Nina's Paris

Dry, this smells wonderful! Juicy raspberries and strawberries abound.

Steeped, it tastes like mellow green tea and a titch of raspberries. The berries come through more in scent than taste, which is still lovely.

Thanks to Nina’s Tea for a sample of this tea!

Brewed up, this smells insanely fruity. It’s like…. sour wildberry gummy candies? Like, the little 5 cent berries you can buy at convenience stores. The flavour is equally fruity; the predominant flavour I’m tasting is probably raspberry. There is supposed to be cream in here; I suppose it’s contributing to the smoothness of the tea, but it’s not really obvious otherwise.

For some strange reason, I’m typically not fond of wildberry-flavoured things (I’m really not sure why), so this tea isn’t my favourite, but for anyone looking for a very, VERY fruity, tasty flavoured black, I’d definitely point you towards this one! Keeping my prejudice out of the way, it’s a really fantastic tea!

This tea’s claim to fame is that it uses apples from King Louis XVI’s kitchen garden in Versailles, which is pretty damn cool. After sampling this blend, I’m wondering whether Marie-Antoinette ordered her husband’s apple trees to be watered with wine? ;)

Dry, this smelled like a cheap sauvignon blanc. Bleh!
Steeped it smells a bit better, like mulled wine and there’s the Jolly Rancher note that others are mentioning. Taste, hint of light rose, but overall just fermented.

Kind thanks to Laurent for the sample, but this one isn’t for me.

A wonderful tea, both in aroma and flavor. I drank two steeps and thoroughly enjoyed both. It tasted mainly like caramel and toasted rice. Ever so slight grassy notes from the green tea peeked through at the end of each sip. The tea base was hardly noticeable.

Trying this one now, my last sample from the Nina’s Paris catalogue. The cherry flavour in this is a bit overwhelming to me. It’s really really there, and I can taste hints of rose too but it’s very faint. The cherry on the other hand, I mostly taste the sour cherry, which is fine, I love sour cherries, but it’s faintly artificial tasting to me and although it doesn’t taste exactly like a cough drop, it does remind me of one. That sounds more terrible than it is, really. I like this some, but not a lot. Glad I got to try it, but I won’t be ordering it.

Got this sample from Nina’s Paris during their sample promotion. Just enough for one oversized mug, plus another steep after as soon as I finish this cup.

This is SO STRAWBERRY! And in a good way, not that terribly artificial stuff that plagues a lot of strawberry tasting teas. This is really good! I was a bit disappointed with my first Nina’s tea, but this one totally makes up for it, and I heard that it resteeps well too, though I haven’t tried it yet. But I will in a few minutes! This tea is pretty brilliant. I pick up faint hints of vanilla, but mostly just strawberry and that’s interesting, but not a bad thing. Mostly the vanilla just leaves a creamy edge to the taste. I approve of this tea.

The second steep has a stronger fruit flavour, with a nice blend between strawberry,and red grapefruit. The vanilla is still present. The tea is less creamy and is oddly sweeter. Still has very nice flavour.

This was really lovely. It has the creamy taste of a really good homemade strawberry ice cream where the cream is allowed to shine and the strawberries are accents. This flavour hits many of the accents that I love in Zen Tea’s raspberry vanilla and fans of that tea would probably love this one as well.

The dry tea smells of fresh strawberries and vanilla whey powder. Once brewed the tea smells of rooibos, vanilla, faint red grapefruit and a sweetness that comes from strawberry. Despite the ingredient list the tea tastes soft not tart. It is creamy with a thick mouth feel for a rooibos. The first note is a creamy cool vanilla, with faint grapefruit top note followed by a strawberry and cream flavour. The vanilla flavour is very natural. The rooibos flavour is well covered by flavouring leaving only a tingling on the tongue as an aftertaste. I am glad Nina’s offered me the opportunity to sample this tea. Thanks again! I would love to keep this tea in my cupboard!

Tea smelled good dry and made. The tea was quite bitter though. And it was only brewed 3 minutes. Not a fan of my first Nina’s and was glad it came as a sample.

mmm final sample from Nina’s tea and i wish i had enough of this to try a cold brew. While this is a nice hot tea with a nice blend of fruits, i think i’d really enjoy this cold. It’s very similar to Hepburn, though it is clearly a different tea. I don’t pick up on the pineapple but there is an overall fruitiness to this that speak of something more than just orange.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this sample!

oh yum! Thank you again to Nina’s Paris for their willingness to send out samples to us. I am always on the lookout for new delicious strawberry cream teas, so this one was a clear pick for me.
The dry smell is very “fruity” and not a clear strawberry smell. Once brewed, the strawberry flavour is super resent in both the aroma and the tea. I am enjoying very much the fact that although these teas are flavoured tea, the base of the team is present in the drink. This is a really nice strawberry tea that I will likely order when i am allowed to order more teas lol (ie i get my cupboard back down to under 200 since technically i’m for sure over 250 at the moment with all the teas that i can’t log because steepster hates new teas being added).

