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I have had this tea since March but it warrants another tasting note. I want to show what a chameleon it can be!

Many weeks ago I served this at tea time. I made it the way I usually make flavored black tea – boiling water and steep for four minutes. My guest wasn’t crazy about it, but she drank it and said it was okay. I was surprised – this is Nina’s signature blend.

So today I made it the same way I did for my friend with allergies, cutting the steep to three minutes. My guest sipped it and didn’t recognize it as the tea we had before. That one minute changes this to a rose tea with a hint of apple, instead of a green apple flavored black with a hint of rose. She really liked it this way.

I have such “Grand Amour” for Grand Amour! Oh la la this is good tea! This was one of the first samples I tried from Nina’s a few months ago when they invited us to choose two or three teas to sample. I was really hooked on this one but waited to order because I have an embarrassingly large amount of tea. But at last, my very own tin is here! And the shipping was crazy fast. Laurent sent this Monday and the mailman put it on my porch at noon today.

We talk, HARD, at tea time on Wednesdays. It takes a special tea to make the words hit the brakes. Today we chattered through the cake and remarked on the black tea we drank first, then had this second. In the middle of the chatter, my guest took a sip, stopped everything, and said, “What is THAT?” I told her it was Grand Amour and she said, “It’s delicious!” And it is! Oh mercy me, it is.

This is so fruity, with no perfume-y fake taste. No additions necessary!

This was the second tea with had with our toast and coconut oil/honey spread. How I love this tea! Cocoa-y, smokey, smooth, sweet, and such a lovely aroma. Makes you feel weak in the knees!

I wish they still sold this. I will have to try to hunt out something similar when this is gone.

My best friend came over to have tea with me today. I wanted her to try this one because she likes green apple flavors and this one was strongly apple flavored to me. The rose was a more subtle aspect.

We served it with toast because I read something last night that I wanted to try. I saw someone recommend mixing unrefined coconut oil with honey as a toast spread, and a number of people commented that this was their favorite spread for toast. We decided to try it today since tea and toast are so very tea time! I have to say, it was delicious, tasted like cinnamon toast, and would probably also be good with a bit of cinnamon added!

When I opened the tea tin, my friend thought it smelled like strong perfume and she is very sensitive to that sort of thing. I decided to still make it, but cut the steep time to three minutes, and the most amazing thing happened. The green apple tea with a hint of rose became rose tea with a hint of green apple! And it is a lightly peppery rose flavor. I do not know if the steep time is what changed the taste so greatly, or if it was the food pairing that did it, but I do know this was my favorite way so far to steep it! My friend enjoyed it and said she would like to drink it again when she comes over.

GMathis, JacquelineM, and K S, keep an eye on your mailbox because I mailed your samples of this tea today!

I had this as a tea slushy in my Zoku tonight as my dessert. YEAH! BABY! Razzleberry, I love you. You are the best flavored iced tea I have ever had.

I had a big surprise with this tea today! It is insufferably hot and muggy here, although honestly it is not as bad as some summers have been…so far. I really don’t want to stop drinking my hot tea, but I really need something cold.

I decided to experiment and see if this one would cold steep very well. I didn’t think it would, because I reasoned to myself that the flavoring probably wouldn’t translate well. For that reason, I took the last of the 175F water from the green tea I had just made (it had cooled a bit) and poured that over the leaves first to “wake” them. There was very little of it and it just covered the leaves in the pitcher plus a little extra. I filled the pitcher the rest of the way with cold water and put it in the fridge. I waited about five hours to try it.

Before drinking, I added a bit of simple syrup because I do like a little sweetener in my iced teas, though I take none in my hot teas. And I have to say, this tastes just like it did hot! The apple flavor is every bit as strong. If you love green apples, you should give this a try! I do not get a ton of rose from this, mostly green apple, but others have said they get a lot of the floral taste. Maybe I need to focus my palate a bit more!

