terre d'Oc

I tried this tea a few days ago with my fiancee. I’ve been owning it for quite a long time but I hadn’t had it for some time.
The first sip I drank made me think of sitting in Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe’s hut with a candle and a gamba, or a Georges de la Tour painting. This is a tea you’d dive into after a long day of writing an aria.
The tea leaves are very badly-looking: the leaves are practically crumbs, and there’s quite a lot of stems mixed with them.
We pre-soaked one of the tea bags and not the other one, which made a huge difference (pardon me if this is common knowledge – I’m a beginner). The pre-soaked one was way less bitter than the other one.
The tea itself is still extremely bitter, and the aromas kind of help covering that up. Which can be a good or a bad thing. I kind of felt cheated, to be honest. I feel like the aromas are supposed to highlight the tea, not cover it up. The tea is okay when you drink it very hot, but as soon as it goes below 40°C it becomes so bitter that I had trouble drinking up.
Tl;dr: the first 3 sips are okay, but then it gets tough. I felt like the aromas are there to cover up the fact that the tea is barely drinkable. I don’t recommend this one.

I got this tea as a gift from my mum. It was the “nomad” version, a small box with 10 bags inside.
My fiancee and I tasted it a few days ago. The tea bags smell amazing – a strong and spicy smell that’s mostly cardamom and ginger, along with black tea.
I must say, I was rather disappointed. Chai masala is supposed to be spicy, with the milk bringing balance in its taste. This tea is spicy until you let it infuse in the milk – then it loses most of its flavour. I could still taste the tea and a faint pink pepper, but that was it. The ginger was completely gone, along with the rest of the spices. It’s a shame, really, cos you end up drinking hot milk with a vaguely spicy aroma. We tried adding sugar to see if it would help, but it just made it taste even less good. I think adding sugar helps if you wanna drink large quantities of this tea, as it tones down the spices, but it’s really not epic, whether you add sugar or not. It simply lacks the spiciness you’d expect from a chai masala. I could taste cardamom and a bit of pink pepper, and that’s all.
Basically, this tea smells and tastes like the shop my mum bought it at, which is Nature & Découvertes. If you’ve been to one of their shops, you know what I mean. I don’t recommend this tea.

From Sil. :)

My first impression is Whoa, butter. This may partially be contributed to by the cream I put in the tea this morning. As I was steeping it I definitely smelled the caramel and salt.

I’m really enjoying this tea. Hopefully I manage to finish the whole mug. :)

I’m other news, I let my kettle rest and it worked this morning! Yayyyyy!!! Definitely need to remember to unplug it now, but the plan is to try to keep it going as long as possible. Maybe closer to Christmas I’ll get the Cuisinart one from Costco.

Another sample courtesy of MissB! This one I had a little extra leaf from what I would normally use, so I added it and tried to compensate via steeping parameters. It kinda worked? It’s still a hint bitter, so I would say this is likely a slighly finnicky tea to begin with. That said, it is caramelly. Intensely. Lots and lots of buttery caramel. Quite tasty, although the slightly too-bold base dampens my enjoyment a bit. I agree with Sil that DF’s buttery green oolong base better serves this flavoring. Glad to have tried this one, thanks!

MissB sent this one our way and while this is a lovely tea, it’s very much an apricot green rather than an apricot pistachio. Unless you consider it “pistachio” because the apricot flavour is a little subdued. Regardless, this is pretty nice and enjoyable. it’s not astringent or too sweet, and while it’s apricot – it’s not IN YOUR FACE :)

MissB sent this one out way and since i had the oolong one today, i figured i might as well also have the black version from another company heh. In a black base, this one smells very much like the other versions that i’ve had with oolong bases. However, once brewed, this one falls short for me. It’s definitely salted caramel…but the oolong does a better job of contributing to that buttery feeling than a black base in my opinion. This was an enjoyable cup but i am already craving more of the oolong haha

Bought this at a Nature et Découvertes store, I think, in Poitiers, France. They have a surprisingly large tea selection, including steepers, pots, books, and looseleaf tea.

Trying to figure out if I like this or not. It’s quite a strong apricot with a bit of sweetener, but then there’s something I think I’m allergic to in it as well. Strawberries? My lips are burning. There’s also a creaminess to this tea, surprisingly thick for a green, zero trace (that I can tell) of the pistachio.

I like it, quite a bit, but this prickly burning has to stop.

Ace! Keemun is amazingly refreshing and the Earl Grey is a fragrant and perfect blend.

This is good tea. I thought that I didn’t like green teas very much; but this was sort of a life changer. It’s very delicate, and the orange flavoring was subtle, but nice. I think it’s actually meant to be steeped cold, but it’s still delicious hot ( I still let the water cool significantly though.)

Awesome bergamote, floral and other perfumes representation here backed up by solid tea. I can’t say I’ve tried so many Earl Greys in the grand scope of things, but this is definitely the best I’ve ever had.