Nina's Paris

Mmm…I adore this tea! The dry leaf smells fruity and sweet. The tea leaves are a lovely dark green and I appreciate how much TEA is actually in this blend. This blend is mostly tea with a sprinkling of fruit pieces.

Once it’s steeped, the tea smells much like the dry leaf, only more subtle. It brews a pale yellow-green (almost clear). The pineapple flavor takes center stage with delicate notes of coconut and grass in the background. The fruit flavors taste very natural and work well together.

I drank this tea hot with no additions. It’s wonderful that way, although I look forward to experimenting more with it as an iced tea and with sweetener.

This sample was amazing!

I wish I took pictures of this blend! More if I could capture the smell to show everyone! Very amazing apple scent!

Taste? Great black tea base, loads of natural and fresh apple flavor. I sat there awhile trying to figure out what kind of apple I was tasting. The apple was crisp, like a golden delicious, but the skin tasted sweet like a red delicious or gala. The floral is really low here but melded with the apple.

Love it! I need more of this tea sometime.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

Mmm, Nina’s Japon smelled amazing before steeping!

I do like the combination of the black tea and genmaicha, plus it was creamy! Those flavors really worked well with the creamy, caramel and coconut aftertaste. I’d personally like a little less black in this blend, but I did like the extra depth it added.

This one seemed picky to steep and needs a shorter steeping time.

Full Review on my blog, the oolong owl. I did a review of the 3 samples I received! http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/ninas-paris-sample-tea-review/

1.05 tablespoons 248 ml.

The mild smokiness of the sencha is able to come through. I’m detecting a definite chocolately note near the end of the sip into the aftertaste. Roasted rice flavour closer to the middle of the sip. Vanilla overtones from the middle of sip to the end. Vanilla and caramel sweetness.

Went out for a wonderful dinner tonight. I ate far too much and still came home with enough food for my lunch tomorrow. Oy!

Since I had over indulged I decided to skip dessert and coffee at the restaurant and have this at home instead. It’s a nice Moroccan Mint. I like that the mint doesn’t overwhelm the tea. I do wish there was more smokiness from the gunpowder green, but the tea was still nice without it. For people who want to try Moroccan Mint but don’t like smokey teas this could be a great option.

This isn’t my favorite Moroccan Mint, but it is a good one.

Thank you to Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA for this sample.

Dry tea smells like buttery, vegetal green tea with cherry flavor. There are flower petals mixed in with the green tea.

As the tea brews, the green tea and flower petals unfurl. Nina’s Paris tea is so beautiful to watch while brewing.

The smell of the tea is like sweet candied cherries.

The tea tastes like a mild green tea vegetal base. There is a sweet , candy, cherry taste. There is not much flowery taste, but I think the flower blunts the taste of the cherry. This tea is much less tart then similar teas of different brands. I actually quite like this as it is less artificial tasting with the cherry flavor. There is a slight peppery finish to the tea.

Thank you to Laurent and Sophie from Nina’s Paris USA for this free sample. It only took 23 days to get to me. The anticipation was killing me.

The dry tea smells very flowery and perfumey. There are small yellow flower petals mixed throughout the black tea.

The brewed tea smells very flowery but no so much of a perfume smell, more like a natural rose scent. There is a slight sweet vegetal smell. The yellow petals have unfurled and float in the liquor. Looks beautiful.
The tea tastes slightly sweet, some rose flavor but not overpowering. The sweetness comes from an apple flavor, its very light. Reminds me of smelling the ripe red apples at a fruit stand. Smooth and creamy. This tea feels very luxurious and I can totally understand why it is named after Marie Antoinette. I would not necessarily drink this tea in the morning, it feels like more of an afternoon tea.

Definitely going on the shopping list.

Dry, this smells wonderful! Juicy raspberries and strawberries abound.

Steeped, it tastes like mellow green tea and a titch of raspberries. The berries come through more in scent than taste, which is still lovely.

Thanks to Nina’s Tea for a sample of this tea!

Brewed up, this smells insanely fruity. It’s like…. sour wildberry gummy candies? Like, the little 5 cent berries you can buy at convenience stores. The flavour is equally fruity; the predominant flavour I’m tasting is probably raspberry. There is supposed to be cream in here; I suppose it’s contributing to the smoothness of the tea, but it’s not really obvious otherwise.

