I just managed to order (with difficulty and problems sadly!) some new Thé-ô-dor teas from a local retailer. Cocotte, the famous tomato darjeeling was on my wishlist but out of stock. This was instead a rather random pick, but wow this is unexpectedly filling the wish for a strange surprising tea.
I would probably not have picked it if I had smelled it before buying. It smells like pepper, black pepper, with peach and some unidentifiable flowers and just a bit strange somehow. It brews slightly different, less flowery, all (to me, at this first acquaintance) just tea, peach and black pepper. It´s a complete (but excellent) taste dissonance to have the unmistakable strong black pepper with the peach, but it was coup de foudre, love at first sight (or first cup). That pepper and fruit, it somehow works (for me. I suspect this will not be everybody´s cup of tea). I think this is the cure to me being tired of nice polite flavoured teas which seem samey-samey and forgettable. No way anybody could confuse this flavoured tea with any other flavoured tea.
The base is lovely, smooth but strong Assam. I am reminded, as I was by Mandalay, that chai is not just any tea with spices. This, like Mandalay, is a tea where a spice is essential, but without being in any way a chai.
I am slightly in love with this tea, unexpectedly. So lovely.
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I was hesitant about this one yesterday while on theodor website.Nice to know it is a good tea.
I finally bought…nothing ! because Je t’aime was out of stock and Thé du Loup as well…
I hate the Theodor website ! too much idiot descriptions (not idiot but unhelpful to choice a tea…)
So Adèle H has pepper…not so surprising if we think to the movie histoire d’Adèle H :)
Victor Hugo made beautiful poems for Léopoldine, it was fair François Truffaut dedicated a movie to Adèle and Theodor a nice tea !
It is nice, but it is a tea I recommend with care. It´s wonderful to me, but the pepper is strong, I am sure it will be a hate it for many people.
I detest the stupid descriptions at the Theodor site as well! Precious, precious and useless – there is a trick, I search for an ingredient or part of the name of a tea to show an intermediate page with a small useful description – I edited a ton of their teas here on steepster to make for easier reference to those.
I never had je t´aime – thé du loup I loved, but one of the new arrivals is the yet untried celebration, which might be a serious contender for thé du loup. It´s also chocolate and hazelnut and smells like dark chocolate mousse drenched in frangelico and with extra chocolate on top. or something. It can not live up to what it smells!
This Adele H is indeed a good hommage! A rebellious tea one as well, a different one, one not possible to confuse with any other. But one must love pepper !
This sounds delicious!
you cannot imagine how much I love pepper ! my friends are always like “but when do you stop to drop pepper from the pepper mill on you meal ????” it takes me at least 2 full minutes :)
But I’m not a huge fan of salt
omg i just saw your note on “celebration” that sounds amazing..
Sil, celebration indeed smells like that – it can not possibly live up to that expectation, I warn myself. I am saving it for a special occasion though will find an excuse for it as soon as possible ( mother s day maybe?)
Ysaurella, I also love pepper! But I did not expect to love it as the predominant note in a tea and after all, wow. And I confess I am now wondering about their on va se revoir … I am drinking baya now, which is another unlikely sounding tea flavoring combination and sort of divine. Theodor is very good at unusual I think.
Adele h is, I have now thought of the word, an eccentric tea which is so much fun.
I was hesitant about this one yesterday while on theodor website.Nice to know it is a good tea.
I finally bought…nothing ! because Je t’aime was out of stock and Thé du Loup as well…
I hate the Theodor website ! too much idiot descriptions (not idiot but unhelpful to choice a tea…)
So Adèle H has pepper…not so surprising if we think to the movie histoire d’Adèle H :)
Victor Hugo made beautiful poems for Léopoldine, it was fair François Truffaut dedicated a movie to Adèle and Theodor a nice tea !
It is nice, but it is a tea I recommend with care. It´s wonderful to me, but the pepper is strong, I am sure it will be a hate it for many people.
I detest the stupid descriptions at the Theodor site as well! Precious, precious and useless – there is a trick, I search for an ingredient or part of the name of a tea to show an intermediate page with a small useful description – I edited a ton of their teas here on steepster to make for easier reference to those.
I never had je t´aime – thé du loup I loved, but one of the new arrivals is the yet untried celebration, which might be a serious contender for thé du loup. It´s also chocolate and hazelnut and smells like dark chocolate mousse drenched in frangelico and with extra chocolate on top. or something. It can not live up to what it smells!
This Adele H is indeed a good hommage! A rebellious tea one as well, a different one, one not possible to confuse with any other. But one must love pepper !
This sounds delicious!
you cannot imagine how much I love pepper ! my friends are always like “but when do you stop to drop pepper from the pepper mill on you meal ????” it takes me at least 2 full minutes :)
But I’m not a huge fan of salt
omg i just saw your note on “celebration” that sounds amazing..
Sil, celebration indeed smells like that – it can not possibly live up to that expectation, I warn myself. I am saving it for a special occasion though will find an excuse for it as soon as possible ( mother s day maybe?)
Ysaurella, I also love pepper! But I did not expect to love it as the predominant note in a tea and after all, wow. And I confess I am now wondering about their on va se revoir … I am drinking baya now, which is another unlikely sounding tea flavoring combination and sort of divine. Theodor is very good at unusual I think.
Adele h is, I have now thought of the word, an eccentric tea which is so much fun.