Palais des Thés

Not so magnifique, I’m afraid. Another very weak brew from Palais Des Thes. Their description reads, “A warming blend of green tea with fruity, succulent notes of pear, vanilla and almond.”

This tastes like water with a weak aroma of vanilla and green tea. I have brewed exactly to instructions and it’s just absolutely flavourless. It tastes like I’ve brewed a gallon of hot water with a single bag. I’ve kept it in for 4 minutes over the recommended 3 minutes and only minimal pear flavour emerged.

This would be perfect for a person who hates tea but for some reason wants to be seen drinking it. But quite dreadful for the rest of us.

And back to the Palais des Thes with an herbal selection this evening. Brews nicely to a pleasant light amber cup with the classy muslin teabag.

Heavy on the verbena, (though it tastes more like lemongrass) with a minty aftertaste that grows more prominent as the tea cools, plus some sneaky rosehips. The verbena/lemongrassy note overpowers to the point where I cannot really detect any significant orange. The strength is reasonable when brewed as suggested- not too weak, not too strong.

But, it tastes like any tea you’ve ever had after a fancy spa treatment. It’s totally generic to the point where I feel like I’ve tasted this dozens of times before from airport lounges to Starbucks to indie tea shops in Kyoto. It’s blonde wood and fluffy white robe “wellness.” It’s totally boring.

But, sometimes boring is nice when we’re too tired to be adventurous, so there is a time and place for everything. It’s a good quality blend, but at $22USD for about 125g, I think it’s way it’s overpriced.

For my ratings, I do consider price as part of the overall score vs. just straight tea quality. I will judge a pricey tea more strictly than a cheap one, though quality and taste are the most important factor. If this were a $4 box of Celestial Seasonings, I’d give it a higher score. But this tea’s worst sin is just being so….utterly generic.

Cold Brew!

I’m not gonna lie, when I went to make this cold brew I was 100% mixing it up with another Palais des Thes blend that I own which is also orange flavoured. However, that blend is a juicy plain orange whereas this one is chocolate orange. Chocolate orange is not my first thought for cold tea…

It was… fine. Very, very chocolate forward and a good chocolate note with lots of that authentic cocoa husk kind of flavour. The orange was nice too, though lighter than expected and a little masked by the richness of the chocolate. Wouldn’t do it again though, and kind of wish I had brewed up the blend I had in my mind. Oops.

The first tea that I drank post-advents! Why this tea? Well, why not? I think I just felt a little paralyzed by how much choice I suddenly had and I ended up going for the very first tin that I grabbed off the shelf. No thoughts, just tea.

It’s a nice enough chocolate orange tea. Heavier on the orange which, since this is a green tea base, makes sense to me in a way I can’t quite put into words. I think if the chocolate was heavier this might have read as thin to me since the green tea has a more gentle body. Instead this manages to be a fresh feeling in a way chocolate blends are typically not. Why is it called Jungle, though? That part makes zero sense to me.

Also, it’s nice to see that Palais de Thes is capable of doing a fresh and juicy orange flavour since their “Juicy sunrise” blend with orange is so chalky and medicinal.

Third time’s the charm for Palais des Thes. After two disappointments, this jasmine is quite nice. However, their claim of “One of the finest jasmine teas with a high proportion of tips. This green tea has a velvety texture that highlights every aspect of jasmine without even a hint of bitterness,” is a bit exaggerated.

The tea is a nice quality green with a powerful jasmine aroma and flavour. No mistaking this tea- it’s jasmine through and through. It’s a bright, clean note- not soapy as some jasmine can be- but despite the promises, I do get a hint of bitterness as it cools. I brewed exactly as instructed because jasmines can be finicky.

At least this particular tea brewed nicely to a proper, recognizable cuppa. The last couple teas I tried from this brand were either terribly watery or had flavours so bland they were barely an afterthought. I’m going through the advent calendar but can’t imagine revisiting the brand unless the rest of their teas are spectacular.

Given the high price of this tea in the US, I wouldn’t repurchase. For a divine jasmine, I would have no problem splurging. But this, sadly is not, so I’d go with Yamamoto Yama Jasmine in a heartbeat. Almost as nice for about 3/4 less.

Another Palais des Thés, "a green tea…with Damas rose and exotic fruits – mango, yellow peach, and citrus fruits – giving it the distinct flavor of a petal jelly. (?)

I am getting a distinct flavour…of not much at all. A hint of rose, some generic fruit. The overall tea is very weak, I can’t even really taste the green tea. This whole blend is watery and unpleasant. I’m using a smaller cuppa due to the smaller teabag and even oversteeping, and still not getting much flavour.

My second Palais des Thés, and I’m totally underwhelmed. 22 more to go, hope it gets better.

My first Palais des Thés and I am not terribly impressed. It’s got a strong strawberry note with a grassy/hay finish (cornflower?) and a bit of sweetness over a perfectly serviceable black blend, but I do not get any of the promised honey, lavender, or rhubarb flavours.

I got this from the 2023 advent calendar that was on sale (hooray for procrastinating) as a way to try Palais des Thés. The calendar packaging is lovely, but I’ll be opening at random since I waited so long. The teabag is an attractive muslin cotton cloth, on the small side but seem potent enough for a decent cuppa. I don’t particularly like this tea enough to attempt a second steep.

As with other French teas, the description is way over the top: “An exquisite black tea with induldgent notes of strawberry and flowers.”

