Paris

One of my staples and a “must-try”.

A beautiful bergamonty caramel tea with a slight fruit undertone – mostly berry and apricot, but very very subtle. Lovely black base, I do find it becomes astringent quickly when steeped longer than 3 minutes.

I usually have this straight, but sometimes I’ll add in milk if I’m after the comfort factor. When milk is added it brings out a hint of vanilla and rounds out the caramel making it more creamy.

This is a tea I get thanks to Nicole. Thanks really for that.

Paris…my town…I mean Paris is really my town, the one I love overall on earth.
The other one which touchs (almost) so much my heart is Lisbon.

I decided to have this tea especially today because of its name, I’ll explain you why : I’ll have to leave my apartment in one year, the owner needs it.
Regarding the rates of the apartment in this city, I won’t be able to find another one with the same rooms number.
So I am already nostalgic with my town as I really don’t want to leave it : I feel already out of Paris even if I am still here.My bakery, my supermarket, my daughter’s school seem already distant now, as no more mines…

So let’s back to the tea : it’s a real tea :) I mean I feel the tea + the flavours and this is very nice.

After reading some reviews and especially cteresa’s one, I didn’t steep it too much, 3 minutes only.
I had none bitterness,none astringency.

This is a nice tea where I picked out bergamot (leading note for me) and vanilla and just a hint of caramel.

Not sure I would have chosen these flavours to represent Paris, but why not ?

Ohh… Paris… The one time I was there, I fell in love with all of the art and architecture. No matter where you look, everything seems to be beautiful. The best dessert I have tasted in my life was a creme brulee that I had in a small restaurant there. Paris is an amazing experience.

I had been reading some people’s post about this tea and it sounded like something that would be tasty to me. Since I was able to have my Mom bring it to me from the US, I got to receive it earlier than I imagined I would have! I am so happy! Every time I get a new tea it feels like Christmas did when I was a little girl. It has a bit of magic to it. Logically, it makes no sense to me, and explaining the experience to non-tea people is really hard. But I do know that new tea will make me smile and even more so if it is good new tea! Everyone should have a special something to make them happy. I am glad that my special something is tea! : )

OK… Back to the review….

The leaves in the tin are very dark, almost black. The scent is invigorating. It is a mix between a Cream Earl Grey and a Caramel Chew (I love those candies…). The black tea base shines through strong in the scent. Overall delicious.

Once brewed the dark liquor smells just like the dry tea but smoother. I get a little more vanilla, which is extra points in my point of view. I love vanilla everything. Unsweetened it is smooth and creamy with the bergamot being the major after taste. The black tea base holds up really well and mingles with all of the flavors in each sip. Sweetened I get more vanilla and caramel taste mixed in well with the bergamot. In a way, I feel it is a very good Creme Earl Grey. But I really can’t complain. It is very tasty.

I admit that I had to have two cups, the first one didn’t last me long enough… Yummy…

_{From Tokyo to Paris in 24 hours…}

The dry leaves smell, scarily, like cherry cough syrup!! Oh no! Very scary.

Once brewed that “screeching” cough syrup scent fades and turns into a super sweet strawberry jam.

First sip…is like a strawberry creamsicle. Or a strawberry & cream flavored Creme Savers candy. It’s a fruity hard candy taste with an almost creamy aftertaste.

Subsequent sips…there’s something distinctly citrusy in here—like a strawberry-flavored Earl Grey. Yep, I can sense the bergamot!

In the background, the black tea tastes smooth and a bit biscuit-y.

I think this is a fairly good cup. It didn’t “wow” me like I hoped it would. The flavors are pretty mild. But I can’t get over that initial cherry cough syrup impression. I hate cherry cough syrup with a passion! _gag I think it colored my overall tasting for the worse. So this was an “average” experience, for me.

This was a sample from momo’s awesome tin of teas she brought me when visiting, so nice of her, thank you again Amanda! :)
I’ve been wanting to try this tea for a long while but have been scared of the mentioned bergamot as I just can’t get over the soapyness of earl greys.
The dry leaf of Paris smells very pleasant, yummy, and welcoming. 
Brewed it’s smelling a little bergamonty which worries me… but surprisingly doesn’t taste like it at all! I added a little sugar and yes, I like this! 
The word sophisticated immediately comes to my mind when describing this tea. 
It tastes a little fruity, a tad lemony, and has a perfectly smooth and lovely black base. I’m sure there is more going on taste-wise but I need more cups to discover it fully. It is very very good. It is definitely the best fruity black tea I have ever had. Will certainly get a tin of this at some point. 

