Fauchon

A lovely flavored green, just the way I like my flavored greens: light, fruity, and floral. To me, lychee is like a fruity rose flavor already, so adding the rose just really ups the floral notes already present. It also means that the two flavors are not quite distinguishable to me… it’s just one big cup of rosey, lychee goodness.

I didn’t rate this one last time I had it but I’m happy to rate it now: delicious! I have to tread lightly with flavored greens these days as so many of them are off-putting for some reason, but not this one. I bet this would be delicious iced as well!

Backlog. I drank this Friday afternoon but was too busy to log it then, and also too busy to really pay close enough attention to it. That along with potentially subpar water means I won’t rate this one because I think I missed some flavors here.

This was on my list of teas I must get. I love rose, I love lychees. There was a sign saying that this was only available in their Paris store, although it appears you can also buy it online, and by “you” I mean those of you that live in Europe.

I have to say that the Fauchon tins are very cool. I thought there was just a sliding lid, but under that there is a second, pushed in lid that makes it very air tight. Nice. Lychees tend to have a rosey flavor on their own, so I guess it isn’t surprising that this mostly tastes like a rose green, although there was a somewhat fruity note. The base teas is a flattened green, likely sencha, although I enjoyed it more than I have enjoyed other senchas recently. All in all a good purchase, and I’m happy to have it.

Wonderful rich marvelous tea.

Finishing up my sample of this, so sad. I love it so much. The combination of apricot and oranges is just so good.

One day I will have this again.

This remains one of the best examples of blood orange flavoring in tea to me. I wish more people did it, or did it right. I just also find it funny that this is an evening in France, when to me orange is so morning.

It was also very tasty with some honey wheat bread for breakfast.

Fixed this one up to match the other Fauchon teas on here now, it was bothering me because I was searching “an evening” and it left out the an. All better!

Steeped this for less time by accident, more focused on studying. I think it worked out better though only being steeped for 3 minutes. It tastes far more like blood orange and apricot now.

Thank you, ToiToi!

When I was in Paris, I was not really SUPER into tea but I knew of Mariage Freres and I honestly think it was a good thing that when I stared at the Fauchon things at La Grande Epicerie de Paris I did not even notice tea because I was entranced by chocolate.

If you have never been to Paris and are obsessed with food, it is basically the coolest place ever. Especially if you want to see things you consider commonplace like marshmallows treated like an exotic luxury.

So of course I love this and I cannot find any way to get Fauchon over here…it’s like when they closed their NYC shop they gave up entirely on North America. And of course I am already in love with this tea.

I was a bit cautious about steeping it for 4 minutes but it was so good. Such a smooth black tea, and the orange flavor tastes so real. I just ate an amazing orange last night. I was surprised at how pink the flesh was, and found out from a friend it’s a cara cara orange! I never had one before, it was sosososo good. I never get oranges unless they are blood oranges, and that one was just mind changing.

This tea definitely tastes like that, I think that might be a combination of the orange and blood orange flavorings. I don’t get the tartness of blood orange but there’s that different sweetness they have. There’s just a little apricot in there too, but it’s mostly orange.

This makes me miss France :(

So, this tea is old. I bought it a couple years ago somewhere in Paris. The ingredients list says it contains green tea but that isn’t really highlighted anywhere else. Interesting.

I am having a weird experience with this tea. It was really fragrant dry, but once steeped I don’t smell any bergamot. It tastes a bit smoky, and quite woody as the description mentions. And I don’t taste any bergamot! I really don’t think I would have any idea this was an EG if it wasn’t labelled as such.

Okay, I decided I wasn’t enjoying this and re-tried, this time steeping longer. About 4 minutes. Now I get a bit of bergamot at the end of the sip but the tea is bitter. Strange! I can’t decide if it’s that this tea has gone a bit off (it’s old but not ancient) or if it is the tea itself. Oh well.

My very favorite flavored black tea (although I prefer it loose).

http://instagram.com/p/X5N4psIc8l/

Thank you ToiToi for sending me this sample! It tastes like Salted Caramel. It’s sweet and slightly salty, with a bright ceylon base that gives it a toffee-like edge. I’ve had a lot of caramel today.

