So, when I think of a luxury tea I think of a really old pu’er cake or a taiwanese oolong blended by an old school tea master. What about luxury tea blends? Off the top of my head, teas with mulberries run pricey. How about teas with saffron in it, saffron being a very expensive spice?
La Perse, UK tea seller, sells a saffron tea collection! I met this tea seller at the World Tea Expo. From what I read on the website, their teas are fair trade.
I have the whole collection here: Black Ceylon Tea, Chamomile Flowers, Royal Breakfast Tea, Earl Grey and Green tea.
I decided I will sample what I think are the most interesting La Perse tea blends – Black Ceylon Tea, Earl Grey and Green tea.
Each tea is beautifully packaged in little pyramids housing a tea bag. Annoyingly, these saffron teas are hard to photograph as the saffron likes to settle on the bottom. With the saffron threads settling on the bottom, I can understand why these teas are packaged in teabags.
Tasting of La Perse’s Black Ceylon Saffron Tea
This blend features Black Ceylon Tea, cardamon, rose, and saffron strands. I gotta say, the black tea leaves look pretty good for bagged tea.
I couldn’t find any steeping instructions, so I went with my black tea standby – Boiling water for a 3 minute steep. The steeped tea has a color like no else! A mix of brown amber black ceylon color with a mysterious yellow glow as if my tea was infused with gold.
The flavor is smooth black tea with a bit of sweetness from the saffron. I’m getting a bit of cardamon spice though quite light. The rose notes are also light, melding with the lightly rich black tea base. I do taste the saffron though, the saffron adding an interesting honey, nutty and bitter vibe to it. The saffron pairs well with the tea contributing to the smooth sweet taste that is quite delicious tie in with the soft spice and rose notes. End of sip there is a slight dryness 2/10 but overall pretty good.
Tasting of La Perse’s Earl Grey
Color wise, La Perse’s Earl Grey is very similar to the Black Ceylon blend.
La Perse’s Earl Grey up a slim at reddish brown yellow. Not as smooth and complex as the ceylon in flavor. This has to be the lightest bergamont Earl Grey I’ve tried so far. Majority of the sip is the lightly rich ceylon tea base and honey saffron flavor. End of sip is the citrus bergamont that adds a brisk quality to the tea. With the lightness of the citrus I wouldn’t know this was an Earl Grey unless I knew ahead of time.
Both black teas have an interesting lingering honey flavor after each sip.
Tasting of La Perse’s Green Saffron Tea
La Perse’s Green tea is blended with peppermint and saffron strands.
I steeped my tea at 175 F for 3 minutes, a little longer than what I do for green tea, but the flavor was quite weak at first, but wow, what a great colour! Now that is a yellow looking tea!
La Perse’s Green tea flavor is lightly grassy, steamed vegetal flavor covered with a light-moderate peppermint flavor. The tea finishes with that honey like saffron flavor and lingering light peppermint. The blend overall was on the light side but refreshing. I found the play on peppermint and saffron and interesting combination which tasted even better when the tea has cooled to room temperature. The cooled tea has a great honey sweet mint flavor that is very lovely.
Comments
I have always chickened out buying saffron for my own cooking, having tea with saffron in it is a real treat and unique. La Perse‘s saffron teas are a great conversation piece, fun tasting experience for a foodie and have an attractive tea colour to present to tea guests. I could see La Perse’s Black Ceylon Tea a great offering for an afternoon tea service with scones and sweets.
Out of the three teas I tried, I liked the La Perse’s Black Ceylon Tea with cardamon and rose the best as it was complex in flavors and all complimented each other very well. The minty honey La Perse’s Green tea is also a great tea. La Perse’s Earl Grey would appear to someone who wants a very light Earl Grey, but I think the other teas were a stronger offering.
(tea provided for review)
