Maker: Harney & Sons
Type: flavored black tea
Brew: 1 tsp / cup, boiling, 5 min

Paris is the sublime vanilla tea I mentioned back in my review of another of Harney & Sons’ “Famous Cities” series of teas. While H&S does feature a pure black vanilla tea (creatively named “Vanilla”) as well as a welcome decaffeinated version (Vanilla Comoro), this vanilla tea is additionally adorned with floral and fruit flavorings.

I’m usually not a fan of floral tea blends, but the vanilla makes a charming host even to one of my more disliked tea ingredients. This is rather an impressive blend that way. That such a delicate-seeming blend can withstand a full 5 minutes brew is astounding in a tea world where lightly flavored black teas often need to be babied to 3 minutes. The longer brew time allows for the full high-quality black tea background taste to develop.

Of the cities line, Paris is the best black tea; and amongst blender-specific teas, Paris is one of the best flavored black tea blends period.

Next time we’ll look at another tea in the same line, a green tea named Bangkok.

Rating: 5/5—Harney & Sons’ unique masterpiece.