Heritage d’Istanbul

First : I updated the tea description as it was false, the previous description was the Inachevée de Constantinople one ! So I can understand why Keemun note was mentioning he cannot find almond and peppermint, there is none in this tea.
Héritage d’Istanbul is clearly a flowery tea on a double tea base : green and black.

I steeped it 3 minutes at 75°c as requested by Theodor, it sounds low but it was really ok because I can still detect a hint of bitterness.Very light but there.

The way the flowers comes is really lovely, very smooth : jasmin, lotus with a peppery note, this is pleasant and elegant.

I am not bewitched by this tea, it’s pleasant but even if I’ll keep exploring it a little, I don’t think I’ll rebuy it.

I may be a nice iced-tea as well.

This is a beautiful blend. Just beautiful, to look at and its perfume. And one of the most feminine tea blends I have ever tasted. Not girly, girly is a different thing, this is more grown up, much smarter and a bit mysterious. But and there is a but, it is not a tea for me.

It´s a floral, in a mix of black and green teas. Osmanthus, lotus and jasmine and they say some pepper. I think lotus is a note I dislike in general, I even bought some cheap vietnam lotus tea to check it (and ok, because of the tin, which was ohhh so pretty, so not a total waste of tea) and lotus definitely is a floral too floral for me. Here it is sort of balanced. But no matter how beautifully scented and intriguing it is, I keep finding this way too sultry somehow for my taste.

I sweetened this without thinking, it was a stupid idea and a mistake indeed.

Even if not a tea for me, it is so beautiful that I will try the rest of the sample Ysaurella (merci!) sent me with pleasure. Not at all bad, sublime at being that sort of thing, it is just not my cup of tea.

…the leafs look very appealing. The fragrance, as soon as one opens the tin,is very nice.

As with all THE O DOR teas it would be a mistake to rinse the leafs as this could cause the flavor to decline. Obviously a strong indicator that parfumed oils were used to stabilize the tea’s flavor.

One can be quite generous with the portioning which allows to keep the steeping time short.As a result of this three to four tasty brews can be made out of one portioning (…I am using a Gaiwan here).
The short time of infusing a fairly bold amount of leafs is a very Chinese way of treating tea indeed.It brings out all qualities of one’s brew and allows to see different aspects of the changes in taste, nose and color over the time period of as many infusions as one portion of tea can take…

This blend creates a very smooth drink. The flavors are interesting…although not quite as impressive as I was hoping for.The peppermint and the almond notes, which the company claims to have used for this tea, are almost invisible. The apple is there but in quite a funny way.
It remembers one of hookah smoking Arabs on London’s Edgware Road…very artificial apple & vanilla notes…in London as well as on the tea drinker’s tongue here.
The jasmin however, hand in hand with the osmanthus, pushes through pleasantly.
The teas that were used as base for this blend have a nice way of carrying all those herbs and spices.
The aftertaste is nice…a fragile roughness which is quite common with THE O DOR blends.This perhaps is the main reason why one might keep drinking there blend as it let’s one wonder how to tame it, how to find words to explain it…almost like all this hundreds of small alleys in the heart of old Istanbul…interesting,fairytale-like, magical…

Dry leaves have a nice, nonspecific floral scent. I get a bit of jasmine, I think, in the steep. I’m not sure I know what lotus tastes or smells like. What I have the impression of overall, though, is roses. And to me, the taste is best described as the scent of roses that have been shut in a hot car all day long. Nice at first, but then cloying and overripe. I am glad to have tried this, Ysaurella, and I think the tea base is decent, from what I can tell, but I don’t think it is one I’d go out of my way to purchase.