Cherry Vanilla Cola Black Tea

This tea became mine in a swap with silvermage2000. I was curious about this one after reading others tasting notes, but it wasn’t available any longer. I’m so happy to get to sample some…well, more than some, almost a near full pouch!

The dry leaves of this tea smell just like cola. They even have an effervescent scent to them, I don’t know how tea can posess this, let alone the leaves, but it is so cool!

I brewed this for 3:30 mintutes at boiling. I think this may have been a tad long, or maybe I just need a little sweetner, because it is quite potent. There is something in the flavor of this tea that makes it tingle on my tongue. It really does have many similarities to cherry vanilla cola. I taste a sarsaparilla note in the tea, maybe that is part of the natural cola flavoring? Something reminds me of the sarsaparilla flavoring in the Root Beer Float tea that was made not too long ago. Yum!

This tea is great, I can’t wait to try it iced!

The success of the coconut cream pie inspired me to try one of the other ones I bought from the forgotten 52teas order. I’m not surprised I ordered this one and it was sort of screaming to me. Here’s the thing.

I. Love. Cherry. Cola.
Favourite soda (after orange) FTW.

Unfortunately it’s not something we can usually get here. I don’t know if you can over there on the other side of the water. I know you have Dr Pepper which to me is very similar, but also not available in Denmark unless you’re really lucky. We had it for a couple of years recently, but it was taken off the market again. Apparently it didn’t sell well enough. (I fear Mountain Dew has gone the same tragic way, because I can’t find that anymore either). Recently we’ve had a limited edition cherry cola from coca-cola which was yummy, but alas, that one seems to also have run its course. In my deprivation of proper cherry cola or similar beverage, I’ve found that I can make a relatively good substitute with ordinary cola and cherry cordial. It’s not the same, but it works okay.

What all this means is that I have VERY high expectations of this one. So high, that I’m likely to be disappointed. Anything below a clean 100 on this is not good enough. The question just is exactly how disappointed am I going to get?

The leaves actually do smell a bit like cola and something that I’m willing to call cherry-like. There is however also a note which to my own surprise I can only describe as vaguely menthol-like. This is worrysome.

After steeping, the tea has pretty much the same smell, only hot. The mentholness is sticking out a bit more here, which is a little odd to me because menthol (along with mints) is usually a cool sort of flavour.

Hmm… Flat cola with dusty vanilla. I can’t find any cherry outside of the smell. Something sour-ish, kind of citrus-soapy-like. So, yes, I did get disappointed. It’s just a question of how much.

This does require an amount of experimentation, but for a first experience, I cannot in good consciousness give it more than 65-ish.

ANGRBODA very kindly sent me a generous portion of this tea. I had not had any since it was first released and I like it more than most people here do. The cherry taste is a bit muted, I agree. But there’s something about the “cola” taste that I love. Indeed, I’ve been known to wear cola fragrance: L’Aromarine Cola Eau de Toilette is the best inexpensive scent I have. This tea tastes like the liquid scent.

There are a bunch of complex notes vying for attention here, I think, which is why it might not seem utterly successful as a cherry tea or as a vanilla tea or as a cola tea, but I like the mix very much.

I love this so muuuuuch every time I make it. I only have it iced, and I generally cold steep it. I couldn’t believe I didn’t have a lot of it left, but I forgot that I make so much of it iced!

I can see how people wouldn’t like this though. There’s a bit of almost a perfume-ish taste if you let it get too warm and it makes it taste pretty flat. I think sugar might help it a bit, but making sure it’s really cold helps a lot.

It smells SO much like real soda though. This is one of those times I have a bottle of Coke Zero sitting around and I would think I had actually put it in my glass and it somehow became cherry flavored.

I brewed this tea up and allowed it to take a chill in the fridge – it makes a really good iced tea! Even my hubby (the non-tea-drinker) likes it! I did add some sweetener to it just to keep the flavors perky, but I don’t think that it’s overpoweringly sweet at all. Just very pleasantly sweet, and very tasty.

The aroma is one of the most remarkable aspects of this tea, it really SMELLS just like one of those old time soda fountain colas. The cherry flavor is strong, the vanilla flavor softens it nicely… and the tea flavor is neither overwhelmed by the flavors, nor does it overwhelm them.

It’s weird… but it works.

I am going to rate this one this time, because I have roughly about a half a gallon left of this tea, and I don’t know that it will last… and I want to rate it before I’m out of it.

Another tea I ganked from the Travelling Teabox. I’m always up for something new and different so I was eager to try what I consider to be one of Frank’s odder teas flavours (not counting the Tuna Melt, lol).