Yay, trying my first Harney’s tea! I picked up 15 sachets of this from a local tea shop yesterday, hehe I cleaned them out of one of their large bags so the guy just gave me my tea in the giant bag! So I get the entire smell of Paris as it’s infused into the bag pretty much haha.

This smells sooo tasty dry. To me, it is a lemon square, with the light lemony bergamot and vanilla. But upon closer sniff, there is a lovely fruity sweetness in there, I am not sure what type of fruit, it seems to be a berry blend with plums maybe? That could also be currants, although the currants I have had I have not liked lol too bitter. But the vanilla and lemon are definitely predominant!

I am steeping this for 3 minutes, 30 s as I don’t want it to get too strong for the first cup. Haha, of course the sachet entirely fell in the tea, had to fish out the string with a fork lol. The steeped smell is VERY Earl Grey, but with the fruitiness there. It is for some reason reminding me of this little pie place I went a few times when I was younger on the way to visiting my grandma’s. This pie and tea house was in a train station, so it was nice and old fashioned and rather classy looking, it seemed to take you back to a different era of wearing nice dresses every day and beautiful hats and sipping tea. That is what the smell of this is reminding me of: refined elegance, afternoon tea time, juicy plums and classic EG. Oh, and now the vanilla is coming out more too as it finished steeping. I am feeling good about this tea! ETA about the smell – it is soooo good. I have been smelling and smelling it and mmmmmm. It’s reminding me of sugar glazed fruit in a vanilla cake of some sort, or a pudding. Yummy.

As for taste, this is pretty delicious. A very strong Earl Grey flavor at the start, but fading into a creamy vanilla fruity aftertaste. I maybe get a fleeting taste of the caramel mid-sip, but that could just be the vanilla first showing itself. This is like a decadent dessert that you have with Earl Grey after a meal. The flavors of those two things combined. It might be a tad stronger than I like, so I might try steeping a little shorter even next time, but it is very good nonetheless. I’m not sure if this really reminds me of Paris, it is reminding me more of having tea with my English great aunt haha. But I must say, this is a pretty good tea, and my second Earl Grey blend in my stash!

Overall, I am quite impressed with this tea. It has a beautiful combination of flavors, the smell is TO DIE FOR, and it’s in a sachet and it’s THIS GOOD. I can only imagine what this is like loose. I will probably have to re-order this in the future, or go back to the local shop and pick up some more. I do feel the caffeine from this and it is pretty sweet, so this may not be an every day tea, but when I feel like treating myself, this will be a good choice.

Well, you all moved me to have a sip of Paris this evening.

And you know what this tea is?

Marco Polo’s little brother.

Do you know what I love about this tea? The fact that it’s a flavored tea that almost tastes like an unflavored tea. It tastes like the flavors are inherent in the leaves instead of coming from outside agents.

But anyway, let’s get to the tea itself. Paris smells amazing. If the city smelled this good, I’d probably never leave. I’m getting lots of strawberry notes, mixed with a bit of bright fresh notes, and yeah. It’s less strawberries-and-cream than Marco Polo, but it probably smells equally amazing. I’m serious. MMMM. SMELL IT. LOVE IT.

Anyway, this one steeps up a very pretty burnt amber color, and the smell coming off the cup is surprisingly not that deep. There’s mainly the smell of black tea, and… that’s about it. There’s the faintest of berry tones in the background, but if you gave this to me without me knowing if it was flavored or unflavored, I’d lean heavily towards unflavored.

So let’s move onto the taste, because there’s some damned complex things going on here, and it’s all pretty subtle. In a wonderful way.

There’s definitely a taste of black tea. I don’t know what to peg it as, but it’s probably Ceylon? A nice, high-quality one if it is. The berry taste, even though it smells like strawberry to me, is more evocative of raspberry. It washes over the tongue then bottoms out into a bean-y vanilla flavor that’s almost reminiscent of cocoa beans. And the finish? Something citrus! It’s not exactly bergamot flavored. It’s an echo of bergamot. Like someone sprayed it in the air yesterday, and you’re still catching the tiniest wiff of it in your nostrils the next day.

Overall, it’s a similar flavor profile to the famous Mariage Freres blend, but I’d give Marco the slight edge. Marco’s quite a bit more floral as well.

But I’m most surprised at how well the flavors meld together into the actual flavor of the tea itself. If you know me, you know that I love unflavored teas that evoke flavorings of their own organically. Paris is sort of like that. It tastes like an unflavored tea that’s calling up all these flavors inherently.

The tea’s cooling down now and the bergamot is coming out a bit more to the forefront, a sparkling fresh slight-tartness that complements the slight astringency very well. It’s about evenly matched with the berries at this point. And the berries are definitely more in the aroma as well. There’s a juicy sweetness as well.

