Le Palais des Thes

Not expansive or high style, but very fragrant and lively green tea from China. A bit similar to Japanese green teas. Palais has it very fresh, at least in their Israeli shop. Brewed in Gaiwan very fast. So it’s not becoming astringent, but sweet and yellowish green, similar to kamairicha. Small leaves have a great smell dry and when brewed. Good after meals or with sweets.

Let me start with a digression, which might be useful for you to understand my disappointment.
I’ve always thought that exotic/tropical fruit juices were usually not great and not as good as plain orange juice; as if the blending did not really work and faded the nice and all the specific flavors to something bland and undefinable. Exactly the same thing as for whisky when you compare nice single malts with blends that are just too bland and uninteresting, even though some of them boost of containing “a little bit of all the best whiskies” as I heard it once.
However, I really enjoy eating passion fruits (or having them in cocktails…), as their flavor is much more particular than the fake exotic blend. Hence my high expectations for this single-flavor tea;

Very strong Passion Fruit smell when opening the tea bag. The tea looks also nice with yellow petals and small pieces of fruit (not sure whether it is passion fruit skin or small apple flavored with passion fruit) among the black tea.
Golden honey color
When dry, the tea smells very strong like exotic fruits; once steeped the smell turns slightly more discrete.
The smells and tastes remind me more of exotic fruit mix, than simply of passion fruit; it feels a bit too sweet, too sugary and not tangy enough to be just passion fruit at the right level of ripeness.
The black tea base is quite nice but not really special.
I was happy to see that the tea did not leave a greasy flake at the bottom of my cup.
To make it short, it’s quite nice to drink, but not as good as I expected. After having drunk about on third of the pack, I already feel like I have had enough of this one, which is just good enough to drink at work but not at home for cozying up and relaxing. I will not buy it again though will probably try out more sophisticated exotic blends.

I recently received a lovely email from Fanja at Le Palais des Thes explaining that Green of London – Earl Grey Mao Feng is now available at their SoHo/NYC Store! Exciting!!! They sent the Sororitea Sisters a batch of their brand new US release and we are VERY excited to try this!

I must say – I cannot remember if I have had an Earl Grey flavored Mao Feng before. I know I have had Senchas, as well as other types of green’s that were EG flavored but I really don’t remember a Mao Feng!

I do really like this! They hit the nail on the head for EG flavor especially with the Green tea base, here! It seems to be the perfect level of EG flavor to be strong and true but you can still taste the Green Tea base which is grassy and sweet. The Bergamot is really nice too! And there is a hint of floral flavor and it increases as I continue to sip!

This is a nice sipping tea as well as a gulping tea. I enjoyed this hot and cold. Pretty brilliant!

thank you momo! Another sample! Fruit is one of my favorite things, so of course I love fruity teas. The few cups sample here didn’t look like it had many flowers OR fruit chunks, so I would imagine that would affect the flavor. I steeped for three minutes after letting the water cool way down. It’s good! A nice fresh flavor. I think I can smell peach more than I can taste it. And the kiwi and watermelon seem a bit hidden to me. But the green tea base makes up for it. I had another cup a few weeks ago where either the water was too hot or I steeped too long and the flavor was bitter. The fruit flavor wasn’t any different this time around. I’m glad I waited until I brewed it the correct way to write a review though!

When I opened the sealed bag, I did not remember what the tea had looked like when I had purchased it a few months ago. I was disappointed to see that the chamomile was finely grounded almost to powder and that there were not any entire flowers. A rooibos is usually always made up of small pieces, but this one is even finer than all the others I’ve had. Even the tiny holes of my new strainer are not small enough to prevent it from spilling into the teapot. And the strainer is quite difficult to clean as some pieces keeps getting stuck in the holes; I do not have this problem with any other rooibos I have which cannot endear this one to me.
Next let’s come to the tasting. The brew is not really clear, as a result from the dust spilling. The smell is quite nice, strong on chamomile with the sweetness brought by the rooibos.
The taste is ok, but keeps disappointing me.
Two months ago, while staying in a nice hotel in Malaysia, I had a chamomile after dinner that was the best I ever had; the following morning I discovered with pleasure Gryphon tea. This chamomile was just plain flowers steeping in hot water, but the taste was fresh, mild with no hint of bitterness or unpleasant aftertaste, well really perfect. I had not asked for the brand of the chamomile then, which I regret.
Since then my expectations have highly risen. And that’s probably the reason why I’m disappointed here. The hashed chamomile has a hint of something slightly bitter in it. And the rooibos base from Le Palais des Thés is too weak to add enough creaminess to compensate for it.
The verbena rooibos was a better blend than this one IMO.
I’ll try it iced though.

