Te Med Rabarber - Vaniljsmak

Oh, steepster. The reasons for my absence are manifold but positive. A book to write, a new boy to date, a birthday month and much travel, two separate bouts of illness (flu, 1; head-cold with lingering cough, 1) which may or may not be related to the aforementioned travel, and the fall video-game release blitz have together conspired to keep me happily drained and preoccupied to the extent that what little remaining energy I have has been diverted to things other than writing tasting notes. I have been sticking with tried and true favorites. I have not purchased tea in over a month. This may be a good time to purchase lift tickets in hell.

But!

Last night I was feeling bored with the usual suspects, and I’ve had this left over from my swap with Auggy, so I decided to give it a brew. I didn’t notice until I actually sat down with it that it also contained vanilla (I probably could’ve deduced this from the name, admittedly) — but that is, in fact, the greater portion of the forward flavor in this cup, and it dominates the aroma. Once you sip, you get the warm fuzzy tongue-hug of vanilla immediately, and this gives way to a noticeable sweetness and the very, very slightly sweet flavor rhubarb mixed in. It’s not quite tart the way that rhubarb is, but there’s an astringency in the cup that seems to play into the memory of that tartness…and it’s not rhubarb-as-seen-in-strawberry-rhubarb-pie, but rhubarb the way it tastes when you get stalks of it fresh and eat it that way, only scaled back and toned down enough to not cause your mouth to pucker. It’s a very subtle flavor, but not difficult to spot — maybe ‘gentle’ is a better word than ‘subtle’.

Something about the tea reminds me of the flavored blends from 52teas — the apple flavors in particular. I don’t know if that’s the leaf or just a consequence of the rhubarb flavor. I am indecisive.

They say ‘Keemun’ for the leaf. I can see it. It just doesn’t have much character as Keemuns go; most of what you’d expect from it gets swallowed up by the vanilla, which is perhaps the point.

Not bad! Not something I’ll be looking to replace, but I like it better than I thought I would, and I’d be interested in trying other teas like it — which is apparently not as unlikely as it sounds; in searching for this online I discovered another vanilla-rhubarb tea from Sweden, produced by Friggs, whom I know from previous conversations with a Belgian friend of mine produces some kind of magical blabar (blueberry) tea. And I remember that because, blabar is an awesome word for ‘blueberry’, and anytime my friend says ‘Friggs-Blabar’ it entertains me.

When I was at Ikea the other day, I couldn’t resist picking this up. First off, it’s rhubarb flavored. I’ve never had a rhubarb tea before (shoot, I’ve only had rhubarb itself maybe twice, both times in pie form) and I’m always up for something novel, even if it ends up icky. Second, it was cheap ($2.50 for 3.5oz!) so even if it was icky, I wasn’t going to feel bad about blowing a couple of bucks on it. Third, it’s tea and apparently I have a disease that makes me compulsively purchase tea whenever I see it for sale.

This tea is definitely more vanilla than it is rhubarb but it’s a pink-tinted vanilla. There’s vanilla but it has a noticeable hint of something else that just tastes lightly pink. (Or maybe that’s just me. Does anyone else ever taste colors? And I’m not talking about when you eat fingerpaints.) Eventually I figured out what the pink taste made me think of – lychee. Yeah, yeah, I know. This is rhubarb. But I still think this tastes like a lychee tea, though more on the lychee fruit end, not lychee flower end (no hint of rose). Of course, this could be because my only exposure to rhubarb has been in pie-form and, since I didn’t add half a cup of sugar to my mug this morning, I don’t really taste the similarities. Not that I’m much more versed in lychee – I think I’ve had lychee once but I have had a couple of different lychee teas and that has to count for something, right?

I picked this tea up ages ago on a whim at Ikea because I love rhubarb, and it was on sale. Brewed up the tea is a deep reddish brown, and it has a pleasant aroma and flavor. It’s nothing truly outstanding, but certainly a nice cup when I’d like a fruity black tea that’s not berry-flavored. So many fruit black teas seemed based in berries, so this is a nice departure. The rhubarb doesn’t make the tea tart, and I have a feeling that the vanilla assists with giving it a smooth and somewhat creamy taste, as it keeps a low profile otherwise. Not a tea I’ll reach for all the time, but a solid, tasty tea nonetheless. Oh, and I’m not sure what the sell-by date on this bag was, but I’m certain I’m way past it and the tea is still flavorful. Then again I have a jasmine tea I bought in China 7 years ago and I still think it tastes fantastic, so what do I know. :)

After the weirdness with the French Breakfast tea this morning, I wanted to give a full cup of something a try. So, I made a cup of this.

I bought this maybe six months ago on an Ikea outing. My husband loves rhubarb, so I thought it might convert him to tea. Since we hadn’t opened it until this morning, my plan obviously didn’t work. :) It’s a nice cup. The vanilla stands out more than the rhubarb. I added a bit of agave nectar, which really rounded out the flavors.

It has a “best by” date of a few weeks from now, so I doubt I’ll be able to finish it all. But I’ll certainly be trying to get a few more cups in before then. I might even try this to make a pitcher of sweet tea now that we’re entering warmer weather….

LIght vanilla/fruit aroma to dry leaves. Full-bodied but not overpowering once steeped. Fragrant with vanilla notes. Mild flavor. Watch “sell-by” date when purchasing at IKEA.

Slightly more bite than Ikea’s blueberry Keemun counterpart, it holds up really well to the milk + sugar treatment. May be too bitey without the milk, though.

I adore This tea, but am unable to use the sliding rating scale on my ipad. Anyway, I fear this tea may have been discontinued by IKEA. The Friggs is not black tea, and it comes in bags (I prefer loose). Does anyone have info on whether Ikea has permanently discontinued this tea? I am having a hard time getting clear info from Ikea.

I didn’t expect much, given how cheap it was, but it’s become a favorite of mine. Very subtle – - people who like a strong black tea might be bored. It’s also very forgiving. I can get distracted by my toddler, give it an EXTRA long steep, and it still tastes great.

Lightly sweet with many hints of berry flavoring. Overall a satisfying (and satisfyingly inexpensive) loose leaf tea from one of my favorite places, Ikea.