Nina's Paris

Sipdown!! (146)

So long tasty mango tea. Hopefully we will meet again next time I am in Florida. Until then, I will cherish the memory if your rich base and true-to-the-fruit flavor. Mmmm…

Thank you Laurent and Sophie at Nina’s Paris for this amazing tea!

When I was first handed the box to smell, I was immediately reminded of dried mango slices and that is 100% reflected in the taste. This is a juicy mango tea for sure. Sweet and ripe with just a hint of black base. Yum!

Thank you Laurent, Sophie, and everyone else at Nina’s Paris for making my mother and I feel so welcome and at home!!

Before I talk about the tea, I would just like to say that I had yet another amazing experience at Nina’s Paris offices. I was made three different cups of tea (Pour Maman, The Sur La Lune, and this one) and I walked out with a whole box of delicious teas. I mean, when I walked in i had 91 and now I am back up to 115 and I cannot be happier because Nina’s teas are AMAZING!!

Many of you know I am neither a cacao fan nor a lover of chocolate mint so this is one of the last teas I would have ever asked to try. However, before I even knew what was happening, a mug of this was placed in front of me and since they went to the trouble of making it, I figured I should at least have a sip. I am glad I did because this was actually a really good tea. The cacao gave it a nice, smooth chocolate flavor, and the mint was mellow but refreshing. I was actually shocked at how enjoyable it was and ended up guzzling it down quite quickly.

another surprise sample from Nina’s in my joint order with cavo. While this one is quite lovely, it IS a green tea, which i am always less inclined to purchase than a black/honeybush/rooibos simply because of my tastes. I do like the raspberry and strawberry flavour in this one though, so i wouldn’t hesitate to have small amounts of this in future :)

Joint order with Cavocorax resulted in Nina’s throwing in a few samples for us. Since they were largely teabags, i tossed them into a bag and randomly divided them between the two of us after giving cavo the “extra” earl grey bleeeergamot! be gone!

This one was rather pleasant. I’m not sure i’d go out of my way to buy it, but it really is a lovely, smooth blend of apple and vanilla…i don’t get much in the way of peach but that’s alright with me since i am all “peached” out lately.

Thanks for Sophie and Laurent for their awesome customer service and excellent teas!

A surprise sample from Marcel Duchamp to go with my other samples! thanks so much! I’ve enjoyed the few Nina’s Paris teas I’ve tried before. Another nice one here. Apple with their nice black tea. Sometimes the apple seems like it’s on the verge of being fake, but there are many more worse apple teas out there. If this is Ceylon, it’s one of my favorites. But I didn’t taste much rose here. I think I may have been using too much tea with the other samples from Nina’s (the entire package). This cup seemed to have half the tiny sample package but it seemed to be the perfect amount of tea (probably because Nina’s base is usually brisk!) I feel like I ruined the other samples now! I can only imagine they would have better then. :D

Ahhh, today very much feels like spring. I woke up to birds chirping outside and it’s nice and sunny outside. This is a perfect spring-like tea for this beautiful morning. It’s much lighter than I originally thought, which is a good thing. Somehow when I think of citrus fruits (especially grapefruit) I immediately think of a harsh, tart flavor. This is so not that. It’s almost creamy flavored in it’s citrusy softness. Thank you, VariaTEA, for this one!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with small yellow petals.
-Dry leaves smell lightly citrusy. Tea liquor aroma is of creamy citrus fruits.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium yellow brown color.
-Light sweet orange flavor and finish. Muted citrus grapefruit aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener. Milk optional.
-Good tea. A lightly zesty and almost creamy cup. Very soft citrus flavors of orange and grapefruit.

This is one of the teas I got in my latest Nina’s Tea order. (To tell the story again, I was in Florida, and Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA shipped my order to my hotel. This saved me a whole lot on shipping. Laurent stayed in contact with me the whole time until I received and was satisfied with my order). I had been wanting to try this one for a long time. It was only available in a tin but the tin is beautiful.

The dry tea is beautiful. The black tea leaves look nice, dried orange peel and bright blue and red flower petals are mixed in with the tea leaves. It smells super delicious. Like sweet candied orange peel. Almost has a bubble gum quality to the smell.

The smell of the brewed tea smells a little bit flat. Still candied orange but not as strong or as sweet and with a bit more pepper.

The brewed tea, like I find most Nina’s Paris Teas, is delicious. The tea base is just bordering on bold. There is a sweet, candied orange peel flavour, it is delicate and not overpowering. There is a slight pepper from the orange rind but it is very light. It almost tastes like there is a bit of orange juice in this tea. There is a slight sweetness, I would maybe add a bit of sweetener next time I have this tea. The flower petals give a thickness to the tea with a bit of a bread-y flavour.

