November is a busy month for me, and turns out this year it has been busier than usual busy. I am tackling (and failing at) NaNoWriMo, planning for Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas plans and I have a huge amount of commission work for Tea Owls. My tea drinking has become large tea pot + random black tea I need to drink down just to keep me going. With extra work, I’ve been at home all the time, missing all the sunny California fall weather.
With the fall blues, I think it’s a good time to do some tea reviews of teas that are more fruity and delicate. How about some Nina’s Paris teas?
Today’s review are for Nina’s Paris teas – The Des Muses, Sur La Lune, and Adam.
The Des Muses is a green tea blend with sunflower, rose, cornflower, lemon, grapefruit and strawberry. I can certainly smell the grapefruit in this blend!
I did a 175F water temperature and steeped the tea for 2 minutes. The Des Muses came out a pretty bronzey yellow with a citrus scent.
Taste wise, The Des Muses is a delicate – sips in with a light fresh strawberry flavor, including the core and bit of the grassy stem. Mid sip there is a bit of rose, but is very light, 1/10 on the Floral Meter. The tea finishes off with a lovely white grapefruit flavor that is a little tangy. The green base is a little grassy and buttery, but the main focus is the fruit and citrus flavors, with the grapefruit notes being the highlight for me.
I bet The Des Muses would be excellent iced or cold steeped, but alas all I have is a single sample. If you love grapefruit tea blends, The Des Muses is delicious!
The Sur La Lune is a black tea with Blueberry, Passionfruit, raspberry and orange. The dry leaf had a mystery fruity smell that I couldn’t identify.
I did a 3 minute infusion with 200F water. After steeping, The Sur La Lune came out a deep brown shade with a distinct raspberry scent.
The tea blend tastes citrusy – I get a mouth watering sweet orange, like clementines, over a light black tea earthy base, with an excellent finish of raspberry and blueberry flavor – with the raspberry flavor as a lingering aftertaste. I bet this tea would be incredible iced!
Adam is a black tea with spearmint and lemon. I steeped this tea up similar to The Sur La Lune.
The flavor is mega fresh – spearminty with a zesty lemon finish, all over a lightly rich earthy base. I’m not big into spearmint, but I found this tea had a great level of minty flavor. Adam is the perfect tea for an afternoon refreshing pick-me-up!
Well, I need to get back to making an army of Tea Owls. With me so busy, the current Tea Owls have been up to mischief – this one has been teasing the bunny with mint leaves!
(tea provided for review)
