Saveur de Paris

soooooo i’m pretty sure me and bergamot, we’re not friends gah! I am so not a fan of this tea… nothing about this appeals to me. it’s got a weird after taste, it’s got way too much bergamot taste to it… yeah. my other half tried it for me and he got up and spat it out. so yeah. sorry to those that enjoyed this but it’s not for me :)

Where, oh where, has my o-o-orange gone, where, oh where, can it be? ♬

Saveur de Paris, in its dry form, has such a fantastic fragrance (if you’re the black tea + citrus-loving kind): black tea, lemony bits, orangey bits… So fresh, so refreshing, one’s eyes open a fraction wider and a smile plays upon one’s lips after just one whiff. But then, then it just sort of went away. Sad panda. The tea smells like black tea. The citrus is there, but it’s not as there as, say, Golden Moon’s Tippy Earl Grey¹. It’s not that every blend of the Earl Grey ilk must be so…saturated, but that is what I expected from this blend, given its fragrance.

There is the threat of bitterness in the tea’s flavour, a threat that doesn’t really materialise, but that maybe could if I let it cool.

I’m interrupting myself to say that I think I’ve got this all wrong. I think I might’ve steeped this one too long and tried to drink it too quickly. As it cools, the flavour and fragrance are both becoming more layered, more like what I expected from the beginning. There is bitterness along with the wonderful floral notes (hullo, safflower, how do you do?).

Given this discovery, I’ll scrap my rating and try again with another cup. I have a feeling that if I can actually prepare this properly, I’m going to love it.

¹ http://steepster.com/bleepnik/posts/126970

I thought since this was a pretty tea it had to be served in a pretty tea pot. Well… I’m using my favorite blue, handmade teapot with cherry blossoms on it. Fingers crossed I don’t break it. Usually it’s just for show but I though why not?
The aroma of this tea is nice. To me it tastes like the standard Earl Gray. There is a bit of a warmer tasting note to it. It’s good but over all I don’t really see anything super special about this tea.

I have to apologize for the significant backlog of notes I’ll be posting shortly (although I may not write too much about everything) – I’ve been drinking plenty of tea but have been so swamped with work I haven’t had the time to write anything! At least I’m almost done one annoying part of my project now… after putting in about 20 hours this weekend in an attempt to get it over with.

Anyhow, I won this from Della Terra from their Facebook page! Thanks! I’m not sure it’s necessarily a tea I’d have picked out myself, but I’m eager to purchase a bunch of Try Me packs, so it’s great to eliminate one more tea from the possible bunch I haven’t tried (pretty much everything).

Based on the description of this tea, I was pretty much expecting an earl grey, and was not disappointed. As this looked to be a CTC tea, I stuck to the recommended 2 minute infusion to prevent bitterness, however I’ll admit that I loaded my first thermos-ful with milk and sugar as that’s how I prefer my earl greys (well… I prefer straight earl grey creams over sweetened earl grey with milk, but I felt it would do). Anyhow, I appeared to be correct in my assumption. This pretty much tastes like a decent earl grey, not too heavy on the bergamot, and with a fairly nice base (or at least, it did its job well and wasn’t astringent/bitter). I’m not sure if the orange bits really add anything (I wish they had!)

I managed to make quite a nice second infusion of this one as well, steeped for 2 or 2.5 minutes (can’t recall), but discarded the leaves after that.

Thanks for the chance to sample this tea, Della Terra! Now pretty please put an awesome special on so I can go crazy ordering teas? :D

A strong and pretty PARIIIIISIAN Earl Grey?? I like it! It’s deliciousss.

Really excellent start to the day. :D

I’ve never been an especially big fan of Earl Grey, which is what this one seemed to resemble with the bergamot, but I still picked out this tea for one of my try-me packs. I gotta say, it may’ve been because it’s so pretty.

I remember not really liking the first cup of this I had, but I think I must have oversteeped/put too much leaf in it or something. Because this second cup is very delicious – the dry tea still smelled a bit overpowering, but the liquor ends up with that nice mild and dark orange-y tea scent. It’s very thirst-quenching to me, with the orange taste lending a refreshing note. It also has a nice, slight bite to it that increases as it cools down. And my Earl Grey-loving boyfriend seems to definitely be a fan of this one!

Yum. After trying a few chocolate orange teas and being bitterly disappointed, this Earl Grey with an orange twist is quite pleasant.

This pairs well with a gingerbread house. The molasses adds a nice bit of sweetness to this otherwise malty brew. The icing makes up for the lack of added sugar/cream.

As it cools, I find that it sorta tastes like perfume. Strange. Bleh. I might have to add cream and see if that fixes it.

It’s such a pretty tea, and I love the smell. I don’t want to not like it…(will rate another day)

I over indulged with lunch today at work and have not been in the mood to drink much of anything as I’m just not sure I can fit it in! Now hopefully enough time has passed and my stomach is less uncomfortable to try this citrus blend.

Loose the tea looks a phenomenal mixture of red, yellow and orange (almost fire like) with blue flower petals and large chunks of pale orange with a contrast of dark brown tea leaves. It also smells refreshingly citrus with both orange and bergamot being notable.

Once brewed it smells very much like an Earl Grey tea, meaning bergmot heavy which is just the way I like it. Also trying my first cup without sugar or sweetener so I can gather a true taste. Again it’s very Earl Grey, the black tea is slightly bitter, the orange slighty waxy and zesty and the bergamot sweet and balancing.

It’s a nice blend but not as strong as I was hoping for and for such a big fan of Earl Grey in particular I really don’t see anything special about this one other than it’s beautiful fire coloured raw mixture. My husband will love this one more than me which makes a change, he loves Earl Grey no matter how strong it is. :)

Next time the sugar and sweetener will help me to drink it, the bitterness was a little testing at times but I managed to drink it. I wish I could say more about this tea but I just have no idea what else to report.

The dry blend is a beautiful mix of black tea, orange-red safflower petals, and peices of orange peel It smells very strong of bergamot, mmmm Earl Grey.

While brewing there is a slight bergamot smell, maybe some kind of nutty smell, like almond, everything seems blunted by the safflower.

The brewed tea is not good while it is hot. As it starts to cool, it becomes much better. It is not very strong bergamot at all. You can taste the safflower and black tea base strongly. There is a citrous type flavour, but it is neither sweet nor tart.

Overall, not my favorite paris blend but it is good enough.

This was one of the ones in my Mystery Box! I have been too busy to log a lot of them (I’ve now tried them all) so better to start late than never.

I had this one this morning with a hint of honey and some milk. The bergamot really comes through with lingering orange and floral notes in the background. It’s not my favorite tea ever, but it was a wonderful addition to the sweet/fruity teas they also sent me. I would drink this when I want something more traditional in terms of flavoured black teas.

NOT the biggest fan of Early Grey’s but figured I’d give it a go. As my sister said “theres nothing particular great about it – its just a good tea”. She gave it a 4/10. I’ll give it a bit higher as I think its above average. Definitely only steep it for 1 minute as the website suggests. I used 2grams/6ounce with 1 minute steeping time as the webpage suggests and think it would be overly bitter if steeped much longer.