Nina's Paris

I was preparing a big Valentine’s dinner for my hubby when my eye fell on the basket of leaves from making this earlier. I don’t often resteep a flavored tea because they usually don’t retain enough of their original flavor to keep me interested. But I liked this one so well, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.

It was a success! Yes, it is lighter in flavor than the first steep, but still had as much flavor as some teas give you on their first steep. It was wonderful! Lazey commented it was too strong, but maybe icing the first steep and drinking the second would work for you?

I have loved Fruits d’Alsace for iced tea in the past, but I think this one is going to be even better for a fruit flavored iced tea.

Oh joy! Joy! Holy cow! This is not at all what I expected. Instead it is 18273658382 times better. (Tip of hat to JacquelineM there.)

Thank you, Nina’s Tea, for these lovely samples!

It was hard to choose my flavors for sampling from Nina’s Tea. There are so many and they look so good. A few French teas I have purchased have been unbelievably yummy, but a few required tweaking as the base could get bitter to me, like Dammann Freres Charlotte au Chocolat.

Honestly I made this tea because the Je T’aime smelled too good to drink yet. I wanted to save it for a really special time, not the middle of the homeschool day waiting for a student. It smelled so good the dog was dancing around my feet with his eyes wide because he thought I had a dessert hidden somewhere.

Now on to this one – the fruit aroma was absolutely arresting. It was so real, so fresh. So Garden of Eden pure. The fruit rides above, but is grounded and rounded by, the vanilla and caramel notes. I braced myself to sip, in case the base was one of the rough ones, but no! It is as smooth as silk, and you can taste the tea! Delightful, and delicious!

Just as exciting to me – this is a very close flavor profile to the tea my daughter bought in Budapest that we adored but have been unable to get again. Excellent, delicious, wonderful flavored tea, fit for a tea time with nobility. Even better, get it for yourself and sit down with a good book, some soft music, and a cup of this. You will feel like a benevolent Lady of the Manor.

Grand Amour, I love you. I would share you with the one I love, but I drank you all up.

Speaking of the one I love, a little old retiree lady called today to tell my hubby that she saw Safe Haven yesterday and that Josh Duhamel reminded her so much of him that she just had to call and talk to him!!!! I feel just a little bit jealous! LOL! (I confess, I think my hubby is gorgeous!)

And this is why Steepster gets on my nerves. This doesn’t come up at all when I searched for the tea and yet it’s been on here for several days. And that was with the right name! I tried both and then just used the other one and that’s why I couldn’t find it.

Whatever. Here’s my moved tasting note then.

Since I stayed home today I figure I can get my backlogging started. I couldn’t help but get this one as one of my samples. It seemed like such an interesting mix of fruits. It was okay, I kind of wish I knew what the proper way to steep it would be, because I have enough to do another cup and I’m not sure if it would be better suited to a higher temp and/or a longer steep.

Everything just kind of meshed together into fruity black for me. Good, but I’d love to taste all the fruits individually in there.

I used the rest if the sample Ashmanra sent me in a cold-steep and guess what? The vinegary aspect is gone! This is much better! It’s a lovely apple taste, mellow sweet and just the right amount of bite for a green apple. I’m raising the score of it a little because as a cold steep ths is quite n

Since Laurent and Sophie sent me some more of this, I decided to try it again at work. This just isn’t the tea for me. I tried it at 3 minutes this time and it was less apple cider vinegar-ish, but the acid taste was still there. It did however mellow as it cooled, which makes me think a cold steep might work well for this one. The rose did become more prominent with a shorter steep, so it was sweeter than the last time I had it. Base was smooth and malty.

Thanks, Ashmanra, for a generous sample of this!

When I opened the packet I was surprised to smell apple cider vinegar! There is a floral element, but the vinegar smell really packs a punch!

I steeped at boiling for 4 minutes. It tasted just like it smelled- apple cider vinegar with slight rose undertones. I was expecting a mellower apple taste to compliment rose.

