes.

If the title of this note means nothing to you, and you’re interested in learning about my little game, please read my tasting note at:

http://steepster.com/teas/todd-and-holland/3917-german-breakfast-tea

for an explanation of the game, and my note at

http://steepster.com/teas/mariage-freres/2642-the-a-lopera

for the second clue.

Now, on to the tea!

I am coming to realize that I have a weak spot, a very big weak spot indeed, for cornflowers in tea. They’re just so blue and lovely, in among the leaves. They go well with every color, but for some reason I find them particularly fetching in black tea. This has them, as well as some brown textures which I’m guessing are almond pieces and maybe some vanilla bean pieces as well. An aesthetically pleasing dry mix. It smells strongly of sweet almonds, leaning toward Amaretto rather than the nuts themselves. There’s another strong sweet smell as well, which I can’t really identify as vanilla because of the strength of the almond fragrance, but which, it stands to reason, is what I’m smelling.

It brews to a slightly cloudy chestnut color that smells much nuttier than liqueur-like. Almonds and vanilla. Yeah, I get that. Also get something that reminds me very vaguely of cinnamon and maybe even anise.

The taste is quite nice. I haven’t had a lot of almond teas so I don’t have a lot to compare this to, and the other one that comes to mind also had chocolate in it which is a definite thumb on the scale. But I’m enjoying it, and I am finding myself thinking of what it would taste like with just a tad of milk, or sweetened up just a bit. Or maybe even with some salt to bring out the nut, as LiberTEAS has suggested with other teas in the past. Almond is the predominant flavor here, and it is pretty true to the nut itself. The aftertaste is amazingly like what you get after having cracked open an almond and chewed its inner meat into oblivion. The tea supports this well, but is definitely second violin.

I’m loving Mariage Freres for the most part. They have the perfume of the dry leaves down like no one else for flavored blacks. Mariage me, freres!

It took me a while to review Pleine Lune because it’s my favourite tea. I can’t get enough of it. Some bestsellers I’m flabbergasted are even appreciated but this deserves all the praise and then some.
And I already know I can’t do it any justice but let’s try and convey ALL THE FEELINGS.

It’s a beautiful tea to look at (cornflower in tea really is my weakness), smell and drink. It reminds me rather foolishly of an impressionist painting – it’s a striking landscape full of colourful pieces which, when put together, magically become greater than the sum of their parts. There are no harsh lines in Pleine Lune, the blending is perfection so that you don’t know when one flavour ends and another begins.
I would describe it as an almond flowery tea, and this is one of the few teas that tastes exactly as good and strong at it smells, which is complex (it’s an unusual combination), grown-up (the flowers, surely) and nostalgic (I blame the sweet almond oil my mother used to wash my hair with when I was a wee child).

Pleine Lune, to me, is what tea is about. You can’t get this sort of fantastic aroma of such different food categories as nuts and flowers from any other beverage. And the comfort that comes attached to a mug full of hot Pleine Lune with just a drop of milk and honey is unparalleled.

I credit this for getting me through the year. I know that whatever happens during the day, I’ll at least be able to truly enjoy something in it. I always allow guests to choose which tea they’d like to drink from my stash when I offer hot beverages and everyone’s always picked Pleine Lune; and for some reason every time someone smells it for the first time, it always reminds them of a memory long forgotten. Pleine Lune, it seems, is a lot of people’s madeleine.

I love this so much.

This one of the teas that I bought from BrewTEAlly Sweet! Thank you so much for the lovely package! I went with this one first since it seems not spicy enough to be stored with my spicy teas, but it lists “spice” as an ingredient, so I didn’t want it around my non-spicy teas. The ingredients list is a little vague. After a 3-4 minute steep a few minutes after boiling, the black tea is lighter in color. The flavors are subtle! Definitely almond/marzipan… there is something a bit sour, maybe cherry and then it seems there is some sort of “spice” flavoring… but since I don’t think it actual spices, it’s also subtle. Subtle deliciousness. Nice to try!

