LaFleurBleue

The smell of the dry tea is absolutely heavenly and very strong… I could almost start eating the tea with a spoon.
And among the rooibos leaves, there are small pieces of fruits and dried entire small berries (round very small ones – dark color but original color difficult to identify on the dried fruit).
After brewing, the color is a bright brownish red and the smell o so fragrant.

The taste was also very strong, very mellow fruity but with a surprisingly tart flavor. I absolutely did not expect this bittersweet, tart, almost sour taste from the smell; I do not find it unpleasant but I’m sure it might offend the buds of other people.
I spend quite some time trying to figure out what it might come from: I believe it comes from the berries. At first, without any reason but the size of the berry (and my quick assumption), I assumed they would be blueberry or gooseberry. But this was not the taste of such fruits – as it was more tart than tangy, for a gooseberry and not as sugary fruity enough for blueberry. After some thinking, I finally realized those might be a different kind of berries, not so much used for “direct” consumption (think picking raspberries from the bush and eating them instead of filling in the bucket) than for “transformation / use as an ingredient”. And then sloe berry (berry from the blackthorne; prunelle in French) came to my mind. Maybe it was cranberry but I’m not so sure about that.

I’ve had it a few times and am still surprised by the taste at each new brew. I cannot really make out my mind about it. Strange!

I tried it again being extra careful of not over-brewing, neither putting too many leaves.
And this time I might have been a bit too skimpy or too quick as the brew was a bit light.
Nice tasting, no bitterness but nothing that special in it either. I’ll have to come back to it again and hopefully find the magic recipe.

No notes yet.

Reading the other reviews, I really wonder if there are different batches not made with the exact same recipe.
When opening the tin, I was a bit disappointed to see less rose petals in my blend than there are in the marketing picture. However the smell is there.
While brewing, the flowery smell gets quite strong and wafts over the room.
I tried to be careful not to overbrew the first steep and tried it.
Yes, roses and roses and roses with a nice green tea reminding me of green-pasture grass.
It’s a bit too flowery for my taste, though I believe there are not too much rose flavor in the blend; it’s just that I prefer the flowers to be mixed with something else.
The first brew looked a bit murky, not as much as Green St Petersburg, but enough not to look too appealing to me. From the second, it got clearer and nicer. For this first batch, I steeped it 4 times in total and it felt like 1 or 2 more could have been possible. I forgot it for almost 5 minutes at the third steep and positive surprise, it was not bitter.
I may try to mix it with my jasmine pearls, to try to replicate the Pearl of the Orient blend and see if the mix jasmine-roses makes it easier to finish both those very nice but too flowery teas.
I would definitely recommend it to rose and flower flavor addicts.

I so wanted to love this tea. When reading the description, I thought it would be perfect and get to be one of my favorites. Let’s just say that I had very very high expectations for this blend.
Unfortunately I’m a bit disappointed, as I feel that this tea does not deliver all expected (though maybe unrealistic) promises. It’s nice, but no out of the world experience when drinking it.
The tea base is very nice, neither too weak not too strong and with no bitterness, even when the tea is forgotten steeping. The flavors are very pleasant and very natural tasting but not as strong as I expected. I honestly do not manage to recognize any of them and I’ve had this tea more than 20 times already.
This tea does not allow much resteeping, as it soon provide only a weak brew.
I will probably not go out of my way to rebuy this, though I’ll enjoy drinking it and might consider buying again much later if there are no better options for fruity-peachy tea or as an add-on to a rooibos order.
IMO this tea is good but not as deliciously flavored as Yumchaa’s rooibos.

One of the only teas sold with a 50g minimum by Mariage Freres (considering the price 10 Euro for 50 g, that’s not that much of an effort from them…)
Before choosing the one, I smelled a few white teas: Brume de Roses targets rose addicts; Eau de lune smelled quite nice but with no wow factor (which I needed considering the price); Madame Butterfly was nice but I was not in the mood for cherry blossoms; Marco Polo white was my second choice after this one.
I do not remember how the tea looked in the large tin, but in my small bag I do not see any of the small pink flowers which can be seen on the picture.
The leaves have different green colors; it’s quite surprising. The smell of the dry leaves is exquisite.
The brew has a light yellow color, with a cristal clear look.
The taste is also really amazing: no bitterness, full of flowers but not cloying, with a hint of fruits (unidentified as of now). Spices I do not get or recognize any.
It’s a very dainty brew, best appreciated in an extra fine china cup and cannot be brewed in a mug – call me snobbish, if you like, but that’s my feeling.

