Palais des Thes

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 5

Ooh, this is one of the Detox blends that I most wanted to try. I happen to love Asian pears (nashi) and it sounds like an interesting combination with buckwheat.

Hmm. This tastes more floral than I expected, given that there are only rose petals included and no floral flavoring. I’m not sure if it’s the pear flavoring that’s tasting floral or what… It’s not overwhelming, but it does sort of taste like rose or violet candies a bit? Which throws me off. I do get the soft Asian pear notes – more delicate and subtle than the usual pear. And I think I can taste the buckwheat? There is a light grain-y note that comes out at the end of the sip – not a roasted grain, actually it reminds me more of bread dough (in a good way). The base tea is very mild and a touch grassy, with soft umami notes accented by the spirulina.

Overall, it’s a very soft and subtle blend.

Unfortunately, the rose detracts from the overall flavor in my opinion, as it overpowers the pear a little bit. And I don’t like rose even at the best of times, so… Sad panda. Still good, but not one that I’ll order.

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 4

Another Christmas tea… Well, let’s get this over with. ;)

This smells very much like bubblegum. Luckily, it doesn’t taste much like it. Maybe a little bit, but I get that association often with almond/cherry combined with spice. There’s definitely sweet orange, and clove of course – the quintessential “holiday” tea pairing. There’s also a bit of almond or marzipan. I feel like I taste ginger, but I guess it must be the clove as ginger isn’t listed as an ingredient. Either way, it’s making my mouth a little tingly. The green base tastes like dried grass and leaves – not my favorite.

This is pretty much what I expected. Definitely not loving it, especially on a green base.

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 3

This is a tea that I would never order from Palais des Thés. I tend to keep my flavored and straight tea sources separate. But I do very much enjoy Japanese green teas, so I’m happy to sip this on the couch this evening. The package recommended a 2-minute steep, but I shortened it to 1 from past experience.

It’s tasty. Light-bodied and sweet with freshly cut grass notes. There’s a more intense vegetal presence as well, mostly blanched spinach, and a soft, sparkling mineral note.

It’s not the most complex sencha ever, but it’s perfectly enjoyable and I’m happy to drink it.

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 2

Yay, a Detox blend! These are some of the teas I most wanted to try from Palais des Thés – not because of the detox aspect, but because the flavors sounded interesting and nice. This one is a green and maté blend with açaí and passion fruit. It sounds quite similar to Kusmi’s detox line.

I am enjoying it. The base is grassy, herbaceous, and somewhat earthy. It definitely has a spa-like feel to it. I can taste the passion fruit, it’s sweet and tropical but quite soft and not at all tart. I’m not sure about the açaí, as I don’t know what it tastes like really.

Overall, it’s a nice relaxing fruity spa blend. My issue with this sort of tea is that it tastes herbal, but in fact is quite high in caffeine. So I would be tempted to drink it in the evening, but that would be unwise. :P

This tea was not bad, but I felt it had very little flavour. I did not taste the ginger or lemon.

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 1

Yay, more advent teas! I’m happy to have this calendar from Palais des Thés this year, as I’ve considered ordering samplers from them multiple times and this really is the ultimate sampler pack. So hopefully it will include most of their best-selling classic teas!

This one is a green base with citrus and ginger. I’m not the biggest ginger lover, but I don’t mind it as long as it’s not overpowering. I’m always charmed by these muslin tea bags that French companies seem to use often. Much cuter than the plastic pyramid kind!

This blend is quite mild, perfect for relaxing in the evening with my knitting. The base is smooth and a bit grassy with dried leafy notes. There is a nice touch of citrus, and it’s light and sweet as opposed to zingy. The ginger is equally mild, and blends nicely with the citrus flavors. Apparently the citrus is a combination of lemon, orange, and grapefruit. I’m not sure I’d be able to pick out all of those, but I do definitely get the lemon and a bit of sweet orange.

This isn’t a tea that I would feel the need to purchase, mostly because when it comes to relaxing green blends, I would prefer mint in place of the ginger. But it is a good combination, even if it’s not my preference.

The fragrance of this is exactly stereotypical Christmas tea, but in a good way. It tastes pretty much how I’d imagine, a little softer on the spices than some I’ve had, and the orange is more evident. I see mentions of floral and almond flavors – I definitely don’t pick up any florals, but the almond might be there faintly. This one isn’t too heavy on cloves, either, which make it so easy for a spice tea to go bitter. Very nice and inoffensive – nothing spectacular about it, but definitely crowd pleasing.

This is the “male” counterpart to Paris for Her, lol. That one reminded me of rose perfume, this one reminds me of a male cologne. I oddly like this one, though. There is definitely a perfume angle to this, I think I am mostly picking up orange blossoms which are in there (but I couldn’t add to the list of ingredients). I don’t taste vanilla or sage, but I imagine that combined with the coriander (which I do taste) it helps give it that male cologne angle. In spite of the fact that I rarely like perfume-y tea, I actually like this one quite a bit. It is strongly flavored without being overpowering, and it’s something a little different. Somehow, it reminds me of an Earl Grey but it doesn’t taste like that so I’m not sure where I get that from. They recommend it for morning, but it’s more of an afternoon tea to me – still brisk but a little lighter and more refreshing. I probably won’t buy more of this, but I wouldn’t mind having like 5 tea bags of it around for the occasional use.

This is nice, the fragrance is absolutely lovely and Christmas spicy. The rooibos is mild, not adding or detracting much. My main issue is that this is fairly weak – I brewed 6 oz with 1 sachet at boiling for 5 minutes and there’s very little flavor. What there is is nice enough, though. I have a small amount of loose leaf and may try making a cup with more tea, to see if that makes it better.

