Fauchon

i finished off the last bit of this sample i’d been saving for ages from my swap with ifjuly in my new tea cup! well, cupS if you want to be technical.

i was wandering walmart when it occurred to me that although i love the giant size of my teacup (it’s a veritable STEIN) it is narrow at the bottom and has a finish on the inside that seems to invite everything to stick to it. very annoying.

i meandered down the cup aisle and there were tons on clearance! brightly coloured, some that looked very boring on the outside but then had teal glass glazing on the inside all for 2$ (my giant annoying tacky one was 10$). perfect. then my eyes wandered… they were offering whole dish sets (really cool ones) for 40$. i don’t know what’s been going on, but ours have been coming out of the dishwasher broken, have been getting dropped……

so we have a cupboard full of new dishes, lots of new cups too…. all for under 100$ incl. tax? happy day! especially seeing as they don’t look cheap. sorry…. Value Priced. lol. they look really smart. next is cutlery…..

the tea was lovely, i will miss it, but not enough to pay the fortune to buy more. a lovely treat in a fancy cup =0).

thanks so much ifjuly!

bit by bit fauchon i are coming to an understanding. =0)

everyone loves fauchon. i have loved the smells…. but the taste kept falling short. sigh.

i began to create a list of personal rules.
1) i like fauchon greens better than fauchon blacks (who would have predicted?)

2) i like a 3 minute steep not a 4 or 5.
3) i like the water a tad cooler on each.
4) last and most important: i like nothing in them at all. no sweetener, no cream, nothing.

huh.

the orange and apricot are clear, the peach is intermittant….. SOMEWHERE i am getting a hint of chocolate? very, very lightly. which is interesting. i don’t think it would be nearly as nice if it had been on purpose, lol.

very smooth, very light…. nice to know fauchon and i are getting on! thanks to ifjuly for this!

Sip down! I am so glad I was able to try this, and liked it more than I thought I would. It’s like drinking a sophisticated Terry’s chocolate orange atop a bed of rose petals.

Thanks to OMGsrsly for giving me the chance to try the infamous Fauchon teas! As soon as I opened the bag, I was hit with roses. And some fruits, maybe peach? Oh, that’s apricot. Touché.

Flavour-wise, this is also heavy on the rose with apricot lingering in the background. But actually, the more I drink this, the more it also tastes like the orange flavour in Terry’s chocolate oranges. It really blends well with the rose.

The base is also a little astringent. It’s actually pretty good. I would have never thought to have combined roses and oranges. Maybe as a perfume but not in a tea!

Couldn’t resist having this again this morning. I’ve been in a rose tea mood today. I was suppose to go to the dentist this morning, but it snowed. Now, normally cities that it snows in can handle these things, but it rarely snows where I live, and it is better to stay inside away from any roads. So I cancelled, took my pooch for a long 2 hour walk and then came home to a nice warm house. I then helped my neighbour make table number displays for her upcoming wedding. I was feeling romantic because I was living vicariously through my neighbour and her soon to be nuptials. There are some DT teas on sale right now with Rose in them, I am tempted… very tempted!!!

Oh la la, romance, rose, elegant.

At first sniff: I am getting a sweet rose, not just the rosewater rose smell. There is a sweet note to it for sure. As the Dinasaura said, a candied rose. I like it. The Chinese tea compliments the sweet smell and rounds it out.

At first steep: It smells more like rosewater now, the sweet smell has faded a bit into the background, but is still lovely. I always think roses have a slight apple undertone. It’s subdued, but there. That would make sense though because they are part of the same plant family. I normally am not as huge a fan of floral teas, because so many of them make me feel like I’m drinking perfume, but this one does not. They capture the aroma and the black tea balances any perfume taste one might have got. Very satisfying.

Sipdown #2 of the day.

I decided to try this cold brewed just to see how I’d like it. I liked it quite a bit hot, but I either had enough for 1 hot cup with about 1/2 tsp. to throw out (gasp!) or I could just try it cold and use all the leaf. I don’t like wasting leaf, guys.

So I did this about…whew, 20 hours now in the fridge in my little canning jar. It smells so creamy! Cold creamy vanilla. I don’t get any lemon, though. I do get a large amount of bitterness but I steeped it way too long and I’m chugging it with lunch anyway (see: I don’t like to waste leaf).

So, good blend, but why name it winter? A lemony white tea screams spring to me. Not sure if this is seasonal or not but as its probably one of my favorite white teas I would consider buying some if its still available.

This is another super generous sample I received from Sil! Thank you so much!

I’m even more excited about this blend because of how much I fell in love with Noël à Venise from Dammann…that has had me craving a vanilla lemon tea. This one doesn’t have a black base, but it’s French and smells heavenly, so I am happy to use it as a substitute in the meantime. (BTW, Sil, I totally sent that shopping link to my boyfriends’ parents so I’m thinking that I will be getting some Christmas tea thanks to you! You really are my Steepster Santa!)

