Christmas (Rois Mages)

Tea type
Black Fruit Blend
Ingredients
Almond, Chinese Black Tea, Orange Flavoring, Rose, Spices, Vanilla
Flavors
Citrus, Ginger, Spices, Vanilla
Sold in
Bulk, Loose Leaf, Sachet
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Sivasubramanian
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 8 oz / 226 ml

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39 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Hi everyone! (Arms waving wildly and happy dancing!) I am finally back after a long hiatus due to lots of work, skating in an ice skating show for the first time in a long time, general holiday...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “this was an insightful inclusion by one miss VariaTEA in a return swap. this blend calls old fashioned christmas trees to mind, the ones decorated with oranges studded with cloves in eccentric...” Read full tasting note
    89
  • “Second note for this tea.More indulgent. Thé des rois mages was the only tea remaining in my office this morning. Don’t know what I did this week end but simply forgot to refill my empty tins for...” Read full tasting note
    51
  • “Have a backlog, since I’m not capable of tasting anything properly at the moment, the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) of this morning being proof thereof, and also it seems like it’s been a while since I wrote...” Read full tasting note
    29

From Kusmi Tea

Blend of China black tea flavoured with orange, almond, vanilla and spices. Tastes like a christmas cake. Tasting advice: delicious plain or sweetened.

About Kusmi Tea View company

Company description not available.

39 Tasting Notes

90
160 tasting notes

Hi everyone! (Arms waving wildly and happy dancing!) I am finally back after a long hiatus due to lots of work, skating in an ice skating show for the first time in a long time, general holiday insanity, and trips. So, settled down with my tea and terrified at how behind I have become in tasting notes! I missed everyone! I hope I haven’t missed out on anything exciting!

Now for the tea… I bought this tea during my New York tea with intentions of showing off the nice Christmasy tin during the holidays. Sadly, I was so busy that I only opened it this past week! Oh well… I have heard so much hype and good things about Kusmi, that when I was in New York and saw the store, I had to stop in and get some teas! I was really excited about them, especially this one.

The scent is sweet and spicy with a strong ginger scent. The black tea scent is also there, but the main note is the spice. Once brewed, the scent becomes creamy and spicy, it reminds me of the smell of oatmeal cookies before you bake them.

The flavor is less spicy than I imagined it would be. It is like you can taste the spice flavor but don’t get any of the tingly spice sensation (I hope that makes sense!). The creamy flavor is great, and it is both a flavor and a sensation. I love how the vanilla and almond are strong enough to be evident over the flavor of the spices. It is a great tea for breakfast time, it makes me smile!

As far as I can tell from other people’s reviews, most aren’t as happy with this brew as I am. I guess I am lucky to enjoy it! I would recommend it if you like vanilla almond and don’t mid that the spices aren’t super strong. :)

I am so happy to be back!

Sil

good to have you back! :)

Ninavampi

:) it’s great to be back!

JoonSusanna

Welcome back! Can’t wait to read your backlog! :)

Indigobloom

Hi! welcome home!! :D

Bonnie

Welcome home!!! Missed our star! I imagine you flying across the ice in beautiful costumes like a fairy princess (hope you didn’t have to be a cartoon character). Can’t wait to get hear details!

Ninavampi

Thanks JoonSusanna! It will take a while, but surely it will be worth it! :)
Thanks indigobloom and Bonnie!! This is indeed home! Good tea, good talk and great people! I hope I didn’t miss anything exciting while I was gone! :)

Also, I will eventually get around to posting a video of the show… I’m not skating like back when I actually was training, but I still look ok on the ice :)

Bonnie

oh boy!

canadianadia

hooray you’re back!

I look forward to seeing the video, I love watching ice skating shows. I feel (and look) like a toddler on ice skates – so I’m always amazed at how elegantly people perform in ice skating shows.

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89
390 tasting notes

this was an insightful inclusion by one miss VariaTEA in a return swap.

this blend calls old fashioned christmas trees to mind, the ones decorated with oranges studded with cloves in eccentric patterns, hung by huge loops of ribbon. the air is always spicy when i see them, almost sharp; cloves, orange peel and some invented element when they combine that i have never been able to identify… hmmmm a few tweaks and this could be a chai!

heavy spice, but beautifully balanced. a very good way to wake up, especially if you’re feeling rotten. very smooth base, very smooth transition into and out of the spice. the orange has a strong presence…. THERE IS NO PITH!!!! i am getting no lingering bitter after taste. full marks for that kusmi!

honestly, i am wondering where i can buy some of this. this could absolutely be my seasonal theme tea. thanks so much VariaTEA! such a thoughtful inclusion.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
yyz

Hi James, you can use this tool to search for a retailer near you. Call first I’ve found that some of them only carry the mini sets and 3 or 4 varieties of large tins, but some have a more diverse collection.
http://www.kusmi.ca/en/retailers/kusmi

JustJames

yyz…. you are a hero! inquiring minds and all that….. do you wear a cape? ;-)

yyz

Nope, but I have had training in reacting, responding to, and coordinating emergency services;)

VariaTEA

I actually have not even tried this one yet so I am sooo glad you liked it! Now you are making me want to run upstairs and brew a cup because your description (like so many others you have written) make this sound amazing! They also sell this on a green tea base if that is something that interests you although personally I though black tea suited the flavors better.

