Fruits d'Alsace

Well I want to give a HUGE Thank You to ashmara for this sample which is more than a sample in my opinion! I love this tea!!!!!
I have yet to try Tower of London yet wonderful generous ashmara also sent me a sample of that!
When I opened the bag I got wiffs of sweet yummy fruit and RUM!
The tea even tastes a smidgen like rum and fruit!
Oh yes I AM going to make some of this cold steeped!
I am absolutely ordering more when this is gone and I am doing a little happy dance right now! Not often do I fill my cup before it is empty but this one was half gone and I was dumping more in! I need a larger cup for that matter!
I also saw the BIGGEST cherry in my basket when I measured the tea out!
YAY!
Most of my fruit flavored teas are green ones. I needed another good solid black fruity tea in my stash and this is going to be in my PERM stash!
Love love love!
ashmara you made the cutest little name tags for the tea samples! Thank you – really appreciate this!

Thank you Hesper June! Another H&S tea that I’ve been wanting to try that she was kind enough to send to me. I am also really loving this one, which makes me a super happy camper since that’s 3/3 that I like! I can’t wait to try this one out as a cold brew one of these days as well, since i think that iced this would really bring out the flavours even more.

Are a lot of icons missing from the top (like the steepster logo itself) and on anyone else’s dashboards or is it just me? The best part is already knowing by heart exactly where to click anyway haha

Thank you Azzrian for a sample of this tea. I don’t know how I completely missed it from the one time I ordered from H&S because I would jump on anything to do with Alsace. Not my favorite place from my study abroad trip (i.e., Parisians aren’t the rude ones if you go to Strasbourg. I took Italian for 2 semesters and I always end up pronouncing French and Spanish words like they’re Italian…so I did so for “chantilly” and this woman FLIPS on me like you’d think I said chant-lily or something when all I did was pronounce the l’s! And people just stared at me while I was waiting at a bus stop. It was tacky.) but I still really enjoyed my time there.

This is such an interesting combination of fruits. I’m mostly getting cherry and plum, though I smell the apricot. It’s pretty sweet too, it almost feels too early for something this sweet but I will make it through.

I just really can’t get over how fruity it is, and it just tastes really good. As it cools, the black tea comes out a bit more since while it was really hot it was like a barrage of fruit flavors. There’s a nice balance between the flavors and the tea. I am going to finally have to get some of this.

This might taste better than most things I had in Alsace…but not tarte flambee by any means.

This is an ancient sample that came from Jenn and it’s probably over a year old now so I don’t know how this is influencing the tasting. I don’t know about this tea though… normally I am a fan of fruit flavored teas but this is just o.k. to me, I feel like the flavors are just clashing with each other and not coming together in a cohesive way. It’s kind of like a rummy cough syrup. Okay, I will stop whining now. It isn’t something I would buy from Harney and Sons but it’s drinkable…

I am silly…this is a sample I requested to 2 persons …so thank you both Azzrian and Sil for sharing with me.
Now I am an happy silly woman because I really love this tea and it means I have more to enjoy !

The tea base is really nice and absolutely not bitter. The fruits aromas remind me the type of mature fruits you can find at the end of summer.
They may have used mirabelles for the plum flavour, this is a typical plum in the area (not far, in Lorraine), I get the cherry very well too , a little less for apricot.

I should confess I never went in Alsace (probably one of the lone areas in France I didn’t visit yet) but I would love to.I know many Alsatians and this tea is a nice tribute to the region I think, especially because it touches the high traditional side of this French region.
I am not so much surprised by *momo*’s anecdote with the Alsatian woman, there is something really special with this area of France, something really much more traditional vs the rest of the country.

Fruit teas frighten me.
I am not quite sure why, I actually have never had a terrible experience with one as of yet.
But, I was almost afraid to try this tea, but seeing how it is summertime/ice tea season, I thought even if it was too sweet it would be good as a iced tea.
I was so confident that this would be better as a iced tea, that is what I made first with it.
The tea is good, fruity and light.
Very nice.
This afternoon I tried it hot.
Boy, was I surprised!
It goes from a polite iced tea to a slightly sophisticated hot tea
I particularly like it because you can smell and taste the black tea in it.
The fruit has not masked or disguised it as a good black tea.
Nose is black tea with Cherries and Apricots.
Taste is black tea with Plums and Cherries a slight note of a brandy or port?
I find this tea very pleasant and enjoyable hot or cold.

