Je M'Appelle Dorothée

Dor-o-thee, The-o-dor. Cute, isn’t it? Almost like a palindrome but not.

I got this as a sample with an embarrassingly large order I placed with The O Dor that arrived last week. I believe it to be what I wrote in the description, though the envelope containing the sample said “Mel. Dorothee.” I searched the The O Dor site and found no other product with Dorothee in the name.

In my sample, there are a ton of dried cherries. And hibiscus blossoms. And one thing that looks kind of like a dried banana chip. I don’t see any pineapple. I’m finding that samples are iffy things. Often, it seems, it’s just the luck of the scoop that you don’t get all of the ingredients in so small of a container. What I did have was gorgeous, though. Mostly various shades of dark magenta between the flowers and the cherries.

It brews to that same dark magenta color and smells of cherries and hibiscus (not surprising since that is mostly what’s in it). Here’s what I thought was interesting. Though I didn’t do a side by side, its look and smell reminded me pretty strongly of Tazo’s Passion.

It tastes much like Passion as well, even to the point of taking on a no-sugar-added grape juice flavor when sweetened up a bit. It is somewhat less tart than I recall Passion being, which is a plus — maybe that is the influence of the pineapple and banana flavoring agents. But I can’t help but wonder whether it’s really supposed to taste like this, or whether it is supposed to have a more tropical flavor, and whether a different sample, or a scoop from a full tin, would taste differently. I’m going to reserve rating since I can’t retest to verify my results.

I may have to order some just to find out, though given the humongoid nature of my most recent order I suspect it will be a while before I place another.

This is a lot like Red Zinger. The hibiscus is overwhelming. It’s a pretty dry tea, but I like tea with caffeine. If you like the hibuscus/rosehip taste, you might love this.

Mais c’est pas pour moi!

This smells wonderful, sweet, and fruity … but I am approaching with caution because of the plentifulicity (good word, don’t you think?) of the h-word.

However, I have it steeping in the sun on the porch of Shabby House and we’ll see how the experiment progresses.

(and later…)

After running errands and grabbing lunch at a funky little retro soda shop called the Bradbury Bishop Deli (very Route 66 in atmosphere), I came back to find a beautiful ruby-red jar of steepness on my front porch.

The thing about sun tea is that it’s not a very exact science. Proportions and steep times aren’t very uniform. So this test run tasted pretty heavy on the hibiscus, and all the potentially wonderful fruity flavors were kind of mushed together. I couldn’t pick up on anything separate like banana or cherry. A little sugar tamed the tart, and it’s still a nice fruity cooler on yet…another…stiflingly…hot…afternoon.

Just wondering, how do the rest of you feel about drinking fruity teas like this hot? I can’t seem to get past the notion that these flavor blends are summer-only.

Much gratitude for Doulton, the sponsor of this treat and front-porch laboratory experiement.

Sipdown

I originally bought this tea a couple years ago because of the ridiculously cute tea tin it came in. It was pink and had fairies on it. I didn’t realize it was a tisane (makes sense as it was marketed as a tea to give for a baby shower. They had a boy version too.)

I have never had this tea hot. I have always iced it. I steep for a long time hot and then chill in the fridge in a rubbermaid pitcher.
Smell: The smell of this tea takes you off in to a tropical wonderland. You instantly smell the cherries and pineapple and then the banana is there to end off the note. I really like the smell of this.

Taste: Again, I have only had this iced, can’t comment on it warm, but I find fruit teas taste really sour when they are hot, so prefer them chilled. This tea looks like fruit punch Kool-aid. Its a dark red-pink. The taste has a tropical cherry taste with a hint of banana at the end. It’s probably one of my favourite to make iced, which means I might have to bite the bullet and order more from The O Dor, even though I’m sure I will pay large for the shipping from France. The local store I bought this at no longer carries the line.

J’adore Je M’appelle Dorothee!

After a local tea shop was clearing out all of their THE O DOR teas, I ended up buying a tin of the Je m’appelle Dorothee at a greatly reduced price. As I often drink hibiscus-based teas, I figured I would enjoy this tea.

The loose tea smelled amazing – I definitely smelled the pineapple and cherry notes and the aroma had a natural sweetness that tickled the nose. My tin had lots of dried cherries, currants and pineapple bits (and the odd banana chip) – in fact, I’d say it was probably about 40% fruit based on visual inspection. I’ve found with the herbal THE O DOR teas you have to steep to the maximum amount (or more) of the suggested time, so I infused the tea for 8 minutes.

As I’m used to hibiscus-based teas (I often drink hibiscus tea straight), I didn’t find the hibiscus in this tea overwhelming. If you’re not used to this type of tea, or you don’t enjoy this type, the hibiscus could definitely be overwhelming. Often I find hibiscus teas to have a harsh citrus tartness to them that can cause your mouth to pucker, but in this tea, it was more muted than in others that I’ve had. The slight pineapple and cherry flavours round out the tea, giving it a richness that I haven’t found in other hibiscus-based teas, as well as a bit of natural sweetness. Due to the natural acidity of the tea, there’s a slightly dry aftertaste.

As I usually drink hibiscus teas iced, I definitely wanted to try this tea iced. The aroma of the tea is very muted iced, but the flavour is still there. The natural sweetness was more pronounced in the iced version of this tea, which was great because it helped to mute some of the natural acidity of the tea. I also found that iced, Je m’appelle Dorothee has a bit of a citric aftertaste (my guess is if you drink this type of tea sweetened, the citric aftertaste would most likely not be noticeable).

While I really enjoyed this tea and will definitely finish the tin (drinking both hot and iced), I doubt I’ll purchase it again due to high price of THE O DOR teas and it no longer being carried locally.