Vanilla

Yum! I steeped this the proper amount of time (for once; if you look over my tealogs you can see I’m a chronic over-steeper) and this tea is HEAVENLY. It tastes like french vanilla ice cream, but light and with enough black tea to prevent a descent into cloying madness. I’m drinking it straight out of the pot, but I’m sure that with milk this would be divine!

This is a sensitive tea, though. When I’ve made it in the past and steeped it 10+ minutes (because like I said, I am CARELESS) it was bitter and horrible, and my tongue was unhappy.

I bet this would make a great blending tea.

This tea smells much like the other vanilla teas I’ve had do: black tea with a hint of vanilla. The dry leaf smells a bit more flavored, but it’s basically what you’d expect from a vanilla tea.

The problem I’ve had with other vanilla teas is that the vanilla flavor and the black base don’t complement each other well. While this does improve as the tea cools, I wanted something that was perfect the whole way through, and this tea is!

This tea is smooth and delicious, what I’ve come to expect from Lupicia over the past couple days. The flavoring in this tea is pretty subtle, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I do like my flavors loud, but there is such a thing as too-much-flavoring. This tea doesn’t have that. What this tea does have is a smooth black base with a hint of vanilla, and the flavors blend wonderfully. The vanilla even adds a bit of thickness to the tea, it seems. This is what I’ve been expecting from the other vanilla teas I’ve tried, only to be disappointed.

So this tea? This tea is YUM.

Got this as a sample. I had never considered buying it before because it seemed so simple – I mean, Lupicia’s got amazing unusual flavours like Marron Chocolat and Champagne Rose, and that’s what I gravitate to! But when something simple is done well, it’s worth it. This is done well. If you put a few vanilla beans in a jar of sugar and seal it for a few weeks, the sugar takes on the vanilla flavour, and this is exactly what I’m reminded of with this tea. I brewed it with milk and a little bit of sugar, and it’s remarkably smooth. A bit like a high-quality vanilla ice cream where you know they used vanilla beans rather than artificial flavouring, only not as sweet. I guess I would call it a grown-up vanilla, for lack of better words!

I don’t know if I’d buy it myself – after all, I’m still eager to try out so many of Lupicia’s unusual ones – but after drinking up this hot mug of it, I’m leaning toward “yes.” A great morning tea for when you want something more than a typical breakfast brew, but you don’t want to be knocked over with anything exotic.

The vanilla is a warm flavor, earthy rather than sugary-sweet. Very nice, and I bet it would mix well with other teas. Tried with a little bit of milk.

Very sweet as an iced tea. Didn’t taste much of the vanilla. Will have to try this brewed hot.