Thé de Vendôme

Thank you so much Laurent and Mélanie for having sent me some samples from Nina’s Paris.

Thé de Vendôme is my first sample : I have chosen it randomly among the other samples…;) … Do you know how I choice randomly ? I pick one randomly and randomly say…oh no, not this one tonight…and then another always randomly…until I randomly choice this one. This is my typical touch for hazard …
So I went for this one because it has grapefruit in the ingredient list and it is mentioned to be a keemun and I love keemuns.
Grapefruit seems to be a difficult fruit to respect in a tea.I had very few and was curious.

The sample is a delicate and beautiful tea bag made of a luxious muslin.
I like to sniff the dry leaf so you should imagine me sniffing the leaf through the muslin…definitively the less sexiest ceremony for a tea BUT that’s the way I am.
The dry leaf so was absolutely divine, for sure it is orange and grapefruit and a natural scent.

I strictly respected the timing advices of Nina’s : 2 minutes (even if I found it really short) and used boiling water as no temperature recommendation is provided.

I retain my note at the moment because even if I can say the aromas are just fantastic and incredibly refined, sophisticated and so natural, the tea base is really weak, present but weak.

I will retry soon with a longer steep (4 minutes at least) to see if the base is coming out better for my taste.

Typically I really don’t like orange and citrus teas. I will usually overlook them when browsing through a selection because the flavor is just not for me. However, Sophie at Nina’s Paris was kind enough to make me a cup of this when I visited there office and I actually really enjoyed it! So much so that I bought myself a small tin so I can have it again every now and then.

I like the subtlety of this cup. It is not as boldly flavored as most of the other citrus teas I have had. This is more gently flavored and strongly scented making for a pleasant cup. I may not want it everyday but this is definitely my go-to for those rare days when I want citrus tea.

Am I cranky tonight? Hmmmm I don’t think so… Am I being too fussy tonight? hmmmm trying not to be.

Sorry VariaTEA – I seem to be striking out tonight with your teas. I really appreciate your choices, and even misses are learning experiences, but it’s always more fun to write I LOVE IT tasting notes. I don’t love this.

This is the first Nina’s tea that I’ve tried, and while I can appreciate that this is a quality tea, it’s not to my taste. It’s not that I dislike citrus, it’s just really finicky for me. I often find it too acidic – flavors that are strong and “real” citrus, often cause me to feel like the acid is burning my tongue. If that makes any sense to anyone other than me. This is one of those. To be honest, I often prefer citrus when it’s more “candy”. This did get better as it cooled – so I put the last of the sample in some cold water and tossed it in the fridge. Will see how I do with it cold steeped….
ETA: I like this better cold steeped.

This one definitely has a taste of grapefruit and orange rind. It is peppery and spicey. It tastes very natural. The black tea base tastes stronger than what I find most of Nina’s Paris teas taste. I think this one is lacking a bit of sweetness. Overall it is a good tea, but I would like there to have been more of an actual citrus taste.
This one tastes better once it starts to cool. I think next time I will be adding a but of sweetener to see what happens.

This week, I have decided that I only going to drink samples! I still have so many samples, and there is more on the way, so I better start sipping them down!
Thankyou to Sophie and Laurent for this free sample!

This is a lovely refreshing citrusy tea. I find that this tea is mosstly just citrus rather than individual citrus fruits, but it is very good.

I have some chilling in the fridge to see how that tastes as well.

So this tea is ok, but not as mind-blowingly awesome as other Nina’s Paris teas that I have enjoyed. I’m just not so keen on the grapefruit in this. I imagine it would be quite nice if it was iced though. It just screams summer to me! (220)

Wow! Really, really enjoyed this tea. I’m a sucker for citrus, especially grapefruit but I am amazed at how delicate and smooth this tea is. I received this as a free sample (many thanks to Nina’s) and I plan to order more in the near future. 2nd steep was as solid as the first.

from the wonderful Marzipan!

This tea was delightful. Light refreshing citrus flavour. Satisfying. The aroma was divine and the taste delicate and enticing. I really feel the grapefruit complemented the keemun very well. Well balanced. I enjoyed this so much that I added it to my wish list post haste. ;)
Thanks Marzipan!

Miss Marzipan was nice enough to send me several Nina’s Paris samples from her order. This is the first to be tried! The leaves themselves are quite small and very dark, and there are a few yellow flower petals mixed in. Dry scent is a tart combination of fresh orange and grapefruit juices. I steeped 1.5 teaspoons of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Once steeped, the aroma is an interesting sweet yet tangy mix of grapefruit, orange, and lemon scents. I added a touch of raw sugar to my cup because I can! This is a rather tart-tasting tea, so I think the sugar works nicely to balance it a bit. The grapefruit flavor is actually very accurate to the real fruit, and there is a touch of fresh-squeezed orange here as well. I am not generally a fan of orange juice, but it’s rather nice in this tea. The base is smooth and generally unobtrusive, which I find to be common among French brands. Tasty!

Another lovely Nina’s sample from Marzipan :)

Mild black with zippy grapefruit tang. Subtle but not in an unsatisfying way. I bet some sugar would really make this one sing!