362 Tasting Notes
I tried this at a café – teabag (nice mousseline one, must be said) on a mug, and nearly boiling water from the coffee machine.
Kusmi is becoming rather easy to find at some trendy cafés and bakeries. So far I had not much luck with their blends, and that is an euphemism: their Detox blend, from the same café as this one, I loathed. But this was a lovely surprise. It´s nothing extraordinary, green tea and presumably mate, cinnamon noticeable and then cardamom and ginger. But the brewing method (bag in a mug, water from coffee machine) seemed to work really well with this and it was a perfectly nice cup of tea. Maybe I am overrating it because it turned out better than I expected, but a nice surprise indeed.
And ah, now I found a Kusmi tea I like, I do not like its tin. That is ironic. Not that this was a must have, or something I needed for personal collection, it´s just my insane mad lusting over Kusmi tea tins (though not the teas).
Preparation
Kusmi teabags are getting ubiquitous on some trendy cafés. The selection is usually not quite exciting, but well, it´s better than Lipton. Except this one, I truly disliked it.
It being a teabag I am not quite sure what it was on it. Green tea for sure, and lemongrass absolutely. Steepster description does not mention any spices, and I thought I could detect some hint of something. Maybe I was wrong. But this tea was very wrong for the teabag in a mug and almost boiling water method: it turned out both bitter (the mate? the tea?) and I could detect a strong sort of seaweedy-fishy tone. I really disliked it. But OTOH the next one I tried, Boost, was a winner.
Preparation
you are breaking the heart of so many Frenchies who think this tea is the best Kusmi’s tea…this is one of their best sellers in France. Sure I won’t taste it now …I already had doubt about its qualities
Maybe it was just not right for the way it was brewed – at a french chain bakery actually, Eric Kaiser, very lovely pain au chocolat though am a bit sad at their location which used to be a bookshop :( But I swear it smelled seaweedy, fishy to me. If it is only green tea, lemongrass and mate not sure what could be fishy about that but it did. Boost was quite nice though, though nothing extraordinary.
oh God Kaiser opened a bakery in Lisboa ! It’s one of our best baker but by the way soooooo expensive. (I remember I found Lisboa expensive when I visited one century ago !)
Anyway sure tea shouldn’t be fishy ! they may have used a sencha ? senchas can be a little bit “seaweed” aftertaste sometimes
They got two bakeries in Lisbon now, one a bit out of the way, and another right in Baixa, at Rua do Carmo. It was not too expensive, well not by standards of Baixa, which are now a bit geared towards tourists. IIRC tea was 1.80 (teabag in a mug. But still, cheap compared to some really poncey places where they charge you a lot more for that priviledge. Oh and bring the intact bag by the side of the cup full of hot water rapidly cooling.). The simpler pastries, croissants and chaussons aux pommes and pains aux chocolat were a bit less than 1.50€. A bit less than twice the price they would be in a regular place in an average town but pretty OK by tourist center standards. And really quite good pastries!
And about Detox, that could be it indeed, I have been known to have some issues with some japanese greens. I saw some for sale the other they they talked of a “seaweed” note as if it were a good thing, really". And the method for brewing Detox was not too kind, a bag in a mug, that could be it. But I really really did not like it.
One of my friend told me it was a fantastic tea; I’ve never had tea with him and do not really know his taste and whether he can be trusted on this.
I guess I’ll try you on this and will definitely not jump on this one, as I do not feel like taking risks with something that might be so vile.
LaFleurBleue, be careful with this. It was just sort of rank to me. I will try it again if i get the chance, but am not recommending it to anyone, particularly you!
Still from the tea swap (thank you Keen Tea Time) a spiced herbal blend. Cultural expectations and all this tastes not at all christmas-y to me – it´s spearmint, orange rind and american cinnamon mostly. Spearmint has its own tang, different from the usual mint around my parts of the world, to me its association with toothpaste is unavoidable. And american cinnamon is also different from my regular cinnamon, american cinnamon to me is the taste of tooth-friendly chewing gum. So you see where this is going. Instead of Christmas associations, this sounded like a very tooth-friendly drink. And it was a nice, palate cleansing sort of taste, I liked it. Orange was also present, but my mind focused mostly on the spearmint-cinnamon thing. Cloves I did not detect.
The one drawback of this tea for me was that it was so thin, so weak. I like that they did not use fillers like chicory (à la Lipton) which taste muddy to me, but the poor spearmint was just not up to the task of my bigg-ish tea cup. When rebrewing I think I will up the dose or halve the tea
Preparation
I know what you mean about it being weak. I usually brew two or three bags together! :)
Great minds think alike, because that will be what I will do! or brew much less, which is also an option. I really liked the balance of flavours, it tastes very sharp and clean, sort of pure, to me, but I think it is that toothpaste – virtuous chewing gum association!
