Fauchon

It is so frigidly cold in my office that I am wearing my winter coat and my toes are numb in my boots. I wanna go home. Unfortunately I have to teach this afternoon, so I can’t go home until after that. And university facilities refuses to do anything about the lack of heat in the building. ugh.

I picked up this one at the Vente-Privee sale. Initially I was unsure about it because it has a 100% assam base, but I went for it anyway. It is occuring to me now that it is essentially a rose black tea and I already know I love Fauchon’s La Rose, so why would I need this one on a base I might not enjoy? Well we’ll see how it goes haha. This is also technically rose-lotus flavor, so there’s that.

It smells nicely rosey, and it doesn’t have any of that note that I dislike in assams (hard for me to explain what it is, there is just a note I don’t like). The flavor is mostly rose, but perhaps there is some lotus in here as well. Definitely floral overall. It’s a tad bitter for my liking (it’s got “bite”), but that could possibly be fixed with short steep time. Or I could keep it at home to have a nice milky rose tea on the weekends.

Overall I think I need to accept that I am just not a fan of teas from the Indian mainland (Sri Lanka is ok) and stop buying them, even in the form of bases for flavored teas.

Thennn we went on an American Horror Story bender (most of my pals have been talking about it, so) and I needed a big pot of no-caf tea for that, so some beloved Fauchon, yet more from Dexter3657, and all was right. (:

The rooibos is definitely present here, but it works well with the other aromas and flavors (it doesn’t taste anything like Butiki Coconut Cream Pie but reminds me of it in that it uses the rooibos flavor upfront, acknowledges it, doesn’t try to mask it). For some reason the taste just makes you think of crunchy orange fall leaves. There’s a sort of crispiness, a something-was-fresh-and-then-it-was-dried-and-now-it’s-disintegrating tone somehow. That maybe sounds gross but I don’t mean it super literally. It’s just a feeling. Fauchon is great at evoking complicated feelings through scent, at least for me. Hard to describe or explain.

The next two teas in my cupboard are actually sachets of Lupicia limited Hawaiian teas. Originally I was going to bring some in and have it anyway, but I forgot, and I like to save the sachets for traveling anyway, so I’ll just skip them. I know they’re tasty and when they’re gone they’re gone, so I don’t feel a need to use them up quickly.

Instead, I will skip ahead to perhaps my FAVORITE tea ever (#52). Today I decided that I would break my no-tea-gets-100 rule and just do it. This tea is perfection to me. Almondy, cakey, rosey, delicious. And, of course, it would have to be difficult to obtain. Next time I’m in Paris, I am stocking up. :P

Sometimes you just want one of your most favoritest teas to start the day.

I was surprised to find that I actually found the similarity stronger between this one and Amore (DF) than I had notice before. I guess there is more almond in the Amore than I realized. Anyway, this was full of almondy and rosey goodness, and it makes me very happy.

Guys, last night I had a dream that there was another Fauchon sale on Vente-Privee, and I bought another tin of this tea and one of Le Bonheur!

Sadly it was just a dream, but I figured it was a sign that I should have some of my faves this morning. Particularly this one, since it featured so prominently. This is just such a “me” tea. Almond and rose? Yes please.

This was SO DELICIOUS this morning. Tons of almond flavor, sweet and creamy. Almond cake with a hint of rose icing, that’s what this tea tasted like this morning. Without a doubt one of my favorite teas ever. Why do I have to fall so hard for a tea that’s so hard to acquire? If this tea ever shows up on Vente-privee I am so buying a stock to last me.

I am feeling tired and I was suddenly struck with a desire for my most favorite flavored teas. What did I reach for? This one, and Fleurilège by Dammann. My other thought was Caramel-Toffee by Dammann. I guess I should probably be rating them higher than they already are, somehow. This was super almondy today. Love it, and I will be heartbroken when it’s gone.

