Mélange Ladurée

Omg, it’s so good to be back!

Hello steepsters! Helol tea friends! ’

Argh, what a journey it has been.

First, no wifi, no functioning ro.uter, no phone line.

Then the laptop died.

And then, of course, coronavirus.

And then my password to access steepster.

But I am finally here with this nondescript tea. Not t—he tea’s fault
That I left it so long before drinking it.

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A share from VariaTEA – drinking it right now, but I’m finding it really muddled tasting with notes of very nondescript fruits and floral elements. Not really sure what I’m supposed to be tasting but I don’t think I’m getting it…

Yeah – not really sure what else to say about this one; it’s weird.

Work – 11:00 AM

Hmm… This tea doesn’t taste like much, maybe it’s a bit too subtle for me. I don’t think it’s too old, the dry leaf still has plenty of aroma. And I bought their Thé Joséphine at the same time, and that one still has a lot of flavor.

I expected it to have stronger bergamot and citrus flavors. I can taste little hints of several different things – bergamot, berry, orange, cinnamon, and rose. But it’s all quite faint and a bit powdery for me. Meh.

In other news… I made a ridiculously large Bird & Blend order today. I saw on their Facebook page that the advent calendars were low stock, so I knew I couldn’t wait for them to release their holiday blends…

It ended up being almost £200 when all was said and done. With their £13 shipping once your order is over £45 (and no free shipping threshold), it seemed silly to order and not go all out.

So all out I went…

I got both advent calendars (tea & matcha), 50g of Rhubarb + Custard (because yum), 50g each of Honey I’m Comb and Milk & Honey (because they didn’t have them as 20g samples and I’m reasonably sure I’ll like them), and then a 10-pack and a 5-pack of 20g samples, and the 7-pack of store blends (20g samples).

So no more tea buying for me! I’m perfectly okay with the fact that I’ll miss out on Black Friday deals. It sounds snobbish to say, but I don’t generally worry a huge amount about price as long as its within reasonable range, so I don’t get too excited by discounts. I’m generally more tempted by limited time blends.

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

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.

GCTTB5 Box #2.

This one has been on my wishlist forever so I am excited to try it.

The dry tea smells very light, slightly floral, with a bit of sweet citrus.

The tea brews up moderately dark. The black tea base is light and creamy. There are subtle floral hints. There is a candy-like citrus profile. I don’t get much bergamot flavour though. The tea is just the tiniest bit astringent at the end.

This tea reminds me of a tea you would serve at a party or something. I quite like it and I am glad to have had the opportunity to try it.

GCTTB5 box#2

This was enjoyable. Citrus and floral were the most prominent notes for me. These are not my favourite notes in tea so it wouldn’t be something I would order but I’m glad I got to try it. Sometimes tastes change, so every now and then I try something again to see if my tastes have in fact changed!

Yum. Fruity and floral.

Thanks, Sil!

I did have this in a travel mug, with milk, steeped at a higher temperature than I would usually make tea at. So. We’ll see how it does at home in a regular mug. :)

This tea comes to me from MissB, thanks! I snuck some samples into Equusfell’s mystery box, and she sent me quite the package. I shouldn’t be surprised. :)

Anyway, I really wanted to try some Laduree blends because hello, I love French teas, and I somehow have never tried their teas. Also I believe someone (Ysaurella?) told me that DF blends Laduree’s blends, and I am of course a huge DF fan.

This was nice. I don’t know that I would need to restock this one, but I definitely enjoyed it quite a bit. It actually reminded me a bit of MF’s Pleine Lune (hopefully there wasn’t any cross contamination). It had spice notes like a hint of cinnamon, a bit of almond, and some nice creaminess. I didn’t get much in the way of citrus or florals. Would definitely drink this one again.