Comptoir des thés et des épices

Something went… wrong here. Maybe it’s just my tastebuds going haywire because they’re still remembering the sheer amount of potato I managed to scoop into my body over the holiday, but behind the fragrance of this (which in the bag is THE NICEST PEACH PASSIONFRUIT FRUITY FRUITY FRUITNESS I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY NOSE) but there’s something just not jiving with my tastebuds in the flavour at all. This makes me sad because it’s a green oolong blend and should be so good, but somehow I wasn’t able to make it work today.

Which, admittedly, was the only blot on an otherwise spotless day of previewing forthcoming entertainments from the BBC and writing reviews of them, which is kind of an awesome thing to be a thing I do. Oh yeah, and the postie brought me the giant box of teas that included this one. Guess they can’t all be my favourite, though – maybe I can see if somebody else has a better time with it?

Queued post, written August 6th 2014

Another one from the Yet To Try box, which is getting very very close to empty now! Not counting this one there are now only four things left in it. I am quite pleased with this achievement because it was full to bursting when I started and it’s not actually a small box.

It’s another Frenchie. The name is French. All the information in the database is in French. I haven’t the faintest idea what this is supposed to be, but I gather from Anna’s post about it that I should expect something with cherry and almond on a green tea base. Very well, that sounds pleasant, actually. It was Anna who shared it with me as well.

It’s very very easy to find the cherry here. It smells almost exactly like the steam from the pot did the day I tried making cherry cordial with our own cherries. I just made a small amount to see if we liked it, so we got maybe two glasses each. And we liked it. A lot. I don’t care what kind of fancy-schmancy cordial you all can get in your various supermarkets around the world, I can promise you without a shadow of a doubt that it can not, I repeat it can not beat home made stuff. Not the last time I’ve made cordial, let me tell you! And it was stupidly easy as well. Anyway, home made cordial boiling away on the hob, that’s what it smells like. This is a very auspicious start indeed.

After a little bit of cooling and sniffing, the almond comes out as well, and I’m now getting a more marcipan-y smell than cherry smell. Thick and sweet. I have a large roll of marcipan for baking purposes in the kitchen and this tea is making me want to go and bite it. I shall excert some self control though.

The flavour is strongly almond, but with a fruity note of cherry to it. I think almond is the primary note, but the cherry note is fairly large as well. It’s just more of a side-dish note than the almond is. Like how you would say, “for dinner I had a grilled fish with some potatoes,” but you wouldn’t say, “for dinner I had boiled potatoes with some fish,” because that evokes a strange idea of what you dinner was like. In the aftertaste, however, the cherry is the star and it’s a long note too.

The thing about flavoured tea is I greatly enjoy a flavoured tea, but I don’t want it to be so strongly flavoured (in most things) that I lose the feeling of drinking tea. I want tea with flavouring, not flavouring with tea. I’m actually a little uncertain about where this particular tea falls on that scale, but I think that must be due to me not really drinking very much green tea in general, so the base doesn’t stand out to me super much. I’m willing to give it the benefit of doubt on this point.

It’s quite a pleasant tea and I’m very much enjoying this cup, but I’m not sure it would really hold my interest in the long run what with it being green. I like green well enough, I just don’t find it as good as my blacks, so I’m not very good at drinking it. In spite of the fact that I think cherry and green tea are two flavours that suit each other very well indeed, I’d be more inclined towards a black base blend of this. (And here, that brioche blend from American Tea Room springs to mind, actually.)

I received this sample from bluebelle in our February swap. Thank you for sharing!

I was nervous about this tea because I could not find an English description of the tea. I still am not sure what I am sipping, but man it is good. Why oh why must my mouth like teas that are impossible to get a hold of? As I am typing the light bulb is going off that maybe I should put the description into google translate. Anyway, this is another tea that I have a small sample of that I will savor and pray that I get to taste again someday. As for the taste, I am getting a black tea with hints of possibly oolong with a fruity finish.

