Nina's Paris

I received three samples from the friendly folks at Nina’s Paris, and Etoile du Nord was the one which was beckoning me most. Violets and rhubarb? How exotic! Plus the base tea is Keemun rather than the usual middling Congou suspect.

The sachet was generously stoked, and the leaves were large with beautiful cornflowers interspersed (I presume for appearance—not sure that they add any flavor). The liquor was amber and tasted good enough to drink au naturel. I could really tell the difference in quality of the base tea. My impression is that many scented black teas are heavily scented precisely in order to cover the mediocrity of the tea. In this case, both the flavors and the tea tasted good, so I drank Etoile du Nord without cream.

I cannot say that I would ever have guessed the identity of the rhubarb in this pleasantly fruity blend, but I would definitely consider buying a full tin in the future.

(Blazing New Review #20)

Another one from VariaTEA! Thanks! I love Nina’s Paris tea. :D (243)

So I don’t know enough about mangoes, but I’m totally getting apricot from this. Sweet apricot. I am really enjoying this. It’s also creamy too. Yum.

Sipdown (165/171)!

I think I need to go back to looking up teas before I just decide to steep them because I definitely did some weird stuff with the sample of this I got from VariaTEA.

Drinking it at work today I kept thinking to myself over and over “This is the weirdest Jasmine Black I’ve ever had!”. Umm, I just looked over the information now as I’m logging it: it’s not black tea! Yup, this is a Jasmin Green. Totally explains why it tasted so off, though!

So yeah, when I prepared this I definitely steeped it like I would have a black tea. Funnily enough, it wasn’t even the slightest bit bitter or astringent. Really, it was sweet! Floral, of course, and kinda juicy and sweet?

Yeah there’s no need to seek it out or anything, but it was a nice, memorable experience! Thanks VariaTEA for yet another Nina’s Paris sample!

EDIT: Oh hey, this was tasting note 1400!

This is a sample from Stephanie – thank you.
1tsp 8 oz. 205F 3min
Very dark rich tea. It has smoke but different fr Lapsang Souchong. Cup is pleasant, some pine notes coming thru. I divided cup in half. The other half had some tiny amount of Maple syrup (thank you Terri and Sil for suggestion of adding it to smoky teas). I prefer the sweetened cup, ms round out all the flavors. It’s pretty good. I can see myself drinking it from time to time. I didn’t have enough Keemun tea experience to rate this tea. On a scale of enjoyment it’s 8/10
Thank you Stephanie for this tea and learning curve. I got some Keemun samples fr Upton some time ago. Should start my journey.

This is a very old sample, I think from Fuzzy_Peachkin. Japon was getting a lot of attention on here pretty recently, so I (belatedly) dug my stash out of my sample box last weekend. The aroma of the dry leaf was very strong on the caramel, and, once steeped, so was the flavor. There was also quite a bit of sweetness. It was neither as roasty not as seaweedy as I would’ve liked—I do wonder if it might have worked better for me with a pure green base, but anyway. I can see why people are so enthused about this tea, but I think I’m just too much of a genmaicha purist (and not enough of a dessert tea connoisseur) to get into it. It is a very smooth and pleasant tea, though, and I can see how it would be a nice option for those who find straight genmaicha too intense or vegetal. I’m kind of relieved not to have been crazy about this one, to be honest, since my shopping list is ridiculously long as it is.

Definitely tastes like caramel, even in the aftertaste.
It doesn’t have the strongest smell, but then again, my sniffer isn’t always the sharpest due to allergies.
Not sure I’d buy this again, but I have enjoyed it as a free sample! (:

Drinking this iced today and it’s so yummy. I tend to love vanilla teas and caramel teas, so this is perfect for me – very smooth but rich. I had this hot during the winter, and enjoyed it, but I wasn’t sure how it would be iced but it’s great.

Nom, Nom… Yum. I got this as one of the free samples recently from Nina’s. It’s always so nice when tea companies are willing to send out samples to potential customers. It often makes me think they may be good at customer service which is always a bonus to us customers :)

This one being a mix of green and black teas I went with a lower temperature for the green tea on this one. It steeps up almost like a black tea, a nice light amber color w/a sweet strawberry fruity fragrance. The flavor is much like the fragrance, sweet strawberry yumminess with a touch of vanilla to pull it all together. The strawberry is very present, but not over done, just wonderful. I enjoy the mix of black and green teas with this blend… It makes so that neither the black nor green take center stage but let the other flavors play on the forefront.

I have some strawberry cream on it’s way from Zen, anxious to compare the two, although this will be hard to beat.

Apple and rose? Who knew? This unique combination is featured in Nina’s Paris Marie Antoinette. There must be some backstory here of which I am ignorant. Did Marie Antoinette love crisp apples? Was that her final meal request before having her head lopped off?