It was not love at first sight with this tea, but each time I have it I love it more and appreciate it more. There are no particular fireworks, but it is just so balanced, so right so very often, so refreshing. I find myself reaching for this in all sort of occasions, after a meal, when I am in a hurry (since I brew it quite coldish and short on time, it´s ready to drink faster than my other teas), when I am not feeling well, or just because. This tea turned out to be quite a good steady friend.
Moroccan mint and a hint of bergamot, which is really just a hint and seems to tie everything together, and underneath it all a great tea (green though maybe with a hint of black? or oolong?) which goes almost unnoticed but is there. I can really not describe it any better. But balance is the key word – don´t brew it too hot, or too long, and it will be perfection.
And one advice, if you are consider buying this, do consider getting the mousseline teabags rather than loose leaf. The mint in this mix crumbles, and is crumbling more and more as my tin is ageing, this makes for a very messy tea and a mess to strain. I am not holding it against the blenders, seems a natural process of natural ingredients and the taste would just not be the same without this mint. But if or when I rebuy this I will get the mousselines. With this blender price is always a consideration for me, particularly for those mousseline teabags, but I think I just might have to bite that bullet when I finish the tin.
Preparation
I have always wanted to love Kusmi tea – the tins! So pretty, and stackeable (a really important attribute for residents of my tea corner). But whenever before I have had Kusmi tea, I have always been underwhelmed. It´s not totally fair to judge a tea by how it´s prepared on cafés and teashops, so I have always meant to give a fair trial to Kusmi tea. And this is it, got 50 grams of St Petersburg (and such a pretty pretty bag they gave me!), brewed it semi-carefully ( tap water, attention to temperature, and medium attention to time) and well here goes.
I don´t really like it. It smells interesting, very interesting, caramel and bergamot and fruity, very intense. Brewed, I get fruit and caramel and interestingly the bergamot is not overpowering. But rather than a symphony the flavours are all like an instrument tuning, a lot of flavour and it seems to be clashing somehow. And I I do not like the base tea, must retest again, it came up bitter. I will keep retesting, got nearly 50 grams to play with, but maybe I can not brew this up any better than those cafés. Meh.
Preparation
I’m with you regarding this tea…meh…bof bof et super bof but on the other hand I keep the idea I am maybe too hard with this brand because I expect too much from it
I do not know if it was expectation – I mean it would be useful to like it, I so like the tins, but not sure I am really biased to expect a lot! So far I have had their tea in cafés or tea shops, I could always blame not loving the tea on it not being done properly ( even if I sometimes have fallen in love with teas when having them outside home) so I was a bit disappointed this first time I bought it home.
This brand is so ubiquituous, it´s so trendy, lots of gourmet stores have it and quite a few places serve it. Very chic. And OMG have you see their little sampler packs? soooo cute. But I think if it was expectations my reaction would be sort of different, it would be more “well I am a peasant and obviously can not understand what is going on here” which is my reaction to fancy Darjeelings or japanese teas (though I am starting to really get japanese teas). But this one, my reaction was more immediate, it was as if I could taste what this tea was about and just was not impressed. Too much stuff and the base, bah, I am a peasant regarding Darjeelings admittedly, but this base tea is even more peasant than I.
I have 4 big tins …250gr of 4 of their teas…I gave all the st Petersbourg to my mother+ half of my Nanah à ma menthe. I keep the big tins and I can put my mariage frères or dammann frères in it :)
I have a small set as well, very cute; I reuse the small tins to take other teas to the office
I faced this same problem, and I have stumbled upon the secret to this tea (and many others of the Kusmi flavored black teas). Lower the temperature to around 185 Farenheit, and steep the tea for much longer: 6-7 minutes. You’ll be in tea heaven.
Thanks I will give it a try! 85 C google says, will keep it in mind.
I am a francophile when it cames to tea. Not by design, I think some big name French companies can go a little bit too froufrou with packaging and pricing or just plain esoteric. But for me, more often than not, it´s a couple of French companies which nail what I want in a special tea: good tea with wonderful flavours, introduced or natural, and that specialness. Any tea named Paris is going to have to live up to my expectations, for tea coming in black and gold boxes!
This Paris comes from the other side of the Atlantic. I love that Harney sells small samples, I wish more places did that, it was a way to get to know this without commitment. I got enough for 3 or 4 cups, the first cup was not a hit it seemed to react very badly to my tap water. This is my second (or third?) attempt at this. Mineral water and I was careful of temperature. And it is still not a hit. I brewed it too cold I think, only the bergamot developped and I am getting some bitterness from something somewhere. This is not comparing too well with Thé au Tibet (the most no-fuss very refined tea ever) or Marco Polo. Would I have compared it to either of those without the name and reading other reviews? Dunno. But this is a tough name for a tea to live up, in my house!