I LOVE this tea! I can taste the cherries, apricots, and plums. OH MY! I think that SimplyJenW is right on the money with her comparison of Fruits d’Alsace to Tower of London. They do taste very much alike minus the bergamot, (that I have measured love for), and honeyed flavors in Tower of London.

AND SimplyJenW is a tea badass so there’s that too ☺

I got a tin of this for my Mom for Christmas and we had a cup after dinner tonight. It is delicious, with a creamy flavor that reminds me of black cherries. I let it cool a little as we took for the dogs for a walk and it was still very good even after it cooled down. Great cup of tea to end a beautiful Christmas Day!

Tea of second breakfast….

I added a sample of this onto my last order at Harney & Son’s. So far, I find it very similar to Tower of London. I would say it is very close, but minus the honey and bergamot. Good, but since ToL is probably more my speed, I will stick with that one. I am thankful to have been able to try this one. I think it is a good choice for those that are not fans of bergamot. It is more subtle than Black Currant.

Steeped by the norm. Lightly sweetened.

This is good – it manages to be creamy and fruity at the same time.
Otherwise it’s fairly unremarkable. I don’t really know what to say about this tea. Pleasant but eminently forgettable.
I know this is a short note, but that’s all I really have as a reaction!

This is a beautifully crafted tea with the right flavors of plums and cherries. There is a taste of liquor as well that comes through, some have said “spiced rum” but it may be something else. Either way, this one is delicious. Its been a great tea day so far. Thanks to Azzrian for making it such a good tasting day!

EDIT: This would be amazing as a cold tea too. As this tea cools, it gets better and better

My Harney order arrived today!! This is one of the teas I ordered based on reviews from my fellow Steepsterites – I sure am glad that I took a chance on this one. This reminds me quite a bit of Paris and Tower of London and I love both of those teas so I love this one also. I love how smooth the base of this tea is and that it is tasty both plain and with additions. I’m currently drinking it with a bit of sugar and cream which really makes the fruit flavors pop. I’m getting cherry more than apricot or plums and that is fine by me as I ADORE cherries. In fact, I also ordered Sour Cherry Preserves from Harney’s site (which I totally recommend! Also the black tea and fig preserves are good if you like figs). I don’t think this would be a good first thing in the morning tea as it is pretty smooth, but definitely a great afternoon/evening choice.

I have been very excited to try this one, and I finally got it today. I love Tower of London and agree with the comparison between the two. They are similar, but there are differences. My youngest daughter felt that it smelled a lot like Marco Polo from Mariages Freres, and by golly I think she is right! I’m glad, because hubby likes both Marco Polo and Tower of London so I think this will be one more we can enjoy together!

Another tea from the Azzrian Box, this one is tasty.
I’ve been drinking this while I study the score to a piece I’ll be playing for the Orchestra @ the university I teach at (UMSL).
One of the kids from the U won a concerto competition on cello, so we’ll be performing this piece (which requires 2 harps, my student there is playing the 2nd part) on the 18th, with rehearsals on the 11th & 18th. It’s a beautiful haunting piece, Schelomo by Ernest Bloch, based on Jewish melodies. Very dramatic, with lots of tempo changes, so I’ve been listening to the piece & following the score, to find the harp part, which is not easy to find in some places! But I’m starting to get the gist of the piece & how I fit in. I just got the music a few days ago, so it will take priority for the next week of so!

My mom got me a sample of this tea in her last order. Now, fruity blacks and me have a love/hate relationship, in that I really like some, but don’t like others. This is one in the latter group. The tea base isn’t bad, but I don’t really like the cherry flavor. That could be because I’m not big on cherry flavor in the first place though. I really like REAL cherries, but not cherry flavor. I gave the last cup of my sample to my coworker, who liked it much more than me. So, I’m calling this a SIPDOWN! :)

TY out to Rachel Sincere for a sample of this tea!

