Le Palais des Thes

I never actually posted about this! I shall immediately see to fix this oversight.

Now, this one I bought because of the whole explore flavoured roiboos phase. The thing is, for the longest time I didn’t think I liked the stuff at all. And I didn’t. Not plain anyway. But then I discovered that when flavoured it can actually be really quite nice. So I was exploring the selection that the boyfriend brought when we moved in here and found out that that first one wasn’t actually a fluke as I had suspected it might be.

Fruity flavoured rooibos is quite nice actually! So then it made me want to buy some too, so when I was re-stocking from LPdT, I looked at what they had. Not much really. At least not much that struck my fancy, but they did have this cherry flavoured one.

Which brings me to my second reason for the choice. I want a cherry flavoured black. Not cherry blossom, but cherry. I know it must exist, but I’ve never seen one that I can recall. At least not one that wasn’t bagged and cheap.

Buying this one seemed to be a two birds one stone sort of deal, so I did it.

Initially I was a little disappointed. It wasn’t as cherry-y as I had imagined and/or hoped for, and to be quite frank, there was a hint of soapy flavour to it. The boyfriend thought it was nice though.

Stubbornly I pressed on, and to my amazement I have discovered that this stuff has been growing on me. I’ve had it several times now, and I have a completely different experience of it now from that initial one. It’s still rather more rooibos-y than cherry-y, but it’s okay because I’ve got used to it, and that impression of having got shampoo in my mouth while showering has disappeared as well.

Even if the fruit is not nearly as strong as I would have preferred, I’ve decided it’s okay. It’s not going to be my gate-way into unflavoured rooibos or anything, because frankly, I’m not interested in plain rooibos. I drink it for the fruit addition and for how that plays with the rooibos flavour.

So yeah, in time I have grown to be quite pleased with this purchase, although I don’t think it’s necessarily one which I will have to repeat. I also moves some of it to a separate tin and added a vanilla pod a la JacquelineM and I have to say the result of that was very pleasant indeed. I prefer that vanilla-fied version actually, but I have become sufficiently pleased with this that I don’t feel like doctoring up the rest of it anyway.

Smokey, dark golden, caffein rich, like drinking a bonfire.

Lapsang Souchong².

This is an amazing Earl Grey. Perhaps not my favorite, I think that the Earl Grey Excelsior still holds that title, but this one deserves high marks. This one does have mixed reviews, and I think that is because there are many who just are not fond of Earl Grey (how could that possibly be? This tea drinker doesn’t get it. I know that every palate is as individual as the person who possesses it … but, still) and this is truly an Earl Grey. The bergamot is clear and focused, and tastes crisply citrus-y with its lovely tangy quality. The slight tongue-tingly sensation can come off as a bit perfume-ish, because that was my initial reaction, but now as I’m more than halfway through the cup, I realize that this is more of the tart-tangy taste of the bergamot, and not so much perfume.

A really, really good Earl Grey.

I was very excited to find this tea. Temi being one of the first tea estates in Sikkim, was started by an estate from Darjeeling. While being on the border between the two provinces, Temi offers hope to bring prestige to this region.

To be completely honest I was a little disappointed in the tea. It tasted flat, and maybe a little bit stale. One can detect a slight hint of muscatel, which isn’t surprising considering its location in the Himalaya mountains, but it means that either Temi hasn’t quite got their manufacture under control or Palais des Thes needs to move their stock quicker.

So the last 1.5 tsp of this one from Azzrian got the cold-brewing treatment today, since I happened to encounter it while poking around for teas to brew up and wasn’t the biggest fan of it hot. This one got the same treatment as Strawberry Pancake; 30 seconds in 82C water followed by dilution with cold water and being stuck in the fridge for about 7 hours. Half the water, though.

