Paris

Thank you so much to Amy Oh for sending me a sample of this! I like this tea. I don’t love it, which is a shame, because I really really wanted to love it (mostly because it’s called Paris and j’adore Paris!). It’s too sweet in a chocolatey sense for me, and doesn’t have enough bergamont. Like, I definitely got a hint of bergamont, but I wanted it to reach up out of the cup and slap me in the face, announcing its presence, which it did not. It kind of just nodded at me, slightly smiling, and slipped off into the corner of the party in my mouth. Oh well, maybe next time.

I absolutely loved this tea.. I was smoking a vogue cigarette feeling the Paris vibe and drank up this.. First thing, I love the smoothness of this tea.. you can deffinately taste Paris.. the streets, the people ( not literally :p ) and it literally tasted like Paris. I love the fruit in it, it’s not too sweet.. just perfect on it’s own.. I’ll have it with milk next time I make a cup of this, I just need to stop gulping it down so quick!

I love the name of this tea-Paris-I am thinking this has to be a fabulous tea to match up to a name like that. I’ve brewed it up a few times so as not to make a snap judgment. I love Earl Grey, but this for me doesn’t have much of an Earl Grey taste. Is it fair to say that I love a good straight up black so much, that it’s hard for a flavored tea to measure up? A really good Earl Grey is an exception to that, but Paris doesn’t rise to that level for me. It is not bitter or astringent. It has more vanilla than Earl Grey, so if you like vanilla, try it. It is nice enough, but not anything I would crave, and therefore, with all the choices out there, I probably won’t re-order it.

This was included with a swap from Jes. Yay! Erm, but is it ok if I don’t like it? :)

This tea and I don’t get along very well. It smells kinda like warm pink jello, playdough, or plastic and tastes… pink. Don’t really know how to describe it. I saw the bergamot, so I was not expecting to love the tea anyway, as I was prepping for something kinda like an Earl Grey. The smell is powerful, but once I got past the nose it was a much milder candy sweetness, like a pink starburst, and it tasted far less fake and plastic-y than it smelled. Tried adding a tiny bit of sugar about halfway through the cup. Ooops. I liked it less then. Glad I got a chance to try this, and equally glad it was a sample and I didn’t buy a whole tin! (Which I might’ve if I’d seen it first because they are beautiful!)

I had this at dinner the other night. I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to smell the dry leaves as they were already infusing in a pot when it was brought to my table.
I remember the liquor being a beautiful dark red, with pronounced floral and fruit smells. Really quite a fragrant tea. Unfortunately the tea smell is lost to this.
The taste is smooth and heavenly. Somewhat sweet even.
As with all teas, this was consumed straight up.
I’m not sure this is a tea I’d want to have everyday, however it is definitely an enjoyable afternoon/evening tea that I’ll be ordering again!

This was really fragrant; full of cherry, blackberry and vanilla with a faint underlying citrus note. There was also a mellow aged paper quality. The leaves were very dark and crumbly.

This tea brewed fairly dark. The flavor was similar to a mild Earl Gray with a touch of vanilla and it was somewhat astringent.

So far in my H&S world tour, Florence wins and Paris is a close second.

Oh, wow! Another pick from Chapel Hill: this has been on my shopping list since I started seeing the great reviews on this site for it. I also picked up Marco Polo, so it’ll be interesting to see how they compare since so many have noted it.

I wasn’t sure I would love this one. I am not a huge vanilla-in-my-tea fan, and fruitiness depends on the season or flavoring. However, this was the perfect blend. It’s definitely about the tea, but it’s about the lovely flavoring, too. I had it with breakfast, and now I’m looking forward to having a cup on it’s own… it might be too good to have with food!

This is a really, really smooth cup!

On the sip, I only get that really smooth base with no astringency and some lemony citrus flavor. The bergamont here is really minimal, and not bergamonty which I really like. The vanilla and caramel come as an aftertaste that lingers on the tongue long after the sip.

I don’t know if these are flavors that remind me of Paris, (ATR’s Brioche absolutely gets that honor) but it’s a really satisfying blend of flavors.

Thanks whatshesaid for sending me some of this one!

First of all, thank you to Toi Toi for this!

