Le Palais des Thes

This is very apple-y, and beyond that and rooibos, I don’t taste a ton. I think anyone who likes red rooibos with fruit will like this. That said, I have been experimenting with having rooibos in many flavors and have been finding that across brands, I don’t know that I prefer red rooibos with fruity flavors. I’ve been preferring spicier blends with red, and fruity ones with green rooibos. Interesting, as it did not used to be so.

This is super refreshing. It is fruity, but not berry fruity, more tropical. It was ok hot, but every time I forget a cup of fruity tea and it cools I remember how much I love fruity teas iced. It is like a taste of summer…never mind that there is snow on the ground right now.

This is delicious. I LOVE vanilla. Pretty much all the perfume I own that smells phenomenal on me has a vanilla base. All of my favorite desserts, controversially, are vanilla based and not chocolate.

It makes this green tea super smooth and evening appropriate. Win.

This tea smells like tootsie rolls, though sweeter. The vanilla and the sweetness of the rooibos are more obvious. It doesn’t become bitter from overbrewing, and has a natural sweetness that tastes even better with the addition of sugar/honey/stevia. It tastes like it smells, both dry and brewed. It was very mellow and I could see myself drinking this at night. I drank this last night, but I think I’ll make some more tonight. I really should consider buying flavored rooibos teas.

Another tea from my November 2014 Steepster Select box!
(The Des Amants means "The Lover’s Tea. Maybe the February Select box would have been more appropriate?)
I was worried about this tea from the get-go. I have a strong aversion to red hots. When I stuck my nose in the package that was all I could smell. When I brewed the tea, it looked like liquid red hots. Sniffing the brew smelled like nothing but fucking red hots. Oh no.. I took a sip and….
No Red Hots.
It had an assortment of other flavors besides cinnamon, although that was the major player. I got a sweeter flavor, like maple syrup and marzipan. There was also a bread like quality from the black tea base. Hmmm. I noticed that there were little pieces of something in the packet as well. Curious, I popped a piece in my mouth. I have been watching too much Korean Dramas to not want to investigate and find out the truth before making assumptions. Almonds! They were blanched, so you couldn’t tell what they were without the skins on.
This is a nice Christmas tea, if cinnamon makes you think of Christmas. Maybe a European Christmas perhaps?

What a tea! I love Japanese greens. I have had a little trouble getting into them at first, and looking back on it, this is what I would recommend to people who say “I don’t like Japanese greens, they have too much of that iodine flavour!”
This is buttery, this is smooth. This is much less astringent than other Senchas. This just very well may be my new favourite green.

Hooray, this is my last untried Palais des Thés tea! I purchased a sampler that contained all three versions of this tea (black, green, rooibos), and found the black version to be a cinnamon tea, but quite liked the rooibos. So we shall see which side this one sits on! It’s another sencha base, and there are pieces of apple mixed in. Dry scent is pretty much just cinnamon candy.

The steeped tea also has a very sweet cinnamon aroma, reminiscent of red hot candies or those gummy cinnamon hearts/bears. Hmm… This basically tastes like a very mellow sencha base with a bit of cinnamon in it. And it’s not really candy cinnamon in the taste, it’s more like I’m eating ground cinnamon itself. Not terribly pleasant…

This is another one from the Palais des Thés mini-tin set I bought on MyHabit a little while ago. I must admit, I’m a bit scared of this tea. It managed to make the entire package smell like peppermint extract… And not in a good way, either. This one is also a sencha green base, and it has a very harsh and strong peppermint aroma that doesn’t really appeal to me… Hopefully it’s not as strong when steeped.

Luckily, the aroma has toned down a bit in the steeped tea, although it still reminds me more of straight-up peppermint oil rather than the leaves themselves. The mint is a little too much for me in the taste itself, it’s almost tingly in my mouth. This one is definitely not for me, heh. :P

Welp, this one is the next oldest tea in my cupboard that I haven’t tried! I got this during a Palais des Thés sale on MyHabit, it came in a little mini-tin set with three other flavored teas. At this point, I’m unsure what I was thinking, as three of the four teas are green, which is generally my least favorite base for flavored teas. Oh well! The leaves are quite flat and long, and there are little curly flower petals mixed in, along with a few pieces of citrus peel. Dry scent is somewhere between orange juice and orange candy (orange juice candy?).

This is definitely a mellow tea, in both base and flavoring. The orange here has that sweet, slightly artificial taste of orange candy, but it also has a tartness as in orange juice. So it really is orange juice candy! The base is so mellow that I can’t really taste it at all. I guess that’s an improvement over it being bitter or super grassy. Overall, not bad.

Continuing on with trying my older tea samples! This one came from a swap with Sara. Honestly, I’m not sure why I asked for this one, it doesn’t seem like something I would like. Oh well! It appears to be just green tea leaves and flavoring, nothing else added in. Dry scent is very stange and powdery in a candy way, like Smarties or something. Maybe a touch of floral as well.

The steeped tea smells somewhat sweet and candy-like with a light floral overtone. This has a strange powdery cherry taste that reminds me of chewing flavored Tums. Disappointing since I actually like the delicate floral note that’s also present, but rather overpowered. The green base is mild and unobtrusive. I think I would quite like this if it weren’t for the Tums aspect.

I had purchased 4 ounces of this tea in March of 2014 from the Upper West Side shop in New York and just finished the bag. Enjoyable to the last cup! I wish it had more roses, but it was one of the teas I reached for if I wanted something floral but nothing too sweet or foodie-tasting. Great for tea parties, as everyone seemed to enjoy it.

