Eros

Revisiting this one tonight. Still a lovely, lovely tea. Lightly sweet vanilla, orangey deliciousness. I have been saving this but I don’t want to be too stingy with it and have it lose flavor. So I made up a whole pot tonight and I’m enjoying every bit of it. Even after it cools off it’s spectacular.

Watching Hudson Hawk – the movies the husband only tolerates continue. :) I gotta pick him up at the airport later tonight so I had to get in at least one more movie he says he’s seen and put up with far too many times. :) So bad movie, great tea, blanket and heat seeking cats. I better set an alarm to get to the airport in case I fall asleep… :)

No,no no no I didn’t make a mistake, I am not reviewing Eros of Mariage Frères but Eros by T.
I get this sample thanks to Nicole in our very first swap and never had the occasion to make a note about it.
It seems we are the 2 only persons to have drank this tea ?

It is a very pleasant tea,with a sweet aroma of orange (they say it is mandarin but it’s not very evident). The orange is perfectly blended with vanilla but there is a hint of bitterness even if I didn’t oversteep the tea.

A very decent tea but probably not one staple for me.
Thank you again Nicole for sharing some with me.

I got this sample from the lovely Nicole (thanks dear). It was two servings originally, but I sent one to Roswell Strange in our recent swap. So technically this is a sipdown, I guess. Hah. Visually, it just looks like short, dark black tea leaves. The smell is vaguely sweet and vanilla, I don’t get any orange. I checked Tealeaves’s website and used their recommended parameters. In hindsight, I feel this should be steeped longer than 3 minutes.

Ah, there you are, mandarin! I can definitely smell it in the brewed tea, along with sweet vanilla. I’m surprised by how specifically mandarin the orange flavoring is, usually I find orange to be rather generic “orange”. But this time it’s definitely mandarin oranges, yum! The vanilla is sweet and creamy, and it rather reminds me of vanilla pudding or custard. There’s the tiniest hint of floral near the end of the sip for me, but it’s a very mild floral.

If I tried this one again, I think I would do a 4-5 minute steep instead. Otherwise, quite delicious! Thanks Nicole! :)

Sipdown (135/142)!

Another from Cameron B.! The name of this is what compelled me, but when I saw what the tea was flavoured with that’s what really convinced me I wanted to try it. Also, this is a new company for me!

I have to say, this was a pretty good introduction to the company for me; dry this smells very, very fragrantly of mandarin oranges and flowers and steeped up this is still very flavourful! To me the mandarin flavour comes off very clearly, which seems like that’s a bit of a challenge to accomplish given how watery mandarin oranges can be. It’s also accompanied by notes of vanilla, flowers, tangerine, and maybe even some very generic melon notes (in that order of prominence)? That last one is a little iffy, but I swear I tasted that in a few sips. The black base was also nice; it was smooth with no bitterness/astringency and light enough that it really let the mandarin be the most stand out flavour.

Honestly, my biggest gripe with this one is that by the time I was nearing the last few sips of my mug it was almost far too "mandarin-y’. Like, the flavour just built in my mouth to the point where I was really losing out on the other notes I had picked up earlier. But overall this was not bad, and I think it’ll be a really memorable cup. Thank you Cameron B. for sending some my way!