To be honest, I was not initially sure which fruit was implicated here. I often have a tough time discerning the precise identity of fruits in tea blends—in this case, I even guessed apricot at one point!

Marie Antoinette smelled fruity, but was also lightly redolent of rose. I began drinking the amber liquor au naturel, but as it cooled, I decided to throw in some cream and see how it tasted then.

The result is pretty nice—I definitely prefer the adulterated brew—but this is not something that I’ll make a concerted effort to stock. It’s fine, but I already have several fruity black teas, and I’m focusing more these days on unflavored teas. I’m also not that thrilled with the apple + rose combination.

That said, I do believe that this blend is a must-try for apple lovers!

(Blazing New Rating #2)

One of the samples I received from Nina’s Paris. Yay! This smells so deliciously of caramel and popcorn. Kind of like kettle corn but with distinctive caramel notes. It tastes very similar to its smell too. It’s bright with a light roasty flavor. I think the black tea does well in balancing the “greenness” of the sencha. I do wish that there was more puffed rice—the nutty, toasty qualities of the rice are getting lost in the caramel-vanilla flavors (which are very strong). Not bad but just not hitting the spot for me. I think it reminds me too much of this cupcake-scented perfume I wore in junior high, which makes it seem a little artificial.

Thank you Nina’s for my samples! Though one of them is one I have been sent before… I feel like I need a keemun in my collection. So I’m up for trying any. This is my favorite base from Nina’s. It isn’t as astringent as some of the others I’ve tried, so this would play nice with the flavors. The keemun itself is very nice – smokier than any of the Teavivre but it doesn’t have any of the chocolate notes that Teavivre has. Maybe if I used two teaspoons, I would have noticed chocolate. But in the past, Nina’s teas have been better without using too many leaves. This is a solid, nice representative of Keemun! I’m looking forward to the rhubarb Keemun they sent me…
Steep #1 // 1 tsp // couple mins after boiling // 2-3 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

I needed a comfort tea this morning, and this was it. My awesome headphones I have at work aren’t working on the right side. (My electrical engineer spouse is delighted with the prospect of tearing them apart and making them work again.) Of course, it seems like everyone who sits near me is either having meetings at their desk this morning or on conference calls. Never fails. I don’t even have backup headphones to use.

Sigh.

So I picked out this tea to have as I have enough for one cup. Unfortunately, I can’t remember who was generous enough to send this my way, either. I had multiple swaps arrive right around the same time, and I had them out of their packages and sitting on the table so I could put stickers on them to remind myself later, and my wonderful husband was nice enough to pick them up and put them away for me. Oops!

So yeah. The tea. I love genmaichas. I need to get more. I had forgotten how much I love them. This one with the additions of the black tea (which steeped at this low temperature just adds depth to the tea without taking over the more delicate flavor of the green tea) and caramel and vanilla. Comfort in a cup! I do find that the strongest flavor is still the toasted rice, which I absolutely adore.

I have just a little bit of this tea because I took it from the TTTTB after getting a free sample from Nina’s Paris. This tea is good.

I found some steeping directions online that work really well for me. A very low temp that my Hamilton Beach programmable kettle just doesn’t like to do. The directions I found said 158 °F, so I set the kettle for 155 °F, and it goes to like 170°. Ah well. I just have to wait a little bit and it’s closer to where it’s supposed to be.

I wasn’t sure how this tea would be, as it’s a green and black blend, but the lower temp really helps the black. This is just genmaicha-y to me, with vanilla notes. I really don’t get too much caramel this time.

But it’s sooooo tasty.

I’m drinking this by the 50oz glass, but I could really drink this by the giant mugfull. The advantage to the smaller glass is that it stays at the right temp.

This was one of my free samples from Nina’s. Really nice. This is a really nice balance.

I found the steeping directions on Etsy, and went with those. (1t/158 °F/3min) I’m really glad I did, because otherwise I would have had no idea where to go with this, being a blend like it is.

Yes, this tea is really good. I didn’t get too much from the black, probably from the low temperature. I definitely taste the green and the rice and the caramel vanilla. Nice. Really nice. It’s very creamy and toasty nutty and just the right amount of green to it.

This is quite nice. I love the spearmint in it, and the lemon isn’t too lemony, but it does smell lemon for sure. The black base is just that, a base for the other flavors. It’s there, but it’s not detracting or overpowering. Very nice.

I enjoyed this very much – I didn’t get a whole lot of rose flavor, but tasted predominately apple. It was somewhat astringent for my taste though – I prefer smoother flavors. That said, if I had more of this, I would see what magic cold steeping would bring, as I find teas that are too astringent for me hot are phenomenal cold.