I won’t be rating this tea yet…
I’ve been lured by the Gentleman in this tea name. Expecting something slightly refined, I put way too much leaves in my strainer. Second I put less water than usual in my boiler and did not get a full teapot. Third and last, I got busy while brewing and forgot the tea for way too long.
The resulting brew was strong, with a slightly bitter touch, that did not prevent me from drinking it all, though with probably not as much pleasure as could have been. The citrusy flavors seemed well balanced and very pleasant.
I’ll have to prepare it by the book next time to try to see if I get my gentleman and not the ruffian just out of the boxing ring, all sweaty and male I ended up with today…

I seem to be the first one to post something about this tea. Surprising considering it’s included in the Treasures Box and a few people have bought this box.
At the same time, it’s not one of Gryphon’s best or must try.
It’s supposed to be a medium-bodied tea. To me, but I may have used too much water for this one, it was rather a weak-bodied tea.
And regarding the flavors, the bergamot was rather nice but the Eucalyptus brought a taste of medecinal plant, and brought out a kind of bitterness at resteep.

This Yumchaa blend is once again far from subtle. If you don’t like Lemon, lemon, lemon, this will not be for you.
The smell of the dry leaves is amazing. The brew is delightfully refreshing. And the taste is exactly what I remember from the sherbet “Citron givré” (frosted lemon in English, but I have no clue if this correspnds to the way it’s called in anglo-saxon countries) – a lemon sherbet served within a complete lemon bark. I loved this dessert when I was a kid and haven’t had any in years. So I really enjoy being reminded of this each time I drink this.
I’ll have to finish it quick though, because there are some pieces of lemon inside the bag and I’m not sure the climate here will be friendly to those. Might even have to store it in the fridge.

Had this in a hotel room one evening
It’s pretty bad. I could hardly recognize the chamomile taste; it’s as if only the stems, leaves had made it into the bag, while the flowers had been sent to another product.
There’s a faint bitterness to the brew and nothing flowery.
Not vile but really not good either.

Another little tin among the 5 included in the Afternoon tea set I was given for Christmas. This one was actually the one I really looked forward to drinking the most…
It looked lovely in the small tin and also smelled delightful with an appealing citrus whiff reaching my nostrils.
Then I brewed it: probably putting too much of it given how much the tea expanded in the filter. That was only the first mistake: then I also left it steeping for way too long (not sure but probably between 5 to 10 minutes) and got a very bitter brew, with no flavors except bitterness.
My second steep, shorter but still too long probably, around 3 mn, was less bitter, but not completely devoid of bitterness, and did not have so much flavor as I expected.
The brew is also murky, with a lot of floating dust in the cup. Not so appealing!
I tried it again later, with water that was a bit cooler but still too hot probably, as I had difficulty drinking it right after brewing.
I was extra careful not to put too much gunpowder leaves in the filter and not to let it steep for more than 1 minute.
Right after taking the filter out, I got a nice whiff of citrusy scent. It was also quite present each time I picked the cup to drink it. However the taste was rather milder than expected and did not really work out for me: the caramel was much stronger in flavor than in smell and almost completely covered the citrusy taste. The tea quality however seems rather good as it’s still very fragrant at the third steep.
Capricious, contrary and twisted. Those would be the “qualities” I would associate the most with this tea. I brewed myself 7 or 8 cups of it today and succeeded only in getting 1 that was correct, all the others were between meh and real bad.
I so want to empty those little tins to refill them with nicer teas, as they’re the perfect size for my office desk. It’s going to be tough again with this one!

I had bought this mint rooibos, just to try, thinking it should be nicely refreshing with the mint flavor, also because my husband told me he liked the smell in the shop. But I must confess I was not expecting much of it, as I was afraid of the mint.
Yesterday I opened the bag and smelled it: very refreshing mint, natural smelling for instance.
I brewed it and started drinking it.
And there came the surprise…
Even when the brew is hot, it feels cooling and refreshing. The taste is also much smoother than I expected, most probably as a result from the rose petals sparkled everywhere in the tea (which looks very lovely as well).
The only drawback I see to it is that the brew has a slight toothpaste taste, when the brew is really hot; the mint taste is much more natural and pleasant when it cools down slightly.
Tonight I had absolutely no hesitation in what I felt like drinking.
I believe this should also make an excellent ice tea, and it would also be perfect at the office to replace Rouge Rushka that I’ve almost finished.
An almost perfect hit.

