Brioche Organic Tea

2013-05-11
OMG Tastybrew my mystery swap box arrived and it’s a smorgasbord of tea! like whoa!

i immediately picked two teas. and this was the first.
the scent is pretty damn decadent. heavy butter, or like a fresh cheese danish. bam!
the base is a pretty mild black so it would be nice when i don’t want a mega caffeine hit or a heavy mouth experience. a mellow dessert tea!

thanks so much TastyBrew, this whole box is gonna be a wild experience.

2013-06-07
this tea is. so. good.
like sogood!

i’m listening to spoon on repeat too. this song is also so very good.
Paper Tiger – Spoon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7uEW56rCE
it’s all too bittersweet.

and it’s raining out too. super raining. i keep getting emergency flood warnings on my phone.
it’s a dramatic day.

I have wanted to try this one for quite a while, but I never got around to making an ATR order. Luckily, I got some from Sil!

This smells familiar to me, but I can’t recall what other tea I’ve had that was similar. It would have been near the beginning of my time on Steepster. It smells like cinnamony and candied almonds, with a bit of pastry. The flavor is nice; it does remind me of thos candied almonds because it is cinnamony and nutty. Is it particularly brioche? I guess it depends on the type of brioche, but I guess I can see it as a pastry-ish tea. Pretty tasty overall, but I find myself wishing for a more interesting base tea, as this one reads as kind of a “plain black” with not a ton of character.

I have not really been on here all week. I am working 15 hours days and have been so exhausted. I have a lot of backlogging to do now.

Anyways, I got this in the mail yesterday and I now understand what all the ranting and raving was about! I am in love with this tea. This is definitely a staple in my cupboard. Like a LBD, but just the “little perfect tea.” You can almost taste the flakiness of the brioche. The butter, the almonds, just truly decadent. You have this anytime of the day any time of the year. Thank you steepsters for talking this tea up. I have found a soulmate. There is nothing at all wrong with this tea. THE PERFECT TEA. Seeing as I am a baker, I find this tea to be a great addition to my life. Enjoying the carbs without actually having to intake them! ha ha

OK, moving on…. Went digging into my sample basket, and pulled out another crowd favorite – this time courtesy of ifjuly.
Dry this smells awesome, steeping this smells awesome, in the cup this smells awesome – I didn’t wait long enough. Burned the tongue….oh well – it’s worth it. This is cinnamon buns in a cup. Cinnamon, sweet and I think this is the first time that I’ve REALLY tasted the “bread” component. This is cinnamon bun. Fantastic. My only minor complaint is that it’s a bit thin on the tongue. Wish it had just a bit more mouth feel.
This I understand why everyone loves it. Thanks ifjul for sharing this wonderful tea.

This is my last cup of this sample and as I stood in the kitchen singing a little song about it, I realized that I probably should have ordered some of this when I restocked the Choco*Late. Any tea that makes you sing songs about it while its brewing deserve to be bought again.

Finishing off my sample from moraiwe. Thanks! I received this 8 months ago and it is a little worse for age. Still, this is a lovely breakfast tea. See prior notes for details.

There’s a kid coughing uncontrollably right behind me. .. Tea has antiviral properties, right?

This looks and smells like Almond Cookie(s) from The Spice and Tea Exchange and SpecialTeas…oh yea! I’m excited!!!! Another sample from Doulton! Thanks!!!!

I can taste the nuts and pastry and cinnamon and croissant comparison and even a little marmalade!

I think the difference between this and the other too is it’s seems to be smoother all-around. The almond doesn’t jump out as much and it might be a little more sweet than nutty. Regardless I really like it! REALLY like it! YUM!

For my 450th distinct tea represented in these-here notes (as opposed to the number of these-here notes), I thought I’d write about something I’ve been wanting to try for a long time.

This tea has gotten a lot of love on Steepster and I’ve had a sample of it (hermetically sealed) waiting for a special occasion. After tasting it, I have jumped on the love bandwagon.

When I sniffed the tea in the sample packet I thought I’d fallen into a vat of liquid almond croissants! The aroma is of the sweet, buttery, rich almond paste that’s used in pastries like croissants, bear claws, etc. I have not had a brioche (I don’t think I have anyway) but if they smell like this, I must make it a project to have one.

The steeped tea carries that aroma as well, in an amazingly rich, deep fragrance. I would have expected it to be much more dilute. The liquor is a clear chestnut color.

The taste is quite remarkable. I didn’t expect complexity. I expected it to taste like it smelled, more or less. And it does, but it’s not just almond paste. It’s that plus butter, brown sugar, baked goods. It really is a liquid dessert.

As an aside, I’ve started to categorize tea companies in my mind by what I think they do really well in terms of flavors. As examples, I think of Kusmi as great at berry flavors and caramel, but not at chocolate or vanilla. I think of Harney & Sons as great at chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and rose, among other things. Given my recent tastings of ATR teas, I was ready to conclude that ATR is great at fruit flavors. Now I have to include Brioche along with fruit flavors!

additional notes: There has been talk of this one in the discussion thread, and yes, I still have some actual ATR Brioche that I decided to dig out and have a cup of and oh wow, the flavor is still so so good. It’s amazing really, as this is one of my oldest teas. I can never give up on these old teas. I’m noticing a pattern now: when a new year starts I like to start drinking my oldest teas, which means not many tasting notes from me but I’m still drinking away.

I got this as a surprise sample in my swap with the awesome Will Work For Tea! It’s been on my shopping list for a long time, and I’m honestly not quite sure why I didn’t order it before now—I think I just don’t like to pay for shipping unless it’s a big order, and ATR is a bit pricey so I wanted to know I’d love their stuff before committing to a purchase.

The smell of the dry leaves is amazing, like a Parisian bakery. I went to Paris with my mom when I was 15, and I remember how absolutely amazing the pastries were. Soft, buttery, flakey, sweet… just thinking about it makes me hungry. This tea smells like an almond croissant, but it tastes even better. There’s soft, gentle cinnamon, plump raisins, slivers of roasted almonds, and buttery warm bread in every sip, even a hint of pastry cream at the end. How they got tea to taste like a fresh from the oven baked good is beyond me, but it’s heavenly. This is a tea I could drink every day and be happy with!