Gemini

Sipdown!! (218)

So I brewed this at the same time I brewed Sugar Plum Spice and the resteep of Marie-Antoinette. Then I got distracted by packing up teas for a swap so it cooled a bit. Now I am trying it as I eat my pizza (Jenny Craig, the one diet you can eat pizza and a cupcake every night and still lose 65 pounds!).

As an accompaniment to my dinner it is weird. On its own, this tea is tasty. The rooibos is more muted in this blend than in other Nina’s rooibos blends I have had and that is a good thing (not that their rooibos is bad – I am just not a huge fan of heavily rooibos tasting teas in general). That may be due to it being cooled though. Anyways, I mostly taste the vanilla but I can detect a hint of strawberry. I don’t notice the grapefruit other than the fact that this is a really well balanced cup and I think that might be due to the citrus of the grapefruit toning down the other flavors. All in all, pretty tasty.

Thank you Sophie and Laurent at Nina’s Paris for this sample! I appreciate your generosity and am really glad to have met such wonderful people :)

I waited to make this sample until I had a friend for tea. She does a few reviews on here, and I thought it would be good to get more opinions on these samples.

This is really fruity smelling! I do taste the rooibos but I think I taste it even when other people don’t. I have only had red rooibos but I find it very distinctive. My friend absolutely loved the aroma of the dry mix!

We tried it hot and it was quite nice – smooth and fruity with a nice strawberry flavor that stood up to the rooibos flavor well. The grapefruit is lingering on the back of the sip and I think that is my favorite thing about this tea. That lasting fruitiness is great on a horribly hot and sticky day like today.

As I did last time, I saved the last eight ounces to chill and sweeten so I could try it iced. I think that rooibos lovers would be very pleased with this blend for an iced summer treat. In my clear glass, it looks like regular iced tea in both clarity and color and I think someone could fool me that it is a flavored black tea if I thought the rooibos was cherry flavor. I think this is my favorite of the Nina’s rooibos blends I have tried so far.

Thank you, Laurent and Sophie and Nina’s Tea! I quite enjoyed this sample!

Rooibos and I have an interesting relationship – it has to be pretty well blended for me to get anything but caramel flavoring from it. When this sample came from the nice people at Nina’s Paris I was pleasantly surprised by it. I still get that ubiquitous caramel, but the creamy vanilla and even a hint of the strawberry do make themselves known, and add well to it. A nice cup for a lazy evening.

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!

Another one from madametj! This one sounds oddly close to Taurus, though I’m excited by the addition of grapefruit. I just think it’s weird that they’d make two that are so similar. Anyway! I can’t smell any grapefruit in the dry leaf, just strawberry.

The steeped tea has a really lovely strawberry scent, it reminds me of jam. And I think perhaps I can smell a touch of citrus as well. The taste is an interesting combination of strawberry candy or jam, cream, and a touch of citrus (not sure I would pick out grapefruit, possibly more like orange). I wish there was a bit more flavor, to be honest, as it’s pretty light. Still yummy though.

Backlog:

So, I’m gemini so I wanted to try this. I’m not sure exactly what grapefruit, strawberries and vanilla have to do with the sign of the twins, but … I still liked this.

Nutty, woody, notes of fruit, the grapefruit is uplifting and bright, the strawberries are sweet and tart and the vanilla softens it with a beautiful creamy note. Very enjoyable.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/05/24/gemini-rooibos-blend-from-ninas-paris/

Thank you Nina’s Paris for this free sample. I really enjoyed this tea. Dry it smelled delicious. I think it was the strawberry I was picking up. Brewed up, I could taste rooibos, strawberry & vanilla notes. I didn’t really pick up the grapefruit but maybe because it was brewed with boiling water. I wonder if the grapefruit would come through if it was brewed cold. There was only enough for one cup so I guess I won’t find out.