Le Palais des Thes

Dry leaf smells very much of sweet cinnamon. There are tiny little pieces of orange in the black tea mix but I wasn’t getting much orange, just cinnamon. The little orange pieces are very cute and tiny.
Brewed this as instructed, 195F Western style, for 4 minutes.
This tea tastes like you took a Red-Hot Candy and steeped it in hot water for a bit.
There is a lot of cinnamon on the nose and more of a sweet subtle cinnamon in the flavor.
The liquor is a clear orange color.
I really didn’t catch the other flavors that are suggested on the package because I was tasting mostly cinnamon. This is definitely the tea for cinnamon lovers :)

From the Steepster Select Box; November, 2014

I do agree with the marketing text on Palais des Thés Le Citron: it’s a classic flavor for sure. In fact, it smacks somewhat of the grocery store “classic” Bigelow Lemon Lift! The concept is very similar, and the quality of this blend might be better, but I do hold fond memories of Lemon Lift from years ago—before loose tea started to become readily available, and long before the advent of “silken sachets”!

I won’t buy this blend again, but it’s nice to have a 1 ounce tin, which I’ll surely finish up. Each time I brew a cup, yet more Lemon Lift memories bubble up. The other “classic” from Bigelow of which I consumed quite a lot back in the day was Constant Comment. Both were “do not add cream or sugar” teas for me, unlike the vast majority of grocery store blends. (To say nothing of the ghastly “Orange Pekoe” filter bag fiascoes, many of which clearly contained lint swept off the floor after all of the serious tea buyers had left the room…)

I suppose that if I did a side-by-side test today, now that I fashion myself something of a tea sophisticate, I’d find that my memories are more positive than the reality…

This sample came from Sara. I find myself liking rooibos (and caffeine-free in general) blends more and more recently for some reason. It’s interesting how tastes change. Anyway! Visually, this tea is just red rooibos with some yellow cornflower petals added in for flair. It smells vaguely vanilla-esque.

The steeped cup mostly smells of red rooibos, with a bit of an almond extract flavor added in. Hmm… It tastes like straight rooibos. There’s a little hint of an almond flavor at the end/aftertaste, but otherwise it’s just woody rooibos. Since I’m unsure how old this sample is, I’m going to withhold a rating. Sad face.

This is part of the Amants (Lovers) miniatures sampler I purchased when Palais des Thés had some teas for sale on MyHabit. I tried the black version first, and found that it’s pretty much a cinnamon black tea, and because of that I’ve put off trying the other two (there’s a green version as well). Well, for some reason I opened up this little tin and gave it a sniff, and to my surprise it smells more like apple cider than cinnamon. So, I decided to give it a try tonight! The leaf itself is mostly rooibos, with a few scant pieces of dried apple mixed in. Dry scent is tart apple cider with some cinnamon.

This tea is actually quite nice if you enjoy rooibos. The main flavor is a rich apple flavor, though I don’t find it to be either sweet or tart. Normally I would add sugar to this type of tea, but I’m trying to move away from additions lately. I’m unsure how to describe the difference between apple and apple cider flavors, so I guess I’ll go with that it has more depth of flavor and richness. There is a touch of cinnamon here, but it’s quite subtle compared to most spiced teas, and the slightest hint of a pastry note. I am left with a lovely lingering apple taste on my tongue!

Here’s a sample of tea offered by my mother. She went to see the " HOKUSAI " exhibition at the Grand Palais and Le Palais des Thés ,for this occasion, created an exclusive tea sold at the Grand Palais (and also on their website) .

Green teas and I is not the best pair but I like to drink some of them time to time especially in the evening . Last night the time had come to test this Hokusai.

The blend is really pretty and generous with all these pieces of citrus peel and these pretty little electric blue flowers .

I bought a small bohemian glass teapot at Nature & Découverte . Less than 20 € , perfect. I do prefer those from Mariage Frères but … I’ll wait to win the lottery :)

The good point is that you can see the infusion step by step even if I find the filter a little tight on this teapot .

The taste is delicate and refined . Citrus fruits are on the first line but the sencha base used for this tea remains perceptible.This is invigorating thanks to the addition of ginger here . A spicy ginger.

The liquor is a lovely pale yellow.

This tea is very successful and even if I won’t rush to buy a box of this tea, I drank it and could drink it again with great pleasure.

You can see pics of this lovely tea & of the glass teapot here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/le-the-hokusai-le-palais-des-thes/

Another old one from Shmiracles!

I’m having a hard time with this, I drank it twice before writing anything, because it’s not easy for me to describe.

I guess if I had to use one word, I’d call it “nondescript”.

I was a bit surprised to see it’s an oolong. My sample was probably a bit crunched up. It would explain some of that roasty/floral aspect.

So, it was smooth and pleasant and subtly fruity, but nothing that really stood out to me.

Another fancy French tea to cross off my list! :)

This was quite a nice green blend, despite the fact that I really didn’t take good care of it (it lived in a plastic baggie…). The peach notes really came out quite nicely. Didn’t get much watermelon, but perhaps the juicy nature of the overall flavor could be attributed to it. :) This tea definitely was juicy, without tasting too fruity. The green tea was smooth and vegetal, like asparagus, but no bitterness. I really enjoyed it!

Hello Steepster! I didn’t post any notes at all yesterday, which is extremely odd for me. I woke up feeling okay, but then I noticed that my first cup of tea tasted weird. As the day went on, I started feeling like a cold was coming on – headaches, fatigue, body soreness, etc. Luckily, today I feel much better! I guess there’s something to be said for rest, drinking tons of bottled water, taking Emergen-C, and having chicken noodle soup for dinner.

