Blackcurrant Tea from Paris France – Aux Anysetiers Du Roy

Ya I know the irony, I drink tea in a beer glass and I don’t drink

If you click on the image on the right you will get a much better image of the tea. Aside from the cool crock the tea comes in, if you are lucky enough to get your hands on this tea, the aroma of the tea leaves are heavenly. It smells like they mixed in gummy bears with tea leaves. Yummy! This is nothing but a simple blend of black tea scented and blended with blackcurrant flavours. Blackcurrant is actually cassis in french and they’re the same thing, so if you see a tea with cassis in the ingredients as a flavour, its blackcurrant. Now I personally love blackcurrant, I grew up drinking the sweet sticky drink called Ribena. I would never drink that stuff now, its death by sugary syrup, but this tea is a nice transition and brings back childhood memories of blackcurrant candies (also by Ribena).

I quote from this website

“Aux Anysetiers Du Roy was first a restaurant located in the old Paris quarters, L’Ile Saint-Louis, near Notre Dame de Paris….It was very fashionable to frequent this restaurant in the 60’s, where you could meet celebrities such as Salvador Dali, who signed a small provence herbs crock, as well as Brigitte Bardot, Jerry Lewis·”

I love love love Dali, he’s a dark genius; years ago I saw an artistic film by him at the Reg Hartt Cineforum downtown. This tea instantly gets bonus points in my book for distant association with Dali.

Upon first steeping, the tea is medium bodied and actually not as heavy as many black teas. It has the slightly bitter notes characteristic of black teas from the tannins, but its very slight. It’s actually quite nice if you like black teas. I actually got a swift kick in the head, so to speak, from the caffeine. On second steeping, the tea was not bitter at all, the sweet notes of the tea were not as pronounced on the nose, although still present, and the body was less dense. I would recommend rinsing the leaves for a minute, then drinking it to remove the caffeine and the bitterness.

I picked this tea up from Chapters, it’s priced at $15.99. You can order it online from various websites, as Chapters many times only carry items seasonally.

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