cteresa

I bought this with a (sadly slight) discount about 2 months ago. Expiration date was March 2013. Even if this tin was just 80 grams, I expected it would last well past the expiration date – but I am not too fussy about that for tins which have been sealed for most of their consume-by date and if it´s not flavoured green teas.

But it seems this tin is not going to last to March! I have given a few samples, and it was just 80 grams, but even making this last by having two steeps, it´s going quite fast indeed (second steep is not as magical. but still better than a lot of my other teas).

I am rationing it a bit, but whenever I crave it and make it, I subconsciously expect it is not as awesome as I remember, but it always is. A really huge favorite of mine and one it is going to my definite to rebuy list (no matter the price!).

About taste notes, this is a multiple personality tea – many different notes, all subtle and evasive (it all works somehow!). Today I am getting a sort of minty tones to the wet leaves and a very buttery silkyness to the tea.

Fig! so that was what the fruit was. I smelled it and was thinking plums or nectarines or something else, but they are right it is fig indeed.

And I got to say this is the weirdest named Mariage Frères tea I ever had. According to them an hommage to America and its pilgrims so they but blue flowers which according to them bloom in the Pacific (! It´s a whole continent away!) rivers and they flavour it with fresh figs and vanilla. Oh dear. Ah, geography.

This was a sample so kindly sent by Ysaurella, thank you so much! I love trying these lesser know Mariage Fréres teas, and often they can be so very good. That is the case this is a very nice smooth black tea base (Ysaurella reports some trickiness while brewing it, I had not read that note yet and was admittedly careless in that first brew but either I got lucky or it just likes my tap water). I do not get much vanilla though I would swear I keep getting a note like plums! Merci, Ysaurella!

No notes yet.

Dear reader, I feared this was a gimmick. I can not resist gimmicks even when I identify them correctly and had been craving this for, like ever, and never been on stock or available from any place with reasonable shipping. Till now, when thanks to a friend who spotted the very last one (obrigada!) I got one of my very own! Would it live up to expectations?

By the way this is theoretically Yumchaa´s Magic tea Filter http://www.yumchaa.com/produkty/tea-making-equipment/38/ though the box says this is Magic II by Cha Cult and patented to them though it seems there are tons of different versions of this. It´s a sort of good-plastic mug with a good silicone filter at bottom. You put the tea in, pour the water and after steeping, place over a mug which is smaller in diameter than the bottom of this infuser, the pression at bottom makes the water pour from the bottom. Gimmick or not?

At first, without figuring out how to remove the filter or lid for easier cleaning I very much feared it was a gimmick. Fun but so not easy to clean up. What would be the point of something much more difficult to clean than a regular teapot if it does not brew better than a regular teapot? But then I figured out how to remove the filter and lid for easier rinsing and cleaning, and OK that changes everything. Particularly for rooibos teas or for multiple steeps of the same tea – it really is more convenient while not being any more difficult to clean. I love seeing how the leaves expanded and opened during the infusion. I am pretty happy with it so far!

As drawbacks, well, you got to let the tea leaves cool a bit before removing them to clean the filter – I surprisingly more difficult to remember this than you would think. And for some reason this little .5 liter pot and the transparency of the pot I keep misjudging how much leaf to use – I suspect it will come with practice. But in all, more than a gimmick, a very nice well thought tool I am glad I got. BUT and there is a but, while really very convenient for a few brews (multiple steeps, rooibos), I am not sure this makes better tea than any old regular teapot with loose tea and a strainer.

A surprise from a swap with Mel (thank you!) which I saved till it was just the right occasion. And oh this is nice and also feels very british. A very nice Christmas tea indeed – I got orange, lemon and cinnamon, and also crazily something apricot like? A very strong base though still smooth. For somebody like me who seems to have a prejudice against Christmas teas this was a winner!

No notes yet.