This one’s actually better than I expected! A nice refreshing, fruity green. I’m primarily picking up on mango flavours and maybe a bit of citrus (apparently neither flavour is in this blend… I could be convinced that I’m tasting peach, but have difficulty believing there’s watermelon or kiwi here). One plus is that the flavouring doesn’t taste so artificial as it does in some blends. Similar to Strawberry Pancake, there’s a bit of astringency here, but it’s not quite as bothersome. I wonder if the fact that it got 30s at 180F instead of the recommended 167F influenced that. The green tea here is coming off slightly seaweedy as well, but it’s pretty mild.

Anyhow, not too sad to see this one go, and I think cold-brewing it made it a bit tastier than I remember it being hot.

Hmmm, ok. This isn’t bad, but it’s not as awesome as I was expecting. Reminds me of some of the flavoured greens from DavidsTea (I can’t recall specifically which ones). Nothing particularly special though.

Second infusion similar. Oh well, that’s ok! Thanks for the sample, Azzrian!

First of all, Denmark now has Princess Athena Marguerite Francoise Marie. Very untraditional name, Athena. I’m not sure if it’s a more common name in France, seeing as how Princess Marie, the mother, comes from France. As she’s only number 10 in line to the throne so it’s not exactly likely that she’ll ever be queen of Denmark, so her parents can get away with being more personal and less traditional in their choice of names. Although Prince Henrik, who is the youngest of the little princess’ older brothers, is named after the Prince Consort. (I remember when he was christened. That was one proud grandfather that day!)

In the circumstances of the royal christening with French ancestry, (on both sides, actually, as the Prince Consort is also originally from France) I thought a French tea was in order. So therefore I picked a Chinese oolong. Well, it’s a French company. You all know what I mean anyway.

This is one of the three free samples that I received with my LPdT stock up order, and the only one of the three which I will actually drink. One of the three had come undone during shipping or it had not actually been sealed, not sure which, and the other is a jasmine scented beast, which… Yeah. I don’t care for jasmine, and I’ve decided to introduce the concept of realism and stop kidding myself that I’ll actually ever get through the various jasmine scented things I’ve got so I’ve moved the lot to the Give It Away Box.

Anyway, that left this one which had leaves dark enough looking that I thought it was much more fermented than it was and consequently steeped as such. As it turns out, it’s only 10% fermented… Well, plock. I tend to feel more comfortable giving greener oolongs a lower temperature than darker oolongs, but hopefully it won’t be very relevant.

Secondly, I see in the company’s description of it that it has a fair amount of floralness to it, particularly along the lines of narcissus and JASMINE! I can’t win. I just can’t win. But I suppose when it’s a naturally occuring note there’s always the chance that it won’t show up like that for me. One can only hope.

The aroma is definitely floral in a heavy sort of way, like a small room full of flowers that haven’t been aired out in a while, but not more so than these green type oolongs usually are. I can still get the slightly earthy notes that reveals it to be an oolong. There’s nothing particular about the aroma that really sticks out as interesting or unique here.

The flavour is sweet and does have that jasmine-y note to it that the description mentioned. It’s not as overwhelming as actual jasmine scenting and doesn’t make me feel like I’m licking flowers, so I can deal with it here.

Under the floral notes there is a toast-y oolong-y note, and a slight twist of proto-bitterness which tells me I would definitely have benefitted of taking the temperature down a notch or two. It’s only there because I checked for it though, so I don’t feel like I ruined anything or am missing out on anything.

Again, there’s nothing here that really strikes me as unique or in any other way special. It’s a fairly anonymous sort of tea this, rather disappearing among so many of it’s other far more famous green oolong sisters (green oolongs feel mostly female to me). Pleasant, but anonymous.

I brewed this tea “blindly” – that is to say, I simply grabbed the tin (from the gift set) knowing only that it was a green tea, but not what flavor it was. When I smelled the dry leaf, I knew it was a cherry blossom tea – it smelled delightful! The brewed tea keeps much of this aroma.

I love the flavor. I know that this tea got some poor reviews as a hot tea, but, I love it hot with its delicate balance of floral tones and hints of cherry flavor, this is much more a Sakura Blossom tea than a cherry flavored tea when its hot. Once it cools, this tea becomes more of a cherry flavored tea. Both are tasty, but, I prefer Sakura Blossom tea.

