Pour Maman

While hot, the base had quite a burnt taste. Not burnt in a bad way, like burnt caramel but without the sweetness. I think it is from the black/green mix for the base. The tea becomes much more caramalized sugar type burnt as it cools. There are strong vanilla and mallow flavours. It makes the tea liquor feel quite thick. There is a generic red fruits flavour to the tea but I am not able to distinguish which red fruit. There is maybe a bit of red currant in there.

This tea is a bit too strong on the mallow flavour for me, but that could be how I brewed it. It is definitely a great tea, would make a great dessert tea.

Thank you tons to Laurant for sending me a sample of this months ago! Dude. I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had the time to sit and drink tea. But now that finals weeks is upon us, its time for tea!

This ones was just okay. A nice blend of flavours, but I’m not the biggest fan of sweet strawberry/cherry/raspberry flavours in a black/green blend. I tend to like those more as herbal flavours. Ahh well, it’s a lovely tea, just not for me!

This sample came from Sil. I’m not sure why tea companies insist on making black/green blends, as they make no sense to me and I can never taste the green tea anyway. It just makes it more of a pain than anything, having to lower the steep temperature because of the green tea. Bah! Anyway! This is a black/green mix with some flower petals in it. Dry scent reminds me of strawberry candy.

Mm, once steeped I can definitely smell the vanilla as well as the red fruits. The flavor is actually quite good (though all I can think about is that it would be better if it were an all-black base). The red fruits is mostly strawberry to me, with some raspberry as well, and it’s sort of candylike but in a good way that adds dimension. The vanilla is soft and smoothing. Overall, pretty good.

Strawberries, vanilla, and rose? What could go wrong? :D
Apparently nothing, except for my steeping the tea until it’s astringent. Bleh.
I don’t get much rose, but I do get floral. Besides that, this is very tasty. Soft vanilla and fun fruitiness. A very and tasty accessible tea. :)

Which reminds me, a work friend asked me to help her stop relying on sweet drinks so I showed up in her office with a bunch of tea samples. Her eyes got all big when she saw the various packets and brew basket. “Omg, you’re serious about tea!” Umm… Yeah. :)
She really enjoyed the genmaicha we started with. That’s another very accessible tea.

Thanks for sharing this precious tea with me Ashmanra!

First of all, a big thank you to Laurent at Nina’s Tea for the free samples! I am finally getting to them :) this is the first one I had to try due to the great reviews and the fact I have a migraine today and thought some caffeine would help. The dry smell is very fruity, definitely a red fruit scent, slightly tart, with some strawberries in there too. I steeped the entire sample (not sure how much tea, probably a TBSP, give or take) with 175 degree water for 3 minutes. The resulting scent is lovely strawberries, fruit and creamy vanilla. Yum!

As for the flavor, this is very similar to the strawberry cream black tea from Zen Tea, but with a stronger vanilla aftertaste and it’s a much smoother tea. The red fruit flavor also adds a punch of fruity flavor. First taste is strawberry, and the aftertaste of sweet, soft vanilla lingers on the palate in a wonderful way. This is a soothing and delicious tea!

Overall, this is a very nicely flavored tea. The fruits and vanilla meld together in a lovely way. As the cup cools a bit of a floral flavor comes out. I like how the cup has changed but has stayed very smooth. Brewing at the low temperature definitely was a good choice! Ooh, a tiny touch of green tea flavor coming out in the far aftertaste as well. I am very pleased that I chose this as a free sample, and once again, thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Tea for the opportunity to sample his teas! :D great start to the day!

Thank you for the sample Ninas Paris!
This was very aromatic. Strawberries and vanilla were the main flavors. Very smooth and has a really great base tea. I would love to have this one in my cupboard!

Nom, Nom… Yum. I got this as one of the free samples recently from Nina’s. It’s always so nice when tea companies are willing to send out samples to potential customers. It often makes me think they may be good at customer service which is always a bonus to us customers :)

This one being a mix of green and black teas I went with a lower temperature for the green tea on this one. It steeps up almost like a black tea, a nice light amber color w/a sweet strawberry fruity fragrance. The flavor is much like the fragrance, sweet strawberry yumminess with a touch of vanilla to pull it all together. The strawberry is very present, but not over done, just wonderful. I enjoy the mix of black and green teas with this blend… It makes so that neither the black nor green take center stage but let the other flavors play on the forefront.

I have some strawberry cream on it’s way from Zen, anxious to compare the two, although this will be hard to beat.

One thing I have noticed about Nina’s teas is they are very perfumey and have a ton of flavor. Which makes sense when you factor in the roots of the company. So far I haven’t been a fan of the strong flavors in the two teas I have tried.

This one is quite floral and smells like a nice bubble bath. Which is interesting when drinking. Not my favorite tea, but I liked it a lot more than Nina’s Japon.

I’ve come to the conclusion that i’ve pretty sure i don’t much like “red fruits” Give me a specific strawberry or raspberry and i’m ok. But the “red fruit” that many of the french companies create, just isn’t for me. There’s something about that flavour that reminds me of something trying to be everything and successfully being nothing. That being said, if you like that sort of thing, this would be a great cup of tea. Thanks for sharing this one with me VariaTEA! I’m glad i had the chance to try it first.