Bellocq Tea Atelier

I have been neglecting this and it is time to concentrate on drinking it a LOT before it gets too old to enjoy. I wanted a quiet and contemplative cup tonight for a little candlelight and soft music, just something I have been needing. I invited hubby to join me and I really didn’t know how he would feel about the mint in this. He isn’t a mint hater, but he wasn’t overly fond of chrysanthemum and has preferred unflavored white and greens at times, but I gave it a go.

It turned out that he did like it quite a bit. We enjoyed five steeps of this tea. My favorite part of it is the anise. I really hadn’t had it much before and long ago did not care for it in German cookies, so I am surprised at how much I like it now. Anise reminds me a little of licorice root, which is probably crazy to those of you who are super tasters. I think making homemade cola syrup helped my love of anise to grow, and now I want to start making some homemade anise teas as well.

I really don’t understand the pricing on this website. The photos are gorgeous, the packaging makes you feel positively spoiled when you order, and I didn’t balk too hard at $27 for two ounces since it was just a little splurge for myself. But $125 for 7 ounces in a tin? I love the tins, too, they are magnificent, and at that price I hope they are double lidded, but I honestly can’t see myself ever ordering tea in a tin from them unless I win the lottery…..BIG.

A few months ago my husband forwarded an email to me from his office. A lady in another division found out that I like tea (overlook the fact that I didn’t say “am obsessed with”) and was asking what companies I like. She sent a list of companies from whom she orders, and this was one of the few on the list I was unfamiliar with.

Their website is gorgeous. Their Facebook feed makes my newsfeed pretty every day. The owners of the company were stylists for Martha Stewart Living, and the husband of one owner was a stylist for Anthropologie, so you can guess how gorgeous everything is.

I ordered this one because I was curious about the unusual flavors they have combined here. I chose the two ounce bag to make it more affordable, though I think their tins are heavenly looking. (You can choose for it to come in a box instead of a bag for three dollars extra.)

The dry leaf is positively beautiful. Serving this at a tea party, I would definitely want to display the leaf in a pretty container prior to making the tea. The aroma is mostly spearmint.

The steeped tea is pale gold in color and now smells primarily of star anise, though as it cools the spearmint steps forward a bit again. At no time is it powerfully minty like a Moroccan Mint, but rather it is a nice refreshing breeze blowing through softly.

A guest joined me, and she said she really dislikes licorice and thought she would not enjoy this tea, but she ended up liking it.

My tea came in a pretty bag with brown paper tape with blue pattern. The instructions are handwritten on the label and it was tied up with a pretty ribbon. They also included a generous sample of White Nixon, another of their white tea line. Everything was packed in lots and LOTS of brilliant yellow/gold tissue paper.

Their tins are amazingly beautiful, but I am curious why adding a tin to your order adds a different price depending which tea you are ordering. If the tin is worth $18, why does the addition of the same tin add $17 to one tea order, but $22 to another?

As pretty as the tins are, I will save that splurge for when I am rich as Croesus and can have a whole row of them. For now the bags are pretty enough!

I haven’t had this in so long and I’ve no idea why. I got it about 1 1/2 years ago and haven’t made too much headway into the tin ever since. I think it might be the floral, the combination of lavender and rose is fairly overwhelming but I think this has actually mellowed out a bit with age so perhaps I’ll enjoy it more now than I did when it was new… it certainly smells glorious but I’m not a big drinker of floral teas.

I detect something spicy in here as well, interesting. Perhaps it’s the black tea?

There is a store in the Rockridge district of Oakland called Maison d’Etre and that is where I got this tea on Sunday. I haven’t been there in a while because I have some bad memories associated with that place. Time to move on and leave the bad memories behind. I’ve never heard of Bellocq, but of course I had to get some new tea!

It’s a black tea made with roses and lavender, I admit this is a bit too much for a breakfast tea as it is exceedingly floral. To me it almost seems like a shower gel. The lavender is quite strong here. They suggest having this with a piece of lemon cake and I think that would be really nice. I’m not sure if this is an everyday type of tea but I do like it.

Today – nobody is going to tell me I am not good enough. I am good enough.

This tea is like a boxing match of jasmine and rose, or rose and jasmine, depending on who’s winning at the moment, and the fight may be about a lurking linden blossom. I thought the tea might be a bit too heavily floral for me to enjoy very often, but it’s surprisingly clean tasting, fruity and sophisticated, and I think it will stay in my regular rotation of afternoon teas. It would work well with the tiniest bit of raw honey, if one were that way inclined.

smooth body. sweet flavor of the tea.
subtle evergreen, wild orchid and honey notes.

Infusions: 2-4

Excellent chai. Not too spicy, but still full of invigorating spices that blend perfectly with milk and a bit of honey.

Incredible notes of fresh cherries with chocolate and cinnamon. A definite winner!