Okay, this is totally nom. And I mean totally. Thank you to the always lovely takgoti for giving me a mini-mountain of this to sip and mull over and enjoy in all its wonderful glory. And thank YOU, Steepster, for getting me to drink this delicious concoction tonight!

I think it strange that some of the teas that I love the most, I hardly ever review.
I think it overwhelms me of what to say.
Oh, Paris, you are one grand lady!
This tea just envelopes me.
I adore it.
Its a lovely blend of vanilla, notes of caramel and a sultry bergamot.
There is a tinge of sweet berry like fruits in amongst the tea as well.
Scent is divine and so is the taste.
I order this by the largest tin and am considering ordering it by the pound.
It is strange, although I absolutely adore this tea, sometimes I go weeks without drinking it.
I feel as if it should only be drank for special occasions.
But, even when I am not drinking it, just the fact that it is in my cupboard where I can open the tin and take a whiff whenever I want, brings comfort to me.
This morning I am throwing caution to the wind and drinking a pot of this,just because its Monday.
If I start the week with this tea, how can it be anything but a lovely week, right?

As mentioned this morning, it’s a special occasion day for me. I have resolved myself to ONLY do things today which are fun. Logging a new tea for the first time is fun and lucky for me, I have a huge supply of those.

I am also resolved, as you may have guessed from the Aijiao, to only have awesome teas today, which made finding an untried one rather challenging. Eventually I found this one in the basket and was drawn in by the ‘fruit and caramel’ description. It seemed just the thing, so if it’s not awesome now the entire day-plan will be in shambles.

No pressure, then.

So, currant, caramel and citrus. Bergamot, in this case, if I’m not mistaken. Yes, it smells like all three. The caramel makes the aroma feel all thick and gooey, while the fruit, both kinds, adds freshness to it and sweetness that isn’t just sugar. It smells very much like sweets. I’m trying to pick up some actual tea aroma as well, but I’m not having much luck. It’s not overwhelmed completely by the additives, but it’s sufficiently camouflaged that I can’t tell anything about it.

Yes, that is definitely bergamot. And caramel. What a bizarre combination, really. I know Kusmi utilises it as well in their St Petersbourg blend, but it still strikes me as odd. And yet, somehow, it just works.

The bergamot is in the forefront here, which is something I tend to have a problem with. Bergamot has this old, dusty and somewhat perfumed flavour that I’m not generally that fond off, but the addition of caramel seems to keep the worst of that in check and makes it bearable.

And then on the next sip, it’s changed completely. Now there’s a ton of berries, pushing the bergamot towards the back of the flavour. I can only imagine that this is caused by the tea having cooled slightly in between these two sips and the berry flavour has been allowed to develop properly.

The caramel isn’t very clear in the flavour. There’s a lingering sweet aftertaste that reminds me of the first time I had fudge caramels (this is not common in Denmark. Are caramels tends to be extremely chewy. Watch your tooth fillings! You can find fudge like caramels, but the other sort is far more common) that the boyfriend had brought home from England. It’s creamy and seems to put a very very thin layer of aftertaste on the tongue, much the same way as that fudge did.

I’m still not sure I can really pick anything up about the base tea. The flavour that I think I’m getting makes me lean towards Ceylon, but I can’t tell if that’s not just the bergamot notes playing tricks on me.

As mentioned, I’m quite reminded of Kusmi’s St Petersbourg here, which I quite enjoyed. I can’t say if this one is worse or better or the same, really. It’s been too long since I had St Petersbourg, and the choice of fruit in the blends vary a little as well.

Quite nice. I could have lived without the bergamot and just had the berry and caramel, but you can’t have everything.

After a god-awful tea experience today, I needed something that I know I like. Funny enough I’ve never even had Paris, but the reviews are so glowing I can’t imagine NOT loving it. And the leaves smell amazing. I’ve been sniffing them since I bought this but haven’t tried the tea itself yet… honestly, I’m a little worried that nothing can live up to the smell of the dry leaves. I want to take a bath in them and smell like Paris.

Steeped the flavors aren’t really as in your face as the leaves, but it’s still intoxicating. The base is a deliciously balanced black, and that’s really what you taste the most. A teeny bit malty, with some yeasty, bready qualities. H&S is so good at blending blacks! The vanilla and fruit flavors come into play at the end of the sip—a burst of fruity goodness followed by wonderfully smooth vanilla that lingers long after you’re done drinking. I can’t quite place the fruits, which is interesting—I usually dislike fruity teas like peach or strawberry. This tastes berry-ish, but not like strawberry. More like a brief hint of fresh-picked raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. Almost jammy! But there’s something else too that’s really intriguing. It reminds me of some of the pastries I had in Paris. With the yeasty base and the vanilla/jammy flavors, this is like a baked dessert in a cup!

