Grand Amour

Mmmm. The house was freezing this morning. It was actually in the 50s. Now that might not seem cold to those of you from chillier parts of the country but here in SoCal it’s mighty cold. So it was with much effort I dragged myself from bed and into the kitchen. The thought of new tea to try was a huge motivator.

I decided I wanted a black tea to start the morning and went with Nina’s because they had been so gracious to send me a sample. On first sniff it was all cream and raspberry to me. After it’s been brewed the current peaks out a bit more and balances the raspberry.

The one thing that strikes me about this tea is the level of creaminess and underlaying sweet tones. It would be easy for a tea like this to become bitter but it tastes like a dessert tea even without an additives. I do taste a faint note of caramel that could be increasing the sweetness and giving it depth but I’m really not sure if that’s exactly what it is.

Next time I don’t know if I’d have this as a breakfast tea. It seriously feels like I’m eating dessert first. I was looking into ordering more of this but while the price is pretty reasonable the shipping from amazon is pretty steep to get just 50 grams of this which is what I would want.

Overall a wonderful tea. Thank you Laurent!

Sample package: 2” x 2” clear plastic zip-lock, measured 1.75 tsp.
Label: “GRAND AMOUR “ (No ingredients listed. No brewing instructions.)

Per http://www.ninasparis.com/en/pro_tea0.html:
“Le gourmand GRAND AMOUR
Raspberry, red currant, vanilla, caramel
True love between raspberry and red currant: an irresistibly fruity attraction. Love at first sight, guaranteed!”

Thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris Tea Store USA
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ninas-Paris-Tea-Store-USA/569332199761362
for the recommended brewing instructions: 1 rounded tsp. / 205*F / 6oz / 2.5 min and for confirming that each sample pack is a two-cup sample.

Technique:
12-oz water with total dissolved solids (TDS) of 19 ppm – verified with HM Digital DM-1: http://www.tdsmeter.com/products/dm1.html
Heated to 212*F and allowed to cool to 205*F – verified with DAVIDsTEA digital thermometer
Steeped the entire tea sample in a single container for 2.5 minutes, and then poured two six ounce servings.

This tea has a potent raspberry fragrance.

2.5-min Infusion: The aroma followed the strong raspberry fragrance. The flavor was a blend of raspberry, fruit (red currant), black tea, vanilla, and caramel, with the raspberry as the strongest of the five. This flavored tea was not at all bitter or astringent and had a clean finish. However, the black tea base was light- to medium-bodied. (This may be due to the sub-optimal sample size.)

Impression: A smooth, light- to medium-bodied fruity desert tea.

Suggestions: Nina’s Paris should consider assuring that there are at least two rounded teaspoon in each sample pack. “Love at first sight, guaranteed!” might be more likely if each sample contained enough tea for two cups. It’s false economy to not provide sufficient tea for a good first impression.

Thanks to Nina’s Paris for providing this free sample.

Smells lovely!

Tastes pretty good too…there is a nice balance with the fruity flavors and black tea. I wish it was just a tad bit stronger but then again I won’t have to ration out a little 1-2 tsp sample, lol.

My initial impression of the tea was that it smelled very much like a Keemun, with only hints of fruit hiding in the background. The taste showed more fruit, but definitely in a secondary role to the tea. The flavor was full and rich with moderate amounts of tannin and acid, but no bitterness. The taste blended smoothly into a good finish.

When I tried adding a bit of Nutra-Sweet, the fruit moved from the background to the foreground, with raspberry and currant becoming more or less equal to the tea in the flavor balance. I’m not sure whether I liked the tea better with or without the sweetener, but it was significantly different. I couldn’t really detect the caramel flavor, and the vanilla was at most a hint in the background.

This tea would appeal to someone who likes a hint of flavor adding subtlety to their tea, not to someone looking for fruit flavor with a bit of caffeine.

My thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris for the sample

Added note: second steep almost as good as the first

Oh this is good..really, really good! The raspberry is raspberry NOT hibiscus and no medicine-like after taste. The flavor makes me think of raspberry jam (maybe its the red currant) . The vanilla compliments the raspberry by giving it a smoothness that makes it easy to forget that this is a black tea and a well blended herbal.
I tried it with a hint of Splenda which brought more of the fruit flavor out, but I probably wasn’t needed.