I don’t actually get much scent from the dry leaf, though I think it’s because it’s so delicate that a lot of the fruitier teas it was shipped with have overtaken it. None of that has carried over to the steeped tea, though, which I am drinking sans additives and after steeping at the below parameters.

Whereas Noël à Venise was more lemony, this tea stresses the vanilla first and foremost. That’s a good thing here, as the white tea is very light and needs some heaviness if it’s going to boast of being a winter tea. The vanilla manifests as a heavy sweet cream note with a slight lemon tang on the swallow. This is not a cold dark blizzard kind of tea. It is the liquid equivalent of waking up to a sunny cold morning and seeing the ground blanketed with snow.

I am not a white tea drinker normally but it does work here. This is my first Fauchon tea and I am impressed. Too bad my bank account isn’t going to be with all those foreign transaction fees in my future, haha.

Backlog:

I got this sample from MissB because I was intrigued after OMGsrsly tried it.

I have to say that the peach to thyme balance was pretty good, and the base was not too overpowering. I think that I might like this just a bit better as a cold steep, so I’m reserving the rest of it for then…then being a warmer day…I don’t do a lot of cold drinks in winter, or much at all (I think my body composition is happier without a lot of icy cold drinks).

This tea does totally make me want to make the peach and goat cheese tartine that I made over the summer…the goat cheese is spiked with fresh thyme, and the peaches on top got a small dusting of fresh leaves and a drizzle of olive oil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuUEuXwCAbs

I also learned of this recipe from OMGsrsly so she is two for two with this combo!

Here is my attempt at it from the summer, plus a salad and some arctic char…

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1176195_10151563568507374_331752992_n.jpg

interesting. many years ago i had a recipe for rosemary peach chicken. the first time i made it i scoffed, certain i wouldn’t like it. i was wrong.

for me this is a savoury tea written on a subtly sweet base; unassumptive, unimposing….. almost hard to detect at times.

imagine the sweetest peach steeped with a simple syrup and fresh thyme….. original, quite unique.

thank you MissB!

I’ve had this for a bit, and yet I only have half a tin left. Why? Because I’ve shared so much with the folks who have shown interest. Now, it’s time to see how I feel about it!

First off, I love savory teas, as well as sweet ones. Combine the two? I’m curious and excited. Plus, OMGsrsly’s reviews really got me curious, as well as her mention of peach and thyme jam. Oh… my mouth is watering.

So, I tried this. Made sure I steeped it properly, the works.

Dry, this smells more like thyme than peach. Steeped, it reverses. It was okay straight (more thyme than anything, almost like a stuffing or savory Christmas pudding?), however with some sweetener added, this was stellar for me. Luscious, juicy peach with a hint of thyme mid-way through to the end. Really, truly delightful, and very different.

If you like savory sweets (I’m thinking jams with savory elements like jalapeno jelly, for instance) then you’ll likely love this tea. Less is also more, with both heat and steep time.

Back from vacation and while i was away, i managed to finish up the rest of this tin. My fondness for this tea seems to have diminshed. That’s not to say i don’t like it but i would give this a solid break before picking up more. It’s just not as chocolate/orange as it was initially for me, though i still adore the aromas :)

I had this one the other night as well – delicious chocolate orange. noms.

Another one that i haven’t pulled out in a long time. Need to get cracking on some of my teas that I have larger quantities of. This is one that i’ve been holding on to because i love it so much.

Final Count: 152

Finished off last night with a cup of this tea because i haven’t had it in forever. It was exactly as i wanted it to be, deliciously creamy orange chocolate. I adore this tea.

woohoo! pulled this one out yesterday and added just a couple cacao shells to the mix while brewing. seriously, i love this tea. chocolate orange deliciousness. I really have missed drinking this tea.

farewell delicious tea….i will miss you and search for you again. The last cup was a perfect balance of chocolate and orange. Life is good.

Final Count: 170

one more cup left of this one before it’s all gone. Had my second last cup tonight while watching Dallas Buyer’s Club. mostly though..just a really nice end to the weekend.

last tea of the evening…so close to finishing up so many teas. :) Two packages supposedly waiting for me tomorrow so i’m a little scared of my impending cupboard implosion…BUT it’s still 2 weeks until the end of the month…so i’m not worried.. 140 here i come!

Final Count: 139 (soon to be much, much higher lol)

mmmmm cup of this, with a few cacao shells in it to enhance the chocolate… SOooo good. I’m going to miss this one. I really hope that it comes back to Winners sometime since that’s likely the only way i’ll be getting it again any time soon.

Final Count: 145 (woot! made me sipdown goal today…now can i get 5 more in tmrw…)

Mmmmmm other tea tonight while the internet goes up and down like a seesaw. Ugh. So good. Soooo close to being done :(