I am a Yumchaa fan since I accidentally found one of their market stalls a few years ago. In the meanwhile I have made my way through a lot of their teas – I might be on my 4th or 5th 100 gr pack of Berry Berry Nice for example! Some have been samples from friends or tried in their tea shops, and a few of the new ones I never had a chance yet but I have been trying as many of their teas as I could. This is one of their old tea blends which I left for last. A friend (obrigada!) brought this for me with my nth package of Berry Berry Nice all the way from London and oh it was a great seasonal choice. And a tip : those two packages together smell wonderfully. Unbelievably good. one of these days I will even try brewing them together. Might be a mess, but the scent is just too alluring to not try.

so Christmas and this chai, I picked this by accident because I am so into chai right now and I had never tried this one, but this is IMO a sort of perfect Christmas tea – the spices making it festive, the spearmint candy making it uncloying, and the Yumchaa nice sencha base underneath it all. A really really nice take on green tea with mint or green chai or christmas tea, however you would like to class it, it´s a good one!

Another café cup of tea, and I think brewed unfairly hot. A generously sized teabag in a mug with water from the cofee machine and it was OK. And actually pretty nice, even brewed that hot it was not bitter.
Not really a tasting note, but just a small note to remind myself this was actually nice and a decent choice.

The wolf, the big bad wolf is as sweet as any golden retriever and a perfect gentleman, oh I do love it.

It´s chocolate and hazelnut tea, on itself a wonderful idea, but not a sickly sweet combination, more like dark chocolate type. And magically the underlying tea can stand up to the flavor, without being bitter, tanninic (or since I experimented having it at night, not too much caffeine I think). And it is one of those magic flavored teas where I can be so careless when brewing it, it is not fussy about temperature or steeping times. I love this wolf tea, and everybody who I have served it to seems to love it as well, this is not going to last very long here. A re-buy for sure.

Another so kind sample from ysaurella, many thanks!

Oh this is nice, nicer than the other violet tea I have, smoother base and more delicate flavour. Base has some ceylon on it, no? And this smells so strongly and sweetly, I had to segregrate the ziploc containing this from the other samples, even on the ziploc it perfumed the cupboard where I put it.

It is a violet tea, not sure how to describe it other than that. Base is strong enough, I think maybe with some Ceylon on it (as well as chinese teas, maybe?). The scent is violet, not quite as strong as in my other tea, but more delicate and I do prefer this one. And that is it, tea with violet. Violet is almost certainly a specific taste for food – I like it, love violet candies and love violet perfume notes as well. But it´s always a strong scent, maybe the essence of floral (along with roses and jasmine, maybe) so beware of violet teas if you are not already know you love violets.

Dragon well (Longjing, Lung Ching, whatever) is one of my favorite teas. When infussion so kindly offered 3 samples to steepster users (the other 2 samples I have to figure out how to use, not being tea-tea!) this was a no-brainer choice. Longjing, I am always interested in!

And this does not disappoint. I am trying just the first infusion with plenty of water and a 3-something minute steep and it´s dragon well magic, intense, sweet, buttery and nutty.

No notes yet.

Another opera tea by Mariage Frères, this one so kindly sent in a sample swap by Toitoi (thank you! ).

This tea is totally a half sibling or close cousin to Thé au Tibet – though I think not such an easy one to brew! Thé au Tibet is a magic tea for me, one I do not seem to be able to spoil and which always cames out so refined and just right no matter what time or steeping temperatures I used or how careless with it I have been. Elixir d´Amour is a similar tea, a bergamot tea with flowers and vanilla, but not such a forgiving one – I think I brew slightly wrong, the bergamot came out slightly bitter. Must try a shorter steeping time!

The MF website describes EdA as black tea with citrus, rose, lotus and osmanthus. Is there some green tea in the mix as well or am I projecting from the similarity to Thé au Tibet ?The citrus include with total certainty bergamot, it´s an unmistakable note and the dominant. I think I detect as well some orange underneath. The florals are unmistakeable, rose indeed and a lychee-like note from I believe is the lotus, as well as some sweeteness which is probably the osmanthus. Not mentioned in the official description but there is some vanilla in here as well, it´s particularly noticeable when the tea cools.