Thank you again Nina’s Paris for this sample!

Edit: As this tea cools it gets even better as the strawberry flavours come out even more. Also – the second steep is quiet delicious as well, and helps bring out more of the strawberry flavour and blends even better with the tea base.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this sample. I am a huge fan of chocolate and orange, though apparently I don’t have a lot of luck in this department’s flavour when it comes to tea. The loose tea smell of this tea is wonderful! While not quite as orange chocolate as Butiki’s three friends, it’s still a wonderful smelling tea.

Steeped, I really like how teh orange smells – not really artificial at all. And that is where my love ends. The tea is not a bad tea. But it’s not what i hoped for. It’s a really nice blend of orange and black tea, though i’m missing the chocolate. It’s not bitter, and i do appreciate that i can taste the base of the tea. I would for sure drink this again, it just won’t be that elusive must have chocolate orange tea that needs to be in my cupboard. The hunt continues! :)

I tasted this tea with comparison to Della Terra’s Chocolate Orange Slice. In summary Hepburn had more of an orange flavour while Della Terra’s had a stronger chocolate flavour. Hepburn may be preferable to those who prefer milk chocolate while the Orange Slice tea references dark chocolate. The tea base flavour was more prominent in Hepburn, while the base was smoother but more bitter in Della Terra’s option, and did not have as much depth of flavour or a very strong presence. Both were pretty enjoyable teas, but I think I may prefer Nina’s I loved the rich dark chocolate flavour in Della Terra’s Tea, but Nina’s tea had more layers of flavour and left me with such a pleasant feeling afterwords, whereas Chocolate Orange Slice left me feeling a little heady.

This was my third Sample from Nina’s. Thanks again!

The dry tea smells like Terry’s orange flavoured milk chocolate oranges it has tea with pieces of orange rind in it. The brewed tea smells of dry oranges with a hint of chocolate, combined with fall leaves. It also smells a little bit like a mid to dark roast orange oolong. It brews fairly light.

Taking a sip, the top notes are of a sweet orange
chocolate. The orange flavour is dominant followed by the taste of a
fairly sweet milk choolate.

The tea is a little astringent leaving a drying sensation on the tongue, be careful with brewing temperature and time.

The tea underneath is sweet, fruity, and has a hint of sweet potato. It also has a flavour that reminds me of fall with faint spice and bitterness combined.

The orange flavour is a combination of dried/stewed fruit flavour. The sweetness was dominant when first sipped but dissapates when drinking, the chocolate scent remains through out thecup, whereas the orange dissipates, ironically the oposite is true of the flavour. There is no oily film which you sometimes get with chocolate teas. The orange rind lends a little tang and bitterness to the tea. The orange is still dominant in the second steep and there is less chocolate and more cream.

After drinking the tea I am left with a sense of alert wellbeing.

Sweet fruits! This sample is delightful, and strawberry has been my theme this entire pregnancy! This is a nice dessert for breakfast type of tea. The base is stronger than the strawberry flavor, which is nice and different than the other strawberry teas I’ve had. This one is good. It is not astringent and the brew was a nice brown color. It smells like strawberries and the taste of it was light and mildly sweet. I love how it tastes like WILD strawberries and not artificial at all. I felt like I was picking them from the strawberry bush and eating it… though the flavor is more subtle than actually doing that! I wasn’t able to obtain any of the vanilla flavors, but it may have been there more as a creamy tone. Very subtle indeed, but very good tea! This tea is well blended!

Delicious tea! The mix of black and mostly green leaves with the pieces of crispy rice is amazing! It smells sweet! The brew was a bright cheery yellow. I’ve never tried flavored genmaicha before!

The taste was amazingly airy and smooth. Delicious and sweet! I love the sweet caramel and vanilla flavors. It was almost like I was eating cotton candy. I love the hint of the nutty rice flavor in the background. I didn’t think it was too prominent. It was blended very well!

I think this is the right tea. It says Nina’s on it (it’s a sample from a promotion they were doing) and I can only assume it’s Nina’s Paris. It looks prettty much the same so I’ll just go with it.

The steeped tea smells strongly of orange and not much else. While I wait for it to cool down enough to drink, it’s definitely all orange.

Wow, I really should not have eaten a Samoa before taking my first sip. Compared to that sweetness, this is really quite bitter. I think I should let that taste in my mouth die down a bit before I take any more drinks.

As I wait, and this cools down further, I can taste it again. I can taste the fruitiness of this tea and while it is…nice…it is really just okay. The fruit definitely overwhelms the base tea. I am just not liking this very much. I’ll try the rest of my Nina’s tea on Monday when I get back to work. Hopefully I will like them better.

I don’t care much for black tea or black tea blends, but this is one of the rare few that blows me away.