This tea looks fun – an interesting blend of fruits (apricots, cherries and plums – I don’t see plums often in tea) with a black tea base.

STEEPED: Swirly black tea and fruity smells. Light brown coloured tea.

TASTE: Not too strong earthy black tea base with a moderate level of fruityness – I get the cherry taste and an apricot after taste, which is quite nice. No bitterness, tart or astringency.

Sweetened, wow – much more fruity! It’s like the fruit takes over a bit (maybe 60/40). I get the bite of cherry and maybe plum. I prefer this tea sweetened.

COMMENTS: This is a good tea to show a fruity green/white drinker an interesting fruity black that isn’t a berry black tea. I like the combination of fruits used in this tea. Not up my alley for me to be in love with this tea, but I will enjoy every cup!

Now this is more like it. Harney & Sons, you have never let me down. This tea is a perfect even blend of cherry, plum, apricot, and black tea. There is no astringency, there is no “all I taste is fruit,” likewise there is no “all I taste is tea.” I always sweeten my tea, FYI.

And even though it’s lukewarm at this point, the way it’s going down, I’d highly recommend this one for the iced tea people out there. This one would be a luxurious iced tea.

So, I had a nearly complete tasting written up, got distracted by a video on youtube that ended up crashing my computer (been happening too much lately…not sure what’s going on) and so in the reboot, I lost it all. :(

So anyhow, I got blinded by Teavivre’s package arriving this morning that it totally slipped my mind to check the regular mail for the day, but I did so as I came back in after being out with a friend for a few hours, and boy am I ever glad I did! Oh happy tea day! Joyous tea day! There in my little mailbox was the USPS priority mail box with a number of teas to try from Jenn! :)

I pulled out the ones that were sachet style, and am reserving them for work, since I don’t have a proper steeper there at the mo…and the baggies are easy to use. But this was not one of them. I decided on this one after reading about it as I was cataloging them to my cupboard. I figured this would go well with my dinner (pizza with chicken, red bell peppers and basil-ultra thin crust) so I made a cup.

I admit, looking at the tea in the bag, there’s a hint of disappointment, because I’m so accustomed to seeing bits of things in my teas of late. But make no mistake, when I put my sniffer up to the opening of the bag, there is an unmistakeable apricot smell. Ahhhh…

Being that I am still out of milk, I ventured to go black on this one, though I did add some raw sugar. I did try it plain at first, and it was fine I guess, but I always find that lightly sweetened tea enhances the fruit tones. Or, maybe I am just addicted to sugar. :P

Fully brewed, I can’t pick out specific fruits, but that’s ok to me, since they all balance well as a sort of collage of flavour that is super juicy and tasty. This one most closely resembles my poor times tea (Tetley Black Currant) and it is as tasty, if not moreso. Much better than The Earls Garden from DAVIDs, which I found overpowering and floral. This one has a nice balance.

I’m guilty and will admit that I do still want to try this with milk. I’ve got another tasting or two left in the package. I’m finishing the last little bit of this cup, and it has cooled off a bit, but I think that this would make a wonderful summer iced tea.

Thanks again to Jenn for sending this, and I can’t wait to try more of them.

Backlog!
I picked up a tin of this when I picked up H&S Birthday tea. Made an entire pot and drank it all yesterday.

In the tin: Smells like: Standard black tea with Peach Jam mixed in. Looks like: This is the looseleaf tea from H&S. Long leaves of black tea and chunks of dried amber fruit.

In the cup: This brewed up fabulously in my brown betty teapot. Lightly fruity and a great tea for both being lazy while recovering from walking around a Rennaissance Faire in a steel boned corset all day the day before, and a nice tea to have at hand while working. I tried it both with sugar and with sugar and milk. It works well with both, depending on mood.

Wonderful tart black cherry flavor; reminds me of black forest cake – add a little cocoa or dark chocolate, and it would taste exactly like black forest cake. I really enjoy that the cherry is not artificial, and there is no almond flavor as is common with most cherry flavorings. Just a rich authentic cherry with black tea.