Marie-Antoinette

This tea’s claim to fame is that it uses apples from King Louis XVI’s kitchen garden in Versailles, which is pretty damn cool. After sampling this blend, I’m wondering whether Marie-Antoinette ordered her husband’s apple trees to be watered with wine? ;)

Dry, this smelled like a cheap sauvignon blanc. Bleh!
Steeped it smells a bit better, like mulled wine and there’s the Jolly Rancher note that others are mentioning. Taste, hint of light rose, but overall just fermented.

Kind thanks to Laurent for the sample, but this one isn’t for me.

I have had this for about three weeks, but I waited to review because I thought I had done something wrong. (Hang in there, I didn’t do anything wrong but there was a very fixable problem – solution is thanks to Rashad.)

The first two times I tried it, it was anything but delicate. It wrestled my tongue into a headlock and tried to cut it with a shiv. It was some very aggressive tea. But it wasn’t the base, it was the flavoring. I had loved, I say LOVED, every other Nina’s Tea I had tried. Other people loved it. Rashad loved it. What was wrong with me? I served it to a guest, and they said, “Meh.”

Then Frank’s teas started getting some off comments and he said maybe people could try airing it for a bit.

Rashad’s tin of Marie-Antoinette arrived and it was “anything but delicate”, while his sample had been quite good. He decided to air the tin, and when I saw his note I decided to try it, too.

All the difference in the world! That is what it made, indeed. Now this is a sour apple tea that is lightly rose scented. The rose appears in the scent and in the aftertaste but is light, not heavy and perfumey. The tea base can now be tasted, and I really wasn’t getting the base before.

Nice tea save! Thank you, Rashad!

Oh wow! Judging by the dry leaf smell – sour, medicinal – I was prepared to not like this. I did not read the ingredients before hand and was not sure what was in this. Steeped 3 minutes.

Ok, it’s rose and something else. Sipped – apples! I would never think to mix the two. They really play off each other and you do not have to concentrate to know its apple. Slightly tart but not really. slightly sweet but not overly.

The rose is what I taste first but it is well behaved, never going over the top in a perfume sort of way. The Ceylon they say has strongness. I beg to differ. It is quite smooth, gentle even. This is a very fine and balanced cup.

I am glad I used my delicate cup for this because it only seems fitting. I’m also kind of glad I wasn’t sipping this with a bunch of guys. It is hard for a lot of guys to admit they like pretty things occasionally.

Oh Marie…. where have you been all this time? My samples arrived yesterday from Nina’s. This has the most lush and autumn smell of apples and flowers. It tastes like a mix of cider and tea with delicious floral undertones / smell. I added sugar to this one to balance the tart of the apples and it is heavenly. I don’t think I can drink this tea everyday but I do love the taste. I will have to buy some for when I’m in the mood.

This is my first experience with French teas. I’m really excited to try more.

NOTE: I was able to get 3 steepings out of one teaspoon. This tea is potent in a good way. haha.

Sipdown, 241 (yeah, I only ended up adding a few new teas so my count didn’t go to high!). Thanks to Nina’s Paris for the sample of this tea!

Rose and apple; I knew I had to request this one as one of my samples. The smell of the steeped tea is kind of odd, and I guess it’s just the rose and apple combining somewhat strangely. If I smell closely enough, I can pick out the two scents independantly, but it’s not easy.

Unfortunately, this one was not as successful to me as it was for other people. It comes across as bitter and perfumy to me. I am not sure what people are talking about when they say that the bitterness reminds me of biting into an apple and getting apple skin… apple skin isn’t especially tart or bitter to me, and I just ate an apple for lunch this afternoon. There is definitely a good amount of really appley flavor here (although it is perhaps more apple candy than fresh apple), and some herbaceous rose, so I think that perhaps if I steeped this one for a shorter time or at a lower temp, it would come out smoother and work better, but if the astringency is built in for some reason, I don’t know.

This sample was amazing!

I wish I took pictures of this blend! More if I could capture the smell to show everyone! Very amazing apple scent!