Now this is the last of the Comptoir teas, and this time I’m not mistaken. It’s a bit confusing, as this smells almost exactly like Le Thé d’Amandine by the same company. (Reviewed here: http://steepster.com/annchen/posts/212004)

Obviously, these two teas have completely different flavour profiles on paper, some of which comes through in the brewed tea. Weirdly, this one has a slight hint of Dammann Frères’ Pu erh Gourmand, as well. (Reviewed here: http://steepster.com/annchen/posts/196900)

So this feels like a big, crazy, mosh pit of French quality tea. It should be more appealing, you know – two teas I really enjoy coming together in one dirty oolong? Because the base tea here is very nice, just the kind of earthy oolong I enjoy. But no – it’s just too similar, like when you hear a song that sounds almost exactly like one of your favourites, or when you meet a person who looks very much like a friend of yours. Something’s just the tiniest bit off, and it’s hard to make out what it is.

Still, this is a great tea. Dark, rich, velvety sips all throughout the cup. If I’d tried this one before the two others, this could very well have ended up being the one I preferred.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

Sometimes it’s good to be wrong; I thought I’d tried all my Comptoir teas, but there was one sample and one black tea that were hiding behind everything else on the tray. This is the sample.

The picture of the dry tea looks very pretty, but there is nothing even resembling a strawberry in my little bag. That doesn’t make it smell any less delicious, though. What instantly comes to mind is my favourite strawberry gelato from Giolitti. Steeped, it retains the same lush berrynote.

In the cup, nothing overly surprising happens – if that gelato were a tea, it would taste something like this. The problem is, I don’t really want to drink ice cream. I know, a surprising lack of debauchery on my part, but I honestly do prefer it pre-meltage.

If you want a very nice, natural strawberry tea, this is a good choice. If you want a little more smoothness and fun (I know I do) go with Lupicia’s Strawberry-Vanilla.

[Sample from my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

I so rarely come into contact with verbena/vervain in any form that now, when I have this golden opportunity, it’s going to be very, very hard to not make at least one Vampire Diaries joke per sentence. But I will try.

This is, according to my highly scientific calculations (I checked the tray of untried teas in the kitchen) the final Comptoir tea I have yet to try. Overall, they have been far more impressive than the Dammann Frères teas from the same order, but not quite as complex and flavourful as the greens from Mariage Frères I’ve come to love so much. I’ve ranked them 75 throughout, I think, but I think I’ll probably nudge those ratings up to 80 after being bored to death by some more DF teas.

This was a completely random selection – I’m not a huge citrus tea fan, but I was curious about the mandarin. It turned out to be a really good choice.

In the bag, this smells very much like something L’Occitane would sell – a little over the top, heavy and balmy. Still, it’s hard to stop smelling it, because it’s so complex, and the nice roundness of the citrus is really comforting.

Steeped, it’s just great. It reminds me a lot of a blood orange tea I had at The Gage in Chicago (I’ll write a note for that soon, as I asked for some leaf to go) which was just beautiful. This definitely inspires me to look for more blood orange/mandarin teas, as this is turning into a new favourite taste range – maybe citrus teas are for me, after all.

All in all, this is my favourite Comptoir tea so far, which is no small feat – I could drink this every day. (Not to mention the obvious perk of keeping those pesky vamps at bay.)

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

Since I’ve been so deep into my Comptoir cups lately, I might as well keep it up into the new year. Reading about this one, I was excited about the almond-cherry combination. Artificial cherry can be so vile, but sometimes it veers very nicely into bitter almond, so I figured this tea could be a double-almond experience, at best.

The dry tea smells absolutely gorgeous. It’s hits a few perfect galette des rois notes, but then turns a little boozier, like a liquored-up crème d’amandes/frangipane. The best part, though, is that it tastes exactly as it smells. I rarely (never, really) feel the least inclination to add alcohol to my tea, but I really do want to try this with a few drops of amaretto.

The cherry is present, but it’s more a cherry ghost than anything. (The ghost of cherries past.) It adds a bit of sweetness and rounds off the flavour very nicely.

All in all, this is a very lovely tea. I definitely want to compare it to a black version – I’ll check if Comptoir do one, otherwise I’ll try to find that one by Mariage Frères (ETA: Actually, Theodor – see the comments.) everyone compares to a galette des rois.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

Oh.

Oh.

PEACHY.

Really good, natural peach flavour is so hard to come by. But here it is! Right here!