Sipdown, 163. Cold brew.

I apparently thought this was a different tea when I put it in to cold steep last night… for some reason I thought it was the des Songes blend, with oolong, but nope, it’s des Sables. I probably would have steeped it with less leaf if I had realized that. Unfortunately this didn’t come out very tasty and I stopped drinking it about halfway through. Too strong, too grassy, to over-flavored. Just too much, really. Meh.

Man, it has been one of those days where I have been doing things nonstop, but none of it seems to be my work. And now the day is almost over already! At least I have a chance to sit and have a cup of tea now.

This is definitely a tea I was interested in trying, as they make a big deal about the rose in the tea. It’s also supposed to be flavored with citrus and “yellow” fruits (the description on the insert in the box), which I was wondering about but I see from the description on here that those would be peach and mango. The dry leaf smells fruity and a bit floral and generally French, so I know it’s going to be that kind of blend. The kind that there’s a lot going on in them, but they’re well blended and slightly difficult to suss all the flavors out.

I’m really liking the scent of the steeped tea. There mango and florals are combining in such a way that it almost comes out as jasmine. It’s a deep, rich type of jasmine though, the kind I encountered in China not in the form of pearls but the plain jasmine greens. Some of them seem to have some alternate form of jasmine that I hadn’t encountered before. In any case this tea doesn’t have any jasmine so it’s a bit of a red herring.

At first I wasn’t super impressed by the flavor on this one but it’s growing on me. There’s definitely a floral bent to the whole thing, with some light fruity, peachy notes underneath. I do get that sense of a lot of very fine-tuned blending with a whole lot of ingredients. It’s not rosey per se, but generally floral as a whole. The base seems kind of familiar, and it’s that kind of fresh, green, not very invasive sencha base that seems very prevalent in the world of flavored greens. I do find myself preferring the rare flavored green that uses a nuttier, butterier green as the base just because it’s a little more interesting. This tea is quite lovely and a pleasure to drink, but not a must have just because it doesn’t really distinguish itself for me. I do think at one point in my tea journey this would have been a top tea for me.

Sipdown, 169.

Ahh, a nice evening Earl Grey, haha. Most people wouldn’t go for Earls in the evening but I decided to go for it because I was home early enough to drink it relatively early in the evening. We shall see if it keeps me awake at all tonight. I made this one strong with milk and sugar because that’s how I wanted to have the last of this one. And the bergamot is strong and easily cuts through the milk. As much as I love all my unflavored teas and as much as I drink almost all of my teas without additions, I do love a sweet and milky Earl. Mmm.

Yay, it’s my birthday. Boo, I have to spend all day writing my dissertation chapter. I have been very motivated this week, but today is looking bad.

Well, I better say something about this tea so I can get back to work. It’s a pretty drinkable tea, and I am enjoying it a bit more today than I have in the past. Very strong bergamot, but it avoids getting bitter, at least when hot. This is one of those odd teas that actually tastes worse once it cools a bit. The base is nice, with even a hint of sweetness to it, again, at least while it’s hot. Even while pretty darn warm this one is starting to become more astringent.

Decided to revisit this one this morning. It is definitely a very robust, bracing Earl Grey! The bergamot is very strong, but it is balanced somehow by the black tea base. I drank this one fast because my previous note said that a citrus-pith-like bitterness came out of the bergamot flavor once it cooled, and fortunately I didn’t get much of that today. It does have a bit of a harsh edge to it. It reminds me a bit of breakfast blends that are meant to be enjoyed with additions.

Uggghhh… will to stay awake flagging… Although it’s totally that situation where I am exhausted and totally wiped because my body thinks it’s 2:30am, but I did sleep a lot last night and yesterday so I don’t know if I could even really fall asleep. And my contacts are doing that “it’s late and you should go to sleep so we’re going to dry out an make it impossible for you to see” thing that they like to do. Oh, 12hr jetlag is the worst.

