Fleur de Geisha

With the memory of another sakura-style green tea fresh in my mind, I decided to go ahead and try Palais des Thés Fleur de Geisha. This is also a Japanese style green-tea base (theirs appears to be from Japan), but the flavoring is somewhat more floral and less intensely fruity.

The liquor is pale greenish gold and the taste is rather more harmonious than I’ve come to expect from cherry-scented teas. According to the description, cherry blossoms, not cherry essence are used to flavor this tea, so that must make the difference.

I’m looking forward to trying a second infusion of the spent sachet (which plumped up quite a lot) later on tonight.

(Blazing New Rating #59)

I brewed this without knowing what it was supposed to taste like—I probably could have guessed from the name, but I basically went for it based on the knowledge that it was a floral green. Hot, it’s lightly grassy with a strong cherry smell and a floral aftertaste. There’s a hint of fruit to it but not much, and there are some sweet vegetal notes too. Overall it’s very light, although that might be the way I brewed it. It’s nice, and could even be described as sugary. I’m going to let the second cup cool down (I made a small pot) and drink it that way; once I have I’ll edit to add my comments.

ETA: Cold this isn’t much different, but it’s enough that it’s worth commenting on. There are more sweet vegetable notes like green beans and the cherry is more prominent. I think I slightly prefer it hot but it’s good both ways.

I got a sample that I cold brewed. So. Perfumed. My boyfriend liked it pretty well, but he doesn’t like much tea. I just hated how overwhelmingly scented it was.

The floral scent of the tea (before steeping) instantly reminded me of the glacé apricot snacks I had in China, but more pleasantly delicate and subtle – turned out it was cherry blossom instead of apricot. (a quick wikipedia search showed both are part of the Prunus family – I don’t know the scent of cherry blossom well enough to identify it so apricot was a wild guess that coincidentally landed near the target…?) As its name suggests, the tea pays proper respect to the Japanese culture where luscious and bold expressions are considered disgraceful for women whereas silence and obedience are celebrated virtues.

This tea is great for meditation in solitude – the taste is so light you almost don’t realize its presence. But you will definitely notice its absence because you’d miss the fragrance from the back of your throat every time you breathe out – it brings forth the unique freshness from blooming plants (not merely the simple pink sweetness you get from flowers, but with more exuberance – like bamboos growing after a night of rain) – I can’t quite describe freshness as a flavor but I guess it would just be like the way water is not tasteless and sunshine is not colorless.

Perhaps my least favorite of all the teas made by this company. The cherry scent of this tea is so dominant that the green tea underneath it, gets nearly entirely lost. I find it like the ‘cherry coke’ of green teas. TOO MUCH CHERRY. Then again, if you’re a huge fan of cherry coke, this tea might be for you.

I liked the rather fine taste of the green tea. I noticed it was very important to limit the brewing strictly under 3 mns, as the tea turned bitter quickly otherwise.
It’s definitely not a breakfast tea according to my taste.
The cherry blossom flavor was nice, though on the long run I got weary about it : too strong, a bit too artificial. I personally did not relish the taste of this tea once it turned cold and tried each time to drink my teapot as soon as possible.
I honestly had some difficulty to finish the second-half of the 100 g pack I had bought and will not buy it again, hence my average rating.

Basic green tea, a little bit of acidity and a cherry taste.
The green tea used for the base is ok.

Brewed at 80°C