Taste? Great black tea base, loads of natural and fresh apple flavor. I sat there awhile trying to figure out what kind of apple I was tasting. The apple was crisp, like a golden delicious, but the skin tasted sweet like a red delicious or gala. The floral is really low here but melded with the apple.

Love it! I need more of this tea sometime.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 2nd of March but here are the snippits:

Marie-Antoinette from Nina’s Paris has a wonderful aroma. I just love sitting here smelling it fill the air around me with the scents of roses and fresh apples. Its almost too good to drink! The apple aroma is that of mulled cider, or the smell that fills the air every year at the Apple Festivals that are commonly held in my area. It just makes me feel warm and sunny on this cold snowy winter’s day.

The more I sip it the more it grows on me. I think any person who loves apple flavor should try this tea. Its so subtle, does not try to flood your taste buds over with flavor but yet it is so true to what apple tastes like when you bite into one. I can even taste apple skin in this tea.

Another free sample!

Sad to say, this one isn’t for me. It tastes so much like perfume that I can’t even imagine there’s apples in it. I guess there’s only a few teas with rose in it that I truly can handle/enjoy.

Thanks to Laurent for this sample!
The dry smell is VERY apple, but also smells of a very ripe & fragrant pear, & rose.
The flavoring is very realistic, & amazingly so. Some apples, like red delicious, tend to have a bitter peel, & this flavor seems to have been captured in this tea, which is not very appealing to me.
Otherwise the apple & rose flavors are nicely balanced & it is a pleasure to drink.

Dry, this tea smells fruity, but I can’t put my finger on which fruit. While steeping, there is a green fruity rose scent rising from my cup. The first few sips had a bitter twinge which made me question if the three minutes I had steeped it for was too long, but that turned into a short burst of tartness. I just re-read the tea description – apples! Apples and roses, that makes the tartness make sense! It’s like you are biting into an apple and you get that bit of tartness of the skin before the sweet flavor hits you! Adding a little sugar brings out the sweetness of the apples and mellows out that tart burst. The rose seems to mix in the middle of the sip and remains on the end after the apple fades out, although the taste lingering after each sip is pretty balanced between the two. My mouth feels a little dry after, the same feeling I get when I eat rose petals. I’m impressed how this tea is able to taste so much like ripe apples, yet not taste like apple juice. It is as if I just bit into the most juicy floral apple ever. Towards the end of my cup, when the tea has cooled, I’m getting more rose in the beginning of each sip. I steeped a second time for four minutes and put a teaspoon of sugar in this time. The flavor was really amped up! Third steeping at five minutes is a little weaker, but still has a surprising amount of flavor. Fourth steeping at six minutes still has a decent amount of flavor and a bit of that apple tartness! This tea just keeps going!

Like the other Nina’s teas I have tried, this one also has rich bold flavors that last through multiple steepings. If you are a fan of apple flavored tea, this one is a must try!

I got a sample of this and three other teas from Nina’s Paris. It arrived yesterday and my finace and I shared a cup of this earlier this morning.

Dry, it smells exactly like a sour green apple. It smells so sweet that it almost smells like the sour green apple candy lollipops that I used to love as a kid. It smells delicious.

The first steep separated out into two colors of tea at first because I poured it from my french press into teacups instead of my little teapot to use as a fair cup. So my cup was extremely dark and tasted like slightly sour fermented apples while my fiance’s cup was light and tasted like silk roses. After it was combined, they both tasted like smooth and slightly sour apples. Almost a wine taste but kinda not. The base tea was so mellow that I didn’t really taste it but it made the tea nice and smooth.

I did try a second steep and that tasted mostly of apples. More toned down but still smooth with no roses. I added just a touch of sugar and that made the rose pop a little bit more. But this is really mostly apple.

I’m not sure if I like it or not. I really, really want to like it but I can’t really taste the rose. I have enough to try it one more time so I’m going to do that before making up my mind about this tea.

