Nina's Paris

I think this is the right tea. It says Nina’s on it (it’s a sample from a promotion they were doing) and I can only assume it’s Nina’s Paris. It looks prettty much the same so I’ll just go with it.

The steeped tea smells strongly of orange and not much else. While I wait for it to cool down enough to drink, it’s definitely all orange.

Wow, I really should not have eaten a Samoa before taking my first sip. Compared to that sweetness, this is really quite bitter. I think I should let that taste in my mouth die down a bit before I take any more drinks.

As I wait, and this cools down further, I can taste it again. I can taste the fruitiness of this tea and while it is…nice…it is really just okay. The fruit definitely overwhelms the base tea. I am just not liking this very much. I’ll try the rest of my Nina’s tea on Monday when I get back to work. Hopefully I will like them better.

I don’t care much for black tea or black tea blends, but this is one of the rare few that blows me away.

The dry leaf smells like a Green Apple Jolly Rancher. I couldn’t detect a floral smell at all, even though rose petals are an ingredient.

After I brewed this tea the apple smell was less intense. This tea definitely tastes like an apple in the first steeping. Thankfully, not in a “Jolly Rancher way”, but a “natural apple way”. The black tea is mild and smooth in the background.

In the second steeping, the scent and taste of rose petals comes out. The apple flavor is more mild than before, but still present. I enjoyed the second steeping most since I LOVE rose. Apples, rose petals, and black tea make a winning combination. I’m so glad I tried this tea.

Sipdown, 243. Thanks to Nina’s Paris for this sample to try!

I decided to request an Earl Grey as a sample to see how it compares to some of my other faves. I am no longer actively looking for the perfect Earl Grey, because I have found it (Lupicia), but I will always welcome new versions to try. I was unsure of how long to steep this one, because the Versailles Rose was good at 3 minutes but the Marie-Antoinette really needed only 2 minutes. I decided that possibly a tad weak was better than bitter, so I went with 2 this time.

This is a tasty Earl. Two minutes worked just fine. That nice, malty-smooth base that I found in the Versailles Rose makes an appearance again, paired with a nicely balanced citrusy bergamot. Not perfumy, nor bitter like citrus pith. I definitely enjoyed drinking my cup, but it didn’t quite stand out to me as particularly distinctive. Which is fine, because it’s still a very tasty tea and a good example of a well-done Earl.

After having cold 911 by Davids tea I am always worried that mint in tea is going to be super strong and overpower the actual tea. That was not the case with this tea at all. Although the mint was fairly strong it was not overpowering. I enjoyed this as a change of pace from straight green tea. Im on the fence if I would purchase this one as I like Nina’s other blends more. However if you like a little mint flavour this is worth a try. Nice to sip on this cold afternoon.

On a side note I think I used a bit too high of water temperature to steep the tea…..very slightly bitter because of this. Time to invest in a thermometer I guess. :)

Sipdown, 241 (yeah, I only ended up adding a few new teas so my count didn’t go to high!). Thanks to Nina’s Paris for the sample of this tea!

Rose and apple; I knew I had to request this one as one of my samples. The smell of the steeped tea is kind of odd, and I guess it’s just the rose and apple combining somewhat strangely. If I smell closely enough, I can pick out the two scents independantly, but it’s not easy.

Unfortunately, this one was not as successful to me as it was for other people. It comes across as bitter and perfumy to me. I am not sure what people are talking about when they say that the bitterness reminds me of biting into an apple and getting apple skin… apple skin isn’t especially tart or bitter to me, and I just ate an apple for lunch this afternoon. There is definitely a good amount of really appley flavor here (although it is perhaps more apple candy than fresh apple), and some herbaceous rose, so I think that perhaps if I steeped this one for a shorter time or at a lower temp, it would come out smoother and work better, but if the astringency is built in for some reason, I don’t know.

I quite liked this tea. The dry tea greeted me with the smell of caramel, coconut and the tang of fruit. It appears when dry that there is more black than green leaves but once steeped the bancha leaves opened up quite a bit. I steeped it at the temperature at which I would steep bancha.