So far, it’s been a quite average tea experience, but I’m keeping an open mind for the other 23 offerings.

Cold Brew!

Yeaaaahhh nope.

Unfortunately, I think this is not only the first big flop from this recent Palais des Thes order but also just one of the worst teas I drank this past week in general. I was excited about a really bright, sweet and zesty orange mate but juicy is so far off the mark. Chalky, maybe. I mean, this tea really tasted like Flintstone vitamins in a way that was just unwelcome. I’m really not sure why either aside from something in the flavouring used possibly just being really off.

Definitely disappointing.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0H1GnfRlGd/?img_index=6 (6th Pic)

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYqsZyPF-EU

Made this a few nights ago and really enjoyed the mug. It was roasty in a bit of a softer way with caramelized/toasted grain notes and a hint of coffee and brown rice. Very sweet, lingering finishing. Palais des Thes says the finish is akin to licorice root, which I find interesting because I hate licorice root typically but I very much enjoyed this!

Drank a very large pot of this tea yesterday while working and I really, really enjoyed it. In fact, it might be my favourite tea I’ve ever had from Palais de Thes. Very warm and toasty with lots of grain/cereal type flavours alongside just a hint of a coppery mineral note, a very mouth coating caramel-like sweetness, and a big of a raw and unroasted peanut finish. Most interest was the ever so slight bean-y sort of vegetal undertone. I mean, it makes sense because there’s both soy bean and chamaecrista (a type of pea) in the blend.

Chamaecrista is actually a new to me ingredient, and I find it SUPER fascinating. The blend as a whole is so wild and beautiful looking, but the whole, dried pea pods in it from this ingredient are next level stunning. I may try and isolate a few of them from the rest of the blend to brew up, just to get a better sense of what they taste like on their own. From my reading, it seems like they might be one of the bigger contributors in this tea in terms of that pleasant natural, coating sweetness I was picking up.

I don’t know if this is traditional or not – it has that sort of “vibe” to it and there’s no flavouring or anything like that added. But I’ve also never seen anything quite like it. As a profound lover of all things “roast” when it comes to tea, I think this is such a uniquely roasty blend to add to my assortment. Love it!

SIpdown (2415)!

I received a sachet of this as a free sample in a recent order – looks like this is a new offering from Palais de Thes as part of their winter/Christmas assortment. I don’t usually love green tea, but pear and green tea is a combo that works better for me than many others. I thought this was nice. The pear was light and juicy with a floral undertone to it, and just sweet enough though I think it would be a misnomer to call this a “sweet tea”. Definitely a little bit on the thinner side though in terms of body and intensity, and as I was drinking it I kept thinking to myself how much I would rather just be having their “Japan Detox” blend (one of the few blends they carry that I enjoy) which is another pear flavoured green tea blend. A better one, in my opinion.

The dry leaf of this tea smells so good but something about the steeped taste didn’t quite land. I did enjoy the zesty, bright notes of lime but it seemed to be missing some of the more aromatic sweet, nutty and creamy notes I get from the smell. Also just a tiny bit rough in terms of mouthfeel with a more coarse taste once the citrus subsided.

Cold Brew!

Had this earlier in the week and it was not good.

I liked it hot, but something about the combination of the very milky notes with such a bright, fresh lime was deeping unsettling as a cold drink. Made me think of rancid yogurt. The best part was the toastiness of the rice in the blend, but it wasn’t enough to salvage this upsetting pairing of flavours.

I will be sticking to hot preparation going forward.

A friend recently ordered the Palais de Thes advent and she kindly offered to let me tack on some items to her order – including this blend!

I think the concept is really interesting – like a sweeter and more citrusy genmaicha. The combo of lemon and genmaicha sounds a little funny on paper, but citrus flavours actually compliment roasted profiles really well so I was excited to see how it would play out. Upon first taste, it’s pretty solid! Definitely a lighter toastiness from the brown rice than I was expecting, but the added body of the black tea was a welcome addition. The lemon wasn’t light, but it was milder than expected with a gentle sweetness and a pleasant brightness. There’s also almond flavouring in the blend, though I didn’t find it particularly distinct. My initial impression is that it’s mostly adding another nuanced type of sweetness and some flavour depth while otherwise sort of co-mingling with the nuttiness of the rice.

I also got the impression from this blend that it’s the sort of one that only grows on you even more with time as you become more acquianted to the profile. I’m excited to see if that happens – I’ve historically not been a huge fan of Palais de The’s blending style but this was right up my alley.

Maybe i don’t like Sheng, maybe i’m just not used to it, maybe it needs more time to be better ? I have no clue, but i couldn’t drink this at all, it was so bad for my taste i couldn’t get any notes of anything.
A friend of mine tasted from the same cup, and was getting all the aromas (apricot for example)

Apparently this one is a bit of a hit or miss, depending on which shop you buy it, it could be a good or bad batch.
Fortunately i think i got a good one.
This was my 1st puer tea ever, and i really enjoyed it ! Very earthy, could very much tast the mushroom !
Gongfu, 1 rince after 15 seconds, then 30 seconds steps (6+ times)

Good ok oolong i think, this was the 1st one i ever tried.
Good notes of vanilla, butter for me.

Very good daily rooibos i enjoy ;)
You can smell cherry and taste it ! It’s very enjoyable.

not a fan of the taste unfortunately