From *Nicole*’s Christmas card! Thank you! Brewed Western-style.

I’m wary of non-“pure” oolongs, but the lavender and oolong surprisingly complement each other. The aroma is clearly in favor of the lavender – very fragrant, a good thing I’m a lavender/aroma lover. However, in the liquor, the notes of this lightly oxidized oolong are able to appear without effort. Floral, creamy, and slightly mineral-y. The floral flavor is what allows the lavender – which isn’t overpowering at all – to be able to steep so well with the oolong.

This is super flavorful – it is primarily fruity, but has some floral notes too. Methinks it is rose, given how much I love rose. I imagine this would be phenomenal iced, but I am happy drinking it hot too. I like how this brand doesn’t skimp on the flavor.

The black/green base is fairly light, but not wishy washy in flavor either. I think I like it, and I think it works best for not competing with the other flavors too much.

This is fantastic – I LOVE peach, and rose, and this is fresh and juicy. The green tea makes it nice and light, and I imagine it would be just as good iced as it is hot.

This is one of the Palais des Thés teas that I purchased when Rue La La had them for sale (at about half price!). It was part of the Indulgences sampler. The tea itself is a blend of generic black tea leaves and beautiful pale yellow helichrysum flowers. Dry scent is lemony and sweet and reminds me of lemon drops! :D

Once steeped, the aroma is a mix of black tea and lemon candy. Hm, this is a perfectly pleasant lemon black tea! The tea is strong enough to hold its own, but not too strong or at all bitter. It doesn’t really have any distinguishing characteristics, just a generic “black tea” flavor. The lemon is mild, but it’s somewhat sweet and more of a dessert lemon (sort of like Butiki’s Lemon French Macaron). Overall, this is yummy! And I bet it would be fantastic with a bit of sweetening.

Sipdown (102)!

Thanks Cameron B. for choosing this as the random sample in our most recent swap; I don’t think I’d have found it worthwhile as a pick myself but then I’d have been missing out…

So I cold brewed this, to use up the whole sample in one go. Just gotta note that it brewed up especially dark red, even for a rooibos. A nice, sold rust/brown kind of colour. Taste wise; pretty good with different notes playing together – but not overly complex either. Faintly present rooibos base with a kind of “baked apple” flavour, some cinnamon, and a sweet nutty note that faintly reminded me of baking, like an apple pie or crumble, maybe? At the time I drank it I thought there was a bubblegum note too but now I’m realizing that was more from the sweetness of the almonds.

Pleasantly surprised by this one!

I’m finding out that I really enjoy spiced teas. This was no exception. It smelled amazing even before I brewed the tea. The spices were a bit more subdued after steeping, but all in all a pleasantly spicy tea experience.

It really is finally cold enough to enjoy tea :) so this was in my November Steepster box. It’s okay, smelled nice and tasted cinnamony. I don’t get much of anything else, but it’s a pleasant taste.

I have to say, I am moderately surprised this is a black tea. I honestly wouldn’t have realized to taste it. It definitely tastes like cinnamon, with the apple fruitiness, but doesn’t remind me strongly of chai. It isn’t spicy enough. I like it, though I probably wouldn’t bend over backwards to buy more.

Sipdown (103)!

Well, I fixed the Pledge/Rind problem! On a hunch, I added milk to a thermos of this I was drinking in the morning before work, and it totally erased and grossness and just left a very smooth creamy vanilla lemon treat! Like a lemon Campino, loosely. Or I guess what I’m getting at is that even though it was soft and creamy, it wasn’t confectionery.

Happy I made this one work for me for the last cup; but not one I’ll be buying. I just don’t like lemon with a black base, really…

This is what I’m currently drinking.

I think I must just not be a fan of straight/simple lemon and black tea blends. I do love lemon flavouring with almost any other base, but I’ve yet to really find a black tea focusing on lemon that really works for me. Although, admittedly this is probably the best one I’ve had yet.

There is a creamyness/richness and natural sweetness to this but I’m encountering the same problem I’ve faced with pretty much every other black lemon blend I’ve had and that’s a “lemon rind” sort of flavor that’s a little bitter and loosely reminds me of Pledge. In this one, I’m experiencing the creaminess first and then the bitter lemon rind flavour as the aftertaste. Not especially the way you want to end a sip.

And now I’ve let it go cold; I’ve been dragging out drinking it so much. Oh well, thank you Cameron B. for the sample anyway; I’ve got another cup left and I’ll definitely tweak this and see if I can’t make it a bit better – but worst case you’ve just helped me to rule out a tea type, and saved me time and money trying more out, and can’t complain about that.

The dry rooibos mix is very fragrant,,smells like vanilla marshmallow treat.
Liquor is red colored and has that rooibos scent and flavor. It is sweet with vanilla notes and a touch of honey. It’s very sweet and rooibos tasting.
If you like rooibos, you would like this. I don’t really care for rooibos so I am not a good judge of it.

From the Steepster Select Box; November, 2014

This is really tasty. I LOVE pretty much all things chai, but it doesn’t always work so well for me with a green tea base. Not the case here – the spices are also lighter, so it doesn’t get too overwhelming. I normally put milk in my chai, but that would be strange to do with green, and this doesn’t need it.

This was pleasant enough, but I can’t say the flavor was unique for me to want to return to it or crave it. It seemed like a fairly basic green tea, which is a bit disappointing for Le Palais des Thes. Still it was fine enough for the one cup. I’m glad it came in a sample pack though, rather than me having a whole supply of it.