Je t'Aime

A small tin of this was a gift to myself for finishing my last Camp Nanowrimo fifty thousand word first draft. An excelent gift, as my writings are always powered by tea.
The balance of caramel and vanilla is quite good. The flavors are a malty vanilla and caramel, with maybe a touch of brown sugar? Yum. This isnt a light and playful vanilla, but a dark and serious vanilla, which is not very common, in terms of tea. Its like a wooly blanket on a frosty morning. I think this will be wonderful when the weather cools down, but its pretty nice now as well.

I was packaging this up for a swap and realized that there is a pretty fair amount of tea in the little tin they gave me at Nina’s. Anyways, once I had the tin open, I decided I should make myself a cup.

What I have learned is that Nina’s knows what they are doing when it comes to vanilla caramel flavoring. Though I prefer Nina’s Japon to this (and pretty much everything else it seems) I still love this tasty cup. The black base is present but smooth and really allows the flavor to take center stage. There is a nice creaminess to this tea as well and the vanilla caramel flavoring is perfect.

Je t’aime is certainly right because I love this tea. Other phrases that would work would have been “Je t’adore”, “Incroyable!”, “Magnifique!”, “Extraordinaire!”, “Formidable!”, and other things of that nature.

Thank you Sophie and Laurent for providing me with this delicious tea!

I had a sample of this before, direct from Nina’s Paris, but JustJames surprised me with just a little more. And I’m happy he did. I still think this is my favourite from Nina’s Paris. I just love the caramel and vanilla.

I may have to pick up some for myself. :)

So I am finally drinking the last sample from Nina’s, the one that I opened and Samwise started dancing around me looking for the caramel cake. And I am caught off guard at first by the aroma. This isn’t the Vanilla Comoro-esque tea that I thought it would be. The smell of the base scares me at first. This is going to be too strong for me! And this is with a scant four minute steep at just under the boil.

But the sip is different, it isn’t as candy sweet as the smell made me think it would be. Instead, I find it to be a great first cup of the morning that is strong enough you know are having tea, but has a nice caress from the vanilla. This is a grown up vanilla tea, for people in power suits or ladies who lunch.

I made two steeps since the others have done well, and I drank a bit of steep one plain, then added steep two to what remained in the pot. I asked hubby to join me for tea since he likes vanilla. He always adds milk and sugar to his black tea and this was no exception. Since he said he liked it, I take it that it handles additions well.

I have a fussy tummy that doesn’t take to certain black teas well, especially since I drink almost everything with no additions. This one is not bothering me at all.

This is the serious, tall, dark and handsome guy, not the playful guy I thought it was going to be.
Sometimes that is the guy you want! I really like this, and would compare it more to Vanille des Iles than the Harney vanilla selections. This is going on my gift list for a friend who loves this kind of tea.

Thank you again, Nina’s, for the samples. They were all excellent and tasty teas!

Thank you Nina’s for this tea sample

I could tell when I opened the little serving packet that the aroma of the tea was quite strong. It wasn’t my first encounter with Nina’s, so I was aware that there would be a lavish amount of flavor, and that if I over-steeped the tea it could be disastrous.

A light touch, lighter than recommended, would be best.

I used a small teapot, fresh boiled spring water and a 2 minute steep which produced a very rich, smooth and creamy caramel-vanilla tea.

With no additions, the tea was sweet and smooth. With cream I would be satisfied but I couldn’t resist adding sweetening, drinking my tea the way most people would drink a flavored tea.

My easily suggestive mind began imagining salted caramels…so I went to the kitchen and looked for the sea salt because I didn’t have any pretzels or chips. I tasted the salt and sipped the tea…thinking that I’d want this salty combination or some chocolate while kicking back watching a movie. Sweet caramel and salty or dark chocolate are favorites of mine.

I don’t believe a 4 minute steep is a good idea. Tone it down to 2 minutes! (I even made 12 oz of tea instead of 8 oz with that little packet Nina’s sent me.)

Thanks to Laurent and Mélanie from Nina’s I can taste this lovely named tea.
Irony is there : I wanted to buy the homonymous tea from Theodor and it was out of stock so here I am to taste another je t’aime proving if necessary that we can have several loves and say je t’aime to several teas (even in the same day, even in the same hour !)

Well I am not finding it strong (but it’s not weak, neither light bodied)and I am not sure if the stronger taste with this this cup is coming from the base… Laurent would you reveal us a Nina’s secret and tell us what kind of tea base is used here – It’s written Keemun on my sachet as the other teas I had from Nina’s but I am wondering …

I steeped it 4 min and it was nice, not bitterness nor astringency, until now I never had a Nina’s bitter even if I never respected the brewing instructions as with 2 minutes I found them too light for my taste.
The flavours are just perfect, delicate as always with this lovely brand but this time I think the tea base is working really better for me with these flavours.

Another caramel chocolate tea I like.

I went to the shop rue Danielle Casanova 1 week ago and it was still closed for work, I would love to take a friend of mine to have a brunch here, let’s wait so…

another backlog from yesterday – i’ll get through them eventually. i added a little vanilla powder to this one and it made it that much tastier yesterday! i’ll need to remember that in future…now if i could just find my vanilla bean so that i could add it to my vanilla citrus spice. :(

Another fun sample to try from Laurent! Thank you! I was really eager to try this one since I like dessert teas and I loved Grand Amour, and this one has some of the same flavors. The dry leaf smelled sweet. I steeped this one for 4 minutes, being cautious about the astringency. At first, it smelled sweet with some sort of smokiness…uh oh, not a fan of smoke. How did that get in there? Anyway, it tasted like a (slightly smoky) vanilla tea with a bit of caramel. The caramel shone through more as it cooled. Overall, it was not as exciting as I hoped. I think because I kept comparing it to Grand Amour, which has both the vanilla and caramel AND fruity flavors on top. I think, in this case, I prefer a more complex flavor.

Sipdown! 790. Thanks to Nina’s Paris for the free sample :)

I think this may have been the best-smelling tea I’ve had from Nina’s yet (yeah, I have a soft spot for caramel/vanilla)! And… the flavour is actually really good too! I’m getting both vanilla and caramel quite strongly, and with keeping the infusion time to 2 minutes, I’ve avoided any possible astringency from the base, so instead it’s just hanging out nicely behind the strong desserty notes. Yum!! I’d certainly think of purchasing this one in the future, assuming I could get it to taste the same as this cup does. Delicious!

Thank you so much Nina’s Paris for providing me with this tasty sample!

The dry leaf smells intensely of creamy, decadent caramel with a lovely vanilla note added in. It smells like a fantastic tea to begin with!

You can taste the base black tea which is already a good base to begin with. I am getting an amazing caramel aftertaste that lingers and transforms into a vanilla aftertaste. This is good stuff!