Ilse Wouters Send Message

I bought this tea in Madrid in a newly opened tea shop. They get it from a German importer , but I don´t have any more details of its origen. When I smelled the selection of black teas they sell, I inmediately liked this one, for it being different, quite strongly aromatic with a smokey hint to it. Once steeped, this smokey side is still clearly present. The tea has a reddish colour, is strong in taste but without the bitterness of most black teas, almost floral (which it isn´t, fruity it says on the “menu” of the tea shop, but I don´t really agree). One of the better teas I´ve tried recently.

Picked this almost automatically the last couple of days in the afternoon…nothing special, but at the same time it´s easy going, the weather being bad outside and you want to get something hot while getting on with all the other work. And if somebody calls or you need to go to another room for a moment, the tea won´t be ruined. I´m not sure I want to buy more of this when the tin ´ll be empty…wait and see.

Getting to the end of Summer and also at the bottom of the pack of Jardin Vert tea, and it´s been nice, really nice iced tea. I desperately need to clean out the teas I still have to see whether there are others which can be used for iced tea with a similar result…or just wait until next Summer, and see what´s to be found (and approved) in the tea shops. There seem to pop up quite a lot of them in Madrid these days, and some have an impressive collection of green teas, so I might opt for this 2nd way around. Any recommendations are welcome, of course.

Almonds rule! The nearest thing to eating a frangipane without having one in the house is drinking this tea. The sweet almond fragrance which is wonderful in the nose doesn´t disappear when steeping the tea, and for once, it´s a green tea which can keep my attention when hot. As far as I´m concerned, a solid aromatised tea.

Thanks to Ysaurella I know now that this tea might just well be Dammann Frères after all. I´m not a huge green tea fan, but I somehow seem to like it more 1/in Summer, and 2/ cold in iced tea. This year, I started using Tibetan secret, then I finished off another green tea (with banana), and now I´m using Jardin vert. I make a pot of tea, let it steep for an hour or longer, fill a bottle and put it in the fridge…and it´s part of my summer tea routine : I take water with my meals, but when it´s too hot, water is “boring” and I have cold tea. All three teas I used this year are green, flowery, and doesn´t go too grassy or bitter when steeping this long.

The tea I have at home (and I bought it in a tea shop in Pau, France) isn´t from Dammann Frères (as far as I know), but the blend in the picture really looks like it, and the name is the same as well. After I finished the tea I was using for my summer ice tea, I needed another one and this works perfectly. A bit dryer in the mouth but nonetheless very refreshing.

This afternoon, I felt like sipping this tea, and once again, even if it doesn´t represent the teas I tend to like, I quite enjoyed it. Red fruits present but don´t overwhelm, just a nice cuppa.

very neutral, and actually not too bad, but that doesn´t mean it´s OK, if you understand me here ;-) The usual stuff they put in the tray of the hotels where coffee and tea facilities are offered.

This isn´t Earl Grey tea, it´s more like a lemon tea…but unfortunately still about the only tea available (apart from the yellow label tea) in standard snack bars. No way I´m buying this one!

Very nice for an aromatised tea. It´s fragrance is really wonderful, but this doesn´t disappear completely when steeping the tea. As I adore rhubarb, I bought this tea when visiting the Coffea shop in Saumur. The taste reminds me a lot of a good Marco Polo tea, so it will be a firm favourite summer tea of mine.