The tea has a very special and unforgettable aroma when it comes to its dry leaves especially. What I get from the leaves are strong and sweet cinnamon(with clove) ,something similar to orange peel /orange blossom together with some notes of honey. Very yummy ,with detectable almond overtone and not bitter at all when I sniff it.

Brewed hot for about 3 minutes,I find that although all scents blend in perfectly,the liquor is smooth yet very strong ,with the kind of bitterness that I can’t handle alone very well.So last night,I finally gave up my ritual of not adding sweeteners ，and dropped a teaspoon of lavender honey to it. Hurray!It transformed to almond milk! Still with elegant floral and light black tea taste lingering on my palate ,but it’s so much alike with almond milk! The tea is so satisfying with honey,and it even offers the creaminess of almond milk itself~!

Interestingly,I ’ve been wearing Noix de Tubereuse by Miller Harris since yesterday afternoon,whose middle notes remind me of this tea constantly ,with both cleanness(iris and a little fresh soil ) 、sharpness (spicy sweet)、violet-y notes(which I love so much) and creaminess of nuts( tuberose smells somehow like coconut in my point of view).No wonder the two smell so much alike~

It’s nutty and flowery. Not quite sure what to make of it. I only had a 1tsp sample that came from overseas in a swap. There’s a bit of a bitter edge to it, but I may have oversteeped since the color was somewhat light (chestnut brown) so I went all the way to 5 min. Smelt very sweet, like caramel/vanilla and honey, but only the flowery taste seemed to come through. Added a bit of sugar and almond milk. Wouldn’t go out of my way to have it again.

One of my friends got a test sample of this one, and I really liked it. So last time I was in London, I pulled myself together and got to Oxford Street to buy it as a birthday present to myself. Anyway… I really liked this tea, and it’s perfect hot and cold. The scent of almond is strong when you smell on the tea and the almond flavour is very strong when you drink it as well. If you like almond this one is perfect. I tasted Pleine Lune with Pan au Chocolate and the combination is perfect.
If you like almond this is the one for you.

It was my second brew of this tea generously sent by Ysaurella; the first one being a few weeks ago. It had not been love at the first sip. So I deliberately waited until I was in good condition and good mood to give it another real chance.
When preparing my pot, I was amazed at how lovely this tea is: sprinkled with blue and yellow flowers, with bits and pieces of almond, some pieces of what has to be cinnamon. It indeed is one of loveliest MF blends I’ve seen.
The brew remains crystal clear and is lightly fragrant. What is surprising is that the taste comes out as much stronger as I expected from the smell. And the main flavor I get, which I have trouble forgetting to try to identify the others is most definitely clove. All the rest, cinnamon, almonds, seems perfectly blended together, but a few two many buds have managed to get their way to my teapot, for my taste.
Once again I understand how this tea can be a favorite for many, but unfortunately not for me.
Thanks anyway Ysaurella; this will definitely help me avoid a purchase that I should have liked, as everything in the description seemed fine, but which would have disappointed me.

Cteresa warned me that this tea wasn’t a love-at-first-sight experience, but had to grow on her over a certain amount of time. Taking that into consideration, I’ve been trying this tea for some days now (Cteresa, thanks for the very generous sample). I even went so far to take this tea with me to work.

Despite my efforts this tea hasn’t grown on me. I don’t have the advanced palette some of you clearly do have (gosh, the number of different flavors you pick up on!). To my taste the sweet (vanilla, almond?) and cinnamon dominate the entire experience too much. It’s certainly not a bad tea, but just not my thing… I’m apparently just not a fan of the nutty-cinnamon-floral combo.

Nevertheless, thanks Cteresa!! As I’m quite taken with MF, I would have ordered this sooner or later and you’ve saved me the disappointment.

Almond is the dominant flavor here, which I have to be in the mood for – otherwise it will taste too sweet, almost cloying, for my palate. Small bits of almond and blue cornflowers are spread evenly throughout the tea. Good with milk and sugar.