Ladurée

And it’s a belatedly posted sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

Really enjoyed this subtle lovely tea. Thank you for the sample, Sil.

This is citrusy and a bit perfumey. I blame age considering the best before date on this is last year. I may toss the remaining teabags.

Since cataloging most of my stash (I’m still going), I realized a lot of my teas are coming up to a year old (and some are even over 3 years old) so my goal is to drink those up. This tea joined my cupboard in October 2016 when my sister returned from her honeymoon and though it doesn’t show signs of aging, I still have at least 10 teabags left so it’s time to get working on them.

So I brewed this up and sipped away at it happily while watching smallville and eating Korean food for dinner. Tbh I have no idea about any of the nuances in this mug but I do know I finished the whole thing so my guess is I liked it.

I love this tea. And that’s saying a lot from a person who doesn’t really love strong black teas in their tea blends. So easy to sip. Powerful black braces with no astringency no it delicately balances the floral and citrus components. Hubs got me 125g of this for Valentines. How he got it to the states is his secret but I can tell him it’s worth it. I’ll drink all of this I know it. It’s delicate and so flavorful. Perfect balance. Not what I would describe as a fruity tea in any way. It’s really incomparable

Sip down…. Too subtle for me. Not bad, just an uneventful drink.

Sipdown

Thank you Sil for sharing. I finished this off with a Homer Simpson donut and it was the perfect pairing. This was chocolate and caramel while the donut was sugary and vanilla. Delicious combo :). With that said, I think I am okay saying goodbye to this tea after the sample I had.

This is another tea that Superanna brought me from London. There are three beautiful boxes of sachets in one presentation box. The sachets are cloth and not paper. Kudos!

I am enjoying another quiet morning at home and wanted a special tea again. The red fruits appealed to me this morning. It is very cloudy and chilly outside (63F is chilly for here right now, okay? Ha ha!) and I have to go out to feed and water the chickens first thing, so breakfast is extra cozy.

The fruity aroma is a herald of the fruity taste to come. The tea base is present, not hidden under fake candy taste, and the fruit flavor is smooth, natural, and balanced. I got a really nice second steep out of the sachet so I may try for a third.

Very nice and worthy of such a morning as this, peaceful music playing and cozy under a linen blanket.

Sipdown (259)

This doesnt taste like much other than sharp citrus. The rest of the teabags are in my swap box. I will probably just pawn it off on my classmates like I did most of the rest of my swap box not too long ago.

Finishing the sample of this that Sil kindly shared with me. However this is not a sipdown since my sister brought me back some from Paris a couple months back. I think I understeeped this though because the flavor is lacking compared to the one time I had this prior. Nonethless, thank you Sil for sharing :)

GCTTB 2.0
I love all these French teas. This one has quite a strong bergamot scent and I was expecting it to be something like an earl grey. Instead the flavour, while citrus, was more like sweet oranges than bergamot. There’s also a nice floral undertone that stays pleasantly subtle and underneath it all are some smooth vanilla notes.

The great thing about French teas, I’ve found, is the deftness with which flavours are blended – they hint at flavour notes rather than beat you over the head with them. I’ve rarely come across a French tea that’s heavy-handed in its flavouring.

Sipdown (168)

Made this as a teapop and for some reason it has a lot of vanilla flavor to it. I think I definitely preferred this cold brewed because that brought out more of the fruitier flavors. It is a nice tea but I am okay saying good bye to this. Still its fun to try. Thank you Sil for the share :)

I’m loving all these French teas in the GCTTB This one is a mild mix of chocolate and caramel flavours that pair well with a smooth base that has some nice warm, biscuity notes. This would make a nice breakfast blend as it has strength without being harsh and the flavours are pleasantly soothing. Personally I’d like a bit more chocolate, but then I’m a total chocolate fiend. ;)

Last year I went on a euro trip with the worst travel partner ever. We had one day in Paris (which she had been to before) and she insisted on spending most of the day at the champs-elysees so she could visit a store she liked the year before. She also pushed for us to go to McDonalds in every city we visited because she’s a picky eater and had no interest in trying the food everywhere had to offer. Anyways, one plus for me being on the champs-elysees was Laduree. I knew them as a bakery that had world famous macarons so I decided once I was there I would splurge to try some. My travel partner also splurged and then bitched to me about the cost to which I said she didn’t need to buy them if she didn’t want to spend the money and she told me she HAD to because they are famous (a fact she didn’t know prior to me telling her as I made her walk in the shop).

