Clipper

Best vanilla tea I’ve had yet! The black tea base is strong, and the vanilla does not taste like chemicals, as some can.

Had this one in Amsterdam.

It was much better than I had anticipated. The bergamot was very strong and the tea was very strong.

i just keep knocking these back :3 assam is my favourite & i love vanilla in black teas. perfect with a bit of sugar & milk!

found this in a local store today, yesssssssssss.

A nice, basic chai. Nothing fancy, but still delicious.

This is only in my cupboard because the local shop was out of Clipper’s Everyday Tea, which is a staple in this house (in teabag form – wasn’t impressed with the loose leaf). I had to get something for the daughters, though I’m not drinking the Everyday much these days, and I picked this one up, having seen that the Organic Assam with Vanilla was a hit. But not so much. I can well imagine the vanilla de-puckering this one, but it’s really not very delicious without. SO astringent. I didn’t even bother getting either Becca or Cara to try, as I knew they’d hate it, but now I have quite a few bags left to get finished off somehow.

Cteresa shared this with me in our recent swap and told me to keep an open mind about the bagginess of it. It wasn’t one of the teas we had talked about, but she added it as a bonus because it was vanilla and she knows I like vanilla. Like, a lot.

Okay, so I gave it a shot yesterday, and was surprised to find it quite nice. I was told to expect a very subtle vanilla, but it was actually clearly detectable for me. Especially on the aftertaste. I was reminded of the French Vanilla Assam that 52teas made last year (I think) which I quite enjoyed.

Because it was convenient and because Husband chose a glass of whisky over a cup of tea later in the evening, I steeped the same bag again. Just to see if I could and what would happen.

In my experience Indian black teas generally don’t resteep very well with the way I brew them, so it was a bit of a gamble. Turns out this one was no exception to that rule and it did actually produce a fairly weak tea the second time around. What was NOT weak, however, was the vanilla! There was still plenty of vanilla around and without a strong tea to accompany it, it was a very VERY vanilla-y cup indeed.

In fact, I find I’m not certain which cup was more enjoyable. They were both enjoyable, but in WILDLY different ways.

I think I’ve seen this brand around a few times when grocery shopping. I believe it would be worth it to have a look if this particular variation might be among them. It would be a good candidate to take up to my parents’ house to drink there.

(Last time I ran out up there, my mother thought she was buying a higher end kind of bag when she bought something else than her own usual brand of Pickwick or Twinings, and instead managed to get something maybe slightly better, but it was a green tea and a plain rooibos. The former is… drinkable, I suppose, but far from what I usually prefer (black) and the second is just wrong. I don’t like plain rooibos. She tried one and didn’t like it either, so I’m not sure what we’re going to do with those bags now.)

Steeped it for a little longer today – just over 3 minutes.

It was nowhere near as bitter as I would have imagined it being, and I even got the scent of freshly cut grass that a lot of people seem to get from green tea. I think the reason for this was the water temperature, since I let it cool quite a bit.

Very pleasant for a bagged tea.