Indian Night Decaf Black Vanilla

This was without a doubt the worst cup of tea I’ve had in a long long time. It even surpassed Adagio’s white cucumber concoction in terms of vileness. And it probably wasn’t even the tea’s fault.

See, this is a backlog from this afternoon on the way home from work. I’ve got a 45-50 minutes train commute and sometimes I buy some sort of coffee drink to go for the trip. Today though, I was super-sleepy (through every fault of my own) so I thought it would be good with some caffeine on the trip. Coffee does indeed have plenty of caffeine, but cappucinos and cafe lattes also have lots of milk, and milk is not all that good at keeping people awake. So something without milk and with caffeine in it. I thought, “hey, this place has Numi teas! Why not give that a shot?” Of course they only had a smaller selection and not the chocolate pu-erh one, so I picked this one because it sounded nice with a vanilla tea.

Erm yeah. Staying awake. Decaf. NEVERMIND!

So that was the first mistake.

I get a to-go cup of water of a temperature that means business, but with my mitten on it was possible to hold the cup. I steeped and then removed the lid from the cup, so I could drink it and get the benefit of the aroma as well. And this is where is started to go wrong, Steepsterites.

The aroma was extremely fruity and sweetly berry-like. Vanilla was there as a hint and I think the thing that added the sweetness.

The tea itself was pretty weak in flavour, and what flavour that actually was there was largely cardboard-y and rooibos-y. Very much on the rooibos, actually, in spite of the bag wrapper not saying anything about it containing rooibos. In fact nowhere I look does it say anything about it containing rooibos so I can only conclude that it’s not supposed to be there.

There was no vanilla in the flavour at all. Not one bit. As a matter of fact there wasn’t even any black tea in the flavour either. Nothing. Not even a hint. All I could pick up was a watered down plain rooibos, which a) wasn’t what I wanted, b) I don’t even like that much and c) doesn’t exist in this place. In fact you could have blindfolded me and let me taste it and I would have said it was a rooibos and I probably wouldn’t even be
the slightest bit in doubt.

How in the name of all that is sweet and wholesome could this have gone so dreadfully dreadfully wrong? I wasn’t expecting perfection but I thought I’d at least be able to get a mediocre cup of tea. I think I know the answer to this.

Cardboard. Cup.

I’ve had that happen before. A cardboard cup that stole all the flavour from an otherwise strong and oversteeped teabag. It was like drinking just hot water. I think this phenomenon was at fault here too. It stole most of the flavour and warped what was left of it into the rooibos-y stuff.

I’m not going to give this a rating due it the nature of the taste-thieving cup. Under other circumstances this might actually have been a lovely tea, but right now after having tried it, I still have no clue what it tastes like.

Let this be a lesson for you, Steepsterites. Cardboard to-go cups = Eeeeeeeevil! Beware!

Thank you adagio breeze for two samples of this tea.

Black vanilla based tea always makes me think latte so I might as well steep this into latte form. :) Gives me a good excuse to use up the milk before we go on holiday.

The teabag smells spicy and sweet like a vanilla chai. Also a little dry.

Once steeped this tea is sweet and vanilla scented with a dark and dry under tone. As expected the tea soup is dark brown in colour.

My milk froth looks good and the chocolate powder star on the top has promise so here we go sip sip sip Taste is rather dry but sweet and vanilla, very similar to the smell. The vanilla is more sweet than creamy and has an edge that makes me think it could be artificial. The black tea is very dry and rather dull, reminds me of leaves in autumn that are so dry they crunch in your hand.

I couldn’t tell it’s decaf and neither could my husband. He did however say that it’s very plain and I have to agree. This would not be anything that I would re stock or crave. Some sweetener would be better in this if I ever receive any more samples.

Ps…my throat is so dry I had to have a cup of water after drinking this tea.

“Boxy” isn’t normally an adjective that would spring to mind in describing a tea, but in this case it may be apt. Yes, there is vanilla in it, but it is extremely plain tasting nevertheless. And the overall impression is that of chewing on a wet piece of cardboard. Sorry Numi, not impressed with this one.

This was included as part of a mixed box so thankfully I don’t have any more – otherwise I’d be pretty pissed if I just spent money on a whole box of this tea.

The tea has a faintly sweet vanilla smell, but I noticed that it also has this weird chemical odor to it. I wonder if that was left behind by the decaffeination process? The taste isn’t much an improvement. It’s a thin, weak brew (though admittedly I didn’t steep it as along as I could have) and what little flavour that is there is artificial and harsh-tasting. Next time I’ll pass on this one.

1 bag for 250mL water, bare.

Where’s the tea?

A pleasant vanilla taste, not perfumey, not fake, with creamy finish that reminds me of unsweetend soy milk.

But where’s the freakin TEA? I’ve kept the bag in the cup long past the recommended 5-minute max.

Vanilla-flavoured hot water. I kid you not. Grand if you want vanilla-flavoured hot water, which is soothing in and of itself, but I wanted tea. I won’t bother with this one again.

