THE O DOR

mmmmm this one makes me happy. thanks again missB for sending it my way. I pull this out when i need a dose of subtle but tasty. and today was that sort of day. Cinnamon and vanilla and smooth and delicious. yum!

Final Count: 108 (swap from kimquat arrived! yay!)

Still loving this one from MissB Of the te o dor teas i’ve had this one is up there on my list…though not as high as the du loup. I really need to get more of that to make sure it’s still all that lol what a sad day if my taste buds had changed so much that i didn’t love it as much as when i first had it. heh

noms. I pulled this one out to have again from the MissB stash. I love how deep and puerh like this is, with the flavours being much more in the background but still present and tasty.

this was my morning tea since i needed a bit of a PUNCH. I did no rinse or anything like that and this morning it was a dark brew with just the right level of cinnamon running through it. slightly sweet but not cloyingly slow and the puerh still came through. Resteeping it now that i’m home and this is a still a great dark brew but now i’m getting a little more vanilla cookie like taste coming through along with the cinnamon.

Cavo – this is the one you need to remind me IN FUTURE to set aside for you to try :)

Also…thank you missB for accommodating my wish list and finding this one for me!

Another tea from MissB and while it’s a nice tea with a great base, I’m just not feeling the macaroon/chocolate/coconut flavour going on today. I wouldn’t ever turn down a cup of this, but it doesn’t get me going like some of the other teodor teas :) Love the share though, since this likely would have been one i’d have tried to get! Thanks missb!

This was one from MissB that i pulled out today. Sadly it was hours ago and i’m really just noting this here. i REALLY loved this cup while i was drinking it today… reminded me why i love those “fancy french teas” :)

… lemon meringue?! What? (Thank you, Dinosara! :) )

This smells nutty. With caramel and vanilla. (This was made in a well-cleaned strainer!)

Lemon meringue?!?! I guess there’s a hint of lemony custard at the end of a good sniff. But. IDK.

Oh poop. I’ve totally oversteeped it. SO bitter, wow. I can taste the lemon, though! It’s a bit pithy. More like candied lemon peel rather than straight up lemon curd. This is really interesting. I’ll have to steep again to see if I can pull flavour without so much bitter.

I’d probably do 2 minutes at 195F if I had more dry leaf. Or 3 minutes at 185F.

Based on it not working at my “usual” parameters, I’d have to say that I probably wouldn’t get more, but it’s really really neat.

(3 tsp (I spilled a bunch on the counter, boo.) in 16 oz. More leaf than usual, but why not.)

I know this is Je T’aime, even though I bought it from a supplier… all the bags/boxes/tins were Thé O Dor. The tea also looks exactly like the picture. Yet, this tea, the tea that I’m drinking, is melted milk chocolate amazingness. I kinda sorta get the marzipan macaroon, but more so that it’s a CHOCOLATE macaroon with marzipan in it. It’s delicious, it’s definitely fantastic at slightly less than boiling, and I want this as a permanent fixture in my cupboard just as I’ve managed to brew it today.

Also thought it was a fitting tea as I head out to a silent walk in Grenoble, France, to honor those who died in the recent atrocities in Paris, and to stand united. It’s been a somber time here the past few days, I’ve run into military with machine guns, and so this is my way of injecting a tiny bit of love into the sadness.

I also seem to have just jumped over my 1200th review (funny, because I’ve likely drank double than during my time on Steepster, but for a while there forgot to log things). So, because it’s so fitting (for me and my line of work) I dub this my 1200th tea! :)

Still loving this, yet it always strikes me as the Lupicia melon flavor instead of peach. Still really really tasty, but…

This tea smells ridiculously sweet, and vaguely familiar. I’m excited… I brew it… it smells even better… and once I taste it (needed mild sweetening to make the flavors pop) I recognize it. It’s that amazeballs cantaloupe green rooibos from San Francisco’s Lupicia store (only available in the SF store)! I could easily drink, smell this all day. Perfection.