Oh my! This is a tea after my own heart. This is the best rose flavored tea I’ve ever had. It’s the closest thing to using real rose water. The apple flavor is directly proportionate to the rose and neither taste anything short of the real thing. I got this as a sample and I’ll be placing an order immediately. For me, this tea is a “must have” in my cabinet.

free sample!
(that’s all i feel like saying i guess. … for now)

Well where do we start with this second sample i’m going to try from nina’s tea. I’m still happy to be able to try these samples laurent did send out to me!

I’m seeing these dry leaf mixed in with a few tiny rose pedals. It looks good but nothing to special when dry. Upon steeping i’m noticing a very dark colored brew that smells like… rose!

The 3min steep with boiling water seems a bit long for my first brew. I’m finding the rose flavors to be a bit to sour but then again its been a while that i had a rose flavored tea. Still trying to get myself reminded that the sour taste probably isn’t only from the rose because there are apple notes in this blend. Can’t really tell this in my first cup tough. Maybe its because i never had a rose/apple blend or maybe i’m just to bad in tasting apples in a hot drink.

Have to say i’m still enjoying my first cup and i’m sure to update this note (or make a new one) when i’m onto my second or maybe even like some people suggest third cup!

already updating my note:

My first cup is cooled alot more now and i’m kind off starting to sort out and get my head into the apple taste! Its really like some people mention apple taste with rose instead off the rose with a little bit apple i was expecting… very curious now for the other cups i’m going to try

This is pretty good!

I love the smell of both the dry and steeped leaves. I was hoping more of the apple flavor would come through but…after leaving it sit awhile it came through more. There is a nice balance of black tea and apple. It’s a smooth tea that makes me think of luxury and fine things. I didn’t notice any astringency. I used 1tsp worth (so I could stretch my little sample out) for 3 minutes…so maybe that’s why it may not have been as strong as I would have liked. This is a yummy tea though…very delicate. It would seem fitting as an afternoon tea:)

Thank you to Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA for this free sample. It only took 23 days to get to me. The anticipation was killing me.

The dry tea smells very flowery and perfumey. There are small yellow flower petals mixed throughout the black tea.

The brewed tea smells very flowery but no so much of a perfume smell, more like a natural rose scent. There is a slight sweet vegetal smell. The yellow petals have unfurled and float in the liquor. Looks beautiful.
The tea tastes slightly sweet, some rose flavor but not overpowering. The sweetness comes from an apple flavor, its very light. Reminds me of smelling the ripe red apples at a fruit stand. Smooth and creamy. This tea feels very luxurious and I can totally understand why it is named after Marie Antoinette. I would not necessarily drink this tea in the morning, it feels like more of an afternoon tea.

Definitely going on the shopping list.

I so wanted to like this tea. I loved Grand Amour, and this one has such a cute name! Unfortunately, it wasn’t the tea for me. Once steeped, it tasted like an apple jolly rancher and very astringent black tea. I was surprised by the astringency because Grand Amour was so silky smooth. Not sure why this one was different. Oh well. I appreciated the sample, Laurent!

I don’t care much for black tea or black tea blends, but this is one of the rare few that blows me away.

The dry leaf smells like a Green Apple Jolly Rancher. I couldn’t detect a floral smell at all, even though rose petals are an ingredient.

After I brewed this tea the apple smell was less intense. This tea definitely tastes like an apple in the first steeping. Thankfully, not in a “Jolly Rancher way”, but a “natural apple way”. The black tea is mild and smooth in the background.

In the second steeping, the scent and taste of rose petals comes out. The apple flavor is more mild than before, but still present. I enjoyed the second steeping most since I LOVE rose. Apples, rose petals, and black tea make a winning combination. I’m so glad I tried this tea.

My second sample from Sophie and Laurent :). This is my favorite so far. The dry leaf smelled like roses. When I steeped it and sipped it to see if it was strong enough I could immediately tell it was apples. As it cooled, I got a whole lot more of the rose so by the end of the cup it was pretty equal tasting. I think it would have been a good tea for Valentine’s Day actually, a romantic, sweet tea with roses :) One of my favorite teas was an apple black tea that was discontinued so I really like this one…

Love it’s taste !!!