I still got enough for one more attempt. Maybe that it will be love at third sight. I really wanted to love this.
Preparation
hope I’ll have more success. This is a tea I wanted to taste for a long time and I’m probably going to have a sample of it.
Oh forgot :where did you buy your samples ? would you give me the link ? thank you :)
I got it directly from harney, bought online
(I actually had to put France as my country and send the correct country on the comments field). Shipping was about 14 dollars for a couple tins and some samples.
I hope you are luckier with this than me! It keeps eluding me. Oh well, maybe third time is the charm. I would offer to send a sample, but just got this little smidgeon.
Thank you Cteresa. No problem I should receive a sample from a tea swap.
I’d like to test Florence from H&S as well so will have a look at their shop on line :)
look, I found a website for France :http://www.harneyshop.fr/the/the-en-vrac.html?limit=all
They may ship to Portugal for less expensive shipping rates ?
If you get it, do review it! I am pretty curious.
On my order I got Queen Catherine ( which was a local, LOL, could not resist that) which is quite nice, sort of like Twining´s Prince of Wales but nothing too extraordinary and I got Vanilla Comoro – decaf flavored tea, maybe it´s because it´s decaf but I did not love it. And this Paris which keeps not being nice to me. They sent me on their own samples of Hot Cinnamon Spice which really does not work for me (but american takes on cinnamon rarely do. It´s almost always thr wrong type of cinnamon for me) and a teabag of their japanese sencha which I loved. Did not expect to love it, but it was awesome for a teabag and would buy it at once if the shipping was not a bit cumbersome for just it.
oh Ysaurella, that is quite a find, but currency conversion yikes! What I wanted is 11 dollars on the US site, on the european site 17.19 euros. Xe.com is saying that 11 dollars=8.49€ right now. come on. And the ambessa teas they do not have on stock. This is just not going to happen!
And just playing around with the american site, for the 50teabag bag and a 100 gr tin of tea they estimate at most 17 dollars – I think it will be almost surely cheaper even if the France to Portugal shipping was free (and it won´t). Do check both sites before ordering.
gosh ! it seems the European website is not aware there is a crisis in Europe :)
I’m really impatient to taste this Paris blend and if I am seduced will order H&S from the US website so !
The prices in the french site are quite frankly a bit astounding. These are nice teas, with a lot of effort on the details (the bags, the packaging, very nice tins and I am quite susceptible to the lure of tins) but quite frankly, those prices and with shipping on top? Not even our friends at Mariage Freres charge that!
Another unknown blender, I think this was from a small teashop which has since changed management and tea providers! I had been sort of hoarding this, because it is good and I can not find it anymore, but in the spirit of trying to purge the tea collection a bit here goes. Keep in mind this tea is already at least a couple years old, maybe more.
And it´s lovely. Pretty simple, rooibos (feels like a smooth nice one), bits of chopped black chocolate and maybe dried ginger. Some unidentifiable blossoms (ginger?). A very strong taste of ginger, a nice deep chocolate and the melted chocolate adding some texture. A total winner. I am coming to terms with the unlikelihood I will find this again, better enjoy it and wave it goodbye.
Preparation
From some unknown big blender, seen this mix on several different local teashops, with slightly different spellings.
On the great purge, trying to drink samples and finish teas. This is one of those I still got plenty and wow, it´s not bad enough to throw away and just not good enough for me to have much pleasure in still having so much of it. 50 grams really is the best amount for me to buy tea.
The tea itself is OK. The base is difficult to judge, the chocolate a not particularly strong note, the chillies and pink peppercorns bring it some heat and overpower both the tea and chocolate notes. And not listed anywhere but I would swear there is a coriander (the seeds. Not the fresh plant!) note in the tea. Inspecting the dry tea, some of the “pepper” might indeed be coriander.
In all, a pretty underwhelming flavoured tea.
Preparation
The description of this says “very refined”. Yep. It is. It is also remarkably easy and comforting. I keep forgetting about this, it´s one of the cinderellas of my tea collection, and it is so unfair.
Just brewed a cup, and oh my it was so lovely. And because the small cup was just not enough, I did not resist trying the rest of the pot, which had been steeping for 10 minutes or more. And it was still good which is something rather miraculous. For all the chic and elegance of this tea, it´s also so forgiving and right for just about all occasions.
It might spoil me for all other earl greys. And it just might destroy my relationship with Lady Grey.
