Pleine Lune - Full Moon

“Well, hello, baby. It’s good to see you. I’ve been thinking about you allllll day long and couldn’t wait to come home to you so we could snuggle in bed”.

This is how I feel about Pleine Lune. Absolutely delicious with a natural cherry almond, hints of fruit and nut, and I can still taste tea in it as well. It’s not all fun and games, though. Even though the notes are comforting there is a feel of moodiness to this tea…..like, catch it on a different day or treat it differently and it will show you a whole different side to it. But you don’t care, you are so attracted to it that it could serve you nothing but Cheetos for a month and you would still think it was the best relationship ever. It’s that good (if you’re into dessert-y teas). When I brewed it, the color was a touch lighter than I expected it to be but the flavor was a surprising juxtaposition to the visual substance. The leaves in the tin are gorgeous and smells very much like a cherry liquor. I don’t get a lot of artificiality here, it smells like they used some bitter almond EO, which smells strongly of cherry so the stone fruit strength here would make sense.

In the meantime my husband just got home and this tea needs to go hide in the closet. No one can know of our love. Except you guys.

I am grading this harshly because of the legacy of the brand and price range. It smells amazing dry—but the steeped flavor is pretty weak. Maybe it’s my preference for strong tea, but I have to double this (2 tsp for 8oz) and superheat the water. I don’t think I should be cooking the leaves to get some flavor out. Call me crazy but something about the flavor seemed artificial. For $50 a canister, I wouldn’t recommend. There are far better teas out there in this price range. This is Chinese grocery store tea quality. I’ve got nothing against grocery store tea, but this is supposed to be a premium tea.

Pleine Lune is probably one of the tea’s I was most excited to try from OMGsrsly. Vibrant almonds, marzipan, spices- what’s not to like? Mom agrees and even went so far as saying this is best tea she’s had; up there with her favourite various Pumpkin Chais brands and Red Leaf Matcha Lattes.

It was a tea bag, there was milk and life was good. I’d possibly look into getting more of this, if only for the Happy Mother vibe.

Sil sent me 2 sachets of this in a swap and I drank them both this past weekend. I think they had started to lose their flavour, though, because the spiciness of the dry leaf (sweet, vanilla, kind of custardy) didn’t really translate into the brew.

Anyways, at least it’s a sipdown.

I’ve had this tea for SO long now! I think it is one of the teas my brother picked up for me on a long ago trip to France. It keeps getting buried in my tea cupboard and reemerging periodically. It smells of blended spice and fruit. Star anise with cinnamon to round it out and a sprinkle of citrus? There is a slight edge that I’m not sure if it’s due to age or having overleafted it in the excitement of a pending sipdown. It has a fruity finish, but I can’t pin the fruit. It’s not a horrible cup, but I’m not really enjoying it either. :/ Does a sipdown count if you are composting the rest of the tea? It feels sacrilegious to even suggest that with a MF tea!

This is interestingly a bit almondy today in my travel mug.

Pretty good. I don’t know that I’d hunt it down again though, even with as freaking adorable as the little muslin tea bags are.

I’m alive!
I haven’t stopped drinking tea but I guess I haven’t been feeling like reviewing. Winter is coming, though!

Finally got around to trying this, the fancy little linen (?) sachets kindly sent by MissB months ago.

Based on the almonds and floral aspect, I was kind of hoping for something similar to Fauchon’s La Naissance, which I lovvvvvvve.

It is a bit reminiscent but ultimately has a bit of a spicy note that I could live without.

However, that being said, it is a really delicate and tasty tea that I was happy to finally try!

I was in the mood for a French tea after excitedly discussing the Dammann Freres advent calendar with Miss Stephanie, so I decided to give this one a try! This sample came from boychik, who originally got it from CharlotteZero. So, a big thanks to both ladies! This tea has small, dark leaves blended with blue cornflower petals, small pieces of nuts, and some cinnamon bark. Dry scent is cinnamon and honey with an odd tang, maybe from the blueberry? I steeped a heaping teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Mm… This tea has a warm and comforting aroma – mild cinnamon and clove with sweet marzipan and a hint of berry. The taste is a tad bit milder than I would like, so next time I will try a longer steep. There’s mild cinnamon combined with a smooth nutty flavor and a touch of berry juiciness. The aftertaste is sweet marzipan. For some reason, I am getting a bit of a chocolate note, perhaps it’s from the base tea? Either way, a delicious and comforting melange of flavors, and I’m sure this one will be even better with a longer steep.

I also received a sample of this one from Ysaurella, so today’s cup comes courtesy of her. This time I’m drinking it without milk, and I’m enjoying it just as much. It’s such a smooth tea, and the base is so light and mild in flavour it’s almost ethereal. A little like the full moon, perhaps?! The main flavour I’m picking up is, as previously, cherry. It’s a lightly floral cherry, rather like sakura blossom, but with enough fruitiness that it’s not a purely floral impression of scent, which is how cherry sometimes comes across to me in tea. It’s definitely a fruit flavour. I can detect almond in the mid sip, and a very light smattering of cinnamon in the aftertaste. Here and there, I’m sure I can taste a tiny splash of blueberry.

This is still an intriguing tea, and one I find particularly interesting to drink. I like cherry tea, especially when it’s a natural, accurate flavour as it is here. I probably wouldn’t have thought to put almond and cinnamon together with cherry in a blend, but it works really well. A little like cherry bakewell! A delicious sweet treat, and one I’ll certainly seek out again in future.

Sipdown! Getting ready for my trip to Germany, discovered I’ll be 8 minutes to a Mariage location! So…I’m sipping down all my Mariage teas so I’ll hopefully know what to purchase there.

The dry leaf smells fairly fruity. Once brewed it actually smells a bit of cherry like.

Doesn’t taste too bad, probably let the sample get too old. I don’t think this will make it to my purchase list. I get a hint of almond that I’m sure would be stronger if new.