Cherry Vanilla Cola Black Tea

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 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.

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.

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.

This is the third tea I’m trying (out of 4) from my 52 Teas order. I kind of put off trying this one because I figured it wasn’t going to work for me. I almost didn’t order it because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it, but I thought I’d take a chance. Unfortunately, I was right. I brewed it in a pretty big mug, so I might’ve miscalculated the proper brewing time, but it was pretty terrible. The smell reminded me of a sweet incense, which was a huge turnoff, and the taste was kind of similar. You know how you can “taste” a smell sometimes? That’s what happened here, and it wasn’t very appealing. There was a slightly medicinal aftertaste, which I assume was the cherry, but otherwise there wasn’t much in the way of vanilla cola as far as I could tell. I had to dump it out halfway through—I just couldn’t finish it.

I will definitely try this again, in a smaller cup with a shorter brewing time, but for now I have to say this was a big disappointment. Bummer.