Hubby is coming down with a mean cold, so I figured some chai-like spicy tea might halp me keep it away.
I have been given the afternoon Kusmi set at Christmas, which I probably never would have bought on my own. I usually do not really enjoy drinking spice-flavored tea. However I’ve got a small tin and those will be perfect to store nice teas at my desk in the office. So better try to drink it fast;)
The flavors when opening the tin are really nice and seem strong on chocolate, plus spices, but not curry-like flavors.
Once brewed, I was wondering how it would come out, as I had been a bit light in my serving. It was actually strong enough (and I managed to resteep it twice with no problem, which proves the leaves are rather good quality). The color is a bit dark but very clear.
The taste is slightly disappointing as I looked, searched and wandered around for the chocolate, but it was not very obvious and not as strong flavored as I expected; I was searching for a very dark chocolate, with a very high concentration in cocoa and could only come with the flavors of an industrial average-supermarket brand which would lower the cocoa content to optimize the price of the product. Not so appealing!
Then the spices: not so unpleasant as I was afraid of, with two popping up to mind: cinnamon first and then underlying it all and lasting so long after, clove. This last flavor is a bit overwhelming (and it can easily be so). After drinking it, I really felt the same taste on my lips I had after smoking kretek (Indonesian clove-flavored cigarettes) when I was much younger, without the cold ashtray feeling inside my mouth.
I will not buy it again, but should able to reasonably finish the tin, especially convincing myself that the clove inside the blend will help improve my gums…

I had this in a bar with friends and the non optimal preparation might explain some of my disappointment.
I obviously could not smell the dry leaves but only got the teapot. The loose leaves were swimming freely in the teapot. The water had been poured boiling on the tea and I could not drink my first cup (a bit underbrewed – probably around 2 2 and half mibutes, as I could realize at the first sip) for a few minutes. It was nice but a bit too mild; I liked the body given to the tea by vanilla, though could not really identify the other flavors, a bit fruity but not too sweet, rather pleasant. The second cup (steeped for 6 mn I guess, maybe a bit more) allowed me to realize the tea base was indeed rather nice tasting, though coming out a bit strong. The third and fourth and last cups were unfortunately rather bitter and not so pleasant any longer.
I’ll have to try it out in better conditions, but however I’m not sure it’s going to be a complete love story between me and this tea.

Had this tea yesterday at the airport while waiting for my flight.
I did not leave it steeping long. And even with this extra short steeping time, what came out was a strong brew, with an underlying undeniable bitterness. The bitterness was actually so strong that I could not really appreciate either the tea or the citrusy bergamot flavor, which seemed rather nicer than average (for bagged tea).
Drinking this actually reminded me why I did not like tea at all when I was a teenager, as I only had had bad quality dust in bag oversteeped.
A complete miss for me, that I would not recommend to anyone. I was surprised to see so many positive comments on this one. I may have to try it again sometime to be really sure. The Twinings is however a much better bet IMO.

I was a bit wary before drinking this one. The smell of the dry blend was obviously fabulous; but the advertised biscuit taste did not fully appeal to me. I was thinking it might have an artificial cake taste, like those flavored and overly sweet La Laitiere yoghurts.
I finally tried the sample offered by Isaurella this morning.
While taking the first sips, I was actually surprised by the tea base, which was stronger than I expected. Now it’s cooled, I think it’s quite mild, though not too weak.
Let’s now talk about the flavors: the very good news is that they all taste very natural, not something coming out of a bottle. The flowers complement well the sweet almond-marzipan underlying taste, and allow the blend not to seem overly sweet but rather really well-balanced.
Delightful; a perfect morning / late morning tea for my taste.

After the Kusmi genmaicha disaster, I needed to drink something safe and strong flavored to cover all lingering unpleasantless both in my mouth, as well as in my apartment’s smell.
I decided then to open a new bag from my Yumchaa order.
FYI I ordered a few bags that I had delivered at my in-laws and collected there at Christmas. It was nicely wrapped in a thick enveloppe and the whole room was already sweetly fragrant even if the enveloppe had only been there for 2 days and had not been opened yet. My whole suitcase seemed to have the delighful smell when I opened it after arriving home. A much nicer experience than when I bring back cheese…
Putting this aside, I decided to try Cteresa’s favorite rooibos, the one that had motivated my initial order.
When opening the bag, I realized it was way less fragrant than the raspberry vanilla, that there were actual pieces of dried strawberries and other unidentified, as of now, fruits.
I was looking forward the tasting;) And this time I was not disappointed: the flavors blend harmoniously together. Strawberry and vanilla were the two most easy to identify flavors. But not the only ones definitely. I’ll keep looking but tonight, I just feel like enjoying my brew.
I love the remaining taste of fruits which last on my lips, much better than a gloss artificially flavored.
I can definitely see how this one could become an all-time favorite of mine.