The sweet orange flavours become much more prominent and bright as the tea starts to cool.

I am really glad I picked this up. I would like to know if there is a story behind the flavour of this tea and the name.

Sipdown (194/196)!

I admit that this was a totally unexpected sipdown as I thought I had more leaf of this than there really was, so it was a sort of pleasant surprise. Thanks Lala for the sample, it seems like today I’m just going through a bunch of the teas you’ve given me.

I’m not really sure if I get the namesake for this one. Basically, it’s “White Tiger” – right? That’d make sense if the tea was either A) A white base – though it’s an oolong, or B) Was simply “tiger” because that’d maybe fit in with the oranges in the mix? Except since this tiger is white the orange tie in doesn’t seem too strong to me…

It’s nice enough though in taste. The base is very nice, maybe a teeny bit floral. And then the other flavours – the orange and the peach – are very well balanced and pretty refreshing. I think I’m maybe picking up the peach a little bit more, though only slightly. Super yummy and pleasant!

Overall, I wont seek this one out again. I’m too finicky about peach flavored things and it’s too difficult to acquire to make a fuss about when I likely wouldn’t want it on anywhere close to a regular basis, but it was really cool to try it out! Super tasty.

EDIT: Oh! Has anyone else seen this? I haven’t seen in mentioned in anyone’s tasting notes or on the DB. Thoughts?

http://www.davidstea.com/blue-aladdin-tumbler?&TF=D36B1B50DFA0&DEID=

Thanks Lala for the sample! I threw it into my mix of green teas last night while all snuggled up watching Princess Jellyfish last night/early morning (no, I’m not going to shut up about it; it was a beautiful anime).

I was a little cautious about this one because I’m not a big green tea drinker, but it smelled really nice so that made me a little less anxious about trying it out. Overall, I though it was pleasant enough though maybe too vegetal for my tastes. I really got raspberry out of this one though, a little less so the strawberry. And funnily enough, near the end of the mug I was tasting banana!?

What’s up with that!?

But yeah, this was good but not breathtakingly so. I may try cold brewing the last little bit, though…

Bye bye Japon, you will be missed. I love you….you must come and visit again soon.

Very stressful times for me right now…dealing with someone who is being blatantly passive aggressive with me, and has some super annoying habits. Today is my Friday, so I’m at the end of my rope with this last work week.

So, this is the tea I made, and ahhhhh……..yes! Love you Nina’s Japon! I need to get more of you!

Thanks for VariaTEA for sending more of this along for me. I really really like this tea.

Sipdown!

Sad to see the last of this go. It’s definitely one I want to get my hands on in larger quantities.

It’s genmai cha, it’s sweet, it’s oh so yummy and amazing. See my other note for more details.

Ummmm, yum? This is some seriously tasty tea, and everything I expected it to be, really. I’m just sad that I only have one more serving left, though hoping for a resteep with tonight’s brew.

Warm and toasty from the genmai cha, but also warm from the caramel as well. Almost like burnt sugar. This is probably my favourite genmai cha ever!

Would I recommend this to a friend? Heck YES!

A super big thanks to Cavocorax for sending a few teaspoons my way.

My first genmaicha! & probably a good one for me since I prefer blacks to greens and this one is a mix. I needed some caffeine this afternoon, headache trying to come on and wanting to persuade it to leave… hopefully this and some tyelnol will do the trick! & I’ve seen so many great reviews of this one lately that I had to give it a try.

Dry leaf this one doesn’t do much for me.. Nutty and faintly sweet.

Steeped this smells nutty and almost like freshly popped corn, minus the butter. I get nutty, toasted something… not sure what to describe it as & I assume it’s the rice coming through. Not really getting the vanilla or caramel. The green and black teas are balanced nicely and don’t overpower each other. I don’t get the vegetal flavor of the green.. a plus for me as I’m still trying to acquire a taste for greens.

Oh… a touch of raw sugar part way through my cup and now I get caramel, mixed with that toasty roasty flavor … now I get the obsession.. Much better ! I should have tried that sooner since I generally like at least a pinch of sugar in each cup.

I have to say this one surprised me a bit. I thought it was going to be too different for me and I could only imagine it having a smoky flavor which I wasn’t sure about. The roasted goodness, combined with the sweet caramel = Yum!

Thanks MIssB for sending a bit of this my way! I likely wouldn’t have picked this one out for a long while on my own. I’m so glad to have been treated to it :)

This one was sent my way from Lala. This is also a backlog from last night.