The loose leaves smell like a weird jolly rancher candy with chocolate. All sorts of candy like fruits with that mocha undertone.
The chocolate notes really came out after brewing. The (phantom) chocolate scent is foremost but underneath is something interesting. It is sweet and fruity but earthy and a little wrong smelling – I think it’s a strawberry scent. I like it, it’s a little musky and wild.
I really don’t care for the taste of this. It was bitter from the fruit (I brewed it at 165 for 3 minutes rather than 4) and just not my cuppa. At least it didn’t taste like a jolly rancher…

Light and delicious, for those who like vanilla and green tea, this is the perfect combination.

I’ll add up to my review after a few more pots from this one.
On my bag, it says “A delicious rooibos, enlivened by marigold petals, evokes the tasty perfume of vanilla. Perfect in the evening.”
When opening the bag, it looks nice with the yellow petals. The taste of almond directly came to my mind and I was surprised not to see it mentioned. After brewing, the smell of almond is definitely still there. When drinking, it is actually the only taste that I can think of.
I like almonds. However I have the feeling that there is too much of it and that this overwhelming flavor kills all the others.
I’ll definitely look out for the missing vanilla next time and am convinced after 2 pots that I will have more than enough of it by the time the bag is finished.

I do not know why I did never buy this one, as it probably is among my favorites from Le Palais des Thés. However I drank it very regularly at one of my friend at our weekly video evenings.
This tea is low on theine, which is really perfect for the evening.
The tea base is nice, without having anything really special. The flavor is actually very simple : lime. Hence a tangy smell and taste, that I enjoy very much, as I find it very natural. No feeling of drinking the dishwashing liquid there ;)
Writing this review brings me a craving to taste it again… I might buy it next time, though I’ve said that a few times already and never did.

A few years ago, afterhaving discovered Le Palais des Thés, I bought this one following a craving for Earl Grey.
I drank it usually in the morning and found it quite perfect for brunches. However I was not wowed by this tea. Each time I drank it, I kept wondering whether it was really better than my first favorite loose leaf by Twinings and whether the markup was worth it. To my opinion, it was just a nice Earl Grey blend, with nothing really special.
Actually as this tea killed my craving for Earl Grey for a few years (I did not drink any and was not willing to buy and try another one), I’ll be quite severe with its rating – maybe a bit more than deserved.

I am revisiting this tea this evening. (I also revisited it last night, but, did not have a chance to log that because my daughter stopped by for a visit!)

The first time I brewed this, I thought it was a black tea because I didn’t read the box very carefully … I had noticed “Yunnan” but not “dark tea” on the website, and thought it was a black Yunnan that had been scented with the cinnamon wood. The first tasting, I thought I had tasted pu-erh, but, had I realized that this WAS a pu-erh I would have brewed it differently.

Now that I was able to brew this the way I would normally brew a pu-erh, I am able to really appreciate this tea. The cinnamon flavor is pleasantly subtle as the tea has been scented by the wood caddy that it is stored in, rather than flavored with cinnamon oil or blended with cinnamon chips. This makes for a pleasantly light cinnamon taste that allows me to explore the sweeter side of the spice, as well as the warm side. It is really nice, and I like how well the earthy notes of the Pu-erh meld with the earthiness of the cinnamon. It’s really quite nice.

Plus… the caddy is SUPER cool!

I looked for a previous entry of this tea, but did not see any – am I really the first to log this one?

Anyway, I absolutely LOVE the presentation of this tea. The canister is made of cinnamon wood, it smells lovely! I suspect that this may be the way this tea was scented – by sitting in this box? There are no chips of cinnamon in the tea, it’s all tea leaf.

This is not going to be my “Official” tea review of this tea, because, I brewed this tea in my smart brewing device and while I did give it a good scrubbing before I used it to brew this tea, the tea still smells vaguely of pu-erh (which is odd as I don’t remember brewing pu-erh in my smart brewing device, I usually steep it in my gaiwan … oh wait! I remember, I brewed the climber’s high in there … which has pu-erh in addition to many other types of tea in it, so, that may be what has left the residual scent. I may have to soak the steeping device in a vinegar solution or something) … anyway, I did not want to use my Breville because I did not want the cinnamon to overwhelm the tea maker and have to scrub at that this afternoon! So… babbling aside, I will be trying this again in the next few days to write a proper review.

But I will say this, I am enjoying this. The cinnamon is subtle. Certainly present in every sip, but it doesn’t come off as a strong cinnamon-y taste. This is probably one of the best cinnamon teas I’ve tasted because it comes across as very natural and earthy. I even taste some pu-erh in this… could it be that the tea itself has that very earthy, pu-erh taste? I guess it’s possible. I will figure it out the next time I brew it, after the steeping device has been thoroughly cleaned.