For some strange reason, I’m typically not fond of wildberry-flavoured things (I’m really not sure why), so this tea isn’t my favourite, but for anyone looking for a very, VERY fruity, tasty flavoured black, I’d definitely point you towards this one! Keeping my prejudice out of the way, it’s a really fantastic tea!

This tea’s claim to fame is that it uses apples from King Louis XVI’s kitchen garden in Versailles, which is pretty damn cool. After sampling this blend, I’m wondering whether Marie-Antoinette ordered her husband’s apple trees to be watered with wine? ;)

Dry, this smelled like a cheap sauvignon blanc. Bleh!
Steeped it smells a bit better, like mulled wine and there’s the Jolly Rancher note that others are mentioning. Taste, hint of light rose, but overall just fermented.

Kind thanks to Laurent for the sample, but this one isn’t for me.

A wonderful tea, both in aroma and flavor. I drank two steeps and thoroughly enjoyed both. It tasted mainly like caramel and toasted rice. Ever so slight grassy notes from the green tea peeked through at the end of each sip. The tea base was hardly noticeable.

Trying this one now, my last sample from the Nina’s Paris catalogue. The cherry flavour in this is a bit overwhelming to me. It’s really really there, and I can taste hints of rose too but it’s very faint. The cherry on the other hand, I mostly taste the sour cherry, which is fine, I love sour cherries, but it’s faintly artificial tasting to me and although it doesn’t taste exactly like a cough drop, it does remind me of one. That sounds more terrible than it is, really. I like this some, but not a lot. Glad I got to try it, but I won’t be ordering it.

Got this sample from Nina’s Paris during their sample promotion. Just enough for one oversized mug, plus another steep after as soon as I finish this cup.

This is SO STRAWBERRY! And in a good way, not that terribly artificial stuff that plagues a lot of strawberry tasting teas. This is really good! I was a bit disappointed with my first Nina’s tea, but this one totally makes up for it, and I heard that it resteeps well too, though I haven’t tried it yet. But I will in a few minutes! This tea is pretty brilliant. I pick up faint hints of vanilla, but mostly just strawberry and that’s interesting, but not a bad thing. Mostly the vanilla just leaves a creamy edge to the taste. I approve of this tea.

The second steep has a stronger fruit flavour, with a nice blend between strawberry,and red grapefruit. The vanilla is still present. The tea is less creamy and is oddly sweeter. Still has very nice flavour.

This was really lovely. It has the creamy taste of a really good homemade strawberry ice cream where the cream is allowed to shine and the strawberries are accents. This flavour hits many of the accents that I love in Zen Tea’s raspberry vanilla and fans of that tea would probably love this one as well.

The dry tea smells of fresh strawberries and vanilla whey powder. Once brewed the tea smells of rooibos, vanilla, faint red grapefruit and a sweetness that comes from strawberry. Despite the ingredient list the tea tastes soft not tart. It is creamy with a thick mouth feel for a rooibos. The first note is a creamy cool vanilla, with faint grapefruit top note followed by a strawberry and cream flavour. The vanilla flavour is very natural. The rooibos flavour is well covered by flavouring leaving only a tingling on the tongue as an aftertaste. I am glad Nina’s offered me the opportunity to sample this tea. Thanks again! I would love to keep this tea in my cupboard!

Tea smelled good dry and made. The tea was quite bitter though. And it was only brewed 3 minutes. Not a fan of my first Nina’s and was glad it came as a sample.

mmm final sample from Nina’s tea and i wish i had enough of this to try a cold brew. While this is a nice hot tea with a nice blend of fruits, i think i’d really enjoy this cold. It’s very similar to Hepburn, though it is clearly a different tea. I don’t pick up on the pineapple but there is an overall fruitiness to this that speak of something more than just orange.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this sample!

oh yum! Thank you again to Nina’s Paris for their willingness to send out samples to us. I am always on the lookout for new delicious strawberry cream teas, so this one was a clear pick for me.
The dry smell is very “fruity” and not a clear strawberry smell. Once brewed, the strawberry flavour is super resent in both the aroma and the tea. I am enjoying very much the fact that although these teas are flavoured tea, the base of the team is present in the drink. This is a really nice strawberry tea that I will likely order when i am allowed to order more teas lol (ie i get my cupboard back down to under 200 since technically i’m for sure over 250 at the moment with all the teas that i can’t log because steepster hates new teas being added).