This tea is playing tricks on my brain in the best way. Smelling the dry leaf made my tongue tingle with the anticipation of soft-rough peach skin – this, in spite of the fact that the peach itself isn’t that obvious in the nose. There’s mainly a full, fruity ripeness there, very sweet – but I guess there was something quite undeniably peachy there that my senses immediately recognized. I’m Pavlov’s peach eater.

It smells lovely brewed, too. Like a good, green Lupicia tea at its best, but with more sophistication. (I definitely must compare this with Lupicia’s Momo at some point.) In the cup, it’s all juicy peach – the aftertaste in particular is highly peachful.

Iced. This will be iced. I’m going to ice this. Yes.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

I’ve been catching up on books and movies lately – the World War Z mantra is as suitable as any other for that process, or moving into the new year, or getting through the tea stash, for that matter: movimiento es vida.

This has been a year of chapters closing, much like the year before it. Last words have been exchanged, final breaths have been drawn, dotted lines have been signed. At one glorious, memorable point, I’d even sampled all the teas then present in my cupboard. The cupboard situation right now, though? World War T.

But the old clichés are true (because, you know, clichés are just oft-cited truths and people get so cranky about them mostly because they’re completely unavoidable) as something new begins the very moment something old ends.

And since I really, really want some THEODOR tea in the new year, I better start moving so I can get through my current stash of French greens.

As I have previously reported on several occasions, I am thoroughly underwhelmed by Dammann Frères. The teas from Comptoir have fared somewhat better (I mistakenly assumed they were part of the Fauchon-DF family, but they really seem to have more character and personality overall, so I guess not) under my scrutiny, and this is one of them.

This is my first violet tea. I love violet – I grew up eating these little candies: http://husmorsbloggen.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/viol.jpg and it tastes of childhood to me. Super nostalgic, with some quirkiness and a dash of whimsical adventurousness. This is a horrible description, but the way I experience the flavour is just so deeply interconnected with my memories of being a child it’s impossible to be more neutral (or, for that matter, even vaguely comprehensible).

I think this would be a really perfect beginner’s violet tea. It smells lovely in the bag – first, there’s a sweet, ripe berry presence, and then a hint of violet right at the end. In the cup, however, the violet is ever-present, from the first sip to the aftertaste.

It’s a mellow, balanced violet, but definitely without being bland or watery (which is a nice change after all these dull Dammann dates I’ve been going on) and it remains equally pleasant cooling off.

This one is hard to rate, because in spite of being a violet fan, I don’t really feel I need a violet tea in my life. Then again, it might just be one of those cases of, ‘You just haven’t met the right violet tea yet.’ I will definitely try at least one more to make absolutely sure.

[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]

today has been an ysaurella day. i rooted about in the magical envelope she sent me…. and pulled out the myrtille sauvage blend.

i ran the kettle, i measured the tea, i added the water, set the timer and walked away. suddenly i heard edith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFtGfyruroU from the kitchen. she was wearing an old fashioned apron and chasing me about with an oversized wooden spoon!

‘sortez vous de ma cuisine!’ she shrieked…. it’s not like i had much choice! i knew that if that spoon connected it would pack quite a whallop.

i ducked behind the couch and spied covertly. she crashed through the disorganization that is our kitchen.
’we’re renovating,’ i called out in justification of the mess.

it was a mistake, i had interrupted again. a serving fork flew narrowly missing my head.

i smelled jam. jam? i was tempted to look but was still vaguely terrified.

bluberries, but not only. i smelled raspberries? maybe huckleberries? and then cookies?? i took a chance and poked my head up silently. sugar cookies! ysaurella had packed edith piaf in an envelope and sent her to make jam and cookies in our disorganized kitchen? that’s a lady with connections!

edith elegantly placed a cookie on a plate, spooned the warm jam over top and put it next to my steeping tea.

following my nose i found the plate gone, but my jam covered cookie happily steeped in my tea cup.

a refrain called out to me very distantly and i barked laughter, ‘non, je regrette rien…’

Sipdown, 141. So I had this actually first a while ago when I wasn’t really posting notes (dissertation still isn’t done, but the worst has past). Violet is one of those florals I haven’t been able to get behind, but I got this as a free sample with my Instant Thé order, so I figured I would try it.

