Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black & Green Tea Blend
Where to Buy: New Mexico Tea Company
Tea Description:
This French blend has a bright coppery colour, and Ooh-la-la floral notes from ‘crème de la vanille’, Jasmine and Lavender deliciously blended with flavorful Ceylons, pungent Assams and malty Kenyas. Truly a unique and wonderful tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As I mentioned in one of my reviews for the 12 Days of Christmas countdown with Della Terra Teas, I also hosted a swap on Steepster using the 12 Days of Christmas theme. Basically, participants were to select a tea that would seem inspired by the lyrics of the song, The 12 Days of Christmas. I got Day 3: Three French Hens, and this is one of three teas that I selected to send out to the participants of this swap. (The participants didn’t have to send more than one tea, I chose three teas for a couple of reasons, 1) I couldn’t narrow down my choices to just one, and 2) since I had day three, I thought three teas just seemed to work within that theme … I sent them three “French” teas.)
And as I mentioned above, this is one of the three teas I selected. I chose this tea for a couple of reasons, first, the tea had a blended base of green and black teas, and since the other two teas I was selecting both had black tea bases, I thought the green tea would offer a bit of variation from the others. Second, I wanted a blend with lavender in it, and this tea has it. Third, I like the fact that there are other floral notes to this tea – specifically, jasmine and rose.
I am really happy with this choice. Since it was both a black and a green tea, I chose a lower water temperature (180°F) and steeped it for three minutes. The first couple of sips were rather astringent, but after allowing the cup to cool a couple of minutes, I found that the astringency waned. There is still some dry astringency to this, but it is actually quite nice, as it seems to cleanse the palate a bit.
This is a beautifully floral tea. It is exotically sweet with the notes of jasmine, rose and lavender, and there is a underlying creaminess to it too thanks to the vanilla tones. The base of black and green teas seems to be a goo choice for this blend, the black tea offers a bit of earthiness and a pleasantly rich flavor with hints of malt and even the faintest wine-like quality, while the green tea lightens the cup a bit so that the black tea doesn’t taste too heavy nor does it overwhelm the flavors of the flowers … or the vanilla for that matter.
A very enjoyable cup. I like the way everything is balanced. I can taste each element of this tea: I taste the black and the green tea, and that doesn’t always happen with blended teas such as this; I taste the vanilla, the jasmine, the rose, and of course, the lavender. These floral elements meld together so nicely, they don’t seem to compete with one another, instead, they work together to create a very luxurious tasting cup … like something you might sip at a French cafe while taking in the scenery.
