Well, you all moved me to have a sip of Paris this evening.
And you know what this tea is?
Marco Polo’s little brother.
Do you know what I love about this tea? The fact that it’s a flavored tea that almost tastes like an unflavored tea. It tastes like the flavors are inherent in the leaves instead of coming from outside agents.
But anyway, let’s get to the tea itself. Paris smells amazing. If the city smelled this good, I’d probably never leave. I’m getting lots of strawberry notes, mixed with a bit of bright fresh notes, and yeah. It’s less strawberries-and-cream than Marco Polo, but it probably smells equally amazing. I’m serious. MMMM. SMELL IT. LOVE IT.
Anyway, this one steeps up a very pretty burnt amber color, and the smell coming off the cup is surprisingly not that deep. There’s mainly the smell of black tea, and… that’s about it. There’s the faintest of berry tones in the background, but if you gave this to me without me knowing if it was flavored or unflavored, I’d lean heavily towards unflavored.
So let’s move onto the taste, because there’s some damned complex things going on here, and it’s all pretty subtle. In a wonderful way.
There’s definitely a taste of black tea. I don’t know what to peg it as, but it’s probably Ceylon? A nice, high-quality one if it is. The berry taste, even though it smells like strawberry to me, is more evocative of raspberry. It washes over the tongue then bottoms out into a bean-y vanilla flavor that’s almost reminiscent of cocoa beans. And the finish? Something citrus! It’s not exactly bergamot flavored. It’s an echo of bergamot. Like someone sprayed it in the air yesterday, and you’re still catching the tiniest wiff of it in your nostrils the next day.
Overall, it’s a similar flavor profile to the famous Mariage Freres blend, but I’d give Marco the slight edge. Marco’s quite a bit more floral as well.
But I’m most surprised at how well the flavors meld together into the actual flavor of the tea itself. If you know me, you know that I love unflavored teas that evoke flavorings of their own organically. Paris is sort of like that. It tastes like an unflavored tea that’s calling up all these flavors inherently.
The tea’s cooling down now and the bergamot is coming out a bit more to the forefront, a sparkling fresh slight-tartness that complements the slight astringency very well. It’s about evenly matched with the berries at this point. And the berries are definitely more in the aroma as well. There’s a juicy sweetness as well.
Okay, this is totally nom. And I mean totally. Thank you to the always lovely takgoti for giving me a mini-mountain of this to sip and mull over and enjoy in all its wonderful glory. And thank YOU, Steepster, for getting me to drink this delicious concoction tonight!
That’s really sad. :( I feel the same way about Scandinavia. The second I confirmed the date when I had to move back to Canada, it felt like I was already moving away even though I still had nearly two more months there. It’s crushing when you have to move away from a place you love so much.
That’s sad about you having to move. I hope you settle in quickly wherever you end up. Glad you liked the tea. :)
I am so sorry about having to move! Good luck, hope you can find a new nice home.
And did not know that about you and Lisbon, it is my city! I love it and know exactly what you mean about having to move. Here are very complicated times, and a lot of things are disappearing or just neglected and it is very sad. Saudade for things that still exist.
Never seen any tea named Lisbon. I would buy in an instant and then likely sneer. I was joking with friends about a café having breakfast menus named after several cities, the Lisbon breakfast would be 1 bica (strong expresso) and 1 pastel de nata and would have to cost less than 2 euros. Would they put cofee in any tea named after Lisbon? LOL. It would have to have cinnamon I guess, and lemon as well. Or a lemonbalm tisane. Closest thing to a Lisbon tea I have ever seen would be Harney´s Queen Catherine blend, she was a portuguese infanta and spent many years as regent of Portugal, a very nice neighbourhood is named after her palace.
I feel very sad for you Ysaurella…I understand that apartments in Paris must be very coveted and expensive, but maybe the perfect one will come along and you won’t have to move? I am very hopeful for you…
Uprooting is hard! May all go well so you can thrive wherever you are replanted.
I love the lemony-caramelly flavor combination, although I wouldn’t have dreamed it up on my own in a hundred years.
thank you all for your support :) I am spending a lot of time on real estate agency website and hope to find quickly something correct in the suburb.
@ cteresa : I visited Lisbon a long time ago and only once. spent 4 days during a December month and I really loved the city, its atmosphere and I understand the Saudade “feeling”
Never saw any Lisbon tea but for sure I would put some lemon in it and probably apricot as well (acidity + sweetness)
I miss Mosteiro dos Jerónimos,barrio alto, praça do comercio & Castillo san Jorge !
Best wishes, Ysaurella! Hope you find something that makes you happy. =)
I love reading your reviews. Not only are the tasting notes themselves wonderful, but you always inspire our Steepster family to post such great comments in response to you and they are equally lovely to read. =)
Lisbon can be lovely in December indeed. And if you get the chance, come back in late May, when the jacarandás are in bloom.
Oh a tea for Lisbon, that is a fun idea to think of. Apricot is not really something too usual here – but maybe loquats, nêsperas. The fruit and the totally different smell, which is the blossom, oh so sweet. The loquat trees are in blossom right now, sometimes you pass somewhere and you have this heavenly strong sweet scent from some tree in some backyard. The nickname for Lisbon natives is the little lettuces, but I can not really see lettuce in tea!
And I just another tea which reminds me so much of this Harney´s Paris, and realize I got FOUR teas which are all this redfruits-caramel-vanilla thing and feel the need to compare them. With photos and all!
no lettuce in my tea please ;)
St Petersbourg is caramel+ redfruits…which other do you have ?
I have figured out what a Lisbon tea would have to have – cinnamon and quince (it is the season, and so much better than apples and foreigners seem to not appreciate those as much as we do) and maybe a touch of Port maybe. We shall avoid the lettuce I think.
And I got 4 fruits-caramel teas – Paris, St Petersbourg (Well done!), Paul and Virginie (new arrival! my first Dammann) and (I think) Marco Polo (not that they say anything about what is on it!). Each is relatively famous or popular within its brand and I just checking the four and sniffing and it is fascinating. St Petersbourg and Paris have bergamot though not too noticeably when brewed. Marco and Paris smell chocolatey in the leaf. I think Marco has to have some Assam on it, though again they do not say what it is on it. Paul et Virginie has the clearest stronger fruit notes, I can smell the cherry and raspberry very clearly. Checking the tea themselves, and they are all similar, black teas with no fillers, P&V and Marco have the fattest longest leaves, and my sample of Paris is of such thin broken, almost fannings leaves (explains the bitterness). But it might have to do with packaging, my sample of Paris is a little bag which does not offer much protection, tea might have gotten broken in transit and that cause them to be so small and would explain the bitterness. Dunno. But really these 4 teas are really all somewhat different takes on the same idea. If I was creating a tea line I can see what would be a popular flavouring!
Frenchs adore quince (notre gelée de coing…Bonne Maman…so famous)I struggled with port… as I was pretty you didn’t want to incorporate the Lisbon’s port in a tea I had to verify the dictionary : ah ! Porto ! :) of course !
that’s so true similar composition teas may be so different.