Étoile du Nord

Free sample from Nina’s Paris. Thanks so much Laurent!

This one came as a sachet.

This tea is quite reminding me of something and I had a hard time putting my finger on it until I looked at the ingredients. It has rhubarb. It is quite similar to Dammann’s Jardin Bleu that was yesterday’s advent tea. How funny it is that they taste similar and are also French teas.

The black base in this one is quite strong. There is a strong rhubarb flavour with floral scents. I don’t think I have much experience with violet, which is what is in this tea, so I am unsure what I should be tasting.

Overall this one is good. It is a bit bitter but that could be a brewing issue. I have another sachet to try.

Thank you Nina’s for the samples! This one sounded very intriguing – rhubarb and violet with a keemun base. For some reason this sample was an individually wrapped pyramid tea bag. Nina’s suggests 1-2 minutes for this one, so I went with about 70 seconds. I probably should have steeped for two minutes, as the base wasn’t tough enough for me. The flavor is good but I wouldn’t say it was rhubarb. The something extra reminds me more of lychee. There is something sweet and floral to it as well, but I’m not sure what violet tastes like! I’ve tried the keemun base on its own and it’s a standard delicious keemun but I could swear this is the other base that they have. This doesn’t taste like the keemun to me. I would have liked the rhubarb to be more rhubarb-like but this is an interesting and unique idea for a blend. The same keemun that I tried before would have made this blend better though.
Steep #1 // 7 min after boiling // 70 second steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min

I received three samples from the friendly folks at Nina’s Paris, and Etoile du Nord was the one which was beckoning me most. Violets and rhubarb? How exotic! Plus the base tea is Keemun rather than the usual middling Congou suspect.

The sachet was generously stoked, and the leaves were large with beautiful cornflowers interspersed (I presume for appearance—not sure that they add any flavor). The liquor was amber and tasted good enough to drink au naturel. I could really tell the difference in quality of the base tea. My impression is that many scented black teas are heavily scented precisely in order to cover the mediocrity of the tea. In this case, both the flavors and the tea tasted good, so I drank Etoile du Nord without cream.

I cannot say that I would ever have guessed the identity of the rhubarb in this pleasantly fruity blend, but I would definitely consider buying a full tin in the future.

(Blazing New Review #20)

I’m so glad my tea samples arrived today! I thought they had been eaten by the post.
The bag this came in did not have a suggested temp. on it, so I just went with boiling water.
Dry, this smells very nice! I can smell the violet, which is the biggest reason I chose this one. Once brewed the base is very tasty, it reminds me of another gift tea which I have logged on here somewhere. The violet is very upfront. There are other flavors too that I cannot put my finger on, probably the rhubarb (I’ve never had it!). This is a really great dessert tea and I can’t wait to brew this again.