I’d initially forgot this sample at my parents’ when I went off for school but they mailed me a card with an encouraging message and some of the smaller tea bags that I’d left lying around the place. I say this all the time but parents are freaking awesome.

It’s been a while (10 days) since I made a tasting note here. I know this is a long time because Cavocorax changed her profile picture since I was last on. It’s a big deal.

Edit: This tea has a lot of caramel flavour! When I steep this for less time and drink it lukewarm it’s more syrupy and salty-sweet and less like a solid piece of toffee.

Skipping yet another herbal tea (that I really need to sipdown anyway) brings us to this one (#32). This cup was made from my teensy little sample tin that I managed to snag from a Vente Privee sale back when they were a thing, but I could never manage to get a larger tin. But I did, in fact, grab a whole 100g of this tea in Berlin last fall, so now I don’t need to hoard it. Love this blend, it smells so jammy and delicious when brewed. My favorite variant on a red fruits blend.

Because my dreams told me I had to have this one this morning.

I will be so sad when my tiny tin of this one is gone. It is definitely my favorite “red fruits” blend. sigh Maybe Vente-Privee will have another Fauchon sale someday.

This tea is well named because drinking a cup of it always makes me happy.

As I have lamented before, this tea always sells out on the Vente-Privee sales before I get to them. Last time I managed to snag a sample tin so I at least have a little. Guess I need to go to Paris to buy some more! :D I like this better than other “red fruits” blends I’ve tried, and I think it’s the addition of the citrus, which really brightens the blend. So happy!

Also I am really surprised that I am the only reviewer of this one. I thought there were others? I got my original sample from Toi toi but I guess it’s just a rare blend.

Every time Vente-Privee has a sale for Fauchon, this tea is sold out by the time I get there, no matter how early. I am doomed to never get a proper tin of this tea! This time, though, there was another item that included a small tin of this tea along with some tiny pots of confiture. Sure, why not?

So glad I got more of this tea, even if it is a tiny tin (side note: the tiny tin is adorable! I love it). It’s red fruits, but it might just be my favorite red fruits tea. For one, the light touch of lemon adds a brightness to it. The fruits are fresh and bright, not dark and jammy like they can sometimes get in these blends. Just smelling this brings a smile to my face, which I suppose is the point of a happiness tea.

Sipdown, 198. Decided to go for this since I knew it was tasty; I thought I might have two servings of this left but apparently I’m bad at judging becaues it happened to be a sipdown. Also, I’ve decided that I have a new cupboard rule: now that I’m below 200, I will be allowed to order tea when I get to a point where my new order won’t increase my cupboard beyond that. So if I want to order 5 teas from a company I have to get down to 195 first. My next goal is 196 for a Butiki order, but I also will have a swap coming in that time, so I’m going to try to go lower in the meantime.

I kind of overleafed this one a smidge so there is a slightly too-strong note in there, but it is still delicious. Yup, when I go to Paris hopefully this July, I will definitely stop by Fauchon for some tea (and lets face it, delicious candy!).

Well I might as well go ahead and try my last sample of Fauchon courtesy of ToiToi. I went onto the website to see how this was different from their four red fruits tea (besides the addition of [happy] colorful flower petals) and clicked on the ingredients list, and then was surprised to see green tea also listed among the ingredients. Whoops! Hope I didn’t ruin this cup. I don’t see much green tea in the infuser post steeping, so maybe it’s just a pinch.

This smells very very fruity in a very “red fruits” way. Currant, cherry, strawberry, raspberry, they’re all making themselves known. Fortunately, what little green tea there is in this blend did not affect the flavor by being scorched. Nope, this is powerfully fruity with a bright lemony zing (the real thing that makes this different from four red fruits). This is something I have come to realize about Fauchon teas… they are powerfully flavored. Flavored to the MAX. They fortunately also have relatively robust bases that keep them from being all flavoring and no body. This is pretty tasty, and a lovely fruity tea. Will definitely pick up Fauchon teas whenever I get the chance.

Ahh, an afternoon in Paris (#70) on a cold morning… not in Paris. I always love this blend of vanilla, orange, and rose. Creamy and sweet and floral. Lots of deliciousness.