JustJames

ha! outstanding! as have i…. though it was a long time ago. oh. and i’m a parent. that might count too. though not officially. definitely exhaustively! i don’t wear a cape….. the kids would laugh and point more than they already do.

JustJames

@VariaTEA….. i have NO desire to try it as green. the pairing could not be better than it is on the black. i would find it frustrating. not one likes a frustrating tea, lol.

yyz

I’m not a parent, but I have spent weeks at a time looking after my relatives and friends kids. Fun and definitely exhausting. All parents, I think, have a little bit of a super hero in them. Perhaps the cape can come out next Halloween?

JustJames

you what i would like more than a cape? one of these…. not the same, but not too different…. and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L8UCfxmtSw whaddaya say yyz….. shall we respin a tacky old joke? ‘two guys fly over a tea house and…..’ ?

yyz

That could be incredibly fun!

JustJames

i think so. from the top of a building? or from the top of a mountain? and maybe the most important question….from the top of the eiffel tower so we can stop by theodore? lol. can you imagine? it would be like walking in a body suit of corduroy. ksh ksh ksh. bwahahahaha.

Ysaurella

I should have sent you the rest of my tin of this tea ! I am unable to drink it.

JustJames

oh dear!!!! i hope i didn’t send you anything undrinkable?

Ysaurella

nooooo until now I think my reviews of the 2 teas I drank were really positive !
but Rois Mages is really not my thing !

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51
408 tasting notes

Second note for this tea.More indulgent.

Thé des rois mages was the only tea remaining in my office this morning. Don’t know what I did this week end but simply forgot to refill my empty tins for work.

The dry leaf was promissing as any Kusmi tea : the head note was spicy very spicy (clove I think)
I found this tea too mild the first time, so I added more leaf and left it steep longer this time.
It was better,really better.
But it is supposed to be Xmas tea…and my reference for this is Esprit de Noël de Mariage Frères. Let’s say we are very far from any Christmas Spirit with this one. Still too mild.Lack of perfumes to my opinion.

So I did an heresy…but a typical French sacrilege…I dove my croissant in this tea…not bad !

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

Oh, too bad!

Mélissa

oh well this tea sounded good.

Ysaurella

well it’s not bad but I am expecting a lot of Kusmi’s teas. Just like a mom not happy with a 10/20 when she knows her child is able to reach a 18/20.
Regarding their price politic, all the marketing they are doing (especially in France)my opinion is they can often do better for a lot of their teas.

Mélissa

We have some of their stuff (at a small gift shop) in my city, but they are marketed and presented poorly so I never paid much attention to them. I’m gonna look forward to your reviews for future reference on what to buy! x

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29
1353 tasting notes

Have a backlog, since I’m not capable of tasting anything properly at the moment, the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) of this morning being proof thereof, and also it seems like it’s been a while since I wrote a proper post that wasn’t just a ‘poor me’ kind of thing.

So here is a tea that Auggy has shared with me, and which I have tasted rather out of season, because I didn’t really feel like waiting. And I’d already done the Thirsty Elf too which was also out of season, so…

It was, according to my notes, a chilly day when I had it, though, so I thought at the time that a Christmas tea seemed appropriate.

The leaf smelled of Christmas spices and particularly of ginger. There was a funny almost soapy note in it as well, but I’m not sure that wasn’t just another aspect of the ginger. Other thoughts I had were of clove, cinnamon and cardamom, but really it was mostly ginger. It’s supposed to have orange as well, but I only found that as a whiff of an accent to the other notes.

Not super-confident about this, I sipped with caution. Gosh, ginger! And soap. Now I definitely think the soapyness is a ginger aspect. As for the other ingredients, I could only find a weak orange and the shadow of an almond in the aftertaste. That’s it. No vanilla, no spices, no nothing. Just ginger.

So not a blend for me, this.

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80
6444 tasting notes

I picked this up a couple weeks ago at Kusmi and have yet to try it. I grabbed the bag when I got home but my roommate told me it was not Christmas yet and so I should have a different tea. However, after the sample I sent JustJames got such a nice review I gave in and decided to try some.

This is the first tea with a prominent orange presence that I don’t mind at all. I think that is because unlike many other orange teas, this has other flavors going on that help to provide depth to the tea rather than it being one strong orange note. The spices tone down the orange while the vanilla adds some sweetness. I am even getting a bit of cake-yness in the mouth feel that is quiet enjoyable.

