Marco Polo

This sample comes to me from EvaGrimm Thank you!

I have been quite on here for a bit. I have been drinking tea, but it has been a bit more limited than normal. The heat has me running from the hot drink, and I haven’t found myself making too much ice tea, or finding the worlds to write about the ones I have been drinking.

Ever since falling in love with a few french teas, this has been on my wish list since it is something that can be purchased here in the U.S and seems to be fairly popular. The smell of this is wonderful, but the taste for me was way different than I was expecting. I was expecting a candy strawberry flavor, but instead I got a floral fake berry taste. It was okay, but not great. I think I will try this one again with sugar, and also maybe iced. I really want to love this one, but I think my first impression is not love at first sight.

The expectations that go with the name of this blend as well as the rather attractive packing leaves one utterly disappointed when it comes to the tea itself.

As soon one opens the tin an almost overwhelming smell of artificial flavors do penetrate the nose. Vanilla and Strawberry…not sure where to find the connection of those ‘fruity notes’ with China or Tibet.

After infusing the tea leafs the water colors nicely. But by now the whole room is filled with a scent that comes closer to American cotton candy or Jelly Beans then the Himalaya.
After drinking the first cup of well infused tea comes the conclusion that the taste of the actual tea leaf is very weak. The brew does taste thin. The aftertaste disappears far too quickly.
The awakening effect is surprisingly weak considering the cut size of the leafs.

This tea blend could however turn out to be interesting if tamed down with a adding of Assam leafs or a rough sort of Pu-Erh.

I absolutely LOVE Marco Polo. It’s a strong flavoured black tea, with notes of flowers and red fruits. It is promising olfactorily and does not disappoint gustatorily. Cannot recommend highly enough.

From “Another traveling tea box” – this is nice! I got two good steeps out of it. I don’t know if I’ll keep it or just let the sample be it. But it’s definitely a nice tea.

I haven’t trusted myself to write a decent tasting note lately, and it’s mainly because my head has been really scattered. See here:

1. I got this tea back in September when a friend got it for me from London. Little did I know that this is one of the mf teas you can get pretty much everywhere. Oh well.
2. It smells great dry, like an assortment of fruit, with emphasis on the sweeter fruits, but not distinctly strawberry.
3. Brewed for five minutes. added milk and cream.
4. Tastes exactly like a strawberry campino candy, with a hefty black base that seems to be heftier than what I would think is normal for mf but maybe i’m under-estimating them. It’s different enough from Ruby pie that I can happily say I have two favourite strawberry teas. When I sniffed this tea after it had been brewed, I smelled that signature sort of metallic smell I sometimes get from french teas, and my heart sank the slightest bit. But that smell wasn’t present in the sip and it was all creamy campino and who can complain about that?

This is a very sweet, very fruity, very yummy tea. It’s a tea for people who don’t drink tea. My boyfriend, who prefers overbrewed Lipton tea to high quality loose leaf varieties, likes this one a lot. He asks for it with some milk and sugar… I personally think it’s quite yummy but I can’t drink it everyday. It definitely fills its niche very well though! Lovely sweet strawberry scent and taste.

I have not been feeling well the past few days. I have a cold, but the symptoms seem to be pretty mild compared to usual, and I always feel pretty good in the morning, so I’ve still been going to work everyday, but in the evening I always have a nasty headache. Right now is probably the worst it’s been.

Because I haven’t been feeling well, I have been off my diet, so I’ve been drinking a lot of black tea with my usual milk and sugar/honey/agave. I’ve been trying to get to all my samples from my recent swaps (about 8 of them last month). This was sent to me by kittylovestea! I was waiting to try this til I was off my diet because I didn’t have much to play with and wanted to try it with the good stuff in it, not with sweetener.

I wasn’t thrilled by it. It was a tasty tea, but not anything special. I used the whole sample I had for this one cup so I can’t retry it. If I saw this in Canada for a decent price I would probably buy it to give it another try.

2021 sipdown no. 30

I’ve made it twice now, steeped once at 5 minutes and once at 4 minutes. The 5 minute steep seemed to bring out more flavour.

There seems to be some fruitiness here, I would say berries of some sort because there’s a slight tartness that could be reminiscent of raspberries. There’s also the faintest hint of sweetness that could be caramel, if I really reach. But otherwise, I’m not getting a lot else? This seems like it could be user error, but I’m really not sure where I went wrong!

Thanks Cameron for sharing!

Saturday Sample Sipdown #2!

Today’s a day to get things done – the sun is shining, the laundry’s in the wash, there’s a fresh breeze blowing, and my mother is baking bread for Easter. What better tea to drink and take a pause to reflect on things amidst all the hubbub?

This tea smells like strawberry jam. There’s no better way to put it. Unfortunately, the strawberry taste recedes a bit when the tea cools. However, I can taste it slightly on the back of my tongue after I sip. Ahh. I’ve learned that shorter steep times work much better for French blends – hopefully I can apply the lesson to my Nina’s teas.

Many thanks to Indigobloom for giving me a sample of this to try!

I bought this tea on my mini-moon in NYC and the matching Sablés au Thé on the actual honeymoon à Paris. I’ve been meaning to sit down and enjoy these two together for a while now. I finally decided enough is enough; no more waiting! Today is the day to try them.

The tea is strawberry, rhubarb, vanilla, cream, and flowers. The tea biscuits are butter, vanilla, and that something extra special from the Marco Polo tea infusion. They taste a lot like Scottish shortbread, except better! Way better. Much more flavorful. Leave it to the French to make delicious tea and cookies.

Why did I wait so long to enjoy you, oh glorious tea? This is exactly what I needed after an extremely stressful day. Sometimes I wonder why I’m alive. At least I have tea. Perhaps I can find refuge in several more cups.