Queued post, written April 20th 2014

Four red fruits! This is a flavour that I am quite partial to, but for some reason rarely buy. This is a sample that Courtney shared with me.

This one smells strongly like cherries. Unlike many of my co-Steepsterites, I was never as a child subjected to fruit-flavoured medicines. The only time I ever had any illness that required antibiotics as a child I was an infant and therefore don’t rightly remember. It was probably given intravenously then anyway. Other than that, the closest I come was some cough medicine that my father once bought. It was the sort where you put a tablet in a glas of water and it goes psssh-pssssh-psssssh and disolves. Supposedly it was supposed to taste like raspberry, but it was not like any raspberry I’d ever come across then or since. It didn’t really taste like anything other than medicine and it didn’t help the cough much either. Other cough medicines were usually strongly licorice flavoured because they contained licorice extract, but that hasn’t stopped me from eating licorice with great relish.

So for me, a strong note of cherry is not a turn-off and it’s difficult for me to imagine how it could be for anybody. I mean I can understand why it is. But I can’t imagine it.

I feel like I’m picking up some raspberry and strawberry in there as well, but it’s muted by the cherry. There’s a feeling of something a little tart as well, which fits with red currant. A 4RF where I can smell all four fruits! This bodes very well indeed.

The flavour is very close to the aroma. Primarily cherry, with the other three under the surface, but still without masking the base completely. I can even pick up some grain-y notes from it under the flavouring.

This is very good and very well balanced. I like that the emphasis is on the cherry as opposed to the raspberry and strawberry, because usually in these blends the cherry is the flavour I have the most difficulties picking up. The red currant is not very easy to find, though, but I think that’s for the best. If it was stronger, the tea would have been very tart.

This tea reminds me of my favorite bagged tea Tazo – Zen. Although this tea has a black base instead of a green. It’s minty, lightly lemony, and has a hint of bitterness from the black tea.

I’m so glad my tea samples arrived today! I thought they had been eaten by the post.
The bag this came in did not have a suggested temp. on it, so I just went with boiling water.
Dry, this smells very nice! I can smell the violet, which is the biggest reason I chose this one. Once brewed the base is very tasty, it reminds me of another gift tea which I have logged on here somewhere. The violet is very upfront. There are other flavors too that I cannot put my finger on, probably the rhubarb (I’ve never had it!). This is a really great dessert tea and I can’t wait to brew this again.

I am a big fan of this – the black tea alone is some of the best I have had. Flavorful but not bitter, strong without being too much. I didn’t taste rose specifically when I had it hot, but it was definitely floral, and I really enjoyed it. I will have to purchase this soon, and try it iced based on these other reviews.

I made this last night, steeping it 3 times, and adding all three steeping into a big mug with a little truvia to chill over night in the fridge. Was a very delightful fruity iced tea, nice sweet berry notes, though less intense than those in Grand Amour. Hard pressed, I’d chose Grand Amour, just because I’m in love with the sweet fruityness of that tea. All in all though, this is a delicious tea, and I’m happy than there was enough still in bag left to try it (the sample I had received had opened during shipment and most spilled out). Thanks Laurent!

Thank you again to Laurent and Sophie for a chance to try a couple of Nina’s Paris teas. I really enjoyed this one as well.

The flavoring is really subtle and balanced, but much better once the tea has cooled for 10-15 minutes or so. The orange while still piping hot was a little orange-rindy, but as the tea cooled, it because sweeter and more natural-fruit flavored. What lingers of the flavor on your tongue is juicy and fresh tasting. The cream also popped once the cup cooled, and was a sweet, rich cream that hung on and mingled with the orange. And the chocolate wasn’t quite identifiable as milk or dark chocolate, but had a cocoa flavor that was imparted somewhere mid sip. It doesn’t really play with the other flavors in the aftertaste.

I wish I had a bit more of this to play with milk and sugar. I think it has the potential to be truly decadent. Even so, it was very good and I’m grateful for the opportunity to try it!

I’m definitely leaving this on the wishlist as a reminder to get it when I have the chance.

Thank you, Laurent and Sophie, for a sample!!

I sure am glad I asked for a sample of this tea and saved it for last. This is a unique genmaicha blend. The combination of the ingredients creates a taste similar to Cracker Jacks, caramel popcorn. When the tea cools a bit the vanilla pokes out and the texture of the liquor becomes a bit creamy.

Thank you, Laurent and Sophie, for a sample!

The aroma for this one is nice as well, a gentle strawberry. But the strawberry doesn’t stand out so much in taste. While the liquor was hot it seemed that the only ingredient was rooibos. I had to let the tea cool down in order for the flavor to take over. I’m a fan of rooibos, but the strawberry could have been stronger.