This is one of the teas my sister brought back from Paris when she stopped there on her honeymoon. If I am being honest, I would have never picked it for myself because I see citrus and think to myself “meh”. Luckily I wasn’t choosing because I would have missed out.
This is a smooth tea. The vanilla is a lot more prominent than I anticipated and has a creamy vanilla bean quality to it. The base is maybe a little thicker than I would normally like but it helps add depth to the vanilla. The citrus is bright but not strong. It has an orange zest quality at the tail end of the sip that is just bordering on pithy but without the bitterness.
I am not convinced this captures an afternoon in Paris, though it’s been almost two years since I’ve been, but it is a pretty solid cup of tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Fauchon
Description
A fruity tea with zesty citrus fruit and sensual vanilla flavours.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Apple Tea from Fauchon. . . .
Coming home from her honeymoon, my sister was in Paris for just a few short hours but she still managed to grab me a sampler pack of teas from Fauchon. This was one of four tea tins in that package.
I opened it up and the first thing I noticed was the “leaves” because there really wasn’t leaves in the tin so much as there was powder. It actually looked like instant coffee to me. The other three tins looked more like the common tea leaf but this one was different and I was intrigued as to what that might mean for the flavor of this tea.
I decided to ice it in the iced tea press figuring apple is a nice flavor cold but also that the very fine filter of the iced tea press would effectively strain out the powdery tea.
Tasting it now, my first thought is “this is a weird one”. It has a sweet apple flavor but the base is brisk and quite astringent. I imagine that crushing it down didn’t help but also the iced tea press could be part of the issue since a bit of the tea continues to steep after straining. Also, black teas always ice up quite thick which doesn’t impact that taste but instead of letting this be like a juice consistency, there is a fullness to the mouthfeel that seems out of place.
Ultimately this is a black tea with apple as opposed to an apple black tea. Hopefully that makes sense. Essentially, the base is what stands out here with the apple playing second fiddle when it should be the other way around. So iced, this is not the best. I hold out hope for this being better hot.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Fauchon
Description
A fruity and sweet tea with a caramelized red apple flavour.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Mandarin Doce et Noisette from Fauchon
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Fauchon
Tea Description:
Fruity tea with zesty sweet mandarin and warm hazelnut flavours.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The smell of these tea leaves is amazing! I want a candle made from this fragrance. This tea is a black tea with mandarin orange and hazelnut flavoring. I swear there is also dark chocolate in there somewhere but I’m not seeing it on the ingredient list. I hope this tea smells as good as it smells.
I brewed this up like a black tea (212F-3 min) and sat and inhaled the wonderful citrus hazelnut -chocolate aroma. I took my first sip and. . . .
Wow. I’ve heard people talk about Fauchon teas before, but this is my first experience. This tea is delicious. There is a definite mandarin orange flavor with notes of sweet hazelnut swirling around. I typically am not a fan of hazelnut but this one is an exception! The mandarin orange flavor is the more prominent of the two flavors so that may be way I’m really enjoying this. Orange flavors are hard to do just right without tasting like Tang or just artificial. The black tea base is nice because it is allowing the flavors to come thru without overshadowing them. There is a nice malty note in just about every other sip.
Really stellar tea. I only steeped this for 3 minutes but I feel like maybe another 30 seconds or so and the flavor would have even been more pronounced. I wish I had a bit more of this left to try this as a latte. Yum!
For this being my first experience with Fauchon, I’m impressed. Now to dig out other samples of Fauchon that I have. . .
