Summer is here! In British tradition, we’ve just finished off a sunny week of hot days… with an unbelievable amount of rain. But not to worry. I have plenty of delicious teas to review that are just as nice served hot as they are served cold. Janat Apple tea is one of those.
Janat Paris are a French tea brand (duh) and I’ve managed to get my hands on the full Provence collection of teas from them. You can find other Janat Paris tea reviews here on my blog. But for now, let’s dig into Janat Apple.
In my review, find out what ingredients are in this tea, what it tastes like, and how best to brew it.
Janat Apple Tea at a Glance
- Blend: Black tea with apple flavouring
- Flavour: Tannin black tea notes with apple hints
This tea smells absolutely gorgeous, but I felt that the apple flavour was a little lacking. Still, it is a pleasant cuppa to sip on a cool day such as today.
Full Review – Black Tea with Apple Flavouring
- Type: Tagged paper filter teabags
- Tea: CTC black tea
- Additives: Apple flavouring
- Flavour Notes: Tannins, apple hints
- Aroma: Apple candy, sweet and sour apple, granny smith apples
- Milk or Lemon: Neither
- Where to Buy: Janat Paris Official Website
Ripping open the shiny foil wrapper – which feels very luxurious, by the way – you’re instantly hit with a very strong apple aroma. It reminds me of Tangfastics and apple laces. These British sweets/candies are so tasty, but they’re not very natural. This apple scent is like candied granny smith apple slices.
It brews into a peat brown coloured tea that’s very dark and murky. It’s the kind of tea that should be consumed with milk, but the milk would clash horribly with the apple flavouring.
Anyway.
The aroma fades away a lot once brewed. You can only just detect the apple notes and the black tea is yet to make an impact on my nose. Unfortunately, the flavour follows suit. You can taste a hint of bitter tannins from the black tea and a tinge of apple sourness in the aftertaste. And that’s it.
If you’ve been reading my review so far and wondering why it sounds so familiar, you may be thinking of my Ahmad Tea London Apple Refresh review. The similarities between these two apple-flavoured black teas are incredible. Perhaps they use the same supplier.
The problem with both teas is the same – the apple flavouring is unauthentic, and the CTC black tea base is far too heavy. I’m not a huge fan of this tea, but I will continue to drink it.
How to Brew Janat Apple Tea
First, fill your kettle with fresh water. This does improve the final flavour of the tea, trust me. Then, bring it to the boil and let it finish bubbling in the kettle.
Pour it over your teabag and let it steep for 3 minutes. I use 1 teabag (that holds 2g of leaf) for a 250ml teacup. If you’re using a larger mug, you may want to steep for a little longer.
I don’t like adding milk to apple teas. It just doesn’t taste right to me. You could add some honey, syrup, sugar or any other sweetener. The sour apple and tannin-flavoured black tea respond well to a little sweetness.
Why Janat Paris Provence Collection?
I love the elegance of this tea brand. It’s very French! The teas in the Provence series are inspired by the flavours of Provence. There’s raspberry, peach, apple and muscat grapes. So far, they’ve been really quite pleasant.
Janat Paris does offer some loose leaf tea blends (I think) so I highly recommend choosing those over the teabag options. You can see from my photos that the leaf quality is lacking, and the apple is made from flavouring (those white specks) rather than dried fruit pieces.
I’ve tried numerous apple tea types over the years so I know from experience that chunks of dried apple fruit provides a much better flavour. To be fair, however, you rarely get that delicious sour apple candy scent from dried fruit pieces.
Summary
I think we can all agree that flavour is the most important factor when it comes to tea. So, even though Janat Apple Tea has a mouth-watering sour apple candy aroma, the flavour is lacking too much to make it a brilliant tea. I wish it tasted as vibrant as it smells!
If you want to check it our for yourself, you can learn more about these teas from Janat’s official website.
Tea Recommendation
Looking for more apple teas? Head straight to my index – you can find it in the menu of our website. This is where I keep track of all my tea reviews on the blog. For updates on my progress and snapshots of a tea lover’s life, follow me on Instagram @izzysden.