Cafe Vanilla

DTT order #2 has landed. Still searching for the perfect vanilla black.

The smell of the dry tea is a soft, creamy vanilla. It smells like quite a natural vanilla, not at all perfumey or like overpowering factory-made vanilla icing.

But unfortunately, the taste lets me down a little bit. Too much sweetness and not enough vanilla, in my opinion.

I wonder if it would make a good cold brew? Like a sweetened black iced tea. That just may work.

PS: Had a jug of this cold steeped waiting for me this morning and I was right, it’s much better this way. It’s creamier and more flavourful. It tastes like vanilla toffee.

2013/03/30
snog box!
just watched new doctor who.
drank over half of my sample of this today.
it was just so easy to drink!
the vanilla was subtle for me, but that is great cuz vanilla is so easy to over do.

update: so ya, i just ordered an additional mini sample of this with a new try me pack. i don’t think i love this tea, but maybe i love this tea, cuz obviously i can’t stop brewing it. it’s like i have a compulsion to drink it that is beyond my control.

2013/05/13
i win! bwahahahah!!!
i got a surprise bit of this tea from TastyBrew in our mystery swap, and that would be a ho-hum story except that i LOVE this TEA! i even ordered myself a second sample pouch from Della Terra after i finished my first pouch in record time. and now i have more of it! and i will goddamn hoard it all i want to!! cuz ’’’singit’’’ this is fucking awesummmm

My third and final tea that I sent out to the participants of the 12 Days of Christmas Swap. Mmm… this is so deliciously rich and creamy. A really good representation of a vanilla tea … and I’m really glad I chose this as one of the three teas. For me, it was between this and the French Vanilla Assam from 52Teas, and ultimately, I chose this one because I had already tasted the French Vanilla Assam but not this, and I wanted the teas to be an adventure for me as well as the other participants … and since I was already definitely sure I wanted the maple tea, I wanted the other two to be teas I hadn’t yet tried.

And I’m really glad I’m trying this today. Sweet, creamy, decadent vanilla flavor. Rich, smooth, and yummy.

Azzrian Thanks, Girl!

Now…THIS…is a straight-up Vanilla Flavored Black! It smells and tastes wonderful!

A nice mellow yet medium strength black tea base but more importantly a wonderfully smooth vanilla walking hand-in-hand with the black tea. It’s lovely!

If you are a flavored black tea fan or a vanilla fan this would place nicely in your stash!

Another 12 Days of Christmas tea from LiberTeas she shared three great teas with us for her day – day 3.
This is a wonderful vanilla through and through – from Della Terra Teas of course.
I am a huge Della Terra fan – they have some of the best flavored teas!
Thank you LiberTeas for sharing not one but three yummy teas with us!

Ohhh. Wow. I just don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been searching for the perfect straight up vanilla black tea for a while now, and I think this is it.

Such an unassuming name, description, and ingredient list for such an amazingly delicious tea! Just black tea and vanilla flavour. But I swear it tastes like little vanilla clouds on my tongue. Sweet, creamy, smooth vanilla flavour with a toasty black tea base and just a liiiittle bit of astringency that seems to keep it from getting too heavy.

Drinking it like I drink most black teas – hot with milk and sugar. It is so relaxing and satisfying and just what I needed after work.

This is my first cup from Della Terra; just picked up my order today. Everything smells pretty darn intoxicating. I love the great deals and giveaways they have for their customers too! A really nice touch, and will keep me coming back.

Oh boy, between this and my Butiki order I am drowning in new teas. 15 of them. It is the BEST. Shhh don’t tell my girlfriend that I smuggled more tea into the house. She would most certainly shake her head and click her tongue. I bet she’s going to love some of the ones from this order though, who can resist desserty blacks?

Finally got around to trying this sample. Sharing it with my mom and sitting outside in the patio at home, listening to birds chirp and Kaki King pandora.
Its so rare to be able to sit outside this time of year. We don’t even need ac on.
What’s awesome about our backyard is that there’s no pool, which all florida homes usually have. Instead we have hundreds of plants and flowers that my mom spends all day taking care of, and a huge black olive tree that was here long before we were. It’s like a little jungle, with lots of bamboo and even a handmade fireplace created out of coral from various beaches.

This tea is a bit light for me. I feel like I keep saying that lately.. but I just like black tea to be really flavorful. I taste the vanilla just a little bit. Will have to try again soon.

My many thanks go out to Azz for this sample which came in an incredibly awesome care package, she is ‘the man’,er…uh…you know what I mean. So I steeped this up and my mouth was watering. I mean, who doesn’t like vanilla. Add to that the residual giddiness I still have after opening my package from Azz (there was even a cool little adjustable measuring spoon and a spongy biscuit that I believe to be Mr Bill and teas that convince me she has telepathic powers).
Then the phone rang. ARGH!…and it was important.
So between distracted sips I can tell you I got some vanilla. It tastes buttery and creamy, though mouthfeel(TeaEqualsBliss word) is not creamy- it’s a little astringent. If you’ve read many of my notes I’m picky about astringency so this may not be a factor to many of you. Also, it’s not super dry/bitter or anything like that, just a little dryness on the tongue.
There’s a sweetness on the inside of my cheeks, which is where the lingering sweet aftertaste is as well. I seem to taste a bit of nutmeg coming through. I still can’t get over how much vanilla I taste, I can’t imagine adding sugar to this already sweet drink.
Luckily for me this is one of those cases where I have enough left to do another note later. My appologies that this note is a flop, I am disappointed at getting a phone call and I’m sure it shows.
tunes-Eddie Vedder=*Satellite/Gauranteed/Society/Long Nights
Into The Wild soundtrack *live with a ukulele.His solo work is folky and nice and moody.

