French Teas Series - Fauchon

I have to admit that I my initial exposure to exotic teas beyond Lipton occurred on my first trip to the UK in 1980 and I fell in love with them. Having said that, a trip to Paris in 2004 got me started on an even bigger adventure.

Going to all the wonderful tea shops in Paris such as LaDuree, Palais Des Thes' and Fauchon exposed me to something we don't have here and that is floral blends with black tea. The use of flowers & citrus in their teas is the result of the influence of Russian teas that are very popular in France and for obvious reasons have never had much exposure here in the US.

In this blog entry I am going to discuss Fauchon's. I discovered Fauchon's next to the fabulous Paris landmark Le Madeleine which looks like a Greek temple. They not only have a shop there where you can pick up wonderful treats such as their own brand of teas, jams & madeleine cookies, they also have a proper tea salon over looking Le Madeleine.

Everything is so beautiful and elegant. It was a cool windy day in November so sitting outside wasn't really an option so we sat inside the beautiful salon. Afterwards we took a stroll through the tea section of the shop and I came across one really special tea blend of China black tea, sweet Florida orange, Madagascar vanilla extract, Bulgarian rose petals & rose oil. This magical concoction is called "Un Apres Midi A Paris" known to us as "Afternoon in Paris". How cool is that??

I have found a location here in the US that offers many of the Fauchon items including "Afternoon in Paris". You can speak with Arnaud at L'epicerie De Paris on 310 N. Camden Drive in Beverly Hills. Tel: 310 271 2981.