It’s funny the way that the name of something can influence how you experience it. I don’t smoke anymore, but smelling this tea immediately made me want to smoke a Gauloises Blondes. I discovered those cigarettes in Paris when I was 16 and thereafter, I would to go down to St. Mark’s Place in NYC to buy them. Ah, those were the days before gentrification changed the character of the Bowery and CBGB was still open. Damn, I’m old…

Anyhow, enough of reminiscing. This tea reminded me of being in a European bakery. I could smell jam-filled cookies, carmelized sugar, and marzipan. This is one of the best flavored teas I’ve experienced, but I’m not really into flavored teas. Personally, I like my sweets with my tea, not in my tea.

_{Brew temp 208}

So, the tea shop I bought this at last weekend had this spicy smell which I could not identify. I’ve smelled something similar at my local health food store and I assumed it was a combination of spices or maybe incense. The tea shop had no spices, and I don’t imagine them using incense. I could picture the owner using a pipe, though. Whatever it was, it didn’t smell like tea.

The point of this is when I got back home after visiting my parents was that I noticed that the exterior of every single container of tea I bought was awash in this aroma. Worried that the aroma might be on the inside as well (he boxed my teas there) I scurried to find alternate storage for all my teas. I ran out of storage before I could put the Paris away. I figured its own aroma was strong enough to overpower this other odor and went to bed.

It’s been busy and I forgot about this tea being in that container. When I went to brew this yesterday, the dry leaf smell was pleasant enough-no hint of the offending odor. However, the brewed leaf aroma had something odd in it I felt seemed out of place. Perhaps the Paris had absorbed this other odor? Glad I only bought an ounce of this tea. I decided not to drink it just yet and I finally found a new container for this tea.

Coincidentally, a local coffee shop opened nearby this week and the newspaper article mentioned they had tea as well. So, I decided to check them out yesterday (and probably mock them for having crappy bagged tea). When I asked about the tea, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they had a dozen or so Harney and Sons. I thought it was loose-leaf, but just a bag. Still, for $2 a cup I tried this-I wanted to compare it to mine that had been in the odorous storage container for 96 hours. At least they poured the water over the bag. Flavor was okay, but promising-they put 16 ounces of water for just one tea bag so I was hoping for fuller flavor when I used an 8 ounce cup at home.

Today, I brewed this again. The dry leaves smell fine and the vanilla tempers what would otherwise be too much bergamot. Again, there is something in the brewed leaf that seems out of place. However, I failed to smell the brewed tea bag at the coffee shop, so maybe it does belong. Anyhow, the flavor of the brewed loose tea is pretty much the same as the bags (nothing that feels out of place) but it’s actually a little weaker. I put a teaspoon of sugar in this today, which I did not feel necessary yesterday. It’s good, but I feel it can probably be better. Maybe I’ll put in a little extra leaf next time. If that doesn’t help, maybe I’ll order a loose sample if Harney ever does a free shipping promo.

I had this in a bar with friends and the non optimal preparation might explain some of my disappointment.
I obviously could not smell the dry leaves but only got the teapot. The loose leaves were swimming freely in the teapot. The water had been poured boiling on the tea and I could not drink my first cup (a bit underbrewed – probably around 2 2 and half mibutes, as I could realize at the first sip) for a few minutes. It was nice but a bit too mild; I liked the body given to the tea by vanilla, though could not really identify the other flavors, a bit fruity but not too sweet, rather pleasant. The second cup (steeped for 6 mn I guess, maybe a bit more) allowed me to realize the tea base was indeed rather nice tasting, though coming out a bit strong. The third and fourth and last cups were unfortunately rather bitter and not so pleasant any longer.
I’ll have to try it out in better conditions, but however I’m not sure it’s going to be a complete love story between me and this tea.

Okay this is tasty. I will definitely put this on my Harney & Sons shopping list. Picked up a little individually wrapped bag to try. Unfortunately the place where I picked up tea yesterday (Harrika’s Brew Haus) did not have this one in loose.

I added to much water to the cup so it’s a little weaker then I would like, but still good. Those worried about the bergamot shouldn’t be, it’s very light. The currant flavors come out more I think and the vanilla/caramel. This reminds of a Monk’s Blend tea I had, but better. That same combo of vanilla and fruit (pomegranate in the Monk’s blend) is delicious. Yum yum.