So I was very excited to get home today after work to find my Della Terra order waiting for me on the counter. (Incidentally, I was surprised they didn’t include any samples! Not sure what the criteria is but every other tea company I’ve ordered from has included samples!)

This tea was one of the five I ordered, including Love in a Cup, Lemon Lime Tart, Shamrocks & Shenanigans and S’Mores (in case you were wondering!)

I had a face palm moment when I noticed that the directions on the tea pouches called for 1-1.5 tsp of tea per 6oz, and realized my mug was 12oz, the directions for Davidstea are probably the same and so I’ve been skimping on tea this entire time! Ugh!

Anyway. I added the proper amount of tea to this mug (about 1.5 or more Davidstea perfect spoonfuls) and then I got distracted and accidentally steeped it for like 10 minutes instead of 4ish.

Needless to say this was a super strong, intense and flavorful tea! It surprisingly didn’t get too bitter so I still drank it no problem. It was sweet but not too sweet, full bodied, rich, dark – (All the qualities you’d want in a man?? Haha, sorry. Just found that funny as I was re-reading it) – really tasty and definitely vanilla-licious! Almost a “classy” vanilla. Sort of like the Michelle Williams of tea. Maybe Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in ‘My Week With Marilyn’.

In summary, I really enjoyed it. For some reason I thought of blending it with H&S Paris sometime because they both seem classy to me. I mean, relatively high quality, natural vs artificial tasting, not cloying but more of a jazz loving 32 year old. “Classy” isn’t proper tea lingo.

I really like similes tonight, my apologies. I will resteep tomorrow and report back with an accurate rating.

edit to add – drank my second steep of this this morning, which was more like my first steep should have been (since the first one was STRONG!). It’s a really good tea. I could see this being my go-to breakfast tea. It’s rich and full bodied and all the things I said earlier. And the perfect vanilla tea.

I have coffee addicted friends and family who have said “I wish I could love tea as much as you do so I could give up coffee! But tea is just too weak and tasteless.”

I get what they mean, because coffee is pretty substantial, but a lot of tea is pretty watery (particularly if you don’t use enough leaves when making it duh), this is a tea I would recommend to my coffee loving friends. A gateway tea :) YUM!

Azzrian sent me an awesome tea package and this was in it. (thank you thank you!) I somehow missed this one on my Della Terra sample spree, where I bought 20+ samples. Even the ones I missed are good, because this one is delicious. Why is vanilla considered so boring anyway? I love vanilla anything… This one seems like it has a bit more than vanilla though. It tastes like a sweet and buttery pastry. The black tea base is perfect. Della Terra likes to use this tasty yet mild flavored base that lets their unique blends shine. Della Terra never fails!

Mmmm this is a really tasty tea! Nt too overpowering on the vanilla and a nice balance with the black. I haven’t had too many other vanilla blacks but this is pretty tasty!

This came in a holiday sample box from Azzrian. Thank you Azz!!

It smells so decadently vanilla. The aroma is authentic and strong. I steeped 1tsp/8oz/4minutes. The black base is strong, but the vanilla is really creamy and sweet. A little bit of agave and milk and I’m in heaven. A lovely way to start the day after a late night :)

Sadly, this tea didn’t taste as good as it smelled :( It’s all delicious vanilla, but the flavour was flat to me, and just didn’t work. I threw in some brown sugar and that improved it, but there was still a bit of a strange flat flavour to the cup that I wasn’t fond of. Perhaps I’ll like it better the next time I try it!

Vanilla? Yes. Black tea? I guess?

This is a very soft creamy vanilla tea. I can’t really taste the base, but when I’m in the mood for vanilla this is a nice one to go with. I’m happy I tried it, but I wouldn’t push everyone to go try it.

I’ll try cold-steeping it like Incendiare recommended!

Sample from whatshesaid. Thanks!

This smells so incredibly vanilla that I had some high hopes for it, finding my perfect vanilla tea (so far the top is the vanilla tea from Persimmon Tree). Unfortunately the taste doesn’t quite live up to the smell, so I was a little disappointed. I’m currently looking for a vanilla tea that’s really ‘in your face’ so to speak but I haven’t found one yet, subtle seems more the name of the game for most of these. I still keep looking though.

I will say though, I got the perfect amount in my sample for the size pot I have. I probably underleafed it according to instructions (1.5 tsp per 6 oz is a LOT of tea) so perhaps if I had more I would actually use the instructions, though I usually don’t, just go by the 4 tsp per 2 mug rule (mugs != 6 oz). Anyway. Might have to try this one again at some point. How big are DTT’s samples anyway?

Another highly-recommended blend suggested to me when I placed my first DT order! I love this. It’s not a fake vanilla taste, it’s a very real vanilla.

Homina. Just…guh. This is amazing. I want to sink down into this for the rest of ever. I thought I had found the perfect vanilla black, but I was wrong, they all pale in comparison. Creamy vanilla that just…mmm. Dark deliciousness.

How did I not find out about this perfect tea company before? I am in love and cannot wait to order more!!

Many thanks to LiberTEAS for including this as one of her Day 3 teas! This was so sweet and creamy and well sweet and creamy! I love a good vanilla flavored tea and this was just great. I’ll be adding it to the tea want list. Yum! Can’t wait until I get home to try the other two. :)

This vanilla black was pretty good. There was a nice creaminess and a not really subtle, but not overwhelming vanilla taste as well. I think I may prefer Vanilla Comoro to this, but only by a little bit.

Thanks Cavocorax :)

Yummy goodness, this is comfort tea at its best. This will be my go to on a bad day. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Well balanced flavors, the black or the vanilla doesn’t overshadow the other.