Cameron B. select Send Message

Another sample from Dinosara. The dry leaf looks like sencha – long, flat-steamed leaves. The dry scent is raspberry candy with a hint of citrus yumminess. I did a 3 minute steep at 175 degrees.

The brewed tea itself smells quite vegetal but sweet from the vanilla. Yum, I really like this one. The main flavor I get is a lovely combination of the grapefruit and raspberry, fresh and fruity with a little bit of tartness. The vanilla comes in more toward the end of the sip, and that’s when I can taste the lovely vegetal green tea base the most. I can see this being delightful with a bit of sugar, but I’m trying not to add sugar to any of my teas lately. It would also make a lovely iced tea, I’m sure! :)

I’m having a lot of fun trying all of these Fauchon teas that the generous * Dinosara* sent samples of, even if I haven’t really liked them so far! This one looks like black tea leaves with flower petals mixed in. The dry scent is fantastic! It’s definitely some kind of strawberry-esque flavor – taking a look at the description reveals that this one is red fruits flavored. Yum!

Oh, yum yum. I’m so happy to have finally found a hit from these samples! The red fruit flavor in this tea is spot on, mostly strawberry in my opinion. It’s definitely candylike, in fact it reminds me of strawberry Bubble Tape gum, in the best way possible! I let most of mine get stone cold, and it was still super tasty, leading me to believe that this would make an awesome iced tea as well. I’ll make sure to pounce on the next Fauchon sale so I can get a tin of this one. Happiness indeed!

This sample was given to me by Dinosara. I didn’t look this one up prior to trying it, I figured I’d just get on with it and be surprised. :D The dry leaf is mostly small black tea leaves with what looks like dried crushed mint mixed in along with a few flower petals. My nose tell me that it is indeed mint in there. I did a 3 minute steep at 200 degrees.

Well, this basically tastes like mint tea to me… I don’t really get much of the black base, but there is a touch of raspberry flavor. Looking it up, the concept definitely doesn’t fit this one. I mean, who has ever heard of a mint birthday cake…? And I don’t get any sugary or cakey notes here, just the (somewhat mild) mint with some raspberry mixed in. Not bad, not great, just ho hum. And not a cake! :P

Another Fauchon sample from the lovely Dinosara. It’s so exciting to get to try all of these teas! I’ll be at least somewhat prepared for the next time Fauchon shows up somewhere :D This tea looks somewhat similar to La Naissance – it’s black tea leaves with rose petals and what looks like pieces of pink peppercorns? It smells similar too, candylike and very floral. :(

Yep, this tea is more rose than anything else, which leaves me extremely disappointed… There’s some raspberry flavor in there, but I don’t taste anything resembling macaron or pastry in general. This tea is making me very sad. Fauchon seems to be far too heavy-handed with their florals, rose isn’t even mentioned in the name of this blend and yet it’s the most powerful flavor…

This is one of the Fauchon teas that I’ve been most curious about, and Dinosara was generous enough to send me a sample (along with several others) in our swap. Thanks dear! The dry leaf is mostly small black tea leaves with a few rosebuds and flower petals mixed in. I didn’t really see any almonds included. Dry scent is sweet and very candylike with a strong rose aroma and the smallest hint of marzipan. I did a 3 minute steep at 200 degrees.

I actually made this one twice (using up the whole sample). The first time it mostly just tasted floral to me, which was a disappointment, especially when I read other notes that mentioned an almond cake flavor. So I told myself I would wait to draw conclusions until I tried it the second time. Well, the second time I seem to have overleafed a bit because it came out with just a small bit of bitterness. I’m getting a strong floral presence in this cup as well, but I am also getting more of a almond cakelike flavor, especially in the second half of the sip. Not bad, but I’m still pretty disappointed by this one. I was hoping for more almond and less floral. :P

Sipdown! (107)

I find that I enjoy this one much more with a 1-minute steep instead of a 2-minute one. That odd metallic taste is nowhere to be found and it’s lovely and grainy and hay-like. Yummy! :)

The flavored tea selection in my sipdown pile is getting frightfully sparse, so I allowed myself to have one of my yet-untried Butiki teas tonight. I decided on this one because I am always on the lookout for the perfect lemon tea, and I love all things almond. The dry leaf is quite artistic with greenish silver needles along with tiny pink flower petals and a few slices of almond. Dry scent is fantastically similar to lemondrop candies with a little bit of a nod to cake. I followed the instructions and steeped 2 teaspoons for 3 minutes at 185 degrees.

Yum, the aroma! It conjures up visions of a lovely tart lemon cake dripping with sugary sweet glaze. Om nom nom! I tried the first few sips plain, but then added a tad bit of sugar just to help the pastry side of this come out. Overall, I must say that this came out a little bit too light for me – next time I will use more leaf. I wish that Stacy included the amount of tea in grams as well as teaspoons in her instructions, since large fluffy teas like this one are difficult to measure by volume. I will say that the flavor here is really quite lovely! It tastes very similar to lemondrop candies with a little bit of cake or pastry reference in there. Very yummy, but next time, more leaf! :)

Sipdown! (109)

I wasn’t planning on writing a sipdown note for this tea since I only had two servings and I just wrote about the first a day or two ago. However, I discovered a note that I didn’t notice before that I thought was interesting. In the extended aftertaste, after the lovely stonefruit and such, I get the taste of sage, and it lingers on my tongue for some time.

I might have to order some of this tea just because it’s very unique and interesting. :)

Another tea from Han Xiang this morning! I find that it has kind of become a habit for me to try a new-to-me black tea (assuming I have one) for my first cup of the day. And that’s the case today! This is the second of three different jin jun mei teas that I ordered samples of, and the leaves are so teeny compared to the first one! They’re almost like miniature versions of the same leaves. They’re quite thin and slightly twisty, and about half golden and half dark. Dry scent is mildly sweet with a hint of herbaceousness that I often find in Fujian black teas.

Brewed, this tea smells very rich with dark fruit notes and a definite scent of molasses, along with that herby smell. Yum, this tea is dark and rich with a very strong flavor. It has a very potent herbaceous note that I find similar to dill? But not quite exactly there. This note always frustrates me, as I can never identify it! :P Otherwise, this tea has a strong fruity presence, in a dark, syrupy dried fruit kind of way. Specifically, I would identify it as a mixture of raisin, prune, and dried dark cherry. Alongside this fruitiness is a lovely rich molasses flavor that goes perfectly with the dark fruits. I catch the slightest suggestion of floral in the aftertaste, which does nothing to deter me.

So I’m wondering if that herby dill-like note is the result of the roasting? I don’t think I’ve ever noticed whether other Fujian black teas I’ve tried were roasted or not, so I guess I should keep that in mind from now on!

Just tried this one using the traditional chai method on the stovetop. I used 8 ounces of water and 8 ounces of vanilla soy milk, brought them to a boil and then added a tablespoon of tea. I simmered it for ten minutes and then added some sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract (can you tell I like vanilla…?). It actually came out pretty tasty! This blend has too many cloves in it, in my opinion, and I can’t really taste the other spices aside from maybe the ginger. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since one of the teas in this blend has cloves and then the blender added more cloves on top of that. Oh well, still tasty! :D