Thanks so much to MissB for acquiring this tin of tea for me and sending it along. I believe this tea appeared in their collection just after I left Paris earlier this year, and I was kicking myself the whole time. SO glad that I got some of it from the Great Fauchon Invasion of North America 2013, because this tea is outstanding.

First off, it smells like heaven. So much almond, with a hint of rose. This is a little like Teavana’s Amandine Rose, if that tea were more amazingly awesome. Sweet, almondy in an almond cookie/cake way. There is enough almond flavor to really say almond pastry of some kind, but it’s not quite marzipan-y. The rose isn’t strong (for me) and just adds a faint air of rosewater, or perhaps turkish delight. There are Greek almond cookies that are made with orange blossom water and so have a light floral note to them, and this is like those cookies if they were made with rosewater instead (which sounds amazing to me but my boyfriend would hate it, haha).

The base is smooth and fairly rich, and absolutely not bitter or astringent despite me steeping it at boiling instead of 95°C. So glad I have a whole 100g of this because I am in love!

This is from the super exciting swap box Dexter3657 sent my way! Yay! Thank you for letting me try so many Fauchon teas—couldn’t come at a better time (just discovered them last month and am in love).

I’ve only tried a couple other pear teas (Joy’s Teaspoon and Della Terra, I think?), and this one’s interesting because there’s a transformation in the type of pear from scent to taste. The smell is very sweet, like candy pear or pear syrup, but as for taste, after the upfront mysteriously smoky black tea flavor the pear comes in very juicy and fresh, with that clean “raspiness” fresh pear has. As it cools it tastes A LOT like fresh pear juice, and there’s a subtle woody tannin element from the tea that works like gangbusters with the fresh pear flavor.

That same general wonderful interplay between delicate but not disappointly watery black tea flavor and haunting, sophisticated scent is present the way it’s been in all the Fauchon teas I’ve tried (I’m totally hooked on that quality! Beginning to feel like it could be any flavor/scent whatsoever and I’d dig it if it came from Fauchon because of how it’d do that with the black tea base). Beautiful, and I know I keep using this word but I don’t know how else to put it, distinctly sophisticated. I really don’t know of another company that layers scent with delicate tea flavor the way they do.

Thank you so much! It’s so nice to be a little lovey dovey and starry eyed in the evening.

Thanks ifjuly for sending me a sample of this tea. I’ve had a couple of cups of this tonight. We all know that I’m not afraid to call it as I see it, but I’m choosing to reserve judgement. I’m getting some strange impressions tonight. Will drink it again in a couple of days and write something more constructive. For now – Thanks ifjuly – I learn something from every tea experience…
Edit – I know I was going to leave it for a couple of days, but the sample package was sitting on the counter, and here we are again. This is raspberry in the “scented – wafting in the air French sort of way”. I don’t normally read others tasting notes until I’ve tried a tea – my confusion last night would have been alleviated if I had read Dinosara’s note “It had a weird bitter note that was very sharp and I’m not certain wasn’t leftover soap aroma from the pitcher.” That is exactly what I was getting – and I too thought it was a soap contamination – but I’m pretty careful about that so was confused. I steeped today at a lower temp, and while I’m not getting as much of “that” it’s still present. I think it’s something floral I don’t like, and can’t recognize so my brain is saying “soap”. Dunno – this isn’t my favorite of the French teas, but I appreciate the experience. Thanks ifjuly.

My second time with this tea. I still am not really sure how I feel about this tea. I even think I will be lowering the rating. I will have to try this brewed cold and see how it fairs. I find the more it cools, the less intense the thyme taste is, so I will follow MissB’s suggestion at a lower temp for steeping and for less time. I like this tea, but it is definitely a tea I have to be in the mood for. Today was not really one of those days, so I drowned it with whole milk and some stevia.

Peach and Thyme… what a strange combination. Fear not though, we cannot doubt the French and their perfume combinations… right??

