Fete de Versailles

I just received a marvelous surprise in the mail! I will try to add a link so you can see the adorable “I am keeping this forever” miniature Marie Antoinette box and the beautiful white tin of this tea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24998856@N06/11652962885/

I saw this advertised but did not order because I knew the girls had purchased lots of tea in London and Dublin for me for Christmas and hubby was getting me some puerh teas. Then I got a message from Laurent to look to my mailbox and today this arrived!

The smell when I opened the tin was incredible – I couldn’t stop smelling it. It was so intensely sweet and pure pure orange! Mandarins, I think. It is very like the fresh spray that hits your face when you are pulling back the peel of the juicy fruit.

The base tea is strong enough to taste through the orange, and the orange is the dominant flavor of them blend. I take my tea plain but I imagine this would be incredibly sweet with a bit of sugar added for those who are so inclined. This is such a lovely change from the all of the Christmas teas that are just a change of proportions of orange, clove, and cinnamon.

I am just so touched by the generosity of Nina’s and the Caravels. Thank you so much! I will be serving this at tea time on Wednesday!

Sipdown!! (205)

This was released for the holidays and so Sophie and Laurent very generously gave me a sample. When choosing a black tea from Nina’s Paris tonight I had the choice of Marie Antoinette or this. Since I already sampled Marie Antoinette, I thought I would give this a try. Furthermore, I was hesitant as this is an orange tea and I am not typically a fan but I figured if they were kind enough to give me a sample, I could try it out. Plus, I enjoyed their grapefruit tea so I hoped this might also be a success.

After my first sip it became clear that unfortunately this was not the exception to my rule but rather another orange tea that is just not for me. I will refrain from numbers as this is just a weird personal issue and not a reflection of the tea itself.

Thank you for Sophie and Laurent for this sample but it is just not for me.

On another note of things that are not for me. I just tried a few different chocolate bars from Dylan’s Candy Bar. The chocolate itself is very sweet, especially since it has been like 10 months since I last had chocolate, so that is a little unpleasant. However when you have a Bacon Chocolate Bar which is a combination of very sweet chocolate and very salty bacon, it makes you not so upset that you don’t get chocolate often anymore. You never know unless you try though and that was definitely an interesting taste experience. I imagine it could be a good flavor combination but it was not executed very well.

My cup this morning.
I did a very light steep with this today, which was both a good and bad thing. Its not bitter, and it does bring out the orange, but its also a weak cup. Hmm.
Theres just no pleasing me, I suppose.

I love my Nina’s teas. I think they might be my favorite French tea company so far. Not long ago I went on a binge and ordered a bunch of their teas. While I was comparing prices on Amazon (the online Nina’s store was better), I saw this tea on Amazon but couldn’t find it on the Nina’s site. Laurent started a chat with me while I was browsing and added it within moments. Great service!

I love the white tin that this comes in. 80g of tea is a lot, so if anyone wants a sample let me know. I wonder why this one gets a special white tin instead of the normal red ones?

Anyway, it’s a nice tea. Not my favorite of the flavored Nina’s teas by any means, but a nice cup. It’s a little bit orange-y. I didn’t get some of the other flavors that other reviews mentioned. It’s not transporting me like Grand Amour or The des Anges, but it’s nice enough and I won’t have any trouble finishing it I’m sure.

Sipdown (185/187)!

Somehow VariaTEA has managed to get her cupboard number lower than mine, again! I need to step up my sipdown game – which is sad because I thought I was doing so well!

Anyway, I cold brewed the last of this sample from Rosehips today for about seven hours – I hoped it would switch up the flavour notes a little bit. However, it’s not really doing that, which is pretty disappointing! Mostly I taste funky, weird floral black base and nothing else. I don’t even get weak orange notes!

I’d actually toss it; but the coldness of it is making me feel pretty good so I’m drinking the rest of it despite not liking the taste. I feel like I’m really burning up and am also really dehydrated; though I know the latter isn’t true – I’ve been drinking tea practically non-stop all day. Bleck.

This is one of the teas I got in my latest Nina’s Tea order. (To tell the story again, I was in Florida, and Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA shipped my order to my hotel. This saved me a whole lot on shipping. Laurent stayed in contact with me the whole time until I received and was satisfied with my order). I had been wanting to try this one for a long time. It was only available in a tin but the tin is beautiful.

The dry tea is beautiful. The black tea leaves look nice, dried orange peel and bright blue and red flower petals are mixed in with the tea leaves. It smells super delicious. Like sweet candied orange peel. Almost has a bubble gum quality to the smell.

The smell of the brewed tea smells a little bit flat. Still candied orange but not as strong or as sweet and with a bit more pepper.

The brewed tea, like I find most Nina’s Paris Teas, is delicious. The tea base is just bordering on bold. There is a sweet, candied orange peel flavour, it is delicate and not overpowering. There is a slight pepper from the orange rind but it is very light. It almost tastes like there is a bit of orange juice in this tea. There is a slight sweetness, I would maybe add a bit of sweetener next time I have this tea. The flower petals give a thickness to the tea with a bit of a bread-y flavour.

The sweet orange flavours become much more prominent and bright as the tea starts to cool.

I am really glad I picked this up. I would like to know if there is a story behind the flavour of this tea and the name.