Sweet Velvet Fog

Received yet another package of tea today… this time it was my order from iheartteas.com!! Exciting! I ordered a few of Rachel’s custom blends (and some Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong), and am trying to make some good headway on trying everything this evening, even though I should be sleeping/working on things (but I’m so stressed out all I can do is post mindlessly on Steepster… thank goodness it’s working again!)

The aroma of this one is pretty familiar, steeped. Luckily, it’s familiar in a good way. Malty and caramelly/vanilla-y. I can see why someone (is it Angrboda???) is questing for the perfect vanilla black. So decadent.

With 3.5 minutes of steeping, I’m getting more astringency than I would like, yet the tea’s a bit weak. I think I may have overdone the water a bit, and should drop the infusion time down to 3 minutes. However, in spite of the astringency I can taste some really nice caramelly/creamy notes. Definitely looking forward to my second attempt! During which I should also brew up some of 52teas’ Pot O’ Gold and Market Spice’s Rum Butter for comparison. No need to have a plethora of similarly-flavoured teas in my cupboard.

In spite of the astringency, I’m definitely enjoying this cup of tea – it’s nearly gone already. It’s tempting to add some milk and sugar, but I think that would ruin me for drinking flavoured blacks without! Nom nom. Off I go to brew up another new tea before I toodle off to bed for the evening.

ETA: 199F for an accidental 6.5 minutes is surprisingly not astringent. Obviously not as flavourful as I’d like, but worth the second round :)

This tea did not smell like much at all in dry form.
Steeped it smells A MAZ ING!
Taste: A very creamy indulgence! Notes of vanilla and caramel just as described!
Perfectly sweet but not too sweet!

This is actually for the Adagio version, though I do also have some of the one Rachel made for iHeartTeas itself. But I’ve had this one longer so obviously I am drinking it first.

I just made the most ridiculous dessert and included this tea in it. I was given chocolate cabernet pasta for Christmas and remembered I had a bar of white chocolate…so I made a sauce of it, half a cup of this tea brewed strong, and coconut milk. It was still missing something though…in went some blueberry jam and some gelato that really needed to leave the freezer. Topped everything with strawberry slices. I probably just took five years off my life but it’s worth it.

Now I am also drinking the rest of this tea that I made because actually I can’t eat that much of the pasta. (Gee I wonder why). I let it cool while I cooked, and then I added milk and ice to it.

I think this is like the first time an Adagio blend has tasted this good on the first cup. Probably the weirdest thing is that this tastes exactly like the pasta minus the berries. I was hoping for a white chocolate sauce but when I added the pasta, it turned my pretty blue sauce into a chocolate milk color, and it definitely gives it a chocolate cream taste. So, if you do not have ridiculous chocolate pasta on hand, this tea does not have the calories and tastes pretty darn close.

It’s definitely really good iced. I’ll give it a shot as a hot tea too, but I can’t believe how chocolate tasting it is with none of the astringency and grossness I usually get from Adagio flavored teas. Yay!

Food coma bye.

This tea is another sample I picked up in my exchange with kittena and indigobloom. I wish I could say that I loved this tea….but I can’t. It starts out lovely but thetail end of each sip reminds me of the few adagio teas that I’ve tried and haven’t been a fan of. I REALLY love the way each sip starts out though….

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this tea because sometimes teas that have a lot of flavors, especially caramel, come across as too sweet, or you can’t taste the tea for the flavors. Wow, am I glad I decided to give it a try. This is the best vanilla tea I’ve ever had. It is intensely flavorful but you can still taste the black tea. The flavors all blend together beautifully. The caramel gives the vanilla extra depth. I didn’t detect as many of the cream notes, but perhaps if I try it iced I will. Thank you, Rachel, for creating this delicious blend that caters to my sweet tooth without adding any extra pounds! I will be back to buy more.

This sample comes from oOTeaOo – thanks for letting me try this!

Perhaps I should have read the description before I had this for breakfast. It is definitely a bit on the sweet side but it has nice flavors of butterscotch, vanilla and caramel, making for a slightly decadent morning. :)

I steeped mine for around 3.5 minutes at 205 F and I also added some soymilk.

This is nice for a flavored tea but definitely seems like more of a dessert tea than one I would pick up first thing in the morning. Still, I have enjoyed it. I am not really finding it too sweet but something about flavored teas often just strikes me as a bit artificial at times… not destined to be a favorite, I guess

Thanks to Kittenna for this sample!
I enjoyed this cuppa. Personally, I’m not huge on vanilla flavouring but every once in awhile it really hits the spot.
This tea was pretty smooth and creamy with a touch of something extra that I can’t quite identify, something that seemed to bring everything together, and iron out the vanilla/black tea wrinkles for me. That must be why… If I was going to reach for a vanilla tea again, this would be it. That said, I don’t plan on keeping any in my cupboard. It’s just nice to have once in awhile :)

Thanks to Kittena for a sample!

