Vanilla Oolong

EMPTY THAT BOX!

This one came from Ninavampi because I was interested in trying the DavidsTEA vanilla oolong. She didn’t have that, but she offered this and I said yes please.

I’ve elaborated on what constitutes the Perfect Vanilla before, so I shan’t bother to do it again. I can’t be bothered to write all that, but if you really want to know I’m sure I could probably dig out the post in question from the depths of my account.

This one is getting there on the aroma. It’s sweetly vanilla, and quite strong too. There is a coconut-y aspect to the vanilla as well, which I tend to quite enjoy. It reminds me of a specific sort of coconut and licorice sweets, which bizarrely haven’t actually got anything to do with vanilla at all. There’s is an earthy, slightly sharp note underneath as well, which I expect is from the oolong base. That sharpness adds to the aforementioned sweets association which definitely is not a bad thing. At this point I’m making a mental note to check if this tea is available from Adagio’s European site. You know, just in case. :)

But! Aroma is just part of it. It’s the flavour that’s actually the really important bit. The vanilla flavour here is a bit milky and not as strong as in the aroma. This is a big big shame! The aroma gave me some rather high hopes, but the flavour is just not quite up to it.

The oolong base however is shining through nicely. With the flavouring so small, that’s not really difficult either, is it? It tastes a bit woody and quite toasty, and there is a semi-caramel-y note in there somewhere. I wonder exactly what sort of oolong is the base of this. It reminds me a little of a toastier version of the Dan Cong I had the other day, although it would probably be rather a shame to start adding flavouring to that one. Hey, here’s a sudden thought! Has anybody ever heard of a caramel flavoured oolong? Wouldn’t that be interesting?

Anyway, this particular base. If it had been more fiercely flavoured I think this could be really good. If it had come out as much in the flavour as much as it does in the aroma, I could really really have had a winner here. Alas…

Close, Adagio. Close indeed.

(On an end note, I’m still interested in trying the DavidsTea vanilla oolong, so if anybody have some lying around that they want to get rid of, I’ll happily take it off your hands. )

So…. yeah…. not really a fan… It’s not really all that Vanilla-y to me and it smells a little harsh. The after taste is nice though. Probably wont be having this again though once my sample is done.

Just after kind and loving tea friends helped to re-stock my pantry, we hit a hot weather stretch that makes hot cuppas a little less appealing. HOWEVER, this tumbler-full got neglected at work (our school district had seven buildings tornado-damaged, so it’s chaos professionally too) and after icing it down at lunchtime, I discovered a real treat! Almost milkshake flavor. SimplyJenW, thanks!

This is a perfectly ordinary and drinkable tea. It doesn’t come across as anything spectacular. The oolong is basic without any fanfare and the vanilla is present in the dry leaves and continues to come through in the liquid itself.

The vanilla seemed slightly on the weak side with this. Along with the temperate oolong flavor this tea is decent but uninspiring.

This tea was decent. I’m a huge fan of vanilla, so I was really excited about this oolong. It was much more flavorful after it cooled down a bit, but it’s not really anything special. There are definitely better teas out there.

Nevertheless, I’ll still finish off my stash. I doubt I’ll be having it again though.

I apologize for not remembering who sent me this sample!

The unsteeped dry leaves of this tea look old, dusty, and broken. I brewed it for 3 min at boiling. It’s just ok. It’s hard to judge it without comparing it to Harney’s Vanilla Comoro, which I seem to be drinking non-stop lately. This tea is clearly inferior to the Vanilla Comoro. The vanilla flavor in this tea is more like vanilla milkshake and has a slightly chocolately flavor, as if the milkshake was made with soy milk (not a bad flavor, just not what I want in vanilla tea). The oolong is completely lost in the flavor.

