la Fleur d’ Oranger (aka Orange Blossom) is a chinese green tea with orange. This tea is from Le Palais Des Thes, a Paris tea seller.
This is my first time trying a Le Palais Des Thes tea. I believe I’ve seen them for sale at a gourmet shop in Los Angeles. It was very much out of my price range, so I didn’t try any.
Really cool is I won this tea from an online giveaway from the FoodNetwork blog. Hey, always worth entering these things right? I’m actually surprised how often I win tea!
I received a 100g tin of la Fleur d’ Oranger, a package of filters and a book. Oh and lots of tissue paper. Owly enjoyed nesting in the box. He got to nest in the box for a week, as I was on vacation in Utah.
Unfortunately no tea adventures, but I came back with a new Owl that I got from Zion National Park – both of us ready to try this tea out!
Zion is a pretty place by the way. Layers of reddy brown mountains, vibrant green and waterfalls. Lots of lizards too.
Dry Leaf: Grassy green smelling tea with a hint of orange rind.
The appearance is quite nice – the leaves are long and deep green, accented with orange peel chunks and curly looking petals.
Steeping Instructions: la Fleur d’ Oranger steeping instruction are 170F for 3 minutes. The box my tea came in has 10g for 17oz of tea.
My variable temperature kettles doesn’t do 170F.. either 160F of 175F. I went with 175F – at the 2.5minute mark, I had a sip and thought it was too light, so I went for the full 3 minutes.
The result was a sweet orange smelling tea that is yellow with a faint earthy green hue.
Taste: The sip of la Fleur d’ Oranger goes down really smooth and velvety – the green is slightly grassy and fresh, perfectly complimenting the orange flavor mid sip. The orange has a slight tang, not tart, that perks end of sip along with a slight floral note. The aftertaste is more dainty orange with a creamy lip texture.
Thinking about the orange flavor, it’s somewhat candy like and gently sweet. The sweetness is just enough that I feel I shouldn’t add any sweetener. I can pick out the orange peel flavor, but there is no bitterness present. The orange flavor level is at par with the green tea, so one could enjoy both flavors.
Zion Owl enjoyed this cup of tea!
Resteep: The green base is the main player here – grassy and buttery! The orange lightly perks up at end of sip and aftertaste, still tangy. Pretty good resteep!
Iced: Surprisingly, iced la Fleur d’ Oranger is less orangey and more grassy. The orange flavor is upfront, but mid and end of sip is grassy. Hmmm, I prefer this tea hot.
Comments: la Fleur d’ Oranger is quite a classy tea. It is like I’m having a lovely summer tea service with candied orange slices and coffeecake. I love how the orange flavor is nicely balanced with the green tea.
A great summer tea! I’d love to try more Le Palais Des Thes stuff, though it is on the pricey end side. However, quality of la Fleur d’ Oranger is quite good!
