Thé Noir N°25 (Black Tea N°25)

sample from VariaTEA and i think? it was a tasty one. I got distracted with work so i’m glad i have a few more bags to try lol. oopsy!

Eggnog Latte Sipdown (199)

This is a classic Christmas tea profile. Spiced orange that pairs perfectly with the eggnog latte prep style. It smelled so cozy and delicious when it was steeping and drinking it now it’s Christmas in a cup. I don’t think I need more of this but I really enjoyed this and it felt perfect for today’s festivities!

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 22 (from November backlog)

I admit to being surprised to see this one before the 24th, as it seems like the classic holiday tea. Though Palais does tend to come out with a new Christmas tea every year, so I suppose this year’s offering will likely be the Christmas Eve selection. This sachet has a lovely orange zest aroma with a bit of clove.

This is milder than I expected. There’s a mellow and sweet orange note that reminds me of navel oranges along with some clove I think? It’s all a bit muddled. Perhaps it’s the rose that’s throwing me off? I don’t really get almond or vanilla, which are both listed in the ingredients. The base is also a tad bitter and somewhat astringent, which I haven’t really seen with the other black teas in the advent. It’s a Ceylon base, though I’m not sure what some of the other black teas were as they don’t have the ingredients listed.

Anyway, this is disappointing after the lovely dry scent. It’s mostly a somewhat bland orange and clove tea it seems… It looks like I had a different experience last time, so maybe this one really does need a 3-minute steep instead of the recommended 4 minutes to keep the base from overpowering the other flavors.

The fragrance of this is exactly stereotypical Christmas tea, but in a good way. It tastes pretty much how I’d imagine, a little softer on the spices than some I’ve had, and the orange is more evident. I see mentions of floral and almond flavors – I definitely don’t pick up any florals, but the almond might be there faintly. This one isn’t too heavy on cloves, either, which make it so easy for a spice tea to go bitter. Very nice and inoffensive – nothing spectacular about it, but definitely crowd pleasing.

Well hello there, orange. This is the first time I’m tasting orange in an orange spice tea in a while. The last few booted orange out of the club. Other than the citrus, cinnamon is another main player in this tea. I would have liked to have picked up on the rose and almond but I think I might have brewed this one a little too strong, so the base ended up covering those notes up, perhaps. It’s a little on the bitter side. I’m sure milk and/or sugar would help with that but I don’t want to be consuming any calories today, yet.

Much thanks to MissB for the experience!

I had been putting this one off a bit (one of the last black teas in my MissB package) because it is a Christmas tea, and it just didn’t feel Christmasy. It still doesn’t, but I put it off long enough. I also tend not to care for LPdT’s black tea bases, but we’ll see how this one goes.

Anyway, almonds and spices and such. Also supposedly citrus and rose; I think I got some orange (though it wasn’t very strong), but no rose. It was nicely almondy, and the cinnamon wasn’t overpowering. My biggest gripe with this one is the base… at current parameters, it seems like it needs an “oomf”, something to pick it up and give it a little more flavor. Like a higher temp! But there are also notes that warn me that it might not be so friendly at a hotter temp, like the base would go bitter on me. I think this one would likely be delicious brewed strong and taken with milk and sugar, so I will likely save the rest of it until winter when I feel like doing such things again. :)

Sigh. I swear I’ve seen Sil review this. Boo. Regardless, having this this afternoon and it’s still lovely. Not amazing, but I’m sure that’s just the limescale-filled kettle.

Overkilling tea. The taste and odour are awesome.