So.. are we sure this is a green? The guy at the store said it was, and it says the same on Steepster. This, however, looks to me like an oolong, which of course always makes me horribly ill within a few minutes of drinking some (no idea why, lots of theories). Needless to say, I’m a bit hesitant to try it, even if the smell is like a minty spring breath of fresh air.

So.. are we sure this is a green? The guy at the store said it was, and it says the same on Steepster. This, however, looks to me like an oolong, which of course always makes me horribly ill within a few minutes of drinking some (no idea why, lots of theories). Needless to say, I’m a bit hesitant to try it, even if the smell is like a minty spring breath of fresh air.So, it’s brewed up brown (odd for a green in my experience) and is much… heavier? stronger? has more depth? that most green’s I’ve had. There’s mint, but it’s much more subdued than the smell. I want to say… pepper? Something curry-like? Granular? Such an odd tea for me, and I’ve got an almost instant headache.

So.. are we sure this is a green? The guy at the store said it was, and it says the same on Steepster. This, however, looks to me like an oolong, which of course always makes me horribly ill within a few minutes of drinking some (no idea why, lots of theories). Needless to say, I’m a bit hesitant to try it, even if the smell is like a minty spring breath of fresh air.So, it’s brewed up brown (odd for a green in my experience) and is much… heavier? stronger? has more depth? that most green’s I’ve had. There’s mint, but it’s much more subdued than the smell. I want to say… pepper? Something curry-like? Granular? Such an odd tea for me, and I’ve got an almost instant headache.Okay, so this one isn’t for me, even though I’m finding it really intriguing and multifaceted.

Hm. Did I do something wrong? This tea smells AMAZING, like a cinnamon vanilla cookie. I could smell it all day. I realize it’s a puerh and thus a bit earthier, darker, more robust and oomph than a black, and yet… it’s just not doing it for me. Don’t get me wrong, this is an obviously well-made tea with high quality ingredients, and it shows. I just wanted it to taste as amazingly as it smells, and that’s a tall order.

I love Lapsang Souchong teas. Theodor is probably the tea company I find more interesting currently. When Ysaurella offered to share her Theodor Lapsang Souchong with me, I jumped at it, and was the very first tea of the very tempting package I tried.

Much as I love LS, I wish I was more educated about the differences regarding those, to understand better the (very obvious) difference s. My inevitable comparison of this Lapsang Souchong was with my current favorite, Mariage Freres´s Lapsang Souchong Imperial and the dry leaf of both smells unmistakably different. Like totally different tree smokes – the MF is sharper, maybe more piney. This reminds me of something else, something almost eucalyptus like or oak (not the same at all, but I truly can not describe better), a smell almost umami-rich. It was so different from what I expected I was sure at first sniff I was not going to like it! But no fear, that old magic of lapsang souchong tea, the ability to taste so very different was at work – this is just wonderful, extremely smooth. And now the first shock of not recognizing the smoke smell, I love the smell at least as much as the other Lapsangs in my collection.

A very lovely tea and perfect for a rainy afternoon…

My tea of the morning. Another Theodor tea from my order on vente privée.

For my daughter , this tea tastes and smells like barbecue & charcoal. Well … it’s a bit more complex than that a Lapsang Souchong ! Personally I like the smoked teas but it is true that the first step in this universe can be difficult to initiate .

The smell : wood- fire , comfort , tranquility that’s what we can breathe here .

The dry leaf looks nothing special , short cut , curled and very dark.

The taste : the tea obtained has a very pronounced smoky flavour and is extremely soft and mellow like all Lapsang Souchongs I met but this one is really particularly mellow . No ounce of bitterness.

I made a full teapot . I think this was a mistake because it is not a tea that I enjoy more than 2 cups at a time. However, I swallowed everything … Very successful this unpretentious LS .

For those who like to see, some pics are available here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/lapsang-souchong-theodor/

Oh ! This is an extremely surprising flavoured tea.
First we have a very small cut leaf with dried red berries.

Theodor says it is a mix of non smoked black tea and smoked black tea . The smell escaping from the bag is slightly and gently smoked and red fruits are immediately detectable .