Thanks to SimplyJenW, I was able to give this a try today. It is appropriate to me that a tea named for the city of light lights would be bright and clear. I have been wanting to try this and compare to Tower of London, a new favorite, and there are some things they share yet still have personalities of their own. The fruit seems to me to be a little more forward in Paris, the black tea base is the same in both I suppose. The honey in TOL overpowers the other flavors. (not a problem with me, mind you) but Paris is a little lighter and more subtle. I think some have called this “Tower Light” and that is my take as well. While writing this it is cooling a little and the caramel notes are coming through. They were hidden when it was first steeped. All considered, I really like this, find it a close relative of TOL, and yet ANOTHER Harney & Sons Tea I enjoy.

No meh for me ya’ll :)

I can’t believe that I haven’t rated this one yet. It’s one of my favorites! The dry leaves smell like sweet black currant and bergamot, and the tea liquor aroma is of fruit and sweet caramel. The flavor is malty with caramel and vanilla notes. There is a light, sweet black currant aftertaste. I could drink this tea all day long, and sometimes I go through phases where I will start every day with a cup of this tea. I like that you can taste the black tea base and the pops of fruitiness and sweet caramel and vanilla. It’s a perfect cup of tea to me!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of sweet black currant and bergamot. Tea liquor aroma is of fruit and sweet caramel.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark brown color.
-Malty caramel and vanilla flavor and finish. Light sweet black currant aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Excellent tea. A perfect balance of flavors.

I have so many new teas to experience from recent swaps! I’m going to try and bounce between swap partners so that everyone feels the love. But since I usually only make one kind of tea a day, it will take a little while to get through all these samples. I’m up for the tea adventure though!! Thanks everyone! :)

This morning I thought I’d go for a much loved tea here on Steepster: Paris! Thanks to Ninavampi for giving me my first Harney & Sons tea!!! I can’t wait to try this! I was surprised to brew it up and get only an aroma of clean, unflavored, black tea. Doesn’t this have bergamot in it? That ingredient usually makes itself known! If I get anything else from the aroma, I’d say berry. I’m detecting a slight essence of something fruity and berry-like.

First sip without additions…hmm wow. This is interesting. It has a lot of flavor but at the same time is kind of delicate and understated. Is this flavored? If so, it’s very lightly flavored. I’m definitely getting berry plus a caramel note and maybe a hint of bergamot. The bergamot could be my imagination though. Honestly, it’s that light. There’s also quite a bit of vanilla in here, which I’m really enjoying. I love vanilla! At the very end of the sip, there’s a quiet burst of citrus.

This reminds me of something I’ve had before…it was definitely a 52teas tea. Actually, I think it’s Cotton Candy! Now, I don’t mean that Paris tastes like cotton candy. I just mean, the flavor profiles are similar somehow even though they shouldn’t be. Maybe it’s the black tea base?? So interesting.

It’s good, and I can definitely drink it straight without any additions. But I’m going to add some now just for fun. With milk and sugar, it’s become more of a generic creamy tea. I think it’s probably better without. I’ll make my second steep plain. I just can’t get 52teas’ Cotton Candy out of my mind. I wonder why this keeps reminding me of it. I might have to pick up a tin of this stuff. It’s complex yet subtle, flavored yet unflavored, berry/vanilla/citrus yet cotton candy! What a fascinating tea! Thanks again Ninavampi!!

This is a smooth French inspired tea. The flavor is very good but I wish it was a little stronger. Maybe I’ve been getting spoiled from trying teas that were made in France that are very fragrant. This is a yummy caramely & vanilla type of tea though.

Ok, I had to edit this… The bergamot is coming through now that the tea is cooling. I forget that when these flavored black teas are HOT, the flavors don’t come through as well as they do when the tea is WARM. haha.

Thanks Jackie T! This has been on my wishlist to try for ages :-)

Round two of guess the flavouring, courtesy of Alphakitty!

By scent, I’d guess this is a strawberry-flavoured black. However….. the first sip makes me question whether it’s strawberry or perhaps raspberry?? Yum! I like this one! I’m going to go with raspberry, I think. This cup, unlike Florence, does have some astringency, but it’s quite manageable. I think 5 minutes would have been overdoing it here, so glad I stuck with 4. I want to say that there’s a touch of chocolate in here too, but I could be wrong. It’s certainly not as prominent as in Florence, if it’s there. I quite like the flavouring here. Again, I’m not always huge on the flavoured blacks, so I probably wouldn’t pick it up myself, but it was lovely to try! I bet it’s amazing with milk and sugar, but I just had three bowls of hand-picked strawberries covered in Greek yogurt and brown sugar, so I really don’t think I deserve any additional calories right now. I have enough for a second round though, so perhaps then!