I get to look at my wedding venue today, 2 weeks before the wedding, lol! Yeah, last minute and totally laid back. More excited about eating beef tongue burritos afterward! Heheh! I’m not a wedding person and rather save the cash for a fun honeymoon… once I get my greencard and can leave the country.

I wanted to start my day with a nice black tea and Sweet Velvet Fog appealed to me.

STEEPED: Dark brown colour, malty caramel smell

TASTE: Smooth black tea and surprisingly sweet. Hit of caramel and vanilla. Not getting any astringency or bitterness. I can totally get the caramel and creamy creeping up on me.
Sweetened (not that it needed it, but I already presweetened a batch) the creamyness comes out more. Personally, I think the sweetness in the tea is perfect and does not need further sweetening.

COMMENTS: Very good! I think I might try more of iHeartTeas stuff! Overall, a good dessert tea for peeps who like black teas that are nice and smooth.

Another Rachel Blend. :)

It’s sweet, smooth, vanilla and caramel creamy goodness!

A great blend!

What a tiring day, a cup of tea and then I’m off to bed. :)

This was from a large sampler I bought from iHeartTeas a few months ago. It sounded sort of Winter/Christmas like so I kept it for such a day like today to try it.

Firstly the tea itself is brown with leaves that look tightly rolled and cut into small pieces that smell earthy yet sweet. Once brewed it leaves a dark brown tea with a fruity and creamy vanilla fragrance.

(Please note I have not added any sugar or creamer). The first few sips reveal sweet smoothness with a vanilla and caramel sort of taste. I can understand the fog part from it’s name, the blend is not strong nor weak and it has a slightly smokey/misty flavour which I believe to be the black tea base. A nice evening drink.

It could be enhanced with sugar to create a stronger caramel mix but it’s sweet enough for me.

Thanks to Meghann for the sample. :0)

This is another very smooth one. You can def taste the caramel in it. Every time I take a drink I just keep thinking “Smooth”.

Very good. I can see this being a great morning blend to get your day going. . . . . Yummy!

Sweet! Sweet! Sweet! W a hint, just a hint of caramel…smooth and creamy. W milk and sugar, a delightful dessert tea. Thanks to French Vanilla for this sample.

Thank you to Rachel for sending me this sample.

This tastes a lot like the ButterBeer blend that I have from Adagio… although that isn’t surprising to me in the least, since the same three teas were used in this as in the ButterBeer… just in different ratios.

This one seems a little creamier… or sweeter, perhaps? I’m not sure… I contemplated doing a side by side, but I’m just not up for brewing another cup of black tea at the moment.

This is good. It isn’t my favorite Rachel blend – but then, they can’t all be my favorite Rachel blends, can they? It’s got a delicious caramel taste to it, sweet and creamy. I like it.

Thanks for sending this to me Rachel!!

Mmm… I love adagios caramel tea so this tea is right up my alley. It is a little less caramelly and a little more creamy than the plain caramel tea. I am really enjoying it! I had my first cup with milk which brought out the creaminess and I am about to have my second cup plain. This was an excellent first tea of the morning. And really is an excellent tea for anyone with a sweet tooth like myself – haha!

Vanilla cake. Thats the first thing I thought. This is a very sweet tea. I added sugar and milk, which made this taste creamier. Yummy! Great dessert tea. I have such a sweet tooth, and this tea hits the spot. Warm and tasty. I love it!

I received a sample of this blend a while back from Rachel and I thought I had logged it soon after I got it, but clearly I was mistaken (see guys, this is what happens when you’ve got too many teas!).

I wasn’t so thrilled about it when I drank it plain, but when I added milk it really made the flavours pop. The caramel flavours are especially apparent with smooth, sweet vanilla topping it off. It’s definitely not a tea that needs extra sweetening and it has a decadent feel to it that makes every cup a treat.

Another sample from Rachel! Such a fantastic box of samples!!

This one is sweet and creamy. Definitely a great tea to cuddle up with on a chilly morning!

I was looking forward to this tea for a long time and finally just purchased a tin of it. The scent is pleasing and definitely more sweet than expected. The taste is of a black tea base plus caramel and other pleasant notes. I could really just detect the caramel and not a ton of the vanilla or cream. I may try this tea with a little bit of milk even though I dislike adding things to my teas.
Sweet velvet fog is bordering on the sickeningly sweet.. Even though I love sweet, creamy, dessert teas. I hope the milk might drown the sweetness a little. This is a pleasant cup of tea— but it seems like the creamy is replaced by extra sweet!

“OMG!!! ABSOLUTELY my FAVORITE tea. It was so smooth and creamy. I can’t get enough.

This tea was delish, like comfort food in a cup. The caramel, cream and vanilla were all there but not overdone or artificial tasting.