Very lovely tea. Very similar to Thé au Tibet, and I think a tea which people who love flowery creme earl greys will love.

Wow, just realized I got at home right now samples from none less than 3 different Mariage Fréres teas named after operas : Prince Igor and Aïda (thank you Ysaurella) and Elixir d´Amour (thank you toitoi!). And I knew there were a few more operas, just went checking and they got even more teas named after operas – Madame Butterfly, Parsifal, Bal Masqué, any more? Plus of course, cheating a bit Swan Lake and Thé à L´Opèra. Hmm.

Aida, I am not going to rate right now, if I can manage to not rate it. I think I brewed it too cold and just come out wrong. It is totally and completely a citrus tea and for me, weirdly this would be a russian tea – citrus and black tea (Far more than Prince Igor, which is to me is a very french tea!). Lemon and oranges, and somehow, maybe because of the temperature used, so sweet! Amazingly sweet (no sugar added or anything) on its own. Another tasting note when i brew it hotter.

Risking the danger of hopeless cultural stereotyping ( pardon aux français pour ce que se suive), wow, french and scents, they really get how to make things smell sublime. Mariage Fréres particularly included in that – I swear I would buy Vert de Provence to wear as perfume and this is another tea I would just buy and wear as perfume. It smells indeed sublime – some sweet green tea underneath, a bit of fruity cherry, and something floral and wonderful. I would call it roses, tea roses (no relation to tea actually) since I do not know what sakura smells like but it would make sense if it was sakura.

A warning, consider that I am in a mood where I do not seem to really love flavoured green teeas and this is of course a flavoured green. Despite that this of course, evidently wonderful. Cherry blossom green tea was one of the first flavoured teas I liked, and it has became ubiquitous companies now seem to have a take on it. The last few blends I have had of it have been quite bad, so much so they left me with a bias that no, I do not like green tea with cherry after all and have been avoiding it ever since. Trust Mariage Fréres to do sakura tea right and remind me how awesome the idea really is.

Brewed up around 80C and for maybe 3 minutes. It was a very very smooth base with a strong note of red fruits (the cherry) and a very strong rose-like floral note. Lovely.

At the time I am drinking this nobody else has rated it on steepster and I am a bad first taster for this. Liquorice! or Anise, or something of that sort. To be fair, a subtle ammount, but I hate stuff with liquorice with a passion.

I made this chai style, simmered in milk with sugar and it was lovely apart from the aniseed. I saved enough for a classic water brew, but poor chai, lovely as it is, it is just not going to me my cup of tea.

A very kind surprise from Mel (meliorate) and I wanted to love it. Real turkish tea! the oh so nicely exotic. But sadly it turned out to be way too much hibiscus for me. Interesting apple flavour, pretty strong and in your face, but the hibiscus was just too much for me.

this is still one of the nicest bagged teas I have ever had. Just a note to be careful with steeping times with it!

No notes yet.

I think it was Ysaurella´s review of this a few weeks ago which has made me crave a peach and vanilla black tea. I was at the time ordering Thé-o-Dor teas and her review of Nosy Bey made me choose their Mélange de Galice. So an inevitable comparison from the start!

In the meanwhile Ysaurella oh so kindly got into another tea swap with me and sent me this as well (and oh so many other so fascinating goodies. Thank you so much!). I now got two dreamily-named black teas with vanilla and peach, not just one! And I do love to compare and contrast flavoured teas, how different companies can make such different takes on the same idea.

A warning: there might be a bias by previous acquaintance, that I would always prefer the first one I tried. Theodor ended up the winner but maybe I was biased because I had it first? Dunno.