Thank you again Nina’s Paris for this sample!

Edit: As this tea cools it gets even better as the strawberry flavours come out even more. Also – the second steep is quiet delicious as well, and helps bring out more of the strawberry flavour and blends even better with the tea base.

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this sample. I am a huge fan of chocolate and orange, though apparently I don’t have a lot of luck in this department’s flavour when it comes to tea. The loose tea smell of this tea is wonderful! While not quite as orange chocolate as Butiki’s three friends, it’s still a wonderful smelling tea.

Steeped, I really like how teh orange smells – not really artificial at all. And that is where my love ends. The tea is not a bad tea. But it’s not what i hoped for. It’s a really nice blend of orange and black tea, though i’m missing the chocolate. It’s not bitter, and i do appreciate that i can taste the base of the tea. I would for sure drink this again, it just won’t be that elusive must have chocolate orange tea that needs to be in my cupboard. The hunt continues! :)

I tasted this tea with comparison to Della Terra’s Chocolate Orange Slice. In summary Hepburn had more of an orange flavour while Della Terra’s had a stronger chocolate flavour. Hepburn may be preferable to those who prefer milk chocolate while the Orange Slice tea references dark chocolate. The tea base flavour was more prominent in Hepburn, while the base was smoother but more bitter in Della Terra’s option, and did not have as much depth of flavour or a very strong presence. Both were pretty enjoyable teas, but I think I may prefer Nina’s I loved the rich dark chocolate flavour in Della Terra’s Tea, but Nina’s tea had more layers of flavour and left me with such a pleasant feeling afterwords, whereas Chocolate Orange Slice left me feeling a little heady.

This was my third Sample from Nina’s. Thanks again!

The dry tea smells like Terry’s orange flavoured milk chocolate oranges it has tea with pieces of orange rind in it. The brewed tea smells of dry oranges with a hint of chocolate, combined with fall leaves. It also smells a little bit like a mid to dark roast orange oolong. It brews fairly light.

Taking a sip, the top notes are of a sweet orange
chocolate. The orange flavour is dominant followed by the taste of a
fairly sweet milk choolate.

The tea is a little astringent leaving a drying sensation on the tongue, be careful with brewing temperature and time.

The tea underneath is sweet, fruity, and has a hint of sweet potato. It also has a flavour that reminds me of fall with faint spice and bitterness combined.

The orange flavour is a combination of dried/stewed fruit flavour. The sweetness was dominant when first sipped but dissapates when drinking, the chocolate scent remains through out thecup, whereas the orange dissipates, ironically the oposite is true of the flavour. There is no oily film which you sometimes get with chocolate teas. The orange rind lends a little tang and bitterness to the tea. The orange is still dominant in the second steep and there is less chocolate and more cream.

After drinking the tea I am left with a sense of alert wellbeing.

Sweet fruits! This sample is delightful, and strawberry has been my theme this entire pregnancy! This is a nice dessert for breakfast type of tea. The base is stronger than the strawberry flavor, which is nice and different than the other strawberry teas I’ve had. This one is good. It is not astringent and the brew was a nice brown color. It smells like strawberries and the taste of it was light and mildly sweet. I love how it tastes like WILD strawberries and not artificial at all. I felt like I was picking them from the strawberry bush and eating it… though the flavor is more subtle than actually doing that! I wasn’t able to obtain any of the vanilla flavors, but it may have been there more as a creamy tone. Very subtle indeed, but very good tea! This tea is well blended!

Delicious tea! The mix of black and mostly green leaves with the pieces of crispy rice is amazing! It smells sweet! The brew was a bright cheery yellow. I’ve never tried flavored genmaicha before!

The taste was amazingly airy and smooth. Delicious and sweet! I love the sweet caramel and vanilla flavors. It was almost like I was eating cotton candy. I love the hint of the nutty rice flavor in the background. I didn’t think it was too prominent. It was blended very well!