When steeped the first scent that hits my nostrils is that of the toasted rice followed by a sweet scent tempered by vanilla and the buttery scent of caramel. The sweet taste is pleasant when steeped about a minute. The first notes I taste are the bancha and black tea with the black tea producing a slightly citrousy note and tempering the sweetness of the bancha, followed by a sweet fruity note, and a sweet buttery and slightly salty and nutty note from the caramel and rice. The caramel and vanilla and salt remain on the tongue. The green tea leaves me with that clean pleasantly aware feeling I get when I drink it. For me the tea is sweet enough as it is . The empty tea cup smells of vanilla and caramel. I would not add sugar to it.

I probably wouldn’t drink this everyday as it is approaching too sweet for me but it is all over a nicely balanced tea which is fun to drink and I wouldn’t mind keeping a bit of it in my cupboard.

Thanks to Sophie and Laurent for the sample!

note: The 2nd steep was not as sweet, the vanilla and fruit were more present. It was not as buttery but the nutty flavour of rice was more present. It was slighty astringent and more flavour contributed by black tea.

Full review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 2nd of March but here are the snippits:

Marie-Antoinette from Nina’s Paris has a wonderful aroma. I just love sitting here smelling it fill the air around me with the scents of roses and fresh apples. Its almost too good to drink! The apple aroma is that of mulled cider, or the smell that fills the air every year at the Apple Festivals that are commonly held in my area. It just makes me feel warm and sunny on this cold snowy winter’s day.

The more I sip it the more it grows on me. I think any person who loves apple flavor should try this tea. Its so subtle, does not try to flood your taste buds over with flavor but yet it is so true to what apple tastes like when you bite into one. I can even taste apple skin in this tea.

My initial impression of the tea was that it smelled very much like a Keemun, with only hints of fruit hiding in the background. The taste showed more fruit, but definitely in a secondary role to the tea. The flavor was full and rich with moderate amounts of tannin and acid, but no bitterness. The taste blended smoothly into a good finish.

When I tried adding a bit of Nutra-Sweet, the fruit moved from the background to the foreground, with raspberry and currant becoming more or less equal to the tea in the flavor balance. I’m not sure whether I liked the tea better with or without the sweetener, but it was significantly different. I couldn’t really detect the caramel flavor, and the vanilla was at most a hint in the background.

This tea would appeal to someone who likes a hint of flavor adding subtlety to their tea, not to someone looking for fruit flavor with a bit of caffeine.

My thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris for the sample

Added note: second steep almost as good as the first

Thanks so Sophie and Laurent for sending me this sample.

I have tried many a green tea but never a genmaicha. I’ve always wanted to try one but I have never gotten around to it. I did like this one. Very much.

This one took me a while to figure out. It’s just not something I’ve ever tried before. I loved the nutty, popcornish flavor that the rice gave. It was pleasant and not something I thought I’d appreciate but I really did. There was also a lovely pop of caramel and chocolate that gave this tea the feel of a really decadent treat. I do like that it’s a black/green tea mix. The black tea complemented the chocolate in the tea and gave it a bit more maltiness.

Genmaicha is definitely interesting. It’s one that I’ve always wanted to try but never have. And I did love it. I loved the addiction of caramel and chocolate in Nina’s Japon. Kind of reminiscent of caramel popcorn…I always add chocolate chips while the popcorn is still hot. This will definitely be among the teas I order from Nina’s Tea when I eventually make my first order.

I would love to try some straight green genmaicha. Any suggestions?

The 2nd steep has an apple flavour still nicely present with more rose and with the tea base shining through. The bitterness is still present but there is no added astrigency.

Caramel, oh yes there is caramel! and vanilla. Followed by rice.
Hot, I wasn’t really feeling it at all. The rice aspect was overpowering in an odd uncooked way. Now that it’s cooled a bit, the flavours mesh together much better. What I don’t like now though, is the astringency! Hmph. On the other hand, its very smooth, and creamy. Will see what infusion #2 brings.

Edit: 2nd steep reminds me of marshmallow genmaicha from 52teas. If this was the first steep, I’d have given it a much higher rating!! I don’t know if I’d want to buy some for myself… mostly because I’d prefer the Frank version any day :)

Thanks to Laurent and Sophie for this sample.