The teas: Mélange de Galice is a mix of chinese and Sri Lanka black teas with peach and vanilla flavours and some sunflower/marigold petals sprinkled around (for prettiness, I guess). Nosy Bey is a chinese black tea, with vanilla and peach flavors with rose petals and I think tiny sugar cubes? (or is it dried peach?) Both teas smell divine when dry. I think Nosy Bey smells a bit more floral and bit more like orchard peaches, while Mélange de Galice smells a bit more like regular peach and orchard peach mixed together, and has a stronger vanilla scent with no floral notes. Honors even here, both wonderful scents, different but equally lovely.

Nosy Bey brews very much like a chinese BLACK tea. Mélange de Galice has (predictably) a bit more body and is (unexpectedly!) smoother as well, even when brewed at the same 85C that I brew Nosy Bey. I do not understand why a ceylon-chinese blend brews so so smooth while having some body, but there you have it, even at several temperatures it is always smooth and even naturally sweet.

And then, the liquor: and it is here that Mélange de Galice pulls ahead to win me, it just tastes more, a richer, more intense, more layered taste. But Nosy Bey is still pretty lovely on its own. And drinking peach and vanilla tea in December, oh it is so mood lifting!

This was an unexpected arrival, not the mate I wanted. I wanted toasted mate with red fruits, this is green mate with citrus and kola. But I now got 100 grams of it, not going to waste it.

I brewed it according to instructions, 75C for 3 minutes, a generous teaspoon of leaf per cup. And it is really quite nice, tastes of a blend of several citrus fruits with no underlying nasty notes from the mate, just a sort of nice base underneath.

It´s going to take me a few hours to judge properly the caffeine-like effects. And I think this might be very interesting brewed in cold water like tereré-style, except now is winter and cold drinks are not sounding that appealing! But if I still have some of this when summer comes, i got to try it cold brewed!

No notes yet.

The dangers of buying loose tea by the weight. I ordered this, which is supposed to be black erva-mate with red fruits and supposed to look like this

http://www.theodor.fr/shop/lang-en/the-weed/49-me-faltas-mate-noir.html

The non-local tea shop, whose existence and selection of teas I very much appreciate wrote Me Faltes ( I suspect some subconscious grammar correction, thinking that brazillians would not use the second person of the singular, LOL) on the package and they seem to have packed me this

http://www.theodor.fr/shop/lang-en/the-weed/139-lembranca.html

I need a small rant: IDIOTS! Oh well, I can not go there for them to fix it since it´s not a local shop, and Lembrança was on my wishlist for one day anyway. But sniff, I wanted this. Fazes-me falta, Me Faltas.

Geographical relativism is a bitch. I think my mental image, associations of Galicia, the region are pretty different than from a Parisian´s associations. For me it´s “up north”, “lá para cima”, morrinha and fog, cold summers, even colder waters than Moledo beach (brrrr), great shellfish, almond tarts, stone buildings and rias. That vibe for me is definitely northern and very atlantic. I would not associate it with peaches and vanilla nor with the sin of laziness exactly ((Thé-o-Dor associates most of their teas, whether black, green, infusion or unflavoured origins tea with a particular sin or quality. This is Laziness tea.) But I love Galicia, I was in the mood for a peach black tea, so hence the purchase.

I brewed this “wrong” and it turned out to be perfect after all. I accidentally dumped barely warm water on the tea pot already filled with a generous amount of dry leaf. Instead of trashing it at once I decided to see if it would be rescued and filled the rest of the pot with free boiling water and let it steep longer. By my calculations the water must have been 70-75 C at most, and I must have left it at least 6 minutes. It was a happy accident, I think it brew perfectly! Only quibble is that it cooled rapidly, the last of the tea was colder than I would prefer.

And this is just as advertised: real exhuberant peach flavour, with noticeable vanilla with an almondy, nutty quality underneath which I associate with Bourbon Vanilla in particular, and with just the right amount of body. The loose tea is filled with yellow petals, I don´t know if sunflowers or marigolds, can not really detect any influence from their presence. As the tea cools there is a strange change in flavour, it´s the Bourbon vanilla which is predominant, and the peach becames just the supporting role.

This is a great tea to be drinking in winter while wishing for summer! I will play around with different temperatures for it.