I had this one yesterday afternoon and never logged it. Suffice to say it was super delicious! I do love a rosy tea, and this one fits the bill. This is the only Fauchon tea that I have that doesn’t have a fancy Fauchon tin because I actually bought it loose at their shop in Paris. Wish I had bought more there, but it’s so easy to spend an absurd amount of money at Fauchon. At least it isn’t as impossible to find as it once was!

I had an oniony lunch and I have a doctor’s appointment later. What was I thinking? I decided may a robust tea with rose might help to negate the bad breath. After looking through my collection I settled on this one, which I restocked in Paris recently.

What’s funny about this flavor combo (orange, vanilla, rose) is that I have had it or similar in other teas, but I never liked it. But here it’s lovely! I don’t know if it’s in part changing tastes or just a proper balance in this tea, but I’m happy to have found it. Now I can daydream about afternoons in Paris while stuck in my office… sigh.

Sipdown, 191, and sad to see this one go. I sometimes have an issue with vanilla and rose together (although I love them both on their own), but not with this one. It is delightful. Each flavor is strong enough to stand out and yet they all meld together and play off each other so well. Hopefully I’ll be in Paris in July, and if so I will definitely be stopping by Fauchon for some tea.

Thanks again to ToiToi for this sample. Am I torturing myself with more French teas (with names like An Afternoon in Paris) that fuel my desire to go back to Paris? Perhaps. But I want to try them anyway.

I’m not sure where I got the strong idea that Fauchon’s teas were not reviewed well; I looked again and some of them aren’t but most of them have few if any reviews. Well now I just feel stupid for missing out on the Fauchon sale recently. Anyway! When steeped up this tea powerfully reminds me of another tea but I cannot place it. Maybe it’s just the vanilla, which is super strong in the aroma.

Wow I just had an intensely sweet sip and I’m not sure where that came from but it was delicious. When I first started sipping this it was like, ok, powerful vanilla flavor, pretty decent. Now it’s like… guh. Vanilla! Rose! A hint of bright citrus! The flavors are so thick and lush it is like you are being immersed in them. This tea is not playing around. I’ve not always had success with vanilla and rose in the past for some reason, but here it plays out so well. The vanilla is rich and sweet, the rose is heavy and luxurious. The orange doesn’t have a starring part but it plays backup well, preventing this tea from getting too heavy. The tea base is hearty enough to stand up to it all and not have it feel weak or without depth.

Man, now I really feel stupid for missing out on the Fauchon sale a few weeks ago. Well, more reason to go to Paris.

I have the tin of this tea (#21) at home to provide some variety in what I am drinking there. Although, now my Harney Rose Scented is also at home (for cold brewing), so I don’t actually have any plain rose teas at work. I brought some of this in to have today, though.

Anyway, I’m not entirely sure why I bought a tin of this tea even though I had a bunch of rose tea already. Guess one can never have too many rose blacks. This one is delicious, nice and rosey with a good base. As I might have expected. I would have to try this one back to back with Rose Scented to see if I prefer one of them.

Mega exhausted after work today, so I decided to have a tea once at home, even though I would more normally be likely to have an alcoholic drink. I also needed a bit of raspberry leaf for reasons, and my favorite way to do raspberry leaf is to throw a bag into a cup of rose black tea. I still have this tea at home after picking it up at HomeGoods, so I used it. I had no fear of the raspberry leaf clouding the flavor of this tea, as it is perhaps one of the most intensely scented rose teas I’ve ever come across. That dry leaf is powerful.

I forgot that I have had this one before and enjoyed it. Well, I enjoyed it again. A very rosey, very nice tea, and it makes me really happy.

Sipdown, 186. I’ve been saving the rest of this sample until my new rose black got here so I could compare my myriad rose black teas. I feel like at this point I have possibly sampled as many versions of rose black as I have of Earl Grey, and that is certainly saying something (ok, I just checked, and it is not even close, haha).

Unlike the rose tea I just had (In Nature Teas), THIS is a very rosey tea. This is loukoumi (aka Turkish Delight) rosey, rosewater rosey. I love it, of course. I also love that the black tea doesn’t just shrink into the background, but is robust and pleasant at the same time. The only reason I wouldn’t restock this one over others is that it is next to impossible to get in the states, but otherwise it is very nice.