The base seems pleasant, dark and mellow, so I would try other Nina’s blends. Especially because the rose from what I can taste is really pleasant. It’s not over the top and perfume-like.

About halfway through the cup, I added some brown sugar to see if it would cut down some of the acidity in the taste. It didn’t help all that much. Maybe I’ll use the rest up in a cold-brew and see if the apple is not so sharp then.

still my favourite of Nina’s teas. there’s just something about this one that i love…i had this one the other day as well, though i added a pinch of vanilla powder to it as well just to enhance the vanilla flavour….because it makes it even more delicious!

I think i need to relegate this one to non travel mug status. I am just not feeling it when i’ve been taking it to work in travel mugs.

second last cup of the morning so i thought i’d make it a good one. I am a fan of this one – possibly my favourite nina’s tea…no it IS. i really like the gemaicha/caramel/vanilla creamy deliciousness that’s going on here, and it’s nice that it’s not my usual black tea (only half!) haha

EEP! i finished up 1 of my two bags of this today and that makes me a sad panda since it means i’ll be running out soon. This is hands down my favourite tea from nina’s – i think largely in part because i’m a)not a fan of their rooibs and b) don’t love “red fruit” as a flavour regardless of which tea company it’s from lol However, this tea is enough to keep me coming back again and again to Nina’s. love the vanilla, creamy, genmaicha flavour!

flavoured tea from today! I always really love this creamy vanilla caramel sort of sweet thang that this tea has going on. I’m glad i have another 50g kicking around once the last of this is finished. So good. My favourite tea from Nina’s.

i wanted something sweet today with my other teas, so i pulled this one out…essentially just because i know i have another 50g bag of this waiting to be opened, so finishing off this one won’t kill me haha. I really enjoy this tea…the sweet vanilla/caramel taste, with a nice base of black and green…yes pls!

backlog from yesterday because i had to go out last night with work – dinner and karoake with work mate to celebrate one of the girls’ upcoming wedding. it was an excellent time and everyone had a blast. However, this morning is a little rough :) still enjoying this tea a lot, – I rather like having this one around as a genmaicha like tea :)

AAAALLLL DONE! I didn’t have much time to drink a lot of tea today but I am still trying for my 2 sipdowns a day just to keep rolling on getting my cupboard to where i want it to be for July 1 (100 teas, the oldest being purchased in Jan 2014, ignoring puerhs). I guess technically that means i shouldn’t have been drinking this one, but a girl’s gotta drink, what a girl wants to drink :) I will likely stock this in my cupboard on a rotational basis since i really like the vanilla flavouring in this genmaicha. It’s a nice contrast to the LB chocolate genmaicha that i also really enjoy. Overall i really love this tea and i’m glad Nina’s dropped by and introduced themselves on steepster! :)

I’m getting down to the last little bit of this one. Apparently i should have just ordered 100g but on the flip side, now when i order more it will be fresh? haha I haven’t even started the other two teas from Nina’s that i purchased at the same time. This has been a great tea to have at work today as i’ve been in meeting hell and my weekend will be filled with work from 10am sat to 5am sunday….UUUUUGH. ah well, i’ll bring some tea and maybe a board game to teach ppl lol

this was my out and about tea today. Seriously, best weekend in a long time. My other half was off so we slept in, had breakfast together and then went for a 5 hours walk. Just out enjoying the sun, the day, spending time together being “out.” I got to buy some pants for walking/being active AND we may have found a writing desk that we can use in the house so that i’m not at the dining room table when i work from home with cords all over the place. We went out for lunch, stopped at the liquor station and had a grand ol’ day. And this was my tea for doing it with. :)

another tea from yesterday and a great counteract to the other two teas i had with me at work. I probably should have ordered more than 50g of this, but i wasn’t sure how quicly i’d get through 50g as i have a ton of teas in my cupboard. Apparently the closer i get to 100 the more i start to feel like i have no teas to choose from lol. I love the vanilla/caramel in this one. It’s just so smooth and creamy and makes me happy. So glad i tried this again and loved it :)

Final Count yesterday: still 139. :)