Madagascar Vanilla

SO… I know this was a sample sent to me from someone, but for the life of me I cannot remember who. Thanks to the my mystery tea giver! See, after looking at all the ho hum reviews, and my shady history with the ‘nilla, I kept putting it off.
Funny thing is, I quite like it! now I regret not indulging sooner. I must be the only one here that would actually go for a return cuppa.
It reminds me of vanilla cake. Maybe even the birthday cake from DT, but less sweet and obviously, with a different base.
Very smooth, creamy, and light (two and a half min infusion). Great with or without milk!
One thing I don’t like though, is the excessive astringency. Normally I don’t mind, but in this case it interferes with the vanilla. And since this is the only time I’ve EVER found myself liking vanilla tea, well I’d like to draw it out as long as possible :P
Rating: 86

Infusin_Susan sent this one to me in our recent swap. These days I tend to be drawn to almost anything flavoured or partially flavoured with vanilla. I blame JacquelineM for this. She was the one who started singing the praises of the Vanilla Comoro from Harney & Sons and others quickly followed. I had tried one or two vanilla blacks before that and hadn’t been super impressed by it, so what, I wondered, was I missing?

This led me to explore the flavour. There was a relatively good one from Whittard of Chelsea, which took a little time for me to really get into and an awesome one from Chi of Tea, sadly now having been out of stock for rather a long time. The Chi of Tea one was the last straw for me. It pushed me completely over the edge because it was flavoured just right!

Since then, I’ve been drawn to all things vanilla black. If I see one while I’m making a purchase I’m likely to try it out at least once. The AC Perch’s was acceptable. The vanilla assam from 52 teas that I discovered in the Christmas box? I’ve bought two pouches and I’m hoarding them. The add-a-vanilla-pod-in-pieces-to-a-random-tin-and-leave-for-three-weeks method that JacquelineM uses? Yeah, I’m giving that a go with my otherwise fairly boring Kenya at the moment. (The pod was pretty old, though, so it might not work too well)

So when Infusin_Susan put this one up as one she would like to trade for something else, I acted. Obviously.

When one wants to find one’s perfect whatever it is, one generally has to put some thought into exactly what it is one seeks in that particular tea, and with vanilla, I keep thinking I have this worked out, but in truth I’m jumping back and forth like a frog on a warm rock. If I’m having something disappointing which has a subtle flavour, I will say that I want the flavour to be stronger. If I’m having something disappointing with a strong flavour, the opposite will apply. If I’m having something great but not quite there which has a subtle flavour, I’ll say I prefer the flavour to be subtle. And of course vice versa. I keep thinking I know what I want, but in reality I appear to be lying through my teeth. I think, though, that I’m mostly in favour of relatively strongly flavoured, but primarily showing up on the swallow and in the aftertaste. I want to still be able to tell that it’s tea and I don’t want something super-sweet.

As this is not supposed to be a post about vanilla tea in general, does this particular one live up to this wish?

No.

The aroma is strong, yet controlled, just like I want it to be, but the flavour is rather lacking. It shows up in all the right places, but there just isn’t enough of it. It doesn’t give me that rich and creamy flavour at all, it doesn’t make the whole inside of my mouth taste like vanilla and the only aftertaste that really lingers is that of the base tea.

What is the base tea of this stuff? Ceylon, it would seem. Well, that explains the aftertaste. Ceylons have, for me, generally a very long aftertaste and as I really wanted that to be primarily the added flavour here, it just doesn’t work out for me as a vanilla base. Something with a shorter flavour, primarily on the first part of the sip so that the vanilla can run the show from the middle-ish and onwards. Ceylon just doesn’t swing that way for me.

As it is with caramel, it’s difficult to find the perfectly flavoured vanilla black, but even the really boring, disappointing ones are likely to be finished off fairly quickly in this house. With caramel, luckily, I’ve found it, but with vanilla I’m still searching. I’ve come close, but limited supply keeps getting in my way. However, I am enjoying the search.

GM Sampler | Tea 2 of 31

Madagascar Vanilla | http://bit.ly/aOFn6g
All of Them GM Pictures | http://bit.ly/bDtnNn

Eh.

That’s going to be the gist of this review, so if you want to skip it there you have it: eh.

It smelled like vanilla extract in that it had that kind of alcoholic tinge to it, with a darker notes that made me think of chocolate. It was promising, and I was excited, and then I sipped.

