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Just finished off my stash of this. This really has to be my favorite white tea ever. It is floral, nutty, and slightly fruity- apricots? It never brews bitter, but you have to drink it quickly or it oxidizes in your pot. Oddly enough, it reminds me of Butiki’s pistachio ice cream today…Probably because I just ate a piece of vegan toffee from http://www.allisonsgourmet.com.

ETA: The best thing about this tea is the aftertaste. I love teas with a good/long lasting finish, and this tea just perfumes your mouth such that you can still taste the tea long after it is gone.

It’s been a good day! Well, except for my brain constantly melting down from work stress. But, sticking to the positive stuff…

Today I got some exciting things in the mail. First, my friend Meghanne sent Casey and I some vegan toffee. VEGAN TOFFEE! Also, I received a birthday present from my father: a fisherman’s sweater from this great Irish store in Riverdale, NY. Lastly, my Butiki order arrived! Stacy had run out of the Raspberry Truffle, so instead of waiting for the new batch to be blended, I told her she could send me an ounce of something else instead. I left it up to her. I was secretly hoping it would be this tea, and that’s exactly what she sent me! All I can say is that it is amazing and delicious and I can’t wait to have more tonight while wearing a traditional Irish fisherman’s sweater and eating VEGAN TOFFEE!

I usually don’t think of myself as the biggest fan of mint teas, but this one is very good. I don’t know if this is very true to taste (at least compared to the peppermint patties I’ve had), but I mean that in the best way possible. This one is more of a smooth, creamy mint and a subtle chocolate. It reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream, or even more like those Andes chocolate mints.

I think this is still definitely my favorite from the Héritage Gourmand collection. I like that the flavor here is very mild. The texture is smooth and silky, and the toasted rice really makes it smell like an authentic baked good. I used to live right near St. Honoré in Portland (this was during a veganism hiatus) and my favorite things to get were the Cannelés.

I had this one before bed last night, but was too sleepy to log it. If you’re wondering why I haven’t been reading/liking your posts, it’s because I’m in the middle of doing our wine club. This involves emailing each of our wine club members about the spring release, updating new information, customizing orders, charging credit cards, and creating shipping templates…None of which is automized, but at least we don’t do fulfillment on-site.

Anyway, about the tea. This one was definitely different than the financier. In the financier, the prominent flavors were the brown butter and the almond. This one tasted like a lighter, sweet buttery cake. I have to admit, I really like these tea flavors a lot.

Oh, one other thing…The base green tea on these reminds me of a formosa oolong. That is what the leaves look similar to after steeping (not that they are rolled the same way), and it has the same kind of almost fruity sweetness that something like a milk oolong has. This I’m not too fond of. I wish they had used a more nutty green as the base.

Hm. I like this one too. This one is scented more heavily than it is flavored, which is good because this could easily be too much. It smells like candied fruit, almonds and cinnamon. And even though it smells super-sweet you it doesn’t taste very sweet at all. There is some lingering almond paste in the finish. Yum!

This is good. Not as good as the Canelé, but it’s just what I wanted it to be. A tea that tastes like little buttery almond cake. I wonder how this will compare to the madeleine, because in my mind a financier and a madeleine are the same to me… :-/

Ah. This tea. I’m not sure yet if I really like it or if I love it. I haven’t had a crêpe in years, but this does have a crêpe or cake-like smell. This is like an earl grey creme where the bergamot and the especially the vanilla are pretty mellow. I think there may be a touch of berry flavor in this as well. This is a pretty interesting tea.

The dry leaf smells very much like what I would imagine a dark chocolate liquor would smell, and the steeped tea smells likewise. After it was first brewed and I was allowing it to cool however, I could swear it smelled just like Tootsie rolls…Quite the opposite of the gourmet experience this tea was aiming at. This impression didn’t last long, though. There is a sourness in both this and in Florence that reminds me more of alcohol than it reminds me of the bitterness of dark chocolate. I don’t know what I would do to improve my experience of these teas. Perhaps soy milk…?

This is the second new tea I tried tonight. I have never tasted a macaron to my knowledge, and probably never will in the future since I am vegan. I could get the crusty meringue notes, but it was overwhelmed by artificial fruitiness. Maybe if I’d experienced a macaron I’d like this one better? I’ll definitely give it another try, but this one may wind up being swapped.