I received the afternoon tea set by Kusmi for Christmas (and have been regretting the fact that it was not the Russian-flavored set ever since).
This one is the first I tried of this set, after the Anastasia, which I really liked.
The experience is however not as positive with this one. I’ve never been a huge fan of green teas, and especially Japanese green teas. Their taste is often too grassy for me.
The green base has a strong fragrance and flavor and seems to be a nice Japanese green, better than the ones I had had in the past.
Add to this nice though not craving-inducer base, some pieces of roasted and puffed rice, and it turns out not so nice-tasting any longer. The roast of the rice gives to it a slightly burnt taste, the puffed rice brings in the flavor of puffed rice snacks, whose taste I always associated with styrofoam.
The blend is therefore not really a success to my tasting buds.
I have the strange feeling to be drinking the liquid that you would get doing that:
1. while cooking rice in a pan, forgetting it on the fire, until all water has evaporated and the bottom gets burnt
2. after taking out most of the overcooked and burnt rice, putting back some water in the pan and some freshly cut grass, heating it before tasting.
It seems vile; yeah but unfortunately that’s really what it reminds me of.
Even though the box held only 25g, I assume it’s going to be very difficult for me to finish it…

I had really high expectations for this one, following my first tastings of Dammann teas, thanks to Isaurella.
The tea base was fine, though not fantastic, better than that of Kusmi Anastasia. However to me the disappointment came from the flavoring, mild, really mild, I kept searching for it. I mostly found it in the lingering pleasant aftertaste left in the mouth after drinking.
I preferred Anastasia’s flavors to this one, which are subtle but not as subtle (ie. almost weak) as this one.
I’ll definitely have to try the second sample on a positive day, as I know I feel gloomy today and this might also explain part of my disappointment.

Had a cup of this at the airport with my boss who ordered an Earl Grey and received this.
I am not a great fan of breakfast teas and I really felt that this one really had nothing special; the leaves quality seemed quite ok, it was not really bitter, but there also wasn’t anything that might approach a wow factor.
If I was really in the mood of a breakfast tea, this would not be it.

Wow. Both when taking the pack off the cupboard and right after brewing, the raspberry smell is incredible.
When drinking it, I first noticed the delightful raspberry taste, nothing subtle about it; it was like I had been thrown in a raspberry bucket – if you’re not a big fan of this fruit, this blend might come as too strong for you.
What I really liked is that when the brew was getting more luke-warm than real hot, the vanilla flavor started to come alive, despite its being muted to my taste buds in the hot brew.
While drinking my second tea-pot (another evening), I realized the vanilla and rose flavors were there, right from the start, though almost muted by the overwhelming raspberry.
I then decided to try it iced, to see how it was coming. Amazingly the vanilla taste is now prominent, up to par with the raspberry, making the brew seems smooth and creamy.
I am not sure yet how I’ll feel about this flavored rooibos in a few weeks, as it’s possible I might have enough of it and prefer some more subtle blend. Or maybe not. Let’s see ;)

I like rooibos, flavoring that mix flowers with fruits and had purchased this tea on the pure basis of the description without smelling it in the shop.
When opening the bag, I was startled by how nice this blend was looking with the blua mallow petals being softly curled and not crushed into small pieces. I believe this is probably the nicest looking rooibos blend I’ve seen yet (very shallow comment but nonetheless true – I always look at it with pleasure).
I brewed already a few teapots of this and was totally puzzled by the taste, which was very different from what I expected, did not really correspond to the description, as I could not find any hints of vanilla, blackberry and could not reconcile the fruit taste with exotic fruit (I was thinking at the flavors of exotic fruit juices).
Then two nights ago, I got hit by an awakening: lychee, the sweet and sour taste that puzzled me was that of lychee. It’s supposed to taste like guava, but guava gives me a completely different gustatory experience, in the sense that the fruit has a grainy texture which almost dries the tongue. I do not reconcile that experience at all when drinking this blend.
Now that I have identified the main flavor, I’ll try to look out for the secondary ones…
My rating takes into account the fact that I really prefer sweet and tart fruits and flavors to anything a bit sour, like lychee, which I only eat in very small quantities at one time. Had I realized that this would be the dominant flavor of this rooibos, I probably would not have buy it.

After another early awakening (why is the jetlag so difficult to overcome this year?), I tried this blend, feeling that an Earl Grey kind of tea would pe perfect to perk me up.
I was really surprised when starting drinking it, as I found this blend much milder than expected and much milder than the usual Earl Grey I’ve drank. First of all, the tea base is really mild and definitely more an afternoon tea base than a morning one; I would say it is a bit too weak. The flavors were surprisingly smooth, the bergamot being nicely blended with the lemon; I guess the orange blossom also helped a lot to give mellowness to what could have been too tangy. I really liked its taste. I might have to try using mor tea or less water for the next brew to see whether it’s the reason why I found it a bit weak-bodied.
Once again it’s more an afternoon than a morning tea IMO.
Thanks again for Ysaurella for making me try this blend, which really made me want to try the Kusmi’s signature Russian blends.

I drank this at a friend’s place. I chose it by default, as he offered me mainly Christmas spice-laden teas, totally right for the season but usually not so to my taste. I must confess I was not overly enthusiastic at first, at the idea of drinking a flavored green, as I often am wary of the green teas bitterness.
The smell was delightful, very tart and fruity. I had a cold so could not really recognize the different fruits among the flavors.
I would definitely drink it again, though I’m still unsure whether I’m ready to buy a flavored green and whether this one would be it.