I’ll give it that it actually did taste of vanilla, but it was thin. It didn’t have enough oomph and it lacked that richness I’ve come to enjoy in some of the better vanilla teas I’ve had. I was hunkering down to expand upon this, but now I realize that there’s really not much else to say. It was one-note and a bit weaker than I’d like. Maybe some milk would help thicken it up, but I don’t have anymore and I don’t see myself buying this one.

All that being said, it was decent. Just…

Eh.

Auggy ruined this tea for me, and I mean that in the nicest way possible!

I have a feeling I would have loved this tea, had I never tasted the sample Auggy sent me of SerendipiTEA’s Colonille.

But let’s talk about this tea alone. Anyway, when opened, the little packet exuded a scent of warm vanilla. Not very overpowering at all, but pretty natural-smelling. Very, very happy-making indeed. No sad panda over here! The leaves are fairly standard sized, and you can clearly pick out the vanilla bean. So far, off to a good start!

The wet leaves and the infusion itself smell surprisingly similar to Colonille! So I was pretty excited. Could it be? Another Colonille? Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Make no mistake, this one tastes really good at first. But the vanilla is pretty mild, and the black tea base here is nothing special. I actually think it’s the Vietnamese black in Colonille that elevates it to awesome heights. So rich and with a lot of depth, and even cocoa hints. Here, the black tea doesn’t really serve any purpose except as a backdrop for the vanilla.

As this cooled, I liked this a bit less. A too-sweet aftertaste comes with every sip, almost syrupy. This flavor began to completely overtake the entire taste of the tea, until all I was tasting was vanilla syrup and no tea. It’s not the most pleasant flavor, either. It feels too heavy for the type of light tea that this is. It’s a weird type of flavor that I can’t wrap my head around, but it’s lingering for a bit too long to be welcome.

I definitely would not have been so nit-picky about this one had I not tried something better, but the truth of the matter is that better vanilla tea does exist. Colonille is all I could even want in a vanilla tea. This one is definitely better hotter than cool.

I feel like I’ve already tried a ton of Golden Moon teas so far, but my little sample basket from them is still overflowing with goodies! I decided on this one today, mostly because I had just gotten up and this is the first one I saw that was to be made with boiling water. The Zojirushi being on 208, I went ahead and grabbed it. When I am more awake I can worry about what I want to drink. Right now I just need something.

My cup of tea smells lovely. The vanilla is creamy and sweet and almost candy-like. In fact, the smell reminds me of SerendipiTEA’s Colonille and City Harvest Black. Upon dipping though, it fails to fill those (admittedly very large) shoes. The vanilla isn’t overwhelming but is soft, a little sweet and creamy and really delicious. But there is a disconnect between the vanilla flavor and the tea. The two don’t fully merge. There’s vanilla, then there’s tea, then there is a little vanilla aftertaste. I don’t taste vanilla tea so much as vanilla and tea. And I want those tastes squished together.

If I were rating this tea on scent alone, this would get a very high score. It smells awesome. But the taste is a little disappointing when hit with that lovely smell. As it cools, the two tastes seem to blend a bit, but the delightful smell goes away so I prefer it hot. However, now I seem to be getting a bit of a dry, powdery aftertaste feeling in my mouth. Sort of like when a potato hasn’t been fully reheated and you’re left with a little mealy taste that goes back to creamy once you pop it in the microwave another minute.

For me, this tea just doesn’t hit all the right notes. I gave the husband a sip of it hot and his face lit up when he smelled it but he got a bit of a confused look on his face post-sip and stated, “That’s interesting.” So yeah. Great smell but the flavors just don’t match up to the smell. And once the tea and vanilla flavors starts to combine, the tea temp is close to starting to get cold enough that the aftertaste feels heavy and uncomfortable.

I think if I had finished the tea before it got to that funky aftertaste/feel point, I might have given the tea a little higher rating simply because the smell was awesome. But right now when it is time to move that little slider, I just have an odd taste in my mouth that leaves me kind of grumpy so it’s hard to remember the happy smell and odd (but not as bad as the aftertaste) taste of the hot tea.

This one smells nice both before, during, and after infusion. It ‘brews’ dark brown and is quite mellow in taste. I’m drinking this as my first cup this morning and eventho it’s good – I’m looking for something more strong this morning.

