Fleur de Geisha

I brewed up a pot of this to have with a friend over breakfast yesterday. I first had this tea when living in Strasbourg, France, and still had an unopened package that I brought back then. I love the wonderful cherry blossom flavor of this tea, and get cravings for it now and again. I agree with others that it is better slightly cooled, as the cherry blossom flavor comes out more. The real key, however, is to carefully observe that you’re making it at proper green tea temperature (i.e. not boiling) and the flavor should still be prominent to taste. Otherwise, the green tea becomes too bitter and overpowers the cherry blossom taste. This tea is so sweet all on its own that I rarely add sweetener.

Very delicate

Happy International Mother Earth Day! For a tea that “reminds you of our good planet” I grabbed this one out of the French tea samples Dustin sent me (thank you, Dustin!) since the cherry blossoms have been in full bloom around here! (Also, Ode to Tea F entry!)

Steeped 2.4g per 350ml 175F water for three minutes. Smells more like proper cherry than sakura, but that floral nature of French teas has given it a sweet flowery, bordering on perfume aroma which is easy to imagine as sakura.

I do like the flavor! It’s like a candied cherry sort of note, but the cherry flavoring is not waxing medicinal at all. There is a slightly sharper, warm fresh grass note that hits after the sweet cherry of the green base. They are very complimentary!

It’s a nice cuppa; tomorrow I’m going to have Mariage Frere’s Sakura The Blanc, courtesy of Cameron, for French Friday to compare the two sakura teas.

A delicate green tea flavour caresses the tongue, encircled by slight floral and cherry notes. It’s simple, which is why this tea invites the same tranquillity of a Zen garden. It’s easy to image the feel of the sun’s heat on your face and it’s stark contrast to the occasional touches of a chill breeze; to see a landscape of cherry blossoms petals, that fall with the gentlest of movements, slowly descending through the air, until they land in a babbling stream of water and are graciously carried into the serenity of a koi filled pond.

Fleur de Geisha is a lightly fragrant green tea that whisks you away to another land. Its gentle and relaxing and exactly what you need in the middle of a busy day.

www.Tastethetea>co.uk

A co-worker got a couple of those subscription boxes, one that gives you food from around the world. This tea was in her France box. I was the happy recipient because she doesn’t like tea (I don’t hold that against her). :-)

Such a nice floral, especially for a cherry blossom tea because usually I can’t detect any cherry blossom. But this one had such a nice scent and flavor that lasted through many infusions, I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

Light, fruity floral green tea. Cherry blossom or cherry taste is not particularly strong, but quite robust for a green tea and a nice balance between robust and delicate floral notes.

This is delicious and refreshing. I made it with the intention of icing it, and it was floral and fruity and green and basically tastes like springtime. Excellent to get me through the long days of subbing and help me decompress when children decide to flip their desks over like little maniacs over things like not being line leader.

True story.

Continuing on with trying my older tea samples! This one came from a swap with Sara. Honestly, I’m not sure why I asked for this one, it doesn’t seem like something I would like. Oh well! It appears to be just green tea leaves and flavoring, nothing else added in. Dry scent is very stange and powdery in a candy way, like Smarties or something. Maybe a touch of floral as well.

The steeped tea smells somewhat sweet and candy-like with a light floral overtone. This has a strange powdery cherry taste that reminds me of chewing flavored Tums. Disappointing since I actually like the delicate floral note that’s also present, but rather overpowered. The green base is mild and unobtrusive. I think I would quite like this if it weren’t for the Tums aspect.

This was pleasant enough, but I can’t say the flavor was unique for me to want to return to it or crave it. It seemed like a fairly basic green tea, which is a bit disappointing for Le Palais des Thes. Still it was fine enough for the one cup. I’m glad it came in a sample pack though, rather than me having a whole supply of it.

Queued post, written May 21st 2014

Another green tea for Green Tea Day. Apparently it’s not only Green Tea Day, it’s also Ancient Tea Day because this one came from Auggy and it’s even older than the other two. Well. By a couple of months but even so. Still older. In my defence she sent me a few of these and I’ve only got one left. I just haven’t written about it until now.

Smells lovely of green tea and cherry. A very fruity juicy sort of cherry. The sort that I hope some of all the myriads of cherry trees in our garden will produce. (Little hope there, though. Husband’s father thinks it’s a decorative sort of cherry, not an edible one. And he’s worked with plants in some way or another, both at his job and in his garden, for 40 years, so he should know. Still. When there is fruit, I will test it the best way I know how. By biting one.) It strikes me that red fruits generally go quite well with green tea. I think a 4 red fruits blend on a green base might be rather lovely, but I expect that already exists somewhere out there.

The flavour is very floral, reminding me that this is scented with cherry blossoms, not flavoured with cherry. Isn’t it funny though how the flowers sort of smell like the fruit? The green tea is fairly strong compared to the other two I’ve had today, and it’s got a smidge of bitterness to it. No, not bitterness… But a note that tells me that if brewed hotter or longer, it very likely would turn undrinkable. It’s borderline. At the point where it is now, though, it lends body and strength and is quite enjoyable.