Surprisingly subpar. Tea courtesy of the Red Carpet Club – United Airlines. A bit watery. The vanilla compliments the black based only because none are strong evenly. Overall “Meh”

Another sample from “Numi’s Collection.” The moment you open the bag, the vanilla aroma comes out strong. I steeped the bag for the full five minutes, and added half and half and sweetener, which brought out the flavor and enhanced the creamy texture. The vanilla tastes natural, as it should, since they used vanilla beans, not artificial flavoring. With the half and half, it tastes like melted haagen-dasz vanilla ice cream. From all the bad reviews and from trying other Numi teas this morning, I was thinking I would dislike this tea, but I am pleasantly surprised.

This was on clearance at a local health food store, so I went for it (to my partner’s chagrin, seeing me come home with yet another box of tea).

Upon opening the packet it smells exactly like a vanilla pod, no doubt owing to the ground vanilla beans it contains. I took a sip after it had been steeping for 3 minutes, but found it a bit weak and left the bag in for the full 5. It was okay plain, better with sugar, and about the same level of tastiness with a splash of soymilk toward the end of the cup. The vanilla flavor was quite herbal – almost medicinal, but not in a way that made me dislike it. Should make a nice addition to my stash of bedtime brews.

I combine this 1 to 3 with Republic Decaf Earl Greyer to make an evening Earl Grey Creme (that has no artificial flavoring). I’m sure its not as strong of a flavor as the artificial or “natural” flavored ones, but I find it delicious and soothing.

FRIGGIN’ DELICIOUS and one of my favourite vanilla teas. Smell a vanilla bean. This tea tastes like that smell. I would buy this a million times over.

I’m really disappointed about this tea, I can drink it but gosh it really isn’t what it says on the tin… there’s nothing indian night black vanilla about it at all.. I was really disappointed I steeped it for little longer than I would usual just to taste something more, sorry… I won’t drink this again.

I took a bunch of teabags from my boy so I could try them at school. I finally got around to trying this one.

It was nice. It smelled like vanilla and I got a small taste of vanilla. I think the only problem was I had someplace to be and I had to eat and drink fast so I didn’t get to enjoy the tea that much. But it was pretty good.

Now, when it comes to Vanilla in tea, I’m wary. It can go either way. But this was another one from the gift I got at Christmas, so what the heck, right? I was very careful when I added my sugar (as I can sometimes over sweeten a regular sized cuppa since I’ve started using a larger travel mug during the day). I also decided that it needed milk after one sip without, so that went in. I’m happy to report that I actually really enjoyed this tea. The Vanilla was certainly there, but it wasn’t over powering. More light and creamy than anything. Over all, I’d call it a positive experience. Possibly one of the better teas I’ve had with Vanilla, owing to the fact that I didn’t find it to be overly sweet. I may just add this to my stash one day.

The first time or two I had this, I thought it was, quite simply, terrible. To the point of almost setting off my gag reflex.

But since I tried it so early on in my tea travels, I couldn’t be sure the problem was with the tea. That and being a glutton for punishment led me to try it again. I’m actually getting to the point now where I’m finding it ho-hum rather than awful.

For one thing, it is vastly improved with shorter steeping time. Three minutes is far better than five. For another, it takes some getting used to. At first, the vanilla tasted somehow detached from the tea, which was dark-tasting verging on bitter. Detached, beany and fake, all at the same time. The last couple of times, however, the vanilla has been more integrated with the tea and sweeter without the fakeness, and the tea less bitter. It does still smell better than it tastes, both in the bag and as brewed. Though I can’t see buying this again, I can see finishing the box.

I was in the mood for a black tea – also something vanilla. I remembered there was a tea like this in the Numi’s Collection (a box of 18 different flavored teas) so I tried it. Very very good! The black tea isn’t too strong and the vanilla compliments it well. I also kept pouring the water over this one tea bag because I just had the one! I was worried I would like the teas in this “sampler” so much that I would need to hunt down the flavors in their own boxes. This is one of them.

I was pleasantly surprised by this one! :) One of the few teas I might buy again!

You sure can smell the vanilla prior to steep. After steep – not so much but still slightly. The color is a nice wood-like brown. The taste is pleasant and not overbearing and the vanilla is a nice touch…this is coming from someone who doesn’t usually go for vanilla flavored things. Nice Job NUMI!

I keep buying this because it sounds good and I keep remembering that I don’t like it. Where’s the vanilla flavor? Completely unsubtle and just not that tasty.

My awesome sr. cataloger handed a bag of this off to me to try. I feel distinctly meh about it. It tasted kind of odd for vanilla, it’s almost more chocolate-y. Thinking about chocolate helped it go down easier than not being able to place the flavor, but it was a particularly strange flavor. Probably wouldn’t buy a box of this. Or really try it again. That said, I finished the cup so it wasn’t outright bad. Just not inspired to come back to it.

one of my favorites.