I don’t know what I am tasting. That is all I can say. I sorta taste vanilla at the backend but it isn’t for sure vanilla. It is disappointing since it smelled wonderful dry. So I end with…Weird!

Holy Vanilla! This tea is so potent, and smells like you just stuck your nose into a vanilla bean. The smell alone, makes me want to taste the tea immediately! (i am a vanilla fiend!). Sadly, I was kind of disappointed with this tea, it was vanilla-y on the nose, while the tea was hot, but the vanilla seemed to go away and dissolve as the tea cooled off. The taste of the tea was a mild black tea, not anything to write home about, but I was sipping on it at night after an exam, so the tea helped me relax, but I think i wouldn’t drink the tea if I wanted a boost in the morning/afternoon. The tea reminded me of how vanilla as a flavor is a bit subdued and kind of on the mellow side,which is exactly how this tea strikes me. I would have liked the vanilla to be more present in the tea flavor, and maybe a stronger black tea too.

Mmmmmm! I really like this one! I love the creamydreamy vanilla they used and the taste is a great balance between the vanilla and the tea. I would definitely love a tin of this. On the site it says it’s great with buttered toast for breakfast, and I really wish I saved my sample to use for exactly that purpose. Now that I taste the tea, it sounds like an absolutely perfect pairing. Ah well, I will have to suffer until I get a tin!!!

Golden Moon random sample No. 18 of 31. With the way my luck is going I will draw Kashmiri Chai dead last. ;-)

Dry leaves have a creamy vanilla scent, similar to the creaminess of the Vanilla Mint. An ice creamy sort of vanilla. It’s not as rich, deep or powerful a fragrance out of the box as I recall the Mariage Freres Black Orchid, which is a pretty high standard to live up to. I can see little pieces of vanilla bean among the dark brown leaves.

The aroma is quite nice. I do smell a somewhat alcoholic note, which I suppose could be rum and a sweet underlying black tea smell along with the vanilla which continues to be an ice creamy/cream soda-y vanilla fragrance. I notice there’s a reference to tropical flowers and I am reminded that some tropical flowers do have a vanilla-like fragrance. I think some orchids do. In any case, if this was meant to refer to other tropical floral scents I’m getting a goose egg, though there is vanilla in spades.

Flavor wise, this is a decent vanilla black, but not spectacular. Far better than the Numi decaf, not as good as the Mariage Freres Black Orchid, possibly not even as good as the Jade Teapot Starry Night, even considering the missing stars and all.

It would not be my go-to vanilla, but I’d be happy to accept it were things I like better not available.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #25
whoops, WAY oversteeped this. Got distracted looking through google scholar search results and 15 minutes later…oh yeah, tea! (I get very single-minded)

The result is a black tea that smells and tastes very faintly of vanilla. The leaves smelled of creamy vanilla, so it’s kind of weird to go from that to this. It’s a shame because I think the quality of the vanilla here is quite nice, so I wouldn’t mind if it were just a bit more assertive.

It’s interesting to compare this with the vanilla mint, although at this point, all I have to go on is a vague memory and whatever my tasting note says. In any case, the vanilla and mint were so nicely balanced and worked with the black and green teas really well. What’s going on here is that the vanilla seems to be trying to balance itself with another flavor that is…not there.

As I get nearer to the bottom of my second cup, the vanilla seems to become more prominent. And the tea gets sweeter too, which makes me wonder if I’m not getting residual white chocolate from last night’s vanilla berry truffle.

Of course, this could all be the result of oversteeping and all of my problems will disappear with the next steeping which I will (hopefully) pay attention to. But for now, I give this an “eh,” which is like a “meh” but slightly more positive.

Eh, not my favourite tea, but far from the worst. I made a double batch of this for brunch today since DH doesn’t like heavily flavoured teas…he actually likes the Red Rose, PG Tips, Twinnings variety of English tea. I thought I had my packet of Darjeeling from DAVIDs left, but turns out I have already had that, and the packet was Tung Ting Vietnam instead. So I looked at this and Golden Fleece instead. I opted for this because I thought the intricacies of the Golden Fleece might be lost on him, and I wanted it all for myself, but also because I thought he might be ok with the Madagascar Vanilla instead. In retrospect, I think I probably would have preferred the Golden Fleece today, but oh well, more for me later.

This just feels a bit weak. Maybe it was my brewing. That said, it is not very astringent, and that is a nice thing. Thanks to indigobloom for sending this to me to try. I don’t know that I’ve ever have heard of it any other way.

