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This tea is a gift from a friend of mine. She bought it at the Picadilly store when she visited London.

I took all the caution for the preparation and as I read on tin (in very small characters) that it was a strong tea, I decided not steeping it too long.

Good idea, because it is really a strong tea ! Waouh it’s a real breakfast tea : it sounds the bugle to ensure you are awake.

The palate is heavily malted with a light bitterness after taste. No doubt it’s robust as assam can be.

I had it plain with sugar and I liked it but I’d like to try with a cloud of milk next time.

well…it’s not a tea but “une eau de fruit” en français dans le texte…let’s say something similar to a tisane but really stronger in taste…closer to a decoction.

This eau du verger is really incredible ; it is really just like you are drinking a sorbet (a hot sorbet !)

you can see like real big pieces of fruits mixed with herbs : apples & orange- flowers as well : marygold. other aroms are peach, pear & strawberry.

The head note for me is really red fruits.

It is delicious and I am impatient to taste it iced as well.

The taste is strong so it may be not necessary to put too much leaf in the cup.

I have a special story with this tea.

Few years ago I had the habit to drink Earl grey every morning at work.I liked tea especially because I was not a great coffee drinker.
I was buying any type of Earl Grey in tea bags and often very cheap ones (I was drinking a lot of cups !)

One day I had a cup of one of this cheap Earl Grey and just behind a cup of Twinning’s Earl Grey…it was a revelation ! The difference of taste was so evident.
I understood I had to taste and explore other teas and I began from this date to increase my interest for teas and began to use almost exclusively loose leaf tea.

Even if I know Twinning’s Earl grey is made of “dust in bags”, I should thank twinning for the electroshock. However it is a “regular” tea, classic, made to be appreciated by many publics.

This is a very comfortable tea and it is quite nice.

I continue drinking it some morning at the office when I am stuck with an empty tea tin and by the way need to buy tea at the local supermarket.

Well, how to say that in English…the word BOF in French is exactly the expression of my feeling about this tea.
I cannot say I like it but cannot say the inverse.
I recognize some qualities but I am very disapointed by the difference between the smell of dry leaf and what I get in my cup.
Maybe too much caramel vs red fruits for me.

Opening the tin, it is a fireworks of colours : yellow and blue flowers everywhere mixed with loose-leaf. This is very beautiful.

The smell is amazing : to me the head note is apricot, more than peach but both are present. I cannot smell any fig even if Mariage says there is fig in this tea.

The steeped tea was amber and the taste is really very sweet. So sweet that it makes this tea a little bit strange because as Rijje said we can just feel a very thin bitterness behind it.

Boléro is really a very strange and adorable tea.

I tried it iced as well and it is really appropriate too.

Anastasia is such a promissing name…full of mystery like the story of the last imperial Russian family

In my mug, each time, I am impressed by the amber colour of this tea…bringing me back to Russia again , St Petersbourg… The Amber room…

It’s clearly a bergamot tea but citrus notes are predominant to my opinion.

Even if bergamot + citrus is often used in a lot of tea’s composition, the mix of these two flavours makes this Kusmi tea’s original composition absolutely unforgettable and unique.

Of course, you need to be a bergamot unconditionnal lover…this is my case.

I am generally not impressed by Kusmi (except by their tins) , Anastasia is one of the rare exception and is really my favourite Kusmi’s creation.

So perfumed and so sweet in the same time.

From the beginning, Thé à l’opéra is a shock.

First an olfactive shock with dry leaves : candy berry flavour is so present that we have the impression to open a bottle of perfume rather than a tin of tea.

Drinking it, the taste is not so violent.
The vanilla is really creamy and is a perfect base for the sweet taste of strawberry. Vanilla & Berry’s balance is perfect to me.

The green tea is absolutely not astringent and not bitter (this is always my fear with green teas so it was great news for me)

I always wonder how the tea names are chosen…I have an idea for this one : the red colour is haunting this tea…red like the incredible strawberry’s scent of the dry leaves. Red like the violent shock of this fragance. Red as the beautiful and heavy curtains of the Opera’s stage.

And maybe a little blue like the fantastic ceiling paintings of the Opéra Garnier in Paris…thanks Mr Chagall

First thanks to Palais des thés for this rare oriental tea.

Why rare would you ask…because for one time we have a very oriental tea without any mint ! And this is an exploit!

Green date is really tasty and present as well as red fruits and orange blossom – a perfect balance.

A small regret because I don’t feel the rose very well…

Anyway Thé du Hammam is my evening tea. I drink it almost every night. It’s so sweet, like a dessert, like a promise for a 1001 nights tale trip (I think in English you call that book Arabian nights)

Thé du Hamman was the first green tea I really appreciated…à la folie…