I have never been to Paris – heck, I don’t even own a passport. I need to remedy this situation someday. In the meantime, Paris is making its way into my cup.

The tin is hiding in my cupboard under another tea that I use more, but like less. Lifting off the lid, I sneak a whiff – sweet, vanilla-y and fruity. While the 8 oz. of water comes to a boil, I measure out the leaves at 1.5 teaspoons.

Steeping the leaves for 4 minutes seemed like a long time when you’re just standing there willing it to finish. But I also love watching the color of the water change from sand to amber to nearly coffee-black. Finally, the timer goes off and the leaves are removed from the liquid.

Too impatient to wait for it to cool, I dangle an ice cube in the hot tea until three-fourths of it is dissolved. Add some simple syrup and my small cup is to the brim, full. A scary sight! I know better than to try lifting it to my mouth as I’ll end up wearing a quarter of it. After weighing my options, my best bet is to bring myself down to the cup and gently slurp enough so it won’t slosh when I go to pick it up.

A slightly turbulent journey, but I’m reminded of why Paris has it’s position in my cupboard – its special. The everyday teas are there to get you by, but it’s what’s underneath that counts.

I don’t usually care for flavored teas. This, however, is one of the exceptions to that rule for me. The flavoring is so mild and naturally done that it is delicate on the senses and does not overwhelm the tea in any way.

I picked this up in a tin with 20 sachets, so it’s not quite the full on loose leaf, but with the silk pyramid bags, it might as well be.

The aroma of the dry leaf is light and vanilla-y. It has an added sweetness that seems beyond the simplicity of vanilla, but it’s hard to pinpoint. The liquor was a nice amber color with a fine flavored steam wafting to me.

I first tried this tea as it was and found it very pleasurable. This is even more rare for me to care for a CTC black tea without some form of even mild sweetener (just personal taste). I think it was the vanilla that brought it together for me in this case. I later tried a cup with some local honey and enjoyed that immensely as well.

Despite the general mildness of the tea and the flavorings, I can’t handle drinking this with too much frequency. I just prefer to have the flavor of the tea and the frequency of the flavors affects my taste buds for longer than I would like.

This tea is about equal in my opinion with my other experiences with Harney & Sons; which to say its pretty damn fantastic; its a very contradictory tea, the leaves them selves are well shredded and a deep shade of black brown with little bits of lemon, and bergamot mixed in, the smell of it is amazing, of fresh lemon and something sweet and implacable.

As it steeps that smell becomes permeable and doesn’t quite go away, I’ve actually taken to leaving the tea ball drying on my desk at work simply because it smells so good.

The tea it self steeps into the very dark chocolate brown; its very resistant to oversteep so you can very yourself from 4-8 minutes with little chance of bitterness at the end, the taste itself, especially if its brewed longer is nice and heavy almost English breakfast black with the notes of the lemon and bergamot floating nicely on top. It makes for a fantastic first tea of the day, its certainly replaced my English brekfest junk tea I usually drink.

I’ve noticed that Harney & Sons its very very good at mixing fruit and black tea, there cranberry autumn is probably my favorite evening tea, and now they’ve got me in the mornings too.

tl;dr – a good solid morning tea with some nice hints of lemon and bergamot; that easily as nice to steep as it is to drink. Best morning tea I’ve had.

Really one of the best flavored black teas I have ever tried. I was worried about the bergamot because sometimes Earl Grey hurts my stomach due to the amount of bergamot in it. Instead this is lightly citrusy with a touch of bergamot. It is excessively smooth and rich without a trace of bitterness. Boyfriend bought me a tin at the Harney and Sons in New York but I will be ordering more!

I’ve resigned myself to disliking Earl Grey permanently now… except the rooibos variety which tastes less earthy somehow. I wonder how it would taste with another base? I’ve only ever tried it with black and rooibos. Hmmmm.
This one has such rave reviews, I figured that it would atleast be tolerable for me, but that was apparently not in my cards. Luckily, they let me return the tin after sampling a bag, so atleast I didn’t lose any money on it! :)
I don’t mind the lemon so much… though I am very picky about citrus in my tea, but that combined with the bergamot is just too much. I can’t taste any vanilla at all in there either and I didn’t feel that any of the flavours gelled together at all.
Oh well, I can’t adore every type of tea right?? I just wish I could understand why this one has such appeal! and why nobody else ever mentions the earthy note that bothers me.