Anyway, on to the tea. This one is from one of my Palais des Thés samplers that I purchased on MyHabit a few days ago. I must say, the scent worried me as soon as I opened this tin (especially since I have three versions of this tea – black, green, and rooibos). It smells like red hots or Harney & Sons’s Hot Cinnamon Spice. The tea itself consists of small black leaves with a few pieces of dried fruit (I assume apple). Basically it smells like cinnamon candy… I steeped about 1.5 teaspoons for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

The tea liquid smells like cinnamon candy as well… Womp womp. It does have that candy cinnamon flavor, but luckily it’s nowhere near as extreme as Hot Cinnamon Spice. I can actually taste the base tea underneath too, which is smooth and mostly nondescript with a slight wood note. I wish I tasted the apple, almond, or vanilla here… I must say, I am a bit disappointed, as the description presents this tea as more of a fruity/sweet blend with some spice, not as a cinnamon tea. I guess I should have known since it’s basically a Valentine’s tea. :P

This tea came from my swap with Sara. She was kind enough to send me samples of several French teas including Palais des Thés and Mariage Frères. For some reason, Palais des Thés seems to have escaped my attention up to this point, not sure why that is! But after looking through their flavored teas, I want to try them all. This one is flat-steamed green tea leaves with lovely curled cream-colored flower petals mixed in for dramatic effect. Dry scent is sweet peaches with a touch of floral. I steeped a teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 175 degrees. I think next time, I may use a bit more leaf for this one.

After steeping, this has a lovely mouthwatering sweet peach aroma. Yums. Peach is also the main flavor in the taste, and it’s a lovely juicy peach, perhaps with a slight candylike edge. Overall I’m finding this tea a bit mild, though I think I may have not used enough leaf. Curiously enough, the peach flavor seems to grow in intensity, even after I’ve swallowed. It lingers on my tongue in a pleasant way. I think I can also taste a bit of kiwi here, it manifest as a sort of tart and juicy fruity quality. The green tea itself is super mild, but I do catch a bit of grassiness and a subtle marine quality. Lovely!

It is a nice blend, but good as afternoon tea, I think. Not really strong (for my taste) to have as morning tea, and probably better to drink without milk, or let it steep for longer time, to be able to do so.

This afternoon I tried some of the “test tube” loose-leaf Mao Feng Impérial from Palais des Thés. My first impression was that the dried tea does not look at all like Mao Feng. I’ve tried several different Mao Fengs, and they all have a dark wiry and pretty uniform leaf form. The contents of my aluminum test tube contains every kind of leaf and its mother, brother, sister, father, uncle, and cousin. There were even little broken twigs—like tiny tree branches. Really!

The liquor was pale greenish gold, and the taste was good, but not specifically Mao Feng—at least not to me. I take both the visual and the gustatory evidence to support my conclusion that this is a blend, not a single-origin Mao Feng. To me this seems more like a cross between Tamaryokucha, Long Jing, and Mao Feng (or even Mao Jian)!

Queued post, written June 22nd 2014

Here is an LS that Auggy shared with me in the most recent care package. It was had on the morning after a family outing when quite whacked and rather in need of a good strong morning tea.

And here we ran into a problem, because this particular LS is actually rather mild. Oh well.

The leaves were quite smoky and the aroma was as well, but the flavour, especially when it started cooling down were only just mildly so. Quite sweet and a bit fruity and it had a sort of mineral, chalky touch to it, but not really the sort of kick in the face that I was hoping for under the circumstances.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad tea, because it’s not at all. It’s just more of an afternoon one than a morning one, and this is going to take some getting used to as I’ve always thought of the smoky ones as morning teas.

WTH is this?! It’s like they took a bunch of left over tea parts and tossed them together with a few other random spices. I tried steeping it hot and it was awful and now I have tried cold brewing it and it isn’t as bad, but it’s still gross. I get a little cardamon in the aftertaste if I REALLY think about it. It smells slightly fruity, but I don’t really get that in the taste. I have about 5 or 6 Palais teas that I really like and when visiting their NYC store I really wanted to get another to try. I sniffed a ton of different teas and this was the most interesting, but it was the wrong choice. Straight to the get rid of pile!

I tried a sample of this in their NYC store the other day. I didn’t like it. All I could taste was baby powder and lots of it. I have had that experience with one other French tea Fauchon’s Afternoon in Paris, or maybe it was Garden in Paris…. anyways, I’d love to compare the ingredients in the two to narrow down what it is that my brain translates to baby powder. I smelled the tea dry and it smelled lovely, but it didn’t come through that way in the taste for me. Pity too, I usually love almond flavored things.

Still my least favorite of the four PdT flavored green tea blends. I just realized that even though they all work better iced, their relative ranking remains the same.

I am glad that the company clarified the meaning of the expression ¨summer fruits¨, which is the translation given on the Thé des Sables tea bag ticket for ¨fruits jaunes¨: mango, yellow peach, and citrus fruits.

This blend is also said to include rose, but once again I don’t really detect it. Instead, this is a fruity mélange of je ne sais quoi. I brewed this tea under the identical conditions used for Thé des Vahinés, and somehow this one tastes a bit bitter, while the other was satiny smooth. I don’t really like fruit-flavored green teas that much to begin with, but I don’t know why this tea should seem bitter, given my mild brewing stats: 3 minutes at 73C. The taste is not like citrus but oversteeped green tea.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

Onward rose!