I’ve had a bad day. My team lost and I’m subsisting on two hours of sleep. The only saving grace to this day was the arrival of my Nina’s Tea samples. I’ve been waiting for them and they did not disappoint. 

This is one lovely tea. It’s very peachy. And not artificial peach but a very sweet yet tart juicy peach flavor. There is also a bit of apple but it’s not as up-front as the peach. There was also a nice vanilla finish.The black tea base was lovely with no astringency. It was very smooth and creamy. 

I did a second steep because I loved it so much. The peach became more of a background flavor. The apple and vanilla really stood out. I was also surprised to see the apricot come out so boldly. It almost reminded me of apricot jam. There was absolutely no fade. It only got better.
 
I love this tea. I want to buy a whole bunch of it. It is one of the best flavored black teas I have tried so far. I can’t wait to try Nina’s Japon tomorrow. 

No way!! my tea palate is not normally that attuned in black teas. But here, I could actually taste the fruitiness. Like… banana perhaps, or some sort of medley. What a trip. I’ve never had an Assam like this before.
Asides from that, it’s nice and strong with some awesome malty backing. It’s been awhile since I had an intensely malty tea, and this seriously hit the spot.
Really nice for a change, but not something I’d want permanently in my cupboard. Well maybe if it didn’t go stale!
Thank you Nina’s Paris Teas for this sample!

WHAT A TREAT!!!!
I got this sample from Laurent at Nina’s Paris and was I ever glad I chose this one. I love genmaicha and I am trying to enjoy black tea more. This tea does not really remind me much of genmaicha as it is more sweet and rich. Almost reminds me of coconut bread or something along those lines. The vanilla and caramel make the scent of this tea intoxicating. I think this would be great to sip after dinner with dessert…I chose to try it at work because I could not wait until I got home to try it ;) I wish it was a bigger sample pack so I could drink it all week.

Thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris for this sample!

Dry and brewed up, this tea smells deliciously fruity. No strong “astringent” aroma as I noted with Mon Secret, so I gave it a bit longer of an infusion, although I was still pretty cautious. Flavourwise it’s pretty fruity and full-bodied, with a lovely malty-tasting black base with is just the slightest bit astringent. I can’t specifically identify the fruits in here aside from peach (although it’s not overly peachy, I can just catch hints of it), but it’s tasty, and I’m pretty sure that the vanilla is contributing to the smooth flavour. Not bad! If you’re picking up samples from Nina’s, I’d definitely recommend this one for a fruity black.

This is my last sample from Nina’s to try, and based on the reviews I’ve seen so far I’m in for a treat. It’s also my first Genmaicha – woohoo! The smell of the dry leaves is wonderful – fresh green tea and sweet kettle corn. Wow, this is really good! There’s a fresh, toasty flavor and with a little sweetener the caramel and vanilla notes come out very nicely. I love the popcornish aftertaste too! Are all Genmaichas this delicious? I’ve not found a ’can’t live without you’ green tea yet, but this one may just be in the running! Thanks Nina’s Paris for the sample!

-Dry blend has green and black tea leaves with pieces of crispy rice.
-Dry leaves smell like green tea and kettle corn. Tea liquor aroma is of buttery popcorn.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark yellow color.
-Fresh toasty flavor with a vanilla caramel finish. Nice popcorn aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. Wonderful light caramel popcorn flavor.

Thank you Nina’s Tea for this sample!! I’m quite enjoying this cup. The vanilla is very mild, and pairs excellently with the caramel. Light, like cloudbursts. The black base is nice as well, bringing everything together to make a very well rounded tea. No sugar or milk added.
Oh!! When piping hot, I swear there was something fruity in there!
I definitely wouldn’t mind having this in my cupboard.

Tasty and caramely and toasted-ricey. All together it tastes like caramel popcorn. All good good things. :) This is a very balanced tea with a slightly decadent and very comforting profile. I could certainly use more teas like this!

Thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris for this sample!

