When I first opened this tea I had not read about Compagnie Coloniale’s unique steam flavouring process so I was at first concerned about how shiny the leaves looked. They appear almost wet or like they are coated in oil. The picture included with this tea doesn’t really capture that element. Though the tea is quite visually appealing with its deep pink and blew flower petals scattered among the dark shiny leaves. The tea smells of a slightly liqueur like cherry mixed with marzipanish almond notes with a faint kick of spicy fresh ginger with it’s slight lemon notes.
This tea does not tend to get astringent when brewed at higher temperatures but you can adjust the temperature to bring out different flavour notes. Cherry and almond are the first notes detected, though the almond notes are best detected when the tea is hot as it cools it moves away from a marzipan note to more of the creamy nutty and a touch woody note of raw almonds. The cherry is not a candy note. At times it hints of liqueur and other times it reference dried cherries. When very hot the ginger is not prominent in the taste but as it cools it becomes more present. I also got stronger ginger notes and a more dominant cherry when I brewed the tea at @ 90°C. Also present was a touch of cream and at times vanilla. The base tea is fairly inoccuous. It is pretty smooth and doesn’t present a lot of texture to the taste. It is a little fruity, and has a bit of malt, and darker slightly earthy and grainy tones, and perhaps a bit of pastry notes. I used a level tea spoon in 225ml and found it just shy of being a little thin, which is a little surprising given the broken nature of the leaves.
Given that the flavouring is very nice and I really like the mix of ginger, cherry and almond. It generates a nice warmth in the body. A bit of sweeter may bring out a bit of more fruitiness in the tea and might thicken the density of the tea on the taste buds.
Altogether I am happy to have this tea in my cupboard!
http://www.compagnie-coloniale.com/en/savoir-faire.html
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B04XXZKzObY1ZHFRWFpSTVpMdG8/edit?usp=docslist_api
Preparation
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Did you pick this up at douce?
niceeee!
Yes Sil. That’s where I picked it up.
i haven’t bit the bullet yet to try it heh
er try that companies tea
They do sell it in their bulk options so you don’t have to buy a tin, or you could just go their for tea and pastries:-)
This sounds tasty! I may have to look around for this company. :)
Did you pick this up at douce?
niceeee!
Yes Sil. That’s where I picked it up.
i haven’t bit the bullet yet to try it heh
er try that companies tea
They do sell it in their bulk options so you don’t have to buy a tin, or you could just go their for tea and pastries:-)
This sounds tasty! I may have to look around for this company. :)