Colonille

Oh look, a vanilla black! My obsession with vanilla these days is hardly a secret, is it? Actually, it’s one that has been going on for a fairly long time now. I can’t even remember what set it off. I suspect it was the awesome vanilla bean Nilgiri that Chi of Tea had and which was sold out when I had decided to buy a large quantity of it. (Does anybody know what’s going on with Chi of Tea these days? There has been radio silence on that front for a long time now.) Anyway, that particular vanilla black seems to have ruined me for all others, and now I can’t find the perfect one.

Auggy has sent me this candidate, and from the aroma of the leaves and the cup after brewing, it’s a serious contender. It’s a little bit coconut-y sweet, and it has that smell that feels tough and leathery. Like the skin of the pod itself rather than just the grains on the inside. The smell that reminds me of a certain sort of sweets that actually has nothing at all to do with vanilla as far as I know. In the cup, it smells all creamy too.

So the aroma is exactly what I’m looking for in the perfect vanilla black.

OMG HOW EXCITING!!! Could it really be the Perfect One?

The first sip was definitely vanilla flavoured, and the vanilla tasted right too. It even tasted milky grey, which is a good sign. But then… that was it. The vanilla flavour is everything that I’m looking for, but the base is really where everything falls like a house of cards. There doesn’t really seem to be much body to it. I can barely taste that it’s a black tea, but I can’t say anything at all about it, because it’s only so faintly there under the vanilla, and the flavouring doesn’t even seem to be that overwhelmingly strong. I should really really like to find this flavouring on a slightly more forceful base. I don’t know which tea this one is made on, but it just doesn’t seem to be asserting itself.

The first time I had it was in the large pot that I share with Husband (I think. I must have forgotten to get his opinion), and then tried again in the medium sized pot for the same result. Yesterday I had it in the smallest pot and it was a little bit better, but not really enough to make that much of a difference.

Still, I’ll rate it pretty high, because the flavouring of it is spot on. It’s just not the perfect base.

I am home today because the tree doctor had to come, and I am sad to say it is bad news. Maple is very sick and rotted. It’s time for her to go. Between her and Wild Cherry that is growing crookedly over the house and could fall and wreak havoc – it’s a terrible, terrible day for old trees and a horrible, horrible day for our bank account (I love trees and there is no way I would ever get one cut down unless it was dire. We had our landscaper alert us to the problem and tell us do it NOW rather then later, and the tree expert echoed his opinion). I don’t think I’l be buying tea for quite awhile after this out of the blue expense!

I needed a surefire pick me up this afternoon, and realized that I have not tried this one yet! Vanilla – my comfort. Ooooooh and this one is gooooooood. So rich and a bit like a liqueur! I used some half and half and sugar and you would think I went and got one of those $10 hot toddy things with whipped cream on it and everything. I feel like I had a very decadent and heavy dessert. I actually feel FULL from this tea!

Thank you, Colonille! You really picked me up this afternoon :)

When I am running late, sometimes things get messed up. This tea, for instance. I’m not sure exactly what I did wrong – too much leaf? no sugar? too much milk? – but something happened that made this tea not as happy today. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It was still good. Reminded me of Golden Moon’s Vanilla Jasmine actually. But normally this tea is better than GM’s Vanilla Jasmine. And when a little milk and sugar is added, it makes me think of chocolate and vanilla, swirled together. But today, it was just a little flat and a little more cream soda vanilla than chocolate vanilla.

Ah well. Maybe I need to get up earlier so I have more time to properly make my tea.

Tea party @ Rabs’ house! (Virtually speaking…)

It’s really pretty late for me to be having caffeine but tomorrow being a holiday and all I’m throwing caution to the wind. I had a cup of this earlier, but then I went for a run, ate dinner, put kids to bed, etc. before writing a note and I thought I’d better refresh my recollection. :-)

I’ve had a couple of really outstanding vanilla flavored black teas, some that were fine, and some that were pretty awful. This one is definitely at the high end of the spectrum, though I don’t think it passes Mariage Freres Black Orchid or Samovar Vanilla Dian Hong.

I bought a little tin of it from SerendipiTea, and it’s adorable. It’s the shape and just about the size of a chewing tobacco tin (not that I have one handy to compare it to, it just reminds me of that), but probably has a smaller circumference. The dry leaves have a vanilla smell along ice cream lines. Creamy rather than beany. There’s a dusky tea smell underneath.

The tea smells creamy rather than beany, too. Very pleasing aroma. Surprisingly, the taste isn’t as ice creamy as I would have thought. It’s smooth, but it has a sort of sneaky intensity to the vanilla flavor. You don’t realize it’s as vanilla-y as it is until you sit with it for a bit. The vanilla flavor really comes out in the aftertaste if you breathe in through your mouth after sipping.

On the problem of cocoa: yeah, I get some, more in the taste than in the aroma. I find that there’s a very fine line between chocolate and vanilla flavoring sometimes, particularly if they are leaning toward less sweet. I generally think of them as opposites, having been trained that way from an early age (do you want chocolate ice cream? or vanilla? black? or white?) but when you think about it, they’re both from seeds. More specifically from beany, poddy, plