408 Tasting Notes
This is a sample I requested while visiting B&B. I already had this tea in the past but not since at least 4 years.
The scent of dry leaf is just waouh…fantastic, the liquor is a perfect balance of citrus : orange, bergamot and lemon with a light smocky taste.
This is a nice Earl Grey declination in homage to Russian blends.
Delicious, goes in my shopping list, definitively.
Preparation
You know I am searching for the perfect raspberry tea…I think I need to search again.
This one is not bad but still not my perfect framboise : the dry leaf scent is very very strong, almost like opening a perfume bottle.
This is a tea using only natural essential oils – I consider this is a pity not using real fruits as well.
The liquor is nice but just ok to me because I am expecting a lot from a raspberry tea…pleasant but not my hero.
Preparation
A pity and real fruits look so nice in the dry blend so that it should be reason enough to add them…
I got to play the devil´s advocate a bit – real fruits or some other tea fillers are beautiful and can taste fresh, but they also have a problem, which is they age and loose taste faster than tea does. If they want to blend a big container of black tea and have it last 3 years (so you can sell and resell) and maybe have a lot of it on containers which are half filled and catch air, ah real raspberries would start to crumble and get dusty eventually. Don´t know for sure how long, yeah a bit – counting on other things to add real flavour might only be ok for sellers which sell tea very fast – that is they do not have a lot of different blends and are ok blending artisanlike, though the risk on that is sometimes their blends can vary a little from batch to batch.
Ysaurella, have you tried Dammann´s 4 fruits rouges? i just checked and was surprised you had not put a taste note yet. it is not just raspberry, but it´s a very wow red fruit tea!
agree Teresa but there are some blends where even big companies use real fruits or nuts so they may sell their big amount of teas in the delay allowed by the fruits deterioration. You’re right anyway the majority of the taste always comes from the essential oils…but it just adds something pleasant in the cup, more “flesh” to the beverage.
No I didn’t ever drink 4 fruits from DF, I may one day :)
I am a raspberry lover and really search a mono fruit blend to get a kind of liquid raspberry :)
I have an ‘exotic green’ blend that has bits of passion fruit or pineapple in it. Those aren’t freeze dried fresh, but sugared. Looks beautiful. No idea how relevant it is for the taste and/or how long it will last. The tea is halfway gone so it won’t become old enough to see when these fruit particals deteriorate.
The more I drink it the more i love it : It’s really an elegant earl grey spin off :)
I need to say it is near to mélange Hédiard regarding the scent of the dry leaf BUT so different after brewing – both are lovely but Aïda is the most elegant.
J’adoooooooooooooooooooooore les cerises !!!! I love cherries but less than raspberries.
While in Betjeman & Barton shop, I decided to go for fruity teas, Cerise Noire and Framboise.
No suspense around…I love this cherry tea so much, it’s exactly like drinking a liquid cherry. The aromas are so natural and the aftertaste is divine.More on cherry rather than on cherry blossom (but there is cherry blossom for sure).
The dry leaf was amazing but the liquor is even better – I am really enthusiastic about this tea especially because I wasn’t expecting very much from it.
Prefer it very hot rather than warm,the aromas are really better hot, with a light fruity tartness.
Yummy …
Preparation
I’ve never had dragonwell before and this my first grapefruit tea as well.
I was expecting more grapefruit flavour but I get it both on dry leaf and in the liquor while sipping.
As many Butiki green teas, I find it better as it cools. The flavour is much more revealed.Really much more present !
I realize I never tried any BT iced…I think I should.
I really enjoy this one almost cold.
Thank you for sharing Sil !
Preparation
Second backlog of yesterday while Steepster was down.
My second B&B of the day.
I prefered this one to Polka. While opening the tin,I get an incredible scent of alcohol, like a fruit liqueur.I had the same sensation in shop and asked if it was due to the grape presence, the saleswoman said it was due to the fig presence.
The scent is sooooo strong, incredibly strong on fruits and liqueur.
The taste is really more subtile, for the best.
There is quince in this tea, I got it. Hazelnuts as well but was unable to detect the flavour.
It’s clearly an Autumn blend, absolutely perfect for the weather we have actually in France.
A beautiful tea.
Betjeman & Barton may consider to change their tea base with the flavours they are using. I suspect they are using more than often the same for any flavoured tea. It makes teas less interesting to my opinion.
I love character teas :)
Preparation
Backlog of yesterday while Steepster was down.
Polka was my afternoon tea. It’s an absolute fruity tea, opulent, greedy.
The orange used is not a classic orange but a blood orange, very present in the mix of fruits.
It is difficult to distinguish the difference fruits except for the blood Orange but it is a nice cup of tea.
The main difference of B&B teas with Mariage Frères ones to me is the heavy use of essential oils. They are not blending their teas as MF does. However I suspect they use the same black tea base for every flavour tea, which is not the case for MF blends.
That’s the reason why I think B&B remains a challenger only to MF and not a too much dangerous challenger.
Saying that, don’t get me wrong: B&B teas are using only natural ingredients and natural flowers and essential oils, nothing artificial in their teas. Polka is a very decent tea, pleasant.
But I won’t wake up in the middle of the night craving for a cup of this tea.
Preparation
I so agree about preferring different bases for different teas – and about Mariage Fréres doing it. I remember being baffled once by somebody complainingn they did not like Mariage Freres black tea base and I was WTF – which base, the one for Marco Polo or Wedding Imperial or Thé au Tibet? All very different!
I see, really weird she/he didn’t get the difference…
Dammann often uses the same tea bases for their flavoured black teas as well but not always. I should continue to taste all my Betjeman & Barton teas to find out if they use other tea bases (maybe in Luxury) but I am pretty sure Polka, Autumn blend, Jour de fête and framboise share the same one.
Of the Dammann teas I have had so far, i think all or nearly have had the same base (though it has only been the samples you sent me and two tins I got here!). And it´ s not a favorite base for me, it tastes almost “thin” somehow – I like Theodor´s base better though I have only had 3 of their flavoured black teas so can not really be sure if it is really the same base!
DF uses a keemun for Charlotte au chocolat but for the other blends I agree, had the same tea base… DF & B&B belongs to the same group…
Theodor is really nice, I need to taste more their teas, I think maybe next month I’ll try to pop up in their shop in Paris
Backlog of my first cup of the day.
Mélange Hédiard is a very good citrus tea : strong, really robust-It’s a quite malty tea but without any bitterness.
An ideal tea to begin the day, it wakes you up very well.
I have a drawback to point out but a very light one : the scent of the dry leaves is amazing, fantastic and powerful, there is a difference in the cup, the aromas aren’t so strong – don’t get me wrong : they are absolutely present and divine but a degree under the scent.
A very lovely tea
Preparation
This is a tea I had with my brunch in a Parisian café this afternoon.
No real tea choice, so had this one.
Nothing special to say, it’s not bad,it’s not good, it’s meh !
The kind of tea just a little bit better than Lipton yellow
Preparation
Oh, Ysaurella, how I wish I could just slide this in a conversation : «I had brunch in a Parisian café…»
ahaha it sounds dreamy and exotic for you on the other side of the ocean but from France it just sounds almost classic…I would love to visit Canada, I am jealous when some of write…I was in Montréal or I was in Vancouver and bought this tea…:)
I am silly…this is a sample I requested to 2 persons …so thank you both Azzrian and Sil for sharing with me.
Now I am an happy silly woman because I really love this tea and it means I have more to enjoy !
The tea base is really nice and absolutely not bitter. The fruits aromas remind me the type of mature fruits you can find at the end of summer.
They may have used mirabelles for the plum flavour, this is a typical plum in the area (not far, in Lorraine), I get the cherry very well too , a little less for apricot.
I should confess I never went in Alsace (probably one of the lone areas in France I didn’t visit yet) but I would love to.I know many Alsatians and this tea is a nice tribute to the region I think, especially because it touches the high traditional side of this French region.
I am not so much surprised by *momo*’s anecdote with the Alsatian woman, there is something really special with this area of France, something really much more traditional vs the rest of the country.
Preparation
Oh yes traditional! It wasn’t very nice on Saturday night when our guide told us the grocery store closed an hour ago and would not be open till Monday.
hehe…this is the north side of Europe…I went in Sweden and the stores are opened from 11 AM to 4 PM the saturday !
wow that would be nice! I’d love it if stores were open less time on the weekend