So that kind of ruined the whole experience which is made even sadder by the fact that I really wanted to visit a Parisian tea shop and at the time realized my time in Laduree was my one chance to do that (seeing as she told me we had no time to visit a tea shop since we only had the one day). Why didn’t I realize this? Well, stupid me didn’t realize Laduree was a tea shop until Sil started posting about their teas and now that she was awesome enough to share, I realize I missed out on a good tea shop as this vanilla tea is lovely. Creamy and sweet and just vanilla deliciousness. So thank you Sil for sharing and given me the chance to indulge in the Parisian teas I missed on while I was in France!

GCTTB V2

So, like Lala I definitely initially misread this one and 100% expected it to be Cherry. And of course, it’s not. It’s chocolate/caramel/vanilla? If I remember correctly…

It’s actually VERY good but I’m a little sad it’s not what I was expecting. First thing I noticed was immediately the vanilla – it’s incredibly similar in profile and strength to the vanilla flavour in the Vanille blend from this same company. Which isn’t surprising; it’s just nice to see the consistency. That said, I also really taste the caramel; it’s smooth, creamy and sweet! I can’t say I’m getting hit with a whole lot of chocolate though. At the same time; even now that I know there isn’t cherry flavour in the blend it’s hard for it to not taste a little fruity to me. I’d probably call the notes I’m picking up more of a ripe strawberry or sweetened strawberry compote than cherry – but definitely observing a fruity sweetness in the finish of the sip.

Happy to have tried this one.

I accidentally posted this under the wrong header earlier this morning, so reposting now under the correct entry for accuracy’s sake…

GCTTB V2

So many fancy teas in the box! And black teas, specifically!

I cold brewed this one; I’ve been drinking a lot of cold brewed fruit teas and I wanted to switch things up a little bit just to have a break inbetween cold brews.

This was phenomenal: there’s so much vanilla flavour packed into this tea it’s insane! Seriously, a lot of “Vanilla” teas are subtle/weak but this is really in your face and I appreciate that. It still tastes very natural and it’s vanilla without being cloying vanilla. There’s some creamyness as well which adds a bit more depth, and I felt like I also got some nice malt and wood notes from the base tea. I bet you that this would make an insane latte! Maybe someone else in the line up with the box will have to try that…

Also, I want to share this SUPER CUTE Finebros reaction video! It is ‘tea’ related, afterall…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLFzQLIcCkE

I definitely feel like the majority of their reactions are exactly the same as my reaction the very first time I tried boba. I love it now, though.

GCTTB V2

So many fancy teas in the box! And black teas, specifically!

I cold brewed this one; I’ve been drinking a lot of cold brewed fruit teas and I wanted to switch things up a little bit just to have a break inbetween cold brews.

This was phenomenal: there’s so much vanilla flavour packed into this tea it’s insane! Seriously, a lot of “Vanilla” teas are subtle/weak but this is really in your face and I appreciate that. It still tastes very natural and it’s vanilla without being cloying vanilla. There’s some creamyness as well which adds a bit more depth, and I felt like I also got some nice malt and wood notes from the base tea. I bet you that this would make an insane latte! Maybe someone else in the line up with the box will have to try that…

Also, I want to share this SUPER CUTE Finebros reaction video! It is ‘tea’ related, afterall…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLFzQLIcCkE

I definitely feel like the majority of their reactions are exactly the same as my reaction the very first time I tried boba. I love it now, though.