Ok…. so I was way off. I do remember thinking that one of the teas smelled like an earl grey when I was steeping them, but forgot entirely by this time. It still reads as a fruity black to me, and less like an earl grey, but that’s ok! Hee… if I’m this terrible at flavours all the time, I wonder what they must think of me on the cheese panel….

If Florence had me tap dancing down memory lane, you don’t want to get me started on Paris. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. But the worst of times part was hardly the city’s fault. I think I’ve been to Paris about four times in my life. Two of those times it was fairly late spring, and both times it snowed. Something I think about every now and then as I really don’t associate Paris with snow. But I digress.

Whatever I’m smelling in the sample packet, fortunately, it isn’t reminding me of cough syrup. From the dry leaves I am getting the following, though I have no idea whether it is what I’m supposed to get: vanilla, citrus, other fruit, something spicy. The vanilla is hanging tough in the steeped aroma, along with the fruit.

I’d expected something Earl Greyish, as bergamot is an ingredient, but this isn’t Earl Greyish in the least. In fact, if I didn’t know it was there, I wouldn’t recognize the bergamot.

There’s a high lemony note, but the rest is just a really interesting blend of fruit flavors in which nothing jumps out to me on a first try. I can get a berry note if I try hard, but it’s not at all overt.

I haven’t fallen head over heels for this one, at least not yet. I like it, but I find it a little too confusing at the moment. It could surprise me, though. It could be like that guy you thought for the longest time was just ok, and then one day you wake up and realize he’s more than just ok and the world is going to end right that minute if he doesn’t love you back.

ETA: The berry is really starting to come out as the tea cools. Like I said, this one might just sneak up on me…

Oy. Another from SimplyJenW that I drank but did not review. I recall a lot of people saying that Paris is similar to Tower of London (which I love) but for some reason I always think of it as heavy on bergamot. At the moment, that doesn’t seem to be true. Actually, I am starting to think that Paris is the mystery tea that scent contaminated all the rest of my samples. Either that or it is fairly heavy contaminated. Can’t be sure anymore.

The smell is sweet and light, I am not getting much by way of bergamot. Actually, I do get some sweet stone fruit that DOES remind me of ToL. Perhaps I have had false memories of this tea all along. First sips are light and sweet, much like the aroma but with a bit more of a honey note. I am not picking up on any citrus or bergamot but I am really liking the honey/stone fruit notes. Why has this sat neglected for so long? This is a nice little sippable tea. I am glad to introduce it to my work stash, I’m sure it won’t last very long now. :)

Officially finished with the semester! I finished my sample pouch over two sittings and honestly, I think I’m missing out on something. The dry leaf smelled very bland. Faint bergamot with a smattering of black currant.

Steeped, I could only taste the base, followed by, again, faint citrus and black currant flavours. No vanilla, no caramel. And I’m not sick or anything so it’s not like my taste buds are failing at life right now.

The sample was a good way to go. Glad I’m not stuck with a tin or anything. These guys offer much better ones, in my humble opinion.

My Harney order arrived today, and while the tins (Boston and Paris) are two of my Christmas gifts, I figure the samples included in the box are fair game. As luck would have it one of the samples is Paris, so I get to try my new tea early and still stay on the nice list!

Sigh… I think I under steeped the tea. It has a slight lemon flavor, but I don’t taste the fruit or caramel at all. I’ve never had this tea before, but given all of the amazing reviews there has to be more to it than this. Looks like I will be waiting on Christmas for this tea after all.

I’m going to hold off on rating this one until I’ve tried it using loose leaf. No sense in giving a poor rating when I’m pretty sure the mistake was mine.

Thanks to Emilie for this sample.

There was a note on my sample sent from Emilie that it smells like it got contaminated by a lapsang. It does smell like a lapsang along with an earl grey. I guess we will see how it tastes!

So tasting now, this is a nice earl grey, but not the typical earl grey. A lot of vanilla taste, a tad bit of caramel and berries. The bergamot is definitely there in end of the sip and in the aftertaste. It is a tad astringent. Maybe a shorter steep next time.

I don’t think that I am getting any lapsang taste, but I can’t seem to get it out of my mind. lol, I am over-thinking it!

I really like this and have my eye on a H&S order sometime in the future when I don’t have so many teas in my cupboard….if that ever happens.