La Route Du Temps

Looks like I have slowly been working my way through this tin because I can see the bottom! I’m still not super thrilled with this tea, but it has been reliable with what it delivers; a mellow ginger that is fairly evenly balanced. It’s strange, because I don’t think I have tried this cold steeped yet and I love cold steeping teas. I’ll have to try that next and if it doesn’t somehow transform into magic that carries me away to mystic flavorful lands, then I’m not likely to seek this one out for a second tin.

This is an odd flavor combination for me. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I ordered it other than that I must try ALL THE TEA.

In the tin, the aroma is more floral than ginger. In fact, I’m not sure I smell ginger in the dry blend. But after steeping, I definite smell ginger. In the rooty, spicy way, not in the gingerbread way. I also smell a floral tone that isn’t so much an undertone as a sometime undertone, sometime side by side tone. Cteresa identified this as jasmine, and I think that’s right — though it’s more of a generic floral to me.

The tea is light yellow in color, more buttery yellow than lemony.

In taste, this tea is surprising. It tastes much better than it sounds like it would. The ginger is prominent and spicy. It’s not so spicy that it opens the nasal passages, but it does push at them a little. It’s also somewhat sweet. The floral high notes keep the tea from being all about the ginger. I don’t taste the underlying tea as an independent flavor, but I can tell it is there.

I think this would be a great tea to soothe an upset stomach or help with a stuffy nose — but it is also something that is unique enough to hit the spot when nothing else seems to.

This is a tea which I had never paid attention to when seeing the descriptions of teas. Flowery green tea with candied (?) ginger, it never made its way to my enormous wish lists, not even the long list of teas I wanted to smell. But both Paris airports got Mariage Freres shops, and when killing a lot of time, I managed to sniff my way through all the teas one of the shops had (apart from top most row and a couple expensive things they had on canister but not outside). It was an interesting experience, it struck me again how the special edition tin teas seem to almost all (exception to Mousse au Chocolat maybe, which I would buy if the tin was not so expensive and seeming so flimsy for the price as well) all seem so uninspiring compared to the regular range teas. And of all those teas I sampled, besides my old acquaintances I knew already, it was La Route du Temps which absolutely fascinated me . I decided no, that I had enough tea already and then kept thinking of it and then had to backtrack to get some (it was a LOT of time to kill). Also teas with ginger, a lot of ginger do have a place in my kitchen, I find ginger extremely soothing when I have a cold, though so far I have only had caffeine free tisanes.

And surprisingly this impulsive, indulgent buy really worked for me. The flowery note mentioned is jasmine, in my opinion just jasmine. The ginger is extremely strong, a sweet candied ginger which feels spicy piquant in the tongue and somehow it goes incredibly perfect with the tea underneath and the sweetness of the jasmine. This is an unexpected tea flavouring combination but which somehow works extremely well for my palate. The tea underneath is very smooth, very large leafed though with two such strong flavourings difficult to say much more, except it does stand up to the flavours without being overpowered by them. And the blend is just filled with dried ginger and jasmine flowers, be careful to up dosage a little bit to take that into account, and also to mix it well occasionally to make sure you are not overdosing on the flavouring which “floated” to the top.

I have brewed this a few times. Be careful with water temperature, too hot will make it bitter, and make the jasmine taste “cooked” and the ginger overpowers the jasmine. I am using relatively cool water for it, and prefer it like that, it seems to bring out the jasmine in a livelier way which just balances itself. It does seem quite forgiving of being forgotten for a few (many) extra minutes! And a warning I will repeat, because some will love this but not all – this is spicy, the ginger is sharp, and very much there!

A very unexpected addition to my tea stash, but this is one tea I am going to enjoy a lot. A very original tea, totally different from any other I ever had.