The first sip I thought I didn’t want any more, but then it kind of grew on me and I mildly enjoyed the rest of the cup. TONS of violet, not much raspberry. I decided to cold steep the rest of it with a sachet of Paradise Green from Lupicia that came in my newsletter, since I wasn’t too into it. Mistake. That blend is totally bleh, mostly bitterness and overwhelming violet. A violet lover would certainly appreciate this more, I think.

You know there’s that current discussion on the numerical scoring teas going on now (when you’ve been around as long as I have, you’ve seen it pop up several times), where people are like, if you know in advance that you don’t like the flavors in a tea, why are you drinking it?

Here’s one reason: I got a free sample of this tea with my Instant Thé order. I am not the biggest fan of lavender in my teas, and have had some truly awful ones, but I will always try a tea out just to see if the flavor is well done by someone. This is an interesting one as well because it’s not just lavender, it’s lavender and orange and lemon and cinnamon. My boyfriend insists it smells altogether like ginger and I can kind of see where he’s coming from, even though there’s no ginger in this tea.

I brewed this a boiling before I realized it was a black/dark oolong blend, but hopefully it’s a robust enough oolong to take it. What an interestingly odd tea! Honestly I think the cinnamon saves it for me. It provides just enough spice to really cut through the lavender and keep it from being soapy. The citrus also provides a bit of an edge to the sip. It’s just an odd mix and hard to really pin down. This is totally not a flavor combo that I will ever go for again, but it’s not as bad as I feared.

Sipdown, 146. Normally I would have saved this tea for a time when my stomach was upset or I wasn’t feeling well (lemon, ginger), but sipdowns must be had. I accidentally set my timer for 1 hour and two minutes somehow, but noticed it after it had gone for about 4.5 minutes. Thankfully it survived its slightly long steep time without getting bitter or nasty.

This was a free sample that came with my Instant Thé order. Like Ysaurella, I haven’t heard of this company before, but the samples they sent sounded pretty good. This is very similar to the Lemon Drop tea I have from California Tea House (and also to a large number of lemony-ginger green teas), except this has some mint and licorice root in it instead of chamomile and orange peel.

I find these teas make good stomach-settlers, which is why I chose this one this morning. I am already feeling better than I did earlier, but I figured having some of this one will probably help anyway. I am enjoying this blend… definitely lemony, but much of the other flavors just kind of blend in to a kind of herbal background. The licorice root provides a sweetness to the aftertaste that I find pleasant. Nice, but it doesn’t really stand out from the crowd of other lemony green teas.

Hummmm I am sipping this one actually while enjoying the wild blueberry muffins I prepared to pair with.

I regret I didn’t manage to find out fresh blueberries for my muffins but it’s always complicated so I decided to take frozen blueberries.
These Muffins are some kind of survivors because I have experienced problems with my oven and mould :S
My muffin silicon mould just folded and half the preparation slipped to the bottom of the oven – we had smoke everywhere in the kitchen and I was asked if I was trying to invent some kind of domestical gas chamber… !
Finally I saved the rest of my preparation ans made a second one (to get full swollen muffins !)

This morning I’m happy to see they finally are good !

For one time I prepared a full teapot of Myrtille Sauvage. I normally always use a mug.
This is really yummy. So smooth, mellow and I get a so natural blueberry : Sure I’ll manage to finish the full teapot !

Ok, let’s say right now : I’ve never heard about this company before – it’s the only tea I ordered along my 15 other which is not a Dammann Frères.

I wrote to the website to know the tea brand just to give the right informations here and they mentioned it was Comptoirs des thés et des épices.No way no find anything about this brand on the web.The website argues this is a very old and very high quality import brand -They even mention “teas of Exception”
Gosh…I was quite dubitative even if I have no reasons to doubt.

Opening the bag…the scent is so lovely, for sure natural blueberry.
I had no recommendation for steeping so I tried with 3 minutes and a half and 96°C.
I was searching a blueberry tea and found this one, I wasn’t expecting a lot of this tea except having a lovely taste of blueberry.I had very much more. The taste is more than lovely, very refined and once again so natural.

The tea base is really smooth and present, to me it seems to be a China black.The blueberry goes so well with the tea base, this is really a very very very good surprise.

I am very glad to have ordered this one !