I didn’t see any recommended brewing parameters for this tea either, so went with my standard boiling/3 minute infusion… or at least, I planned to, until I sniffed the tea while it was a minute in, and I was already smelling… astringency. Yes, I realize that astringency is a sensation, but I imagine you guys can figure out what I mean… it’s kind of a sharp, pungent aroma that gets my tastebuds going like astringency does (not in a good way). So I took the infuser basket out at 2 minutes instead, because I only have one chance at this tea, and you can always put the basket back in, but you can’t reverse an oversteeped tea!

The aroma is quite nondescript, and smells like a plain black to me. Perhaps a plain flavoured black, as it’s that sort of base that I associate with… cheap flavoured blacks? :/ Although I see that it’s Keemun and not Ceylon, as I probably would have guessed (not that I really would know, though).

Flavourwise, unfortunately, this one isn’t doing it for me. I can tell that it’s a flavoured black (it has a vague plasticky flavour to it), and that’s about it. I’m not even sure that I would be able to say that it’s fruity… the flavouring is quite vague. Luckily there doesn’t actually seem to be quite the astringency that I was worried about (though there is some, and I am drinking this tea cool, which sometimes I find reduces the sensation of astringency).

I’m pretty picky about flavoured blacks, and this one unfortunately wouldn’t be a tea I’d drink again. Perhaps it has lost some flavour during transit or something (I don’t think that my short infusion affected the flavour; usually that only affects strength of flavour), but I can’t say I’m a big fan of this one.

Mmmm. The house was freezing this morning. It was actually in the 50s. Now that might not seem cold to those of you from chillier parts of the country but here in SoCal it’s mighty cold. So it was with much effort I dragged myself from bed and into the kitchen. The thought of new tea to try was a huge motivator.

I decided I wanted a black tea to start the morning and went with Nina’s because they had been so gracious to send me a sample. On first sniff it was all cream and raspberry to me. After it’s been brewed the current peaks out a bit more and balances the raspberry.

The one thing that strikes me about this tea is the level of creaminess and underlaying sweet tones. It would be easy for a tea like this to become bitter but it tastes like a dessert tea even without an additives. I do taste a faint note of caramel that could be increasing the sweetness and giving it depth but I’m really not sure if that’s exactly what it is.

Next time I don’t know if I’d have this as a breakfast tea. It seriously feels like I’m eating dessert first. I was looking into ordering more of this but while the price is pretty reasonable the shipping from amazon is pretty steep to get just 50 grams of this which is what I would want.

Overall a wonderful tea. Thank you Laurent!

Sipdown, 841.

Yum, this is about as tasty as I remember it. Caramelly and toasty. Can’t really taste either the black or green tea specifically.

Thanks to Laurent at Nina’s Paris for this sample!

Ever since tasting 52teas’ Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha (and Cherry Cheesecake Genmaicha), I have been seeking out flavoured genmaichas, so naturally, I wanted to try this one! It’s a bit of a twist, with black tea in the blend as well, but I was hoping that it wouldn’t really be a big contributor to the flavour.

Anyhow, I opted to brew this as a green (though I regret not lowering the temperature further due to some astringency even with my short 2 minute infusion), which was probably the way to go. The dry tea didn’t have a ton of flavour that I recall, but once the water hit the tea? Instant thoughts of Marshmallow Treat, though more of a caramelly version. Which is super exciting, since MT is not being reblended as I would like, but this should be much more readily available!

I let the tea cool a fair bit before drinking it (as I always do), and at first sip, I definitely have to say that I have a bit of a tea crush, haha. It’s not as good as MT, and definitely more caramelly than fluffy vanilla/marshmallow, and I’m getting some astringency (tough to know whether that’s because I used a temp 3 degrees C higher than I should have, or because of the black tea, and sadly I don’t have enough to try again). The astringency is really the most annoying thing for me, since it dampens my enjoyment of the otherwise quite delicious toasty genmaicha/caramel blend.

Overall, I think if I ever made a Nina’s order, this would be included, though I personally wish that there wasn’t any black tea in this blend, as I don’t think it’s adding anything positive.

Thanks again for the sample, Nina’s Paris!

ETA: This one re-steeped well! So I got a tasty second cup from it today :)