Vanilla Jasmine

OK, so it has that jasmine smell i kinda hate in tea. So far I either hated or loved jasmine flavored teas. Just something about jasmine and me. Hope it’ll be on the good side but I honestly doubt it. I hate the smell of this tea…
OK I don’t hate it. I love the initial taste in my mouth but I slightly dislike the aftertaste. It’s very subjective tho so i wont rate it. Tastes like good tea but there is an issue of jasmine aroma for me :) But I’d even rate it on the good side…
And yeah all the aromas – jasmine, vanilla and black tea blend in quite nicely.

This is my second sample to try from them and this one is better than my first go around! The vanilla is very strong and the jasmine is kind of running behind in 2nd place. It’s a smooth black tea, not bitter but the vanilla reminds me of a vanilla marshmallow taste and I’m not very big on those, except for maybe in hot chocolate! The jasmine does make its self known more as the tea cools, but it throws me off a bit because I am so used to drinking my green tea (jasmine pearls) with jasmine that by having jasmine in a black tea just seems ….sooo…wrong?! LOL but that is just me being biased! This is a good black tea for vanilla/marshmallow lovers.

Taken with a teaspoon of sugar.

YUM! I absolutely love it! The vanilla is that Golden Moon creamy vanilla which I think pairs very well with the jasmine. Whatever black tea they are using works very nicely with the whole shebang. The little bit of sugar makes it very smooth (I tried a plain teaspoon of the tea that was left in my teapot without sugar and I preferred the sugar addition). Hooboy – another one that I need a tin of :) I am having it all by itself, but I can see it being so delicious with some shortbread or other plain sweet like pound cake. It also must have a good bit of caffeine in it, because I have perked up quite a bit :)

I decided to do another steep at 5 minutes. It’s a bit lighter in taste, but I can still taste vanilla AND jasmine. I didn’t add any sugar to this steep, and it’s very sweet and pleasant. It holds up really well and is very delighful! If this tea can make me this happy on a Monday morning, I better get a CASE!! :) :) :)

I understand that wearing a decent shirt and meeting someone at 9am is not exactly abnormal for much of the world. But as I’m a software developer who normally works from home, these are both atypical experiences for me.

So! I need something with caffeine in it and which is easy to drink. And the vanilla jasmine tea has been my go-to tea for such circumstances lately, but apparently for some reason I haven’t reviewed it yet here.

Unlike most jasmine teas, this is a black tea blend. The vanilla is more noticeable than the jasmine. The jasmine is definitely still there, though, and I suppose it’d be more obvious if I had more experience drinking vanilla teas without jasmine in them.

All in all, a very drinkable black tea, especially with a bit of sugar in it.

But: as I was finishing the tea, my client called me to move our meeting to 10:30. So I could’ve substituted getting enough sleep for the caffeine. But it’s too late now, and so I’ve been able to spend the past hour writing this not-particularly-long review.

Thank you to Nicole for sending me this! It smells so good in the bag. It’s a bit stronger in vanilla though. As soon as I poured in into my cup I got a HUGE vanilla smell in my face. Oh it was so nice. The taste is mostly vanilla with a hint of jasmine aftertaste. It’s creamy and floral. Very delicious! I think I might have to order more for myself!

The combination of vanilla and jasmine is just inspired! (I like both vanilla tea and jasmine tea, so I may be a little biased here.) Both flavors are definitely there, but with the two blended, neither one is quite as overwhelming as a straight jasmine tea or a straight vanilla tea might be. The tea base is nice as well, not at all bitter. This is yet another tea from Golden Moon that I would like to buy a tin of to have on hand. This one is not a tea I’m tempted to try iced, but IMO it does benefit from a little sweetener. (But what doesn’t?)

This tea is very nice. The dried leaves smell familiar, like a candy or soda shop, where you have different arrays of sweetness all blending together. The brewed tea smells like a sweetened jasmine. It tastes like a very even blend of vanilla and jasmine, both flavors are light and very complimentary.

Brewed hot without sugar and with sugar. Without sugar focuses a little more on the jasmine and less of the vanilla. With sugar an added sweetness that helps to blend the vanilla and jasmine together.

Very nice.

This smells very nice. More Vanilla than Jasmine but pleasant. Reminds me of a Cream Soda/Soda Shop Aroma…neat!

After infusing I can pick up the jasmine a bit more than the vanilla nose.

All ingredients blend really well together for an excellently even tea.

This is lovely! The tea base itself is nothing special, but the vanilla — apparently coming from vanilla beans rather than flavoring — is very distinct and tasty. The jasmine takes a back seat, but provides a nice floral touch to complement the vanilla. The whole thing is fairly subtle, especially when piping hot, but this is definitely a tea worth trying if you like flavors that take over the tea without taking over your mouth.

Continuing my journey through the GM sampler, I audibly sighed when pulling out another black tea. It seems all my random selections are black. But I was bold and steeped it up, because it has the word “vanilla” in the title.

For a black tea, this is surprisingly light! The vanilla is more than an undertone; it’s pretty much the entire flavor. There’s little vanilla bits in the leaves, and inhaling the tea’s fragrance almost reminds me of vanilla bean ice cream. And that follows through with the taste as well. There’s a hint of jasmine, which is really all it needs. It’s sweet without being overly so.

Way to go, guys. Looks like I found a black tea that I actually (shock!) enjoy.