I took my “old” Japanese teapot to prepare this tea. I love this teapot . It was a gift but I had chosen it myself 15 years ago in the shop Le Chat Huant, rue Galante in Paris. This shop sells Japanese objects and still exists even though I have not seen a teapot for a while in. I used it very little since it was sold without a filter … and I never found one that fits … until now !

The taste is divine and yet I am not the biggest fan of red fruit teas . The Smoked side is extremely discreet. I think a smoked tea beginner should start exploring these types with a tea as Madame .

The tea base is not hidden by the scent of red fruits : smoke taste associated with red fruit is very unexpected and absolutely irresistible.

Finally, another point but not least, lapsang souchong (probably used here with a second non- black tea smoked) in this blend offers a deep mellowness making Madame a velvet tea . Yes … Madame likes. Velvet … and plays the card of a masculine/feminine boudoir.

I love it.

Pics of Madame and of my “old” Japanese Teapot are available here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/madame-theodor/

Second tea from my Theodor order on Vente Privée . I must admit that I kinda chose this tea by default just to have a plain tea and because it was quite cheap . Now Ceylons never really transported me . I have at least 5 of them right now in my collection -because every time I think it will be THE little TEA Ceylon that will transcend me … and each time well no it’s not …

The smell is similar to all those little Ceylons. Are there only Great Ceylons somewhere ? I guess so .

The dry leaf is very thin and it has the typical twigs.

And the taste ? So we have an unpretentious and correct tea. Like all I tasted.. except 1 Ceylon I ’ve had … with my great aunt … a Mariage Frères …very good… but which one? mystery. In any case this Theodor is not his twin..oh no.

Some pics are available here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/ceylan-op-superieur-theodor/

Yesterday I received the Theodor order that I placed on Vente Privée . Oh joy to see the postman emerging at my doorstep in the middle of the afternoon .

Obviously Theodor wanted to sell its so-called kimono bags , in aluminum . The 5 teas I ordered were in this type of bags that preserve wonderfully the qualities of tea. Well I personnaly do not care because all my teas end in an airtight dedicated tin but for those who keep their tea in the original bags , those ones were perfect.

This morning I had an embarrassment of riches with five new teas to test but my love for the legendary Earl Grey outweighed everything else. And seeing the sublime osmanthus flowers and corn flowers mixed with black tea leaves I cracked .

During the infusion the yellow flowers rise to the surface and we can see them only !

The liquor is very dark and smells delicious bergamot-y.

The taste obtained is strong bergamot, very present and very bright , almost slightly spicy . This is an extremely invigorating and joyful blend. Ideal in the morning. It reminds me a lot of Mademoiselle another blend by Theodor , another Earl Grey but scented with lavender . The Bergamot oil used is most likely the same . I don’t think I am wrong on this . It is also probably the same Chinese tea base between medium and full -bodied in terms of strength .

A good Earl Grey in conclusion even if I denote nothing very extravagant here .

You can have a look at pics of my session with this tea here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/10/18/earl-grey-royal-theodor/

So, it’s autumn. In the interest of attempting to embrace my inner (and I suppose outer) white girl, I tried a pumpkin spice latte from a certain major coffee shop chain in London on the weekend when I was DESPERATE for a warm drink before catching the coach home to Oxford.

Oh my sweet lord. Why. WHY WOULD I BE SO FOOLISH AS TO PUT THIS HORROR IN MY MOUTH. It was thick and sugary and tasted of no coffee whatsoever but just nutmeg and nutmeg and nutmeg and OH GOD WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS NO NO NO. Maybe my palette is just not the right kind of middle-class, but the only spice I want going anywhere near my coffee is cardamom, as is justly popular across the Mediterranean and Middle East, and which I learned from a Saudi graduate student I worked with on proofreading her academic writing in English. So thank you for that, Roaa! That was some of the most enjoyable work I’ve done in this country.

Sometimes you need a tea you know will be good to get the memory of something awful away from your taste buds, and this tea really fit the bill. I was intrigued remembering that it was some kind of tropical fruity oolong, but forgetting exactly which fruits were involved. Somehow, what I got was a blend that was at turns dominated by instances of pineapple, leafy and autumnal oolong, and what it turns out was bergamot. Would I have ever thought of putting these flavours together? Goodness no! Have they completely surprised me in the best possible way? Heck yes!