This is a wonderful dessert tea! A real treat that could take the place of an actual dessert.

Well worth the higher price for this blend.

I just added a dab of creme and… just when I thought it couldn’t get better…wow! So smooth and rich and still a very distinct raspberry flavor.

I can see the 1.7 ounce order being gone by the end of the weekend! It’s so hard for me to find a really great raspberry. I thought I’d found it with Harney’s raspberry but this is so much better!

The price makes it a special treat but it is something I would love to keep on hand. If you are a raspberry lover it’s something you won;t be sorry you tried.

Thank you to Laurent/Nina’s for this sample!

Dry: Small tightly rolled black tea leaves. The dry leaves smell divine to me- I was really excited to try it! A touch of caramel, stone fruits, vanilla, and almost a cocoa note as well in the little ziploc baggie. I didn’t have enough for a full teapot, but I was still in great anticipation.

Steeped: Clear brown liquor. This reminds me a LOT of Harney’s Paris and the scent is very similar. I think the aroma on this one is more raspberry though- very fruity and pleasant.

Taste: I wanted to have a true love forever affair with this one from the dry scent, but the taste is a little bit less than I hoped for. It is still a good cup of tea, but I didn’t really get any caramel notes from it as described. Red fruits are the most prominent along with a nice maltiness, a touch of vanilla, and a somewhat unusual perfume aftertaste. The samples arrived in an opened enveloped that USPS had taped back together and one of the 3 was missing entirely. Maybe the tea was in the truck next to perfume samples? I don’t really know what to make of the perfume aspect, but I am glad I was able to try it. I have one other tea from the company to try another time, so I will keep my fingers crossed!

I decided I had time for one more cup of tea before I have to spend all afternoon working in the hood and I am super glad I threw this in my bag to bring to work with me. Nina’s Paris is batting 1000 with me so far! This tea is just delightful. I like it even better than the Nina’s Japon. The raspberry and the red currant are fantastic together and then caramel and vanilla mellow out the tartness. I’m glad I split my sample in two and risked underleafing it because I definitely want to have this again soon. Thanks for sharing your Nina’s with me, Ost!

Finished of the rest of this sample yesterday, iced and resteeped once, with a cup of cloud mist green tea as well, just to stretch the cup. I’m definitely sad to see this one go. I’m going on a cruise next week with my family, and we ship off from Miami, so I’m going to see if I can convince my dad to drive across the city to go to a tea shop either before leaving or after getting back. Here’s hoping!

When I swapped wtih Courtney I asked her if I could have some samples of her blends from Nina’s because it has become a popular brand on Steepster and I’ve never had any of theirs before. Courtney shared this one and a couple of others with me. I figured with a name like this, I should share it with Husband.

This one has raspberry, red currant and vanilla, and it both smells and tastes very similar to your standard 4 Red Fruits blend. Well, I suppose it is half a one, isn’t it? I’m not really picking the vanilla up as such, but I get the impression that it’s there. I get that a fair bit in blends where the vanilla is in there with something else. I don’t taste vanilla, but I can taste what the vanilla does, smoothing things out and sweetening. That’s what I’m getting here as well.

This tastes like something that could be a dessert I would rather like to eat, but this is really all I can say about it, because the cup seems to have disappeared rather quickly.

I can report also that Husband thought it was nice as well.

This tea goes well with Percoset.

I have pulled a muscle or pinched a nerve or something in my back, off to the side. I had surgery in February (not back related) and saved my last Percoset in case I had a bad post-op day, but never did. Today I am really glad I have it! So instead of working, I am in my big overstuffed chair on a heating pad enjoying this tea. Working from home has its benefits.

So, the tea. This was a free sample from Nina’s. Thank you! I am really enjoying it. I am not the best at identifying flavors, and I would have thought this was stone fruit flavored, but I am reading here that it is red berries. Ok, I can see that. I think the caramel hints threw me off. It’s lovely though, and I got a great resteep out of the leaves, and I am rarely satisfied with the results of resteeping black teas. So that is a bonus. Definitely a great tea.