I decided to delve into my Le Palais des Thes gift set, which arrived while I was away in China. I’ve wanted to try Le Palais des Thes for a while now because I love Dammann Freres and a lot of French blends, which tend to be relatively complex with lots of flavors going on. I’ve also enjoyed the Kusmi teas I’ve tried, though I’m not a big fan of Mariage Freres because I don’t like the black base blend they use, so where does this company fall? We shall see! I wanted a black tea, which narrows it down because there seem to be not as many blacks as greens in there, but most of the others didn’t really speak to me today. I decided to try this “powerful yet refined Earl Grey” as they put it on the insert. The dry leaf certainly smells bergamotty, so hopefully it will be powerful enough to keep me awake.

I steeped this at 205°F since that’s what they recommend, and if a company recommends a slightly lower temp for their blacks I know I should follow it since blacks can go too strong and bitter for me easily. The black tea base comes out to play a bit more in the aroma. It’s nice, though I can’t quite place it. Familiar but not familiar enough for me to be able to identify it. Definitely Chinese and not a Ceylon or Assam, though. The bergamot is there but it’s playing back up, bright and citrusy. The flavors are good, a nice balance of the base and the bergamot. This is pretty high on the bergameter, but the base doesn’t get lost in the process. First notes are definitely bright bergamot, and then the warm, slightly bready, slightly malty black tea base comes out. The bergamot in this one is a bit on the harsher side, almost getting that pithy bitterness as it cools, so if you’re not a bergamot fan I could see how this could come off poorly. A strong bergamot is very difficult to pull off perfectly, and this tea does a pretty good job of it, but it’s not going to replace my Todd & Holland any time soon. The really promising part of this tea is that the base is very well done, so I’m looking forward to trying their other blends.

This is the second tea from Palais des Thes that I review, and again it’s the same perfume taste, just lighter. This time, I’m not a fan and don’t like that perfume taste anymore. If I taste more perfume from this producer, I will not buy from them again.

Furthermore… and I can’t believe I’m saying this:
This tea make my nose snotty. Yes, as in mucus.

No milk, no sugar. It still makes me snotty.

Trying it iced this time around (made by a double strength steep poured over ice). I like it much better cold.

I think this will be very good to have on hand during the summer. It’s very, very refreshing.

The fruit flavors give me that “tropical” kind of taste. Mostly get melon and a bit of peach. Sadly the reason I wanted this tea so much was for the kiwi and it’s the one I can’t pinpoint in there! But that’s okay. I think this works as a fine, French replacement for my usual iced green, Caribbean Breeze from ZenTea.

For how long I waited to even get this tea from sneekpeeq, I took even longer to try it. It reminds me of the mug I ordered nearly 3 weeks ago and I don’t know what they’re doing, making it just for me? I need it now because it has my favorite car on it.

Anyway. I think I used too much leaf and too hot of water. My water was probably 185-190 and the tin says nothing about temperature, so seeing 167 is like oh wow thanks for printing that elsewhere.

It’s not bad though, it just makes the green tea flavor a bit sharp. It’s a nice fruity flavor, but I imagine it’s better cold…or made with cooler water. Greens with some mix of fruits are always good when you can taste the base tea, and this is no exception.

Yes, I agree with Amy Oh, this does smell like the holidays. Cinnamon and a little bit of ginger, with apple and vanilla and almond. YUM! It’s one of those teas that I can’t seem to stop lifting my mug to my nose just to smell it. It smells sweet and warm and comforting.

I find this tea to be a medium-bodied tea, a little lighter than I expected given its strong aroma. It is not as rich as I would like it to have been, but it is still very delicious. I think it needs a stronger black tea base to withstand the strong cinnamon notes.

Another Mystery Tea that we’ve never had before, and yet another free sample received with my massive order earlier this year. This one has apple, almonds, cinnamon and a little bit of ginger in it, and I chose something green for the Mystery Tea based on the inspiration in the wake of Genmaicha earlier today. (The boyfriend wasn’t too keen on that one, by the way)

I’m not too interested in the cinnamon aspect of this one. Cinnamon is great in food, but I’m not very fond of it in tea. And ginger… well, I don’t like ginger. As a matter of fact we got to test a theory the other day while on our outing and no, I definitely do NOT like ginger beer. I looked a bit like the red face on the Steepster rating scale. Blech!