Found a tin of this tea this morning, and all I could think is “Where did this come from?” Duh, Adagio, but seriously, I do not remember ordering this at all. Anyway, since it looks mostly full, I supposed I never had it and should give it a shot. My theory is that when I brew my tea on the drive to work, I should always brew an oolong, green or white because they are more forgiving than say a black or a tisane. This of course also based on the ingredients in the blend. This tea is vanilla and oolong, so should be able to hold up to my hour long brew while commuting.

The smell of the leaves is overwhelmingly plain. No vanilla, no oolong, pretty much nothing. This concerned me a bit because as I said, I planned on way over-steeping this, so I added some rock sugar for safety and used below boiling water so that it did no scorch. Filled my travel mug with one heaping scoop of tea and 1/4 tsp of the rock sugar, added hot water and left for work. My first sip was around 7 minutes (so that I could get an accurate taste for this review). At this stage, the liquor is very pale, typical of oolong, there is a tiny hint of vanilla and oolong, but neither is a predominant or strong flavor, they both appear to be lost: hints of flavor hidden away in a background, calling faintly for your attention, but never quite getting it. I thought maybe I just needed some more time, so continued the infusion while driving, about 40 minutes. The liquor is now very dark, this is probably from the vanilla; the tea is still light in flavor and aroma.

The smell reminds me a little of oolong, but not really, something is lost in this, the vanilla kills the flavor I am used to and looking for. This is disappointing. There is vanilla flavor, but little to no oolong. Strangely, this is still a bit bitter with the sugar. I say strange because I very rarely find oolong to be bitter, it is also rare that I think vanilla is bitter, weird. Did I ruin it with my killer infusion? Maybe, but based on my first impressions, this was not what I was looking for anyway.

Oh well, I will finish the mug, because I prefer to start my day with oolong, it helps me get to that first coffee break, but it is looking more and more like that first break will be coming sooner rather than later. This is not undrinkable, just not what I was looking for this morning.

Taken plain and with sugar.
While this tea is hot the vanilla flavoring is stronger than the flavorings in most black teas that include vanilla which is nice because I like vanilla and when I have to try to find the hint of vanilla in a cup it is frustrating.
On the other hand when this tea cools off it does take on that same woody kinda quality as the peach oolong blend but it is much worse in this tea.
I agree with some of the other reviewers in that it takes on a tobacco like flavor that is pretty gross. It is clear that they used the same kind of oolong to mix this flavor as they used for their peach oolong, as indicated by the distinct presence of a wood brick, and I’m wondering if they always use this kind of mixer. Cause it’s not very good.
Good extremely hot…
and then terrible as it cools.

Real oolong &
Vanilla bean.. Thanks to Jackie for my first swap on Steepster.

Smells Divine. Smells like a long forgotten memory.
Initial brew colour is Light yellow which turns to molten copper. While steeping it smells more of real tea than vanilla.
First taste is just real smooth, then vanilla hits you with some creaminess, that is not really found in a lot of teas. Looks seem to be really deceiving, it does look like black but taste more like a garden green. Small amount of raw honey seems to highlight the vanilla creaminess with undertone of tea. Drink it while its hot, getting cold it will get a lot more flat.

So, next is Vanilla Oolong. It has a deep bronze liquor. The aroma is just vanilla and tea, heavy on the vanilla. The taste is copper Oolong and a nice minty vanilla. I admit to being impressed. I’m shy about flavored anything, but I had once bought Vanilla-flavored Rooibos and it was truly awful. So awful I don’t even think I logged it on Steepster. It was terrifyingly awful.

This cup of tea, in contrast, is perfectly sip-able. It is, however, very rich and not at all an “everyday” tea. It isn’t at all a “Grapefruit Oolong” or anything like as good(as I thought). As I reach for the bottom of the tea cup, the vanilla is getting on my nerves and the rating has dropped since I started this review. But it’s still a marvelous cup of tea.

I learned how to speak English and Spanish at the same time (English at home with my USA born Mom and Spanish everywhere else in Ecuador!), which meant that I spoke my own version of “Spanglish” while I tried to make my kid-size brain make sense out of two separate languages. Somehow, I managed to figure out that vanilla was a word that when mentioned, always ended up in me getting something yummy flavored. It was a great word and great taste! I have grown up (quite a bit…) and now can fluently order any flavor I want, vanilla is still at the top of my list (along with blueberries)!