1 sachet for 250mL water, drunk bare.

I’ve only seen Harney and Sons Tea in my city at Christmas time, and then only at the ChaptersIndigo (like Barnes & Noble) book store. The tins are pretty, especially the big ones that hold 30 sachets, but they’re also expensive. And tins that only show up around Christmas usually aren’t the highest quality in the land.

But I’ve done some research on Harney this year, and today I broke down and bought a 20-sachet tin of Paris and a 30-sachet tin of Tower of London. (Dang — thought the ToL was loose tea. Oh, well.)

Flavoured black tea and I often don’t get along. I found an Earl Grey I really like earlier this year and nearly tap-danced for joy. Too, too often the flavours mask a poor quality base tea.

Paris. Hmm. Visited Paris in May of 1989 and left a large chunk of my heart there. Totally hope to return. Paris smelled to me those weeks of fruit, coffee, diesel (?), dirty river (the Seine), dog turds, fresh baguettes, brie, oranges butter, chocolate and people. I loved it. A lively, not always pretty smell.

The Paris tea, however, is awfully pretty. The tin promises “natural and art [artifical, I presume] vanilla, fruit and citrus flavors.” Apparently this is a “fruit black tea with a hint of lemony bergamot.” It’s a pretty subtle hint. I can catch awhiff of it from the dry sachets, but in the brew all I’m getting is limp China black tea and a really heavy vanilla flavor. Almost sickly sweet. And grenadine — yeah, this reminds me of a horror I once tried called Vanilla Monk’s Blend. Oh. Yuk.

I really wanted to like this tea. But, for me, I gotta file it with dozens of other flavoured black teas: Don’t Bother.

Alright, so one half of my tea order arrived this morning! I’m hoping to see my 52teas stuff on Monday….
This tea smells so good, fruity, and rich. I really like that the black tea base isn’t lost through all the flavoring and that the flavors do not taste artificial. At first I followed the directions on the tin of steeping for 5 minutes. I didn’t feel that the flavors and base were balanced at this length of time so I tried again at 4 minutes. Much, much better!

I added a bit of milk and sugar and was greeted with the comforting taste of dark red berries and cream. After trying a bit of Marco Polo a while back, I can totally see the resemblance but Marco is more strawberry shortcake while Paris is red berries in a river of slightly sweetened cream.

The second infusion at 6 minutes is quite a bit lighter than the first, but the balance of flavors is still present enough to be worth a second infusion. I have been drinking this with milk and sugar today, but I believe it would be equally good plain as a morning tea as it is dressed up as a dessert tea.

My love of Florence grew daily when I had her in my cupboard…initially I am liking Paris more than Florence so Paris may gain a permanent cupboard spot. Only time will tell!

Yeah, so I didn’t set my alarm and slept right through class. Whoops! I’m pretty sure it’s my subconscious’s way of telling me not to go to bed so late, so it’s early bedtime for me tonight!

On the plus side this meant that I had time to properly brew something, so I picked this. The leaves smell fascinating a mixture of fruity and creamy – such a weird contrast to the not even there smell of Sally’s Secret. I’m not really getting anything in the way of cough syrup Stephanie but then those cough syrups tend to smell overridingly of chemicals to me.

What I AM getting is this weird chalky quality in the actual drink. Not a huge fan of chalk – especially in my drinks. I mean, it’s useful for writing on a blackboard, but I don’t want to be ingesting it. I wonder if that’s the creamyness? I can’t really sense the bergamot either, besides a general fruityness, but I guess it’s just blending in with all the other flavors so I am not really that bummed. The quality of the smell also changed when I infused it – now I DO get more cherry out of it – or at least a strong sour fruity smell.

This is quite tasty other than the chalky thing, and I’ll probably get more if subsequent attempts prove it to be an aberration.

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot to mention the weird underlying spicy note – considering that I also had this with Sally’s Secret, I’m going to assume that is part of the Bergamot-ness?