After my quiet cup of tea, which was Magicienne by Nina’s, I went outside to do a tiny bit of work on the new fence we are putting up. I didn’t stay out long because it is hot and humid and buggy out there! I am tired of Mosquitos!

When I came back in, I thought it was the perfect time for a cup of my sample from Nina’s. Summertime is the perfect time for mint teas to me. The mint is so refreshing, even when you serve it hot! But I have not been a huge fan thus far of straight mint tisanes.

Fortunately, this is nice and minty but you can still taste the green tea. I didn’t look at any special directions. I just prepared it as I do most green teas – 175F water for three minutes. This does not taste smoky to me. I know some people mention Moroccan Mint style teas being smoky, but I didn’t pick up on that. The green base is dominant, or at least as strong as the mint. I felt like the mint came out a little more as the tea cooled, but it still didn’t overpower the green base and make you feel like you had a herbal tisane.

I believe I detect spearmint in this, although it could be Egyptian mint, which I have never had separately from spearmint so I don’t think I could identify it on its own. I had that Wrigley’s taste, so I am pretty sure it was spearmint!

This was refreshing and cooling. I didn’t try it iced or sweetened yet, but I bet it would be good both ways!

Thank you, Nina’s, for the sample!

ETA: Nina’s has offered to send samples to reviewers, so if you haven’t tried them yet, please do! They have some excellent teas!

After feeding the chickens and doing a few outside chores, then cooking breakfast, I had a few quiet moments to drink a cup of tea. Well, actually it was a whole pot by myself!

The aroma of the dry leaf is largely fruity, and the steeped tea starts out mostly fruity but as it begins to cool a little the coconut comes out more and more, taking center stage. Very nice!

My sample was enough to make about 16 ounces of tea on the first steep. I drank eight ounces of it hot and plain. It was one of the best Earl Grey teas I have tried. I added some simple syrup and put it in the refrigerator to chill.

For my “dessert” tonight, I poured the cold sweet tea into my Zoku slush and shake maker. It. Was. Heavenly. The bergamot in this is so nice that instead of getting a mouthful of cologne (which is how some EG makes me feel) I enjoyed a fruity treat with lots of tea flavor.

My friend who had ordered Earl Grey dropped by and I found out that she has only tried the sample so far, as her order has not yet arrived. She loved her sample though! Of the five samples I just received, two are teas that I already own a tin of and have already reviewed, so I passed them on for her to taste!

Earl Grey lovers, this is a very nice tea with pure, natural tasting bergamot and best of all, a great tea base that isn’t covered up by the flavoring! And it is awesome frozen, so if you make tea pops or tea ice, it is a great summer tea!

This is a sample provided by “Nina’s Tea” for review.

I had encouraged a friend of mine to order some samples from Nina’s back when the first offer went out. She did, and she ended placing an order of her own, and this is what she wanted most. She and her daughter love Earl Grey and they couldn’t wait to try Nina’s version. And the when I was at her house last week I forgot to ask if we could try it! Argh! So I was happy to see it in my Nina’s samples that Laurent chose for me.

I steeped this not knowing anything about it but that it was Earl Grey, so….tea plus bergamot. I liked the aroma right away. This isn’t the kind of EG that assaults my nostrils and makes my nose burn. The bergamot is very present but it is a nice moderate level that doesn’t kick you in the face.

I was most happy about the tea base, though. The color deepened quickly on steeping, and the tea smelled smooth – not too strong, not astringent, but not disappearing under the bergamot, either. And it tastes great. When I looked up the tea I saw that the base is Keemun, a favorite of mine. No wonder I like it! This is not a strong, smokey Keemun whose roasty and chocolate notes scrape your tongue. (I like that in a plain or chocolate Keemun, by the way.) This Keemun carries the bergamot but then you are left with an aftertaste of just tea, and then little whiffs of light bergamot come back.

I have given away a lot of Earl Grey tea that I just couldn’t stomach because of poor base tea or bitter flavoring. This is one that I would be glad to keep on hand just in case Captain Picard ever drops in….