Adagio has one of the best vanilla flavoring I have tried. Their vanilla black is incredible! When sweetened it tastes creamy enough to almost make you believe that it has milk in it! I had high hopes for this vanilla Oolong!

The smell is very creamy, I couldn’t help think of vanilla ice cream as I measured the tea out for my brew. I could smell a lot of woodiness from the leaves as well, but since it is a rather dark Oolong, it was to be expected.

The resulting liquor was golden brown and delicious smelling. The entire room smelled like vanilla. : ) There was definitely still some woodiness to the smell, but the vanilla creaminess was sufficient to mask it.

The taste, while not as great as the vanilla black or green from Adagio, was still good. I enjoyed the first cup with a bit a brown sugar that helped covered up the woodiness (which I didn’t want) and helped bring out the vanilla. Sadly, the vanilla taste wasn’t nearly as strong as the vanilla smell of the brew. The second steep was much less vanilla and a lot more woody. It tasted almost like Adagio’s Oolong #8 (which got a 69 from me). So, having had this experience with the second brew, I ditched trying for a third.

With vanilla, it is hard to go wrong. This tea will make me smile any day, though it didn’t make spot #1 for my favorite vanilla tea. I bought a 4oz bag of it, so I’ll have some around for a while. I read that it is good iced, I will have to try it!

I enjoyed this tea, though I was not wowed by it. The leaves have a great aroma to them, with a sweet vanilla smell that’s accented by a slightly smokey/woodsy smell.

The tea itself is smooth tasting, though a lot of the vanilla flavor is mellowed out by steeping. It’s still got a nice hint of sweetness, and the vanilla is definitely present, I just wish the flavor matched the aroma and was a little stronger.

I’m worried, this is rated reallllly low here. Trying it for the first time on my way to grab a client for another appointment, hopefully I enjoy it enough. I’ll log the review later.

I’m on a quest to find a vanilla tea that I really enjoy. Vanilla is one of my favorite flavors in any instance where I can choose a flavor, always, and I want this to apply to tea as well. From DavidsTea to Tazo to Celestial Seasonings to Southern Season, no tea source seems to get the flavor I want across. Unfortunately, this isn’t The One, but it’s better than most.

The leaves smell mostly woodsy with a bit of a vanilla undertone – bean, not flavoring. They’re not much to look at or smell, and are a bit smaller in general than I like my teas to be. I’m running through a sampler box, though, so this may have more to do with my dipping out of a small bag than a properly sized one. Brewing it in my new ingenuiTEA pot, I don’t have much comment to make on the scent when steeping.

The liquor’s a pretty, dark amber, not unlike the peach oolong from the same sampler set. I strongly suspect they’re made of the same tea base. The flavor profile puts the fairly creamy vanilla up front with a woodsy aftertaste from the oolong, both weaker than I’m looking for. The flavor’s more spot on than any other vanilla tea I’ve tried – especially compared to the most recent contender, DavidsTea’s awful vanilla oolong offering – but still not the in-your-face sweet treat I’m seeking.
-Cash

Completely horrible! I don’t recommend this tea as it felt like I put ashes in my mouth.

This is a very comforting warm vanilla tea. I liked it with a touch of cream!

I think this is a great gateway to oolong for the flavored black drinker. It is subtle and smooth, and a very satisfying, relaxing cup.

The vanilla was obviously present via smell in the dry leaves. The oolong was just standard and the vanilla flavor was rather fake tasting and finished very chemically.

As the kids say, “‘s a’ight.” Perfectly drinkable, but doesn’t make me jump out of my seat. Vanilla flavor is a little too subtle, in my opinion.

Prepared in Adagio IngenuiTEA teapot.

It was good, but I am not a vanilla fan at all. Probably will not purchase again.