The apple and almond, however, now those are things that sound interesting to me. On the other hand, apple and cinnamon is a pretty classic combination.

In the dry leaves I could detect apple and spices, but no almonds and not really anything in the way of the base. After steeping it’s just spices with something sort of juicy underneath that I choose to interpret as apple.

The first impression I get on the sip is the bite of ginger. sigh I could really have lived without the ginger here. It’s the very first note I get and after that it sort of hangs like a cloud over all the rest of the sip.

Second up, following immediately after the first ginger spike, there is some apple and some cinnamon in what feels like more or less equal amounts.

It’s not until the end of the sip and the aftertaste that I really feel like I’m getting some almond. It’s not a lot and it’s not something I can really say for certain is almond. It’s more sort of the way my mouth feels after I’ve eaten them.

The green tea itself feels a little drowned out here. I couldn’t tell you anything about it if I tried.

I kind of like the idea of this blend, actually, with some reservations regarding the spices. I like the idea of the apples and almonds in a green tea together and I would really have liked to have tried that out without the cinnamon and especially without the ginger. As it is it’s rather too ginger-y for me.

Have not had this one in a long while – it was over due time!
Still quite delicious!
Love the juicy mouthfeel and mix of fruit flavors!
Not one that you can easily tell the different fruits in but they blend so lovely!

Fruity, Green – LOVE how the flavors do NOT wipe out the wonderful green tea base! Very impressed. Oh dear I fear this is one I will go through fast :(

First, YES! New icon. Same little ol’ Ang.

Second, another Mystery Tea, meaning something we’ve never tried before.

Third, I thought an oolong would be fairly certain to be something well-known and familiar. I hadn’t noticed that it was scented until after I had poured the leaves into the pot. It was a free sample I had received with my LPdT order.

It has cinnamon flower pollen and orchid pistils. Does cinnamon flower pollen taste like cinnamon? And what are pistils? These are rather more technical things than I can be bothered with right now, so let’s just simplify it a bit, shall we? It’s scented with flower bits.

There.

Not surprisingly the aroma is quite floral, and it does actually have a fair bit of cinnamon notes in it. I can also detect the base oolong underneath, with something smooth and sort of thick smelling. This one is 50-60% fermented, so it would probably have been quite floral on the aroma even if it hadn’t been scented, so I can’t actually tell how much is natural and how much is due to the scenting process.

The flavour is surprisingly toasty and ever so very slightly astringent. It’s funny because I thought it rather smelled like something that should be smooth and slippery. It doesn’t actually taste at all like it smells. Yeah, the cinnamon notes are there in the flavour as well as the aroma and so is the floral aspect, but other than that, the feel of it in the mouth is completely different from what the aroma led me to expect.

I find this rather confusing to be honest.

The scenting seems to be rather mild. I can detect, as mentioned, something vaguely cinnamon-y but other than that I can’t tell how much of a difference scenting with anything at all has made to the base tea. This tastes very natural, so unless the base tea was really almost flavourless to begin with, scenting strikes me as rather a waste of time and money. I’m fairly certain it would be possible to find an oolong which naturally tastes something along the lines of this. Rou Gui, for example, springs to mind.

It’s pleasant enough, I suppose, but not one I would purchase.

I’ve wanted to try teas from Le Palais des Thes for a while now, and their offer on SneekPeeq was the perfect opportunity for me to try some of their offerings. My only complaint is that it takes a LONG time for the order to finally ship after it’s been placed (like almost 2 weeks!) but once I received shipping confirmation the package arrived quickly. And I guess with the savings that I received using sneekpeeq it was worth the wait.

This is a really tasty green tea. The flavor is so refreshing! I like that the green tea is prominent and stands out amongst the flavors of peach, kiwi and watermelon. I can taste each of these flavors but, they do not dominate and overwhelm the flavor of the delicate green tea. It’s really soft and soothing to sip. Very nice.