Thank you, JacquelineM!

I hadn’t read any reviews when I tried this tea. I opened the tin and held it in front of each daughter who was home. The second one said, “Root beer!” I just saw in the tasting notes that other people got cream soda from this, and I can definitely see that.

This was MY tea party favorite today! It was delightfully interesting. This is a HAPPY cup of tea. This tea is for drinking while you sing “Feeling Groovy” by Simon and Garfunkel. Or “Walking on Sunshine”. This is a bright and happy tea! This is grab-an-unexpected-peck-on-the-cheek tea. But it isn’t loud. It is gently happy!

The vanilla and jasmine are very well blended and balanced. I don’t get the overpowering feeling that I have been forced to eat a bouquet of syrupy flowers and I don’t get synthetic vanilla vibes. This is natural and fresh tasting.

I chose this as my last tea of a stressful work day, and I’m really glad I did. I’m not normally a big fan of jasmine tea and would not have ever thought to pair it with vanilla, but the smell of the leaves intrigued me enough to try it. It is a bit like drinking warm cream soda (albeit less sweet), and the aroma is superbly relaxing. It brews up very smooth and while I do taste more vanilla than jasmine, the vanilla tastes very natural and pleasant. I could see drinking this as a late afternoon tea very often.

Backlogging from a while ago. I just found written notes. Must not have been around the computer that day!!

I got a bitter bite with more jasmine than vanilla. I hoped for more of a jasmine tea, but the vanilla was still a bit much for my tastes.

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/vanillajasmine/

I smell cream soda upon opening the package—lovely scent! The tea starts out pleasantly enough, but there is an unappealing aftertaste. The 2nd infusion was better, but I don’t think that I really jasmine tea girl, as I’ve yet to find one I like.

I got an early Christmas gift to myself, and bought the sampler. This tea I was looking forward to, and boy, it isn’t a letdown! I see where you the others taste cream soda, that’s a perfect item to compare it to.

It’s smartly blended, vanilla and jasmine are in right strengths. Drank it iced, it was perfection. I think this is the best jasmine tea I’ve had yet. I love real vanilla, and this is it! Very nice and delightful! This is definitely on my shopping list.

I’m down to about 10 teas left from the sampler and that makes me sad, I’ve been enjoying this journey.
This tea smells strongly of vanilla with a hint of jasmine. The flavor is more balanced. It’s really quite fun. The taste you get just as the tea is about to hit your mouth is fun too.
As it cools some, it’s almost the the flavors switch spots. The scent is stronger jasmine and the taste is stronger vanilla.
For me, this isn’t a serious tea, it’s a fun tea.

It tasted and smelled likes something familiar but it took me a whole cup to put my finger on it… root beer! Or cream soda. Problem is, I really don’t like either. I’m guessing this was the vanilla coming through because I hardly detected any jasmine.

The root beer/cream soda taste was more pronounced with sugar so I tried the second cup without. I preferred it without sugar but it still smelled like the offending soft drinks. I’m sure a lot of people would actually love a tea that tastes like cream soda. I personally just didn’t care for it.

This was my first out of the Golden Moon sample so it was pretty disappointing to start with a tea I didn’t like. I still have 30 other teas to try though — I was bound to not like a few anyway.

Another gorgeously fragranced Golden Moon tea! Those people are good. There’s vanilla up front, of course, but there’s also this lovely suggestion of milk chocolate in the background. The jasmine comes to life in the steep, as the vanilla mellows out a bit. After around 2-3 minutes, the resulting brew is a gorgeous amber brown color (a VERY welcome change from my earlier tea today, which was a scary, medicinal yellow). The sample pouch calls for a 3-5 minute infusion, but I’m erring on the side of caution – I’ve had enough bitter tea for one day!

Unsweetened, you get a lovely, soft mouth feel, not unlike the sensation of a really good piece of chocolate melting away. Jasmine up front, with a vanilla-y wash on the end. Definitely another one I’m saving the pouch from, so I can sniff it..

Sweetening this has the same interesting reversal of taste that the Coconut Chai did. Golden Moon, you tricky little people, how do you DO that?? The scent of the vanilla jumps back to life after sweetening, and the tastes kind of flip flop, but not entirely. It may just be my nose playing tricks on me, but I definitely get more of the vanilla up front in the sip, which washes into the jasmine, and back to the vanilla again.

I have no idea how Golden Moon does it, but they do it well. Another incredibly tasty, and
satisfying, cup! This is going perfectly with a babka one of my co-workers made (which is
more like a drier, lighter hot cross bun!) Yum. =) Can’t wait to see what a second steep does!!

I got this one in the mail yesterday and boy was I excited. It may grow on me, but right now not very impressed. It smells and tastes like pipe tobacco. I could see however that adding some sugar or perhaps using it as a base for a blend may be better.

My very first Golden Moon tea to try! This is the next victim in my (never-ending) quest to find the perfect and best vanilla tea. I loved the smell of the tea when it came out of its pouch. When it first hit water, I would say that the Jasmine overpowered, though there were slight hints of that vanilla.

While this was good, I couldn’t really taste a bunch of the vanilla. It was more like the Jasmine first and then a light.. semi-sweet finish. This is a solid, unique tea that is just enjoyable, for me. I don’t think that I’ve found my true Vanilla tea just yet, but this is an interesting treat!