The tea smells like cola – it’s more like a Dr. Pepper scent than a Coco-Cola scent IMO, but it’s surprisingly authentic. Unfortunately the taste…really isn’t. It might just be the age of the sample but mostly what I’m getting is the (rather bitter) black tea base interspersed with a bit of faint, sweetish cola flavour and maybe a hint of vanilla. This tea tastes like it needs milk, but I don’t think the flavourings would be agreeable to that – maybe some agave nectar?

I’ve got enough for one or two more cups so I’ll mess around with it a bit and see if I can’t get it to taste better.

Now this is more like it!! It really does taste like a cherry vanilla coke! It’s smooth, and almost has an effervescent taste as well. The cherry is lighter than the vanilla, but I think that makes it better (since some cherry-vanilla things drown the vanilla in the cherry). I wish I had some vanilla ice cream to make a float out of this tea…I know it would be amazing!

Oh, and thanks, Meghann, for sending me some of this and the pumpkin pie!

I won’t rate this as I’m selling it in my shop. But I will say this. Frank really earned the title the Willy Wonka of Teas! Smells very much like cherry vanilla cola when you open the pouch. I smelled more of the cherry flavor while it was steeping. When I had my first hot sip it did in fact taste like cherry vanilla cola. So I opted to serve this one over ice and add in two splashes of regular cola to it and it is delish (at least to me AND my husband actually wants to try it! But I’m not sharing this glass.).

Way way Backlog:

The beau did up some of this sometime last week. Will do a proper tasting note later, but my recollection of this went as follows:

-Accurate smell
-Accurate taste
-It’s weird to taste cherry vanilla coke HOT.

Definitely need to try iced (and I’m NOT much of an iced tea person). Will also definitely try hot again. If I could get used to those flavours hot, it would be fab!

Got busy with calls from work (gotta love being on-call on the weekend) and forgot that I had begun steeping this tea! After a good 25-30 minutes I thought I may have to throw it out, decided to add a good amount of milk and reheat. I also added a little sugar. It’s actually quite tasty! Tastes like creamy warm vanilla cherry coke, lol. Will wait to rate it when I steep it a bit more conventionally. ;)

Oh, by the way, Thank you Miss Meghann M for sending this my way!!

This tea smelled delicious dry…and steeped. But the taste…it just fell flat, pardon the pun. My wife just about said it all: It tastes like drinking a candle. I didn’t care for this one at all, which made me sad. I always want to love the teas from 52teas, because everyone raves about them, but I never do. I own six and none of them live up to what I expect.

Maybe we’re not meant to tea.

(Get it? Get it? I’m funny)

TTB 1.2

52teas really got the scent right on this tea, it smells just like cherry vanilla coke. The cherry and vanilla flavors seem to dissolve into each other alongside the cola flavor which makes it taste very similar to the real thing. I think this tea is even better with a tiny bit of sugar. This isn’t my favorite offering from 52teas, but they accomplished what they set out to do: create a tea that tastes like cherry vanilla cola.

Steep Information:
Amount: 2 tsp
Water: boiling
Tool: kati loose tea system (my Review here.)
Steep Time: a little over 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: vanilla, mint, fake cherry
Steeped Tea Smell: cola, sarsaparilla, mint, vanilla
Flavor: black tea
Body: Full
Aftertaste: astringent, mint
Liquor: translucent dark red-brown

Post-Steep Additives: +1 tsp German rock sugar – more sarsaparilla flavor to the tea

New steep:
Amount: 3 tsp
Water: 500ml 195 °F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

more sarsaparilla, still minty, no cherry

Rating: 1/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/11/52teas-loose-leaf-black-tea-cherry.html

I’ve tried it hot, I don’t like it; I’ve tried it iced by flash-chilling (make with hot water then pour over ice), I don’t like that either; I’ve tried it iced by cold brewing, and I don’t like that.

If I brew it for 5 minutes I can taste the cola, cherry and vanilla, but the tea has stewed and tastes unpleasant, if I brew for less time the tea tastes okay but the flavour mix is insipid. Basically, to me it tastes like watered down panda pop that’s been in the back of the car for seven or eight months (I was seven and I still remember that flavour quite clearly.)

DNW!

Cherry Cola takes me back to when I was growing up. I remember drinking ice cold cherry cokes on a hot summer day in the yard or even over at the local (sadly, long since gone) DQ. I was thrilled to get my first shipment from 52teas and pulled this one out right away to try it first.

The smell is a bit much for me, it is really quite strong. While I like the overall flavor, after much consideration I’ve decided that there is too much cherry flavor for me. I do like it but am looking forward to now trying the second steeping as others have mentioned it stands up well to such. I also look forward to sharing this unique tea with friends.