The dry leaf smells like a Green Apple Jolly Rancher. I couldn’t detect a floral smell at all, even though rose petals are an ingredient.

After I brewed this tea the apple smell was less intense. This tea definitely tastes like an apple in the first steeping. Thankfully, not in a “Jolly Rancher way”, but a “natural apple way”. The black tea is mild and smooth in the background.

In the second steeping, the scent and taste of rose petals comes out. The apple flavor is more mild than before, but still present. I enjoyed the second steeping most since I LOVE rose. Apples, rose petals, and black tea make a winning combination. I’m so glad I tried this tea.

Sipdown, 243. Thanks to Nina’s Paris for this sample to try!

I decided to request an Earl Grey as a sample to see how it compares to some of my other faves. I am no longer actively looking for the perfect Earl Grey, because I have found it (Lupicia), but I will always welcome new versions to try. I was unsure of how long to steep this one, because the Versailles Rose was good at 3 minutes but the Marie-Antoinette really needed only 2 minutes. I decided that possibly a tad weak was better than bitter, so I went with 2 this time.

This is a tasty Earl. Two minutes worked just fine. That nice, malty-smooth base that I found in the Versailles Rose makes an appearance again, paired with a nicely balanced citrusy bergamot. Not perfumy, nor bitter like citrus pith. I definitely enjoyed drinking my cup, but it didn’t quite stand out to me as particularly distinctive. Which is fine, because it’s still a very tasty tea and a good example of a well-done Earl.

After having cold 911 by Davids tea I am always worried that mint in tea is going to be super strong and overpower the actual tea. That was not the case with this tea at all. Although the mint was fairly strong it was not overpowering. I enjoyed this as a change of pace from straight green tea. Im on the fence if I would purchase this one as I like Nina’s other blends more. However if you like a little mint flavour this is worth a try. Nice to sip on this cold afternoon.

On a side note I think I used a bit too high of water temperature to steep the tea…..very slightly bitter because of this. Time to invest in a thermometer I guess. :)

Sipdown, 241 (yeah, I only ended up adding a few new teas so my count didn’t go to high!). Thanks to Nina’s Paris for the sample of this tea!

Rose and apple; I knew I had to request this one as one of my samples. The smell of the steeped tea is kind of odd, and I guess it’s just the rose and apple combining somewhat strangely. If I smell closely enough, I can pick out the two scents independantly, but it’s not easy.

Unfortunately, this one was not as successful to me as it was for other people. It comes across as bitter and perfumy to me. I am not sure what people are talking about when they say that the bitterness reminds me of biting into an apple and getting apple skin… apple skin isn’t especially tart or bitter to me, and I just ate an apple for lunch this afternoon. There is definitely a good amount of really appley flavor here (although it is perhaps more apple candy than fresh apple), and some herbaceous rose, so I think that perhaps if I steeped this one for a shorter time or at a lower temp, it would come out smoother and work better, but if the astringency is built in for some reason, I don’t know.

I quite liked this tea. The dry tea greeted me with the smell of caramel, coconut and the tang of fruit. It appears when dry that there is more black than green leaves but once steeped the bancha leaves opened up quite a bit. I steeped it at the temperature at which I would steep bancha.

When steeped the first scent that hits my nostrils is that of the toasted rice followed by a sweet scent tempered by vanilla and the buttery scent of caramel. The sweet taste is pleasant when steeped about a minute. The first notes I taste are the bancha and black tea with the black tea producing a slightly citrousy note and tempering the sweetness of the bancha, followed by a sweet fruity note, and a sweet buttery and slightly salty and nutty note from the caramel and rice. The caramel and vanilla and salt remain on the tongue. The green tea leaves me with that clean pleasantly aware feeling I get when I drink it. For me the tea is sweet enough as it is . The empty tea cup smells of vanilla and caramel. I would not add sugar to it.

I probably wouldn’t drink this everyday as it is approaching too sweet for me but it is all over a nicely balanced tea which is fun to drink and I wouldn’t mind keeping a bit of it in my cupboard.

Thanks to Sophie and Laurent for the sample!

note: The 2nd steep was not as sweet, the vanilla and fruit were more present. It was not as buttery but the nutty flavour of rice was more present. It was slighty astringent and more flavour contributed by black tea.

Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 2nd of March but here are the snippits:

Marie-Antoinette from Nina’s Paris has a wonderful aroma. I just love sitting here smelling it fill the air around me with the scents of roses and fresh apples. Its almost too good to drink! The apple aroma is that of mulled cider, or the smell that fills the air every year at the Apple Festivals that are commonly held in my area. It just makes me feel warm and sunny on this cold snowy winter’s day.

The more I sip it the more it grows on me. I think any person who loves apple flavor should try this tea. Its so subtle, does not try to flood your taste buds over with flavor but yet it is so true to what apple tastes like when you bite into one. I can even taste apple skin in this tea.