Sipdown !
I have been a little hard with this tea, if brewed a little longer (but not too much neither) and with a 95°c water (not 90°c) it becomes a very decent tea.

it desserves to be tasted.

Thé des Amants : what a promise ! Amant in French is not Amoureux…It is a little bit more sulfurous…so I was expecting a very strong tea, spicy and sweet.

I sniffed this tea in a shop and adored the perfume : very strong, spicy and fruity …I picked up apple and cinnamon.
However I am always happy to see pieces of fruits mixed with a blend and not only essential oils.

Of course I bought it and brewed it immediatly…

Well…all the flavours were there apple, cinnamon, vanilla (not a very strong vanilla), almond too.

The only problem is with the tea itself : so weak, light-bodied. So light that I came back in the kitchen to read again on the sachet : black tea…oh really ?

That’s a pity because the flavours are very present and nice but I had more the feeling to drink a very good and tasteful tisane rather than a black tea.

So I rebrewed another time with more leaf and steeped it 1 min more but it developped a little bitterness I didn’t like.

Please Palais des Thés, reconsider your recipe and use a stronger-bodied tea base for this one : it could become a very great tea.

Thé du Hammam black leaf was in my shopping list for a while.
I bought it yesterday and just made my first cup this morning.

I am a lover of the original green tea and was a little bit concerned by the dates swap to rhubarb in this blend.

I am very surprised and absolutely in love with the black leaf version : the flavours are perfectly balanced and none takes the advantage on the other.

I put too much brown crystal sugar for my first cup and didn’t appreciate the real taste of this tea so I steeped the leaf a second time and it was a revelation : no need of mint to create a fantastic oriental tea (I already known it thanks to the green version but it’s confirmed !)

To be honnest I still miss the dates even if I really love rhubarb.

Black leaf version seems more to be a cousin of the green version rather than his black twin.The green version is more delicate and subtile but I love both and the black version is already now in my top 20 list.

As I was not very impressed with you, dear tea des sables, I decided to make you iced.
I need to clear my tins to put all my good teas, the ones still in a simple bag…So bye bye basic teas and unloved teas !
You’re not my cup of tea but you may be my glass of tea ?

Sure ! you’re definitively better as an iced tea but obviously I am really less picky with iced teas (I think I’m not far of even being not picky at all when I am deshydrated !)

I get the rose flavour here and the peach one not sure for mango.
This is flowery and fruity and really refreshing.

I’m sure I’ll get my tin available very soon :)

Everybody is already asleep home including the cat !
I am alone on my sofa and I feel so lazy…I’d like to have a cup of this tea…but I feel well on my sofa…nobody’s around to go in the kitchen for me…even the cat…anyway cats never help to prepare a cup…

I had a dream Le Chat is waking up and is going in the kitchen, he’s putting water in the kettle, 80°C (he is clever, he knows it’s for a green tea)…put crystal sugar in a mug & put the infuser in.

But pffff he’ll never do that for me…that’s the reason why I love him and love cats… they don’t care for what we think, they are just free and only do what they want to.

So I have this tea and it is a nice tea.
I am not very impressed by the green tea base but appreciate the flavors (mainly rose but I can pick mango and behind maybe peach).

it doesn’t work for a second steep, it becomes really too weak.

Nice for a lazy evening with or without cat

During my latest visit to Le Palais des Thés shop, I stumbled unto this new rooibos-herbal tea blend, which seemed created for me, as I often drink tea in the evening but have a low tolerance for coffeine and theine. I also have difficulties in finding good high quality fine tasting herbal teas, even in organic high hand brands/shops.
In comparison with other rooibos, I noticed the leaves are finer and therefore more numerous inside the teapot as they largely escape my tea ball. The Verbena also comes almost in dust form and definitely not in full leaves. The second brew always turns out really clear, much more so than the Mariage Frères, even though I use more of this one.
Regarding taste, the rooibos does not have a very strong taste and is rather bland and almost non-descript; however the Verbena really adds a nice and fresh twist to it.
It also tastes nice iced (after hot brew).
I rather enjoyed it, but prefer drinking some others and will not buy it back once the pack is finished.

I like to drink tea in the evening after dinner. This tea is perfect for that moment.
First of all it contains a lower theine level than regular oolong, which did not prevent me from sleeping soundly afterwards a whole teapot. Secondly the taste is both fruity and flowery, quite mellow.
I left sometimes the tea brewing for much longer than the 5 recommanded minutes; however the tea did not turn very bitter.
I enjoyed this tea and even bought a second 100 g-pack. However during the second one, I started to like it less and less, as I noticed the quality compared not as great as Mariage Frères blends. One of the things that really started to irk me was the oily remains at the bottom of the teapot and cups, after brewing this tea, which gave me the impression some of the flavors were brought through adding perfumed oils to the tea leaves or to the flowers.