I deserved a treat, and this tea is the ultimate treat. Just smelling it makes me grin like a madwoman. I use the Perfect Measuring Spoon from DT a lot, not so much because it measures very perfectly (because it really doesn’t) but because it has such a pleasant, sleek, ottery roundness to it; just …
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gluttonette
Melon White Tea – Lupicia
Lupicia, how are you even… Lupicia, how can you even… Lupicia, how is this even… I can’t even. Just like the melon oolong from the same company (Reviewed here: http://gluttonette.com/?p=463) this is a perfect melon, both in the bag and steeped. It’s light, and smooth, and in every possible way beyond reproach. It lacks the dirty ripeness of …
With Open Eyes – Butiki Teas
I’ve spent the past few days contemplating how Dammann Frères’ violet, ginger, rose and citrus are good, but just not the ones for me. And here I am again, but with Butiki. This is a great, natural strawberry. In the bag, it smells so ripe, like those near-moldy strawberries you’ve kept around lust a little …
Bali – Dammann Frères
If Bali smells like this, I need to go there (I need to go there, anyway, but still). This is what scented island-life travel ads would smell like – floral, fruity and with a dash of something boozy. The florals, however, amount mostly to a distinct rose flavour in the cup, drowning out the fruit …
Mango Lassi – Butiki Teas
This one confuses me – I like my flavored rooibos well enough, but this is like drinking straight-up rooibos. It smells like rooibos in the bag, it smells like rooibos in the cup, and it tastes like rooibos in the cup. Any hint of anything else, mango or otherwise, is simply absent. I can’t really …
Soleil Vert – Dammann Frères
This smells so very richly citrusy in the bag, it reminds me of the Malaco Fox lemon toffee candy I used to love as a kid. It’s a little too much, though, and it comes off as too artificial to me. Citrus is hard to get right, and the scents often land too close to …
Happiness – Lupicia
I was so sure I’d reviewed this that I’d put it in the cupboard. The shame. It might have been because it’s not a favourite – this is one that leaves me fairly indifferent. In the bag, the dry leaf smells very boozy, but not a ripe, fruitrotty, autumnal booziness like Marco Polo (vert) from Mariage Frères, …
Bravissimo! – Lupicia
There’s a whole, perfect little rose bud in my steeping basket, and that makes me happy. Just like this tea. Boiling, 1 min 30
Macaron Cassis Violette – Dammann Frères
This is a nice idea – currant, violet, macaron. Ideally, this would have a nice balance of berry notes from the currants, elegant florals from the violet and a sweet. light, pastry presence keeping the whole thing together. Nose wise, I mostly get violet, but also an almondy note, which, generously, could be deemed the …
Jasmine Silver Needle – Adagio Teas
Oh. The bag is really, genuinely, irrevocably empty now. I shook it and held it upside down and everything. And I can’t get any more right now. Flurr. [Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.][Sample polished off in Rome, January 2014.] 90 C, 3 min 30