All in all, this is definitely a nice cup of tea and I can certainly see how this might be reminiscent of Christmas. The smells are what I would imagine (being Jewish I don’t have much experience in the matter) the combination of a Christmas tree and Christmas cooking would smell like – very warm and cozy.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 30 sec
JustJames

i can’t believe you sent me some of that lovely stuff before you tried it! i’ve done it on occasion…. but that’s different. =0)

VariaTEA

Something about the teas you rated highly. the teas in your cupboard, and the flavors in the Christmas tea made me think you would be a fan. I am glad it worked out. And sending a sample was certainly easy given I had to buy 75 g of it so I had enough to share.

JustJames

=0) i am hugely grateful….. i find myself chasing after kusmi here, lol.

VariaTEA

Kusmi is literally a two minute walk from my house. If you are ever desperate, I can always go pick up teas for you. However, I do believe you can order online.

JustJames

i think i can get it at a place not too far from here called ottavio’s bakery….. unbridled temptation. but i can’t justify it yet, lol.

VariaTEA

haha well the offer stands if you ever change your mind.

JustJames

thank you kindly! ;-)

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2291 tasting notes

Sipdown from VariaTEA. :)

I only had 1 tsp left, so I made half a mug. Then I sweetened it with cranberry honey. Yes. Honey made from cranberry blossoms.

It’s actually really really good with the tea – makes it fruitier, goes well with the orange.

I also had an orange drizzled with this honey. :)

Not sure I’d repurchase, but if I saw a small tin somewhere I might pick it up.

(236)

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML
Dustin

I have never heard of cranberry honey! Where did you find it? Orange blossom and wild flower are both pretty common, but it is hard to find honey from one pollen source especially when they are from more unusual plants!

Dustin

Thanks! I’m a super huge bee geek! I’m getting a package of bees and am going to start my hive again next month!
Looks like they do ship to the states but it is a $20 charge! Yipes! Maybe I’ll stop by their store if we do end up in Vancouver for the summer.

OMGsrsly

That’s how I feel about most shipping options, really. They also sell the honey at the PNE, which is way closer to where I am and where I usually buy it!

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60
1040 tasting notes

Thanks VariaTEA for sending this my way.
I’ll be honest I don’t like names such as Christmas – that doesn’t tell me anything. What is this suppose to be? The only flavor that I can pick out is citrus. There is more going on but I think it’s all muddled together.
Read the ingredient list here, and almond? Nope, can’t pick that out. Vanilla? Nope can’t find that either. Christmas cake? Ewwwww I hate Christmas Cake, glad I didn’t read that first. Not getting cake either.
This is a sweet, citrus dessert tea. I don’t hate it, I don’t love it – it’s strange to me. Thanks VarieTEA for sending me this sample.

VariaTEA

Haha well I guess I don’t hate it is better than you struggling to get through the cup. Now you know to never pick this one up if you were ever curious :)

Dexter

Exactly every tea is a learning experience. Always happy to try them.

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812 tasting notes

christmas in May!
orange yay, almond yay, vanilla yay, and spices…hmmm i’m skeptical of you “spices”.
tasting…
and it’s pretty mild.
i probably need to steep it longer.
i was worried there would be cinnamon with a capital C.
instead it’s just nothin to write home about.

Ysaurella

no need to steep it longer…it remains mild…so mild…

Shmiracles

hahahah …..so mild…..

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70
911 tasting notes

(This will be my attempt to write a brief(er than normal) tea log. Wish me luck!)

The set up: I’ve had a bit of an uncheerful time lately and today is no different. Fortunately, my Kusmi order showed up a day earlier than expected so I will be able to cheer myself up with tea!

The smell: The dry leaves give me marzipan with a hint of spice and a flash of soft floral and bakey. The tea smells of… tea (like some sort of Lipton-esque blend that just comes across as “tea”) with a little soft spice (thankfully not enough to make me think of potpourri) and something that reminds me of pancakes (sweet and bready).

The taste: It’s mild. I can detect rose and spice when I slurp but otherwise it’s faintly marzipan and orange with a cinnamon-like sweetness of spice at the end. But the notes all sort of blend to give a smooth, rather softly flavored, afternoon tea.

The verdict: I had hoped that this would be a little stronger on the almond and orange (as I love those flavors) but I do like the mild-ness and smooth-ness of this. I probably won’t buy this one again as it’s fairly un-wowing, but the smoothness and mild flavor is relaxing to me on this grumpy day.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec
Ninavampi

: ) I share a smile to help you cheer up a bit!

Auggy

Aw, thanks! :) <— And it worked!

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66
2816 tasting notes

This was part of a sampler set I got from Kusmi last year and evidently I never logged or rated this tea so here goes!

Tea of the morning. :) Smells like orange and spices in the tin. Leaves are dark, small and slender. I’m not generally a huge fan of orange spice teas, but this isn’t bad. I’m finding it to be a bit thin on flavor but the orange is nice and juicy. I detect a bit of vanilla but it is light on some of the other spices you might expect in a blend like this, such as clove. I tried it both with additions and without and it seemed fine either way, but i just can’t imagine drinking this on a regular basis.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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