At first sniff: I smell the peach, delicious peach. I catch notes of the thyme, but not overpowering and the sweetness of the peach enhances the sweet parts of the thyme. Definitely not offensive and it definitely works well together.

At first steep: THYME THYME… did I mention you can really smell the thyme? Wowzers!! The taste is less intense, but with the sniff and the taste, you really can taste the thyme and it takes over a bit. The peach is the second note, which is a bit disappointing. It’s definitely a different tea. Although the French are on point with the smell of the tea, I’m not sure the taste is as good. I definitely would have been happier with a peaches and cream taste, rather than a peach gravy? With Thanksgiving and Christmas in the air, I could see this tea going extremely well with turkey dinner. It would be an excellent sweet component if cream and sugar are added.

I like this tea, I’m not sure I love this tea. I have 100g of it now and one beautiful fuchsia tin. I don’t feel badly paying 12.99 for it though because I definitely taste that the tea is quality. I probably wouldn’t replace it when the “thyme” comes. ha ha

I received samples of this tea from both MissB and OMGsrsly. Steepster swappers are the best. Tons of people our scrounging for Fauchon teas, and I get samples from two different people. The generosity here is just amazing.

I don’t think I can say it better than OMGsrsly did:
“So… this is weird. Weird but good? Good but weird? Something like that.”
I am really happy to have gotten a chance to try this. If it had been in my Winners store, I would have bought a tin of it. I think I’m ok with not having a 100g tin of it in my house, on the other hand, it is interesting enough that I will drink and enjoy the samples I have.
I’m getting more peach than thyme. It’s more scented than flavored (as I would expect from a French tea) – the peach is really nice and sweet, subtle but present. The thyme is more of an impression (hint of), but is nice with the peach. But it’s still strange enough that I wouldn’t drink it everyday.

Thank you so much ladies for sending this to me.

sigh. i was so excited when i found this at winners. i must agree with dexter3657….. mint, alas mint. and i say that LIKING mint for the most part! i actually think the issue is compounded by the blue mallow? but i can’t be completely sure.

i don’t taste raspberry, i don’t even smell it. i’ll try again before i apply actual numbers, because i wanted to love this tea…. i really did. and if i apply numbers now… they wouldn’t be happy numbers. (i’d like to try again before i go on record =0( )

I probably shouldn’t be drinking tea right now—stuck in bed with some kind of funk bug fatigue I don’t know what, really just need to sleep and let my stomach heal—but I couldn’t resist trying something from the box Dexter3657 sent me (Thank you!! It is the best possible first un-secret swap I could have hoped for, truly…made my whole day turn from blah to yay). She was super thoughtful and sent me some Fauchon (!!!!) as she knew I loved the company, and it was all the sweeter because I spent the cold dark weekend hunting TJ Maxx and Marshall’s stores for some to no avail. Dexter3657 noted in her letter that this one “smells amazing” and whoa, that’s no joke. It is heady, the most true-marzipan aroma I’ve ever gotten from a tea and probably even a candy or baked good. Wow. And it does that thing the other Fauchon teas I’ve tried so far do, where the aroma doesn’t translate into over-the-top flavor so much as it drifts and haunts the taste of smooth light but not watery (this is where I think Kusmi and Fauchon differ) black tea in a way that isn’t disappointing (at least not to me!) at all, rather elegant and exquisite. The aroma turns into a lingering aftertaste at the tail end of a sip full of nice ladylike black tea. Love it! My infatuation with artfully perfumed French teas shows no sign of letting up. Thanks again Dexter3657!

Feeling simple and reached for this yesterday morning. Ye olde reliable. I like this EG. It’s simple but has complex undertones to it. Had it with some cream and stevia :)

I wanted a nice simple tea this morning, so I reached for Earl Grey. I really like this rendition of Earl Grey, it’s woody and not so floral. The Bergamont really shines through and is accented with the oak notes. Enjoyed it with some cream and stevia this morning. Good morning Saturday, now I just need to get through my work day and I’ll be set!