Loose tea smells nice. Very teaish :) And rumish.
Nice dark brownish color and a still very black teaish smell. Bit of rum and gentle vanilla too.

Tastes very ummm plain black plus some scents to it. Isn’t very full and smooth. Wouldn’t say bad. It’s really drinkable if you want a non sweet dark tea. But it has no wow effect. Nothing really special about it. Kinda like buying plain black/indian teabag tea in the grocery shop.
I’ll rate it just as average…

This is a quality vanilla tea. It reminds me a lot of Mighty Leaf’s Vanilla Bean, which pretty much set the standard for true vanilla black tea for me. It does have little bits of vanilla beans, and the round almost fruity tropical aroma that goes with them. Very well flavored, definitely smooth enough to drink plain, and just barely strong enough to take milk. I got two solid infusions out of this, and would happily buy a tin if I needed to replenish my vanilla tea stock.

Madagascar vanilla smells like a very creamy,milky vanilla. I was impressed at how dark the liquor brewed up after only three minutes. The vanilla flavor reminds me of the creme base in Teavana’s Earl grey creme. I enjoy Earl grey creme and find this enjoyable, just not extraordinary. It is almost as if the vanilla is an after thought. It is not a main player in this mélange. I would expect more flavor from the name. Oh, well. On to the next one.

I GOT A NEW TEAPOT! Thank you, Sandy! It came all the way from New Zealand and arrived in perfect condition. It is red, holds one litre, and has a nice big infuser. I wanted to celebrate the new pot by making a BIG pot of something.

I chose a tea JacquelineM sent to me. There was enough for a whole litre! I drank it with my student, her mom, and her little tiny sister and we all enjoyed it very much! Lovely vanilla flavor. Thank you, Jacqueline! This was a nice treat for all of us!

This tea is an excellent example of what Escoffier discovered, regarding how scent impacts our sense of taste. He served all of his food piping hot because he knew his diners would smell the food. Since smell comprises most of our actual ability to taste, voilà! Hot, this tea smells delicious, and subsequently tastes accordingly — vanilla without the artificial flavoring, though I found no tropical notes. Take away the heat, however, and you are left with a thin vanilla taste that requires sweetening. Kind of like when you see a guy who you thought was attractive — until he takes off his shirt and you aren’t squinting at him anymore because he is less than 20 feet away.

(Not that this happened recently to me or anything. Nope. Although, there was a Scottish bagpiper tonight in the park, and it was the best part of my day.)

This tasted like I was eating sugar cookies with my tea. I enjoyed the vanilla flavor and the black tea base was good as well. I would recommend trying this. I haven’t tried many vanilla teas before (just Twinning and Adagio) but I thought this was worlds above those two.

All right Golden Moon, you’re going to have a hard time living up to Mariage Freres Vanille des Iles or Black Orchid…let’s see what you’ve got. The aroma is promising, strong natural vanilla flavor, and some sweet background note as well, like malt or cocoa. I see a sliver or two of vanilla bean too, a great sign.

In the pot, it brews up a clear dark brown, and after three minutes I’m getting a woodsy scent in there now too. I like my vanilla tea strong, but I’ll stop at four minutes to see where we are with it. The first sip is…underwhelming. I taste the black tea, which is fine, but where the vanilla is supposed to be is a place holder value that’s not quite what I was expecting. There’s still a pleasant maltiness in the aftertaste. It’s trying really hard but is not yet there. Shucks! Maybe the addition of cream and sugar will bring out more flavors.

Not so much. The warmth of vanilla is there, but again it feels like it’s standing in for the real thing, which is waiting in the wings somewhere but never quite arriving. Overall a pleasant tea, but not enough vanilla flavor for my taste.

As inspired by Morgana’s “Tale of Three Vanillas” I chose this one out of my sampler for my morning tea. This is the first vanilla tea that I’ve ever had and it was nice. The dry leaf smell reminded me of Vanilla Silk (which is neither good nor bad – I just only have it with cereal and not as a straight drink). The steeped tea smelled like a gentler Vanilla Silk.

That being said – this is the first loose leaf black tea that was actually “smooth” to me. Maybe a little too smooth because it sort of bored me, but it did give me hope that someday I’ll like black teas more than I do at present. Ultimately it’s like this tea was going out of its way to be overly polite. M