Nosy Bey

I’m coming back to tea life after a big cold.

I wanted to taste Nosy Bey for a while now.
The perfume of the dry leaves is absolutely divine : vanilla and peaches.
The aroma is clearly a vine peach head note (not peaches but really vine peaches- In France our vine peaches are almost red (pulp) and the skin of the fruit is more or less grey ).
We can taste a very present and opulent vanilla behind.The black tea base is absolutely sweet and has no hint of astringency.

This is a delightful aroma, vine peach is a wonderfully perfumed fruit and this tea reveals perfectly its qualities.The presence of the vanilla just sublimates it and makes it very generous and luxurious.

A great afternoon tea, almost a fruity dessert tea.

mmmmm delicious! Thank you again ysaurella for the lovely teas you sent me. I really have enjoyed nearly all of them so far! This one is no exception :) Peach and vanilla and delicious! I’m glad i have at least one more cup of this to enjoy before it disappears and i need to try and decide which teas to beg my mother to pick up next month haha

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!

Yay! My trade from Ysaurella arrived yesterday evening! Before I even opened the package, the aroma of so many wonderful teas was floating to me, & opening the package I was inhaling these wonderful smells!! I quickly took all the bags of teas out, spreading them on the table so they could air out a bit & not effect one another’s flavors too much.

This is the first one I knew I would sample. It is the reason Ysaurella & I swapped to begin with, because I love peaches & she offered to share some with me. So many times peach teas are a disappointment, as the flavor can seem artificial or overdone. That is NOT the case with this one. It is a delightful peach flavor, with just the right amount of vanilla, along with some floral embellishments. Ysaurella’s sample was generous, so I’ll get to enjoy this cup of dessert a few more times.
Thank you, so much, Ysaurella!!

Thank you Doulton – you are the best!

The aroma of the dry leaf is magnificent! It smells like peaches and cream! There isn’t much fragrance from the rose petals, maybe just a hint of floral essence. Once brewed, some of the earthy qualities of the black tea emerge in the scent.

The flavor is also quite magnificent! Smooth and rich. The peach and cream flavor is there, however, the black tea is much more pronounced. This is black tea with peach and vanilla flavor, not the other way around. It has a very bright flavor. Astringent with a slight tannic quality – but not an overt bitter note. Just a little something that sort of rests upon the palate to let you know that it’s black tea that you’re drinking.

I was sent this tea by Doulton (Thanks so much). I was in search of a black tea in my cupboard and decided to go dig through my stash and here I found this little gem of a tea. I didn’t know anything about it besides the name and who blended it but while steeping I noticed an interesting smell filling up my kitchen. I then sipped and boy was I surprised it is this wonderful cup of black tea with hints of peach. I really do not get much more than that taste wise but the thing that really impresses me is this is a strong black tea that has NO astringency a very smooth cuppa. Thanks Doulton! :)