Hello my amazing tea peeps!
Nina’s Paris is a french tea brand that is about to launch in US and Canada. Check out their Facebook page and Twitter! Their America’s website is http://ninasteastore.com/
Anyways, I got a handful of samples from them – yum!
I got Marie Antoinette, Mon Secret and Nina’s Japon as samples. I decided to do sample all of these teas and some quick review. I wish I had more than one serving of each so I can do a full review with sweeteners or as lattes!
Marie Antoinette is a black tea blend with rose petals and apple flavoring.
Dry leaf, it has a fabulous apple scent! I’d love to have this scent around the house, very lovely!
Taste, very nice black tea base with apple and rose flavor – I keep thinking the apple taste is a cross between a golden delicious in flavor, but has that red apple skin taste as well. The apple is quite delicate over the sturdy black tea base. The apple flavor lingers as an aftertaste. I like how the apple flavor is quite distinct and clean in flavor – I’m used to apple teas being either filler (that you can’t taste), or paired with chocolate or spices, or tart. There’s no tart here! The rose is quite light, but adds a little oomph to the apple – like I’m having tea and there’s a fresh rose sitting next to my cup.
The downside is the black tea is starting to go bitter. I had sampled it at 2.5 minutes, but thought it was weak, so it sat for another 45 seconds or so. I think 3 minutes at 200F is about perfect.
I think I’d buy some of this one – I love the apple in this tea!
Overall, very nice apple flavor – if you love apple teas this is for you!
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Mon Secret is a tea that features sunflower, papaya, melon, peach and cream flavor.
Dry leaf, it smells like black tea – different black tea than Marie Antionette as I could pick up this could go astringent.
I steeped this one at 200F for 2 minutes, and went up to 2.5 minutes.
Quite strong black tea flavor with an extra earthy robust flavor. I didn’t get much fruity flavors here, and it was hard to distinguish them from each other. The black is just starting to get astringent on the back of my throat at end of sip, so I wouldn’t steep this any longer. I’m not a huge fan and would like to of tasted the fruits in this tea – I love melon! If this was supposed to be more stronger in fruity flavor, maybe being in a sample baggy the fruityness lost its flavor somehow. Though, the black was quite decent.
This would be for someone who enjoys black teas, with a little secret fruit thrown in!
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Nina’s Japon is a blend of black tea, genmaicha, caramel, coconut, cream and vanilla flavors.
This one smelled amazing before steeping as well! Very coconutty – quite different than what I expected for a genmaicha blend!
Very amazing steeped scent – sweet, caramelly and creamy! I steeped this at 175F for 3 minutes. I wouldn’t steep this tea for longer than that.
Taste wise, the black tea in this takes over, with a bit of green genmaicha in there. With that said, the black adds and extra level of roasty taste that compliments the toasted rice. With the green and black flavors, there is creamyness going on. The aftertaste is a nice caramel, creamy and sweet! I can also pick up the coconut flavor – fresh and creamy!
I quite like what they did with the genmaicha here – it’s different and a good blend of flavors! If you are a genmaicha fan, this one is worth a try!
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Anyways, I’d love to see their full line up once their stores are open! Nina’s Paris USA, Canada and South America store is not up yet, but you can be put on the email list to be notified when their store is open, or even request samples and a catalogue.
Until then, you can purchase their teas on their Amazon store.