This. THIS is what autumn tastes like to me. I rather love it. Thanks for sharing, Ysaurella!

Winter is coming! Or at least autumn is, you should have seen what it rained this morning. Summer is on the way out and I was finally in the mood to make some tea. This is a new purchase, from this very summer, and my first, fast tasting of it

First, this smells like the french-est tea ever blended. French teas, do you have a mental idea of what that style is? This is precisely it, like the most paradigmatic french tea ever. (well, and there is Vert de Provence as well. Maybe a few others, Thé au Tibet also comes to mind as the most french imaginable Earl Grey tea, but no other tea I ever had, and I have been having a lot of french teas, is more French tea than this). Really sublime perfume, far too complicated to categorize – fruity, flowery, with tea underneath. And it was one of the few The-o-dor teas I could buy locally and hello, welcome Acte II.

But at my first try I suspect lotus is an ingredient even if they do not explicitly mention it. And lotus in tea is for me like tuberose in perfumes – it ruins things. I did not quite love it as much as I loved the smell, but I must experiment some more.

It is still a wonderful, balanced, quality tea by the way.

This tea smells so delicious. Sweet rooibos with notes of caramel and pastry. The rooibos itself seems like it’s of good quality and is actually a little bit finer than others I’ve had. It makes a beautiful red cup.

Sipping… the rooibos is softer and smoother than others I’ve had. There is still a rather distinct woody flavor that always comes with rooibos, but I appreciate how smooth this one is. There is a gentle sweetness that wraps itself around the cup, but I can’t really tell what it is… to me, it tastes awfully similar to a caramel rooibos. This sweetness pairs very well with the rooibos that it almost seems like they’re one. I am a little confused about the apple as I can’t taste any, but I think that I’ll have to experiment with this blend a bit more to see what other flavors I can get.

I really enjoy the smoothness of the cup and love the strong notes of rooibos and caramel, but I feel like I’m missing out on the other apple and toffee flavors. I will play around with this a little more to see if I can bring them out of hiding.

This tea was taken from the EU TTB round 2.

I just had to Google guanabana as I’ve never heard of it before, Wiki has it listed as Soursop which I have heard of but I don’t believe I’ve tried it before. That makes comparing this tea impossible so I will just have to go by my own sense of taste.

It smells sweet and berry like though impossible for me to clarify which berry. At any length it does smell very exotic and rather juicy, a nice and interesting start.

Once steeped it has the same fruity scent that is somewhat berry like. It’s a little sour but also does have some sweetness present.

Flavour is mild, no Rooibos flavour as such which is a positive sign but the fruit flavours are just very light and they disappear as quickly as they come. It’s lightly fruity and again berry like but also somewhat perfumed which leaves a slight dry after taste.

This tea just isn’t for me, it’s a pleasant enough tea but just not for my taste buds. Happy to have tried it though :)

I have been desperately craving another Theodor the, their Peché Mignon, their melon and peach green tea. This is their green mate with melon and peach and well it was on stock – and it´s just as amazing!

I made it iced, cold brewed and then strained for maybe half a hour (with mate and tea, I find it gets bitter if I leave it much longer than say one hour even when cold brewed. Even hibiscus I do not like to leave overlong. Only rooibos I leave overnight). It really tastes a lot like Peché Mignon, even their own page makes a reference to it, but with a mate base. I suppose this description won´t be much help to anybody who never had the fortune to try Peché Mignon but it means it tastes naturally and strongly like melon and peach, in balance somehow. Pecadito reportedly has some passion fruit as well, which I think i detect on the aftertaste and makes it non-cloying somehow.

Love it, this package will probably not survive the summer here.

I’m sharing this with my BFF because it’s tomato tea.

It’s so weird. So so weird. Tomatoey. A bit lemony. Floral. A bit weirdly mentholy astringent. My BFF says it’s like drinking the remaining liquid in the bottom of a salad bowl, with the tomato seeds and stuff. Or tomato stems. So green.

Weird.

So, uhh, thanks for the sample MissB! :)