I re-steeped the leaves again for 8 minutes. I left what little liquid was left in my Breville and filled it back up to the 500ML mark and rebrewed. It was definitely a watered down version of Earl Grey, but not terrible at all. The notes of Bergamont came through still and it almost felt like there was a sweet quality left. The black base was weaker for sure, but I would do it again to be frugal with my French tea.

I’ve been in a French tea frenzy (for some reason I feel the French know what they’re doing when it comes to tea and it doesn’t help that most of my loose leaf tea experience comes from high-end French brands, so I couldn’t resist.) I have been to 3 Winners locations and 3 Homesense and have only had a hit at one of them and this was one of them ones that was left. I always like a good Earl Grey so I bought it. And all in all it’s a steal for 100g and a very cute tin.

At first sniff: I smell the Bergamont very strongly, but then more complex notes come through. Almost oak smelling or woody. I notice the leaves almost have some white tea in it, or at least that’s what it looks like to me. It’s not the strongest Earl Grey I’ve smelled, but not the weakest.

At first steep: Again, the Bergamont comes through. I added cream and a little stevia and it was a very very nice cup of Earl Grey. You can taste the quality of the tea (or at least I think I can) as it definitely has a more unique taste to it. I really like this tea, it would be a good breakfast contender for those days when you want to curl up with a familiar old friend.

On a side note: Anyone in the lower mainland Vancouver near a Homesense or Winners and knows they have some selection. I’ve only been able to find 3 that are of interest to me, but would like to taste or at least see more. I’ve been the locations east of the Port Mann and haven’t stopped by the North shore yet.

Sil drank this earlier and that reminded me that I still had enough left for a cup. Why not sit and enjoy it now? (Sipdown; 85)

It’s hard for me to rate this because it’s a white tea and I don’t often drink them, and I wouldn’t often be in the mood for this creamy cup of lemon, but it is nice.

We woke up with a little bit of snow outside yesterday, so it seems like the right time to whip out the Winter Tea. I haven’t tried this but when QueenofTarts put it up for sale, I thought I would give it a try, especially when the forums are abuzz with talk of Fauchon and Mariage Freres.

This is such a light and mild tea. It’s creamy, with a nice mixture of lemon and vanilla. I think I detect the white tea in the background, but only when I actively think about it – white tea is so subtle!

I was wondering why this would be called L’Hiver, but I think I get it. It’s just so milk and lightly refreshing that it just hints at Spring and provides a bit warmth through the gloomiest winter.

LOL Ahhhhhhh this would be the mint. Thought my sniffer was off the other night, but as soon as the water hit the leaves, I just got a huge whiff of mint. I’ve commented on other tasting notes, and I really believe that it’s true – if you aren’t crazy about (or sensitive to) a flavor that’s the one that seems to stand out for you.
For me this is herbally, minty, fruity (berry – yeah ok, wouldn’t have said that it screams raspberry though). I’m not getting any black base at all, this could be a tisane to my tastes, and I don’t think I’m getting any bakery or cakey.
This is obviously a quality tea, just not to my tastes.
Thank you MissB for sending me a sample of it, really appreciate it.

This tea smells of sweet cooked apple and a fruity base tea with pastry like hints.

I find it benefits from a 5 minute steep. The base does not overpower the flavouring and the fruit is stronger than when I steeped it with shorter steeps. The rose blends with apple flavour in such away that the tea reminds me of spring with a reference to apple blossoms ( which makes sense as they are in the same family), and at other times it reminds me of fall as I get an aftertaste of cooked apples. The base has enough tannins and astringency to give the tea a certain thickness and a reference to baked goods, but taste wise it is quite fruity, and freshening. The bite of Rose becomes more apparent as it cools. It’s quite nice.

La Naissance, we had a good run you delicious, delicious tea.

Omnomnommynom.