I have to say that even though this was nice, I much prefer Love Life from H&S. It’s not completely the same tea but it’s much more subtle. The flavouring here was just a touch too strong for the green base. I’m happy to have been able to try it out though. Thanks Lala!

Well I definitely have an obsession. Last night, I dreamed that I drank this tea and didn’t like it, and I was so disappointed for not liking it because I’d wanted to like it so badly. Then I woke up and realized it was a dream LOL.

I poured the entire sample the ever so wonderful and generous JustJames sent me into my basket, and steeped for four minutes. I took some time to smell the tea after it had brewed. I could definitely pick up on the fruit, and although I don’t know that I would have immediately identified it as red current and raspberry, it definitely didn’t smell like the typical cacophony of fruit you might find in French tea (stone fruit etc). The raspberry is very clear in the sip though, and so is the base. I can’t say I’m terribly familiar with the taste of red current, although the fruit didn’t taste entirely of raspberry to me, so I imagine it was there. I got a bit of a generically sweet and vanilla end-sip before the relatively strong flavour of the base, which sort of suggests to me that I should have shortened the steeping time by a touch. I’m not sure that I necessarily got caramel though, but that might have been my own rock sugar obliterating that a bit.

I can really imagine myself enjoying the sweet raspberry deliciousness during the summer months. I still think I’m slightly more wowed by Pour Maman, but this would probably make it into an order. That order will probably be placed soon though, but I need to get through some of my h and s teas first. But yeah, definitely a winner here.

Thanks again, JustJames, for not only very generously sending me these samples, but for putting differently shaped/different variations/patterns of raised stickers on them so I could tell which tea was which without any sighted assistance at all! The world is a better place because you’re in it.

i did something different with this one tonight, though i don’t know what. however- the point could be made that the world is a better place with a heapload of stress hauled off my shoulder? maybe the world simply tastes sweeter….

tonight i get a hint of citrus in the tea base which gives a very nice spin to the strawberry. lovely lovely. not my favourite nina’s, but still great.

back to work.

the smell of the dry leaf is a decadent cocoa-caramel enhanced coffee flavor…just my definition of comfort. if ever a lion wanted to lure me into his den, this aroma would do the trick.

steeps up a nice, gorgeous golden-orange ‘marigold’ color….how enchanting! Japon smells like a sumptuous genmaicha/hojicha with slight caramel & chocolate notes reminiscent of a comforting Café Francais instant coffee.

there’s a rich, buttery caramel finish on the crispy toasted rice and the teeny popcorn bits, which are so cute!

the unmistakable toasty brown rice quality is very evident in the aroma & the sip. yay! this is the real deal, and any genmaicha enthusiast would love this.

having drank a significant portion of this unadulterated, it must come as no surprise that i’m wondering what this would be like with just a dusting of sugar! ;p

surely enough, it pops the caramel beautifully….wow! this is one special genmaicha….

this is so decadent (and yet, calorie-free!) that i’m going to brew up another cup. i regret nothing.

Nina’s Paris….you have a fan in me.

I think I figured this one out. Finally, when there is just one serving left. Ha ha, that is how it always works out.

1.5 tsp for a 8 oz mug, 3-4 pieces of brown rock sugar, 190F (definitely hotter than what would be recommended for a green), 1-1.5 minutes.

That is all.

Well I just sing the praises of about every Nina’s Tea I have tried. I guess it had to come to an end at some time. This one just didn’t knock my socks off like most of the other ones. It is still good, maybe its OK, but I was a bit disappointed. Really just disappointed in all of my excitement and not in the tea itself.

This one smelled like a gentle green tea with strawberry flavours. It was a mix of real strawberry and strawberry flavouring. There was real strawberry pieces in the blend.

The taste is just a bit lacklustre to me, maybe it is just too gentle. I am getting a very soft green tea taste. It is smooth, slightly sweet, no vegetal flavours at all, no astringency. Maybe there is a bit of a hay taste, I would associate that more to white teas than green. There is also a strawberry taste. Slightly sweet, mostly red berry tasting. This tea tastes very mild to me.

I think next time I will try a bit more tea and a bit longer steep time.

Sipdown #44, which I drank earlier today. This is another tea from Lala, thank you!
Although I tend to prefer my green teas straight, this was tastefully done & the strawberry flavor especially was nice. I haven’t had the best of luck with Nina’s teas, but I wanted to try them, so I’m happy to report that this one had no ill effects on me!

My Nina’s order arrived today!

This tea is really well done. In teas with vanilla and other flavours, I feel the vanilla mostly comes through in the softening of the other flavours. This tea is no exception. The raspberry and red currant work well with the base tea, but there’s no mistaking them. I’m not so sure I’m getting caramel, but there is a sweetness in the sip that could be it.