ETA – As it cools, the rooibos is becoming evident. Yuck.

This is a very odd tea. The rose fragrance is overpowering, to the extent that I’m convinced I’m drinking a cup of perfume. (It is a lovely rose scent, though, smelling exactly like that old perfume Tea Rose, go figure!). The floral flavor is not actually very strong, though. However, none of the flavors are very strong – I get absolutely NO tea out of this whatsoever, and maybe a faint raspberry and maybe faint lychee. (I’m not sure enough of what lychee tastes like, so not sure on that.) It was interesting to try, and if you’re a floral fan, you’d probably like this. It’s just definitely not my preference, though it seems well made.

As with most of the Palais des Thes teas I’ve tried, this one is mildly flavored, fairly light, and generally likeable. I don’t get any bitterness from this, but I also don’t get any real floral notes. (For me, that is a good thing, as I’m just not into floral teas.) I mostly taste blueberry and smooth tea that does have an astringent note in the finish. It’s nothing spectacular, and yet I really like it. It would be a lovely tea with some shortbread.

I´m very cautious about ginger in tea (and gin, and beer…), as it easily dominates everything else. During my last visit to a Palais des Thés shop, I got a refill of this tea as a present, and although I immediately felt some worry when seeing the blend was mainly green tea and ginger, I think I quite like it : the ginger is present in a subtle way (in aroma´s you get almost more orange peel than ginger) and the potentially grassy taste of the green tea is well complemented by this ginger-orange peel addition. Nice work, Palais des Thés!

Picked up this tea again a few days ago, and I must say I enjoy it still as much as the first time I smelled it in the Palais des Thés shop in Tours.
Not too sweet, not too mellow, but very smooth, what isn´t always the case with a fruity blend on black tea (from Sri Lanka+China here) basis. The fresh, acidic side of the rhubarb is balanced by the aromatic notes of the lavender.

During my recent visit to the Palais des Thés (PDT) shop in Tours, I not only picked a tea I had wanted to buy after having tried a sample given at a previous visit, but I also looked (and especially smelled) through the teas on offer…how I love the way PDT shows off the fragrances of their teas with the small glass bell jars! So, after testing quite a few different blends, I decided to buy this Montagne Bleue blend : you can clearly identify the notes of lavender and rhubarb indicated on the label.
Although PDT´s tea sommeliers say this blend can also be taken iced, I´ve taken it now a few times hot, and it is really enjoyable : the aromas stay and one can easily recognize rhubarb and lavender in mouth as well. My personal experience with a lot of teas using rhubarb is that it´s almost entirely present in nose, as in mouth it has disappeared, especially when the blend includes strawberry (which seems to overwhelm the rhubarb most of the time). Here this is not the case, so if you´re into rhubarb – as I am – and you like black tea, this is a wonderful blend to enjoy! If I still have tea available next Summer, I´ll need to try to prepare it iced as well ;-)

When I bought some teas at Le Palais des Thés shop at Tours, I got a sample of another of the blends in the DETOX range. On the teabag it says : “Japanese detox, a delicious recipe combining the detox benefits of Sencha green tea, spirulina”(a type of seeweed)“, and buckwheat. This delicate blend features soothing notes of nashi pear, making it the perfect choice for a relaxing break.”
I must say this blend combines almost perfectly a delicate fragrance in nose with a subtly complex drink in mouth. No aroma or flavour overwhelms the whole experience, which makes this a wonderful choice for a dreamy afternoon tea. I received a (long) phone call when I hadn´t finished my mug of tea yet, so I also had the opportunity to sip the cold infusion…which is still OK, although “flatter” in taste profile.

Another tea (infusion rather) of Le Palais des Thés DETOX range I tried last week at the LPDT shop at Tours : I wasn´t impressed when smelling this blend, but the taste is really something else. I´m not sure whether I´d ever tried an infusion of a blend using birch bark before, but this “première” was definitely positive. Also, when drinking this blend, I can imagine sipping it to relax, so its use to “detox” is understandable.

Last week, I stopped at the Le Palais des Thés (LPDT) shop at Tours on my way from Spain to Belgium, to get me a stock of their brilliant “menthe glacé” tea, and I saw that LPDT is doing a lot of marketing of their new DETOX range. At Tours, they had prepared two of the teas in the range : this Brazilian inspired blend and the Scandinavian blend. First, I tried the Brazilian blend, because it´s really very fragrant. Not a big fan of mate, I thought that this blend sort of fell to pieces when trying it…not even the passionfruit can lift the blend – in mouth – above average, in my opinion.

This is very good high quality leafs that produce a lovely rounded malty, nutty brew with almonds, forest flor, grain and dried fruits. Palate is rich yet subtle and ending is fruity with no bitterness. A great allround black tea with no fuss. Great in the morning but i could enjoy it also in the afternoon on its own

Brewed this as per recommendation from Palais. IT is a very approable, significantly scented tea with nice floral overtones, a vanilla-ish sweetness, citrus, and just a tiny hint of astringency from the green teas. The leaf quality is nice for the price point and it is very balanced in profile, albeit a bit to the sweet side. i will try brewing it with more tea next time as i found it a bit too light.

i think it is too light in flavor to make it a morning tea for me, but a nice overall everyday tea which is good for also less experienced tea drinkers

Overall a nicely balanced version of a scented tea and i find the black/green blend quite nice

I cold steeped this to see if it made it any more interesting. The verdict: not so much. It’s green, it’s fruity and it doesn’t really stand out to me. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I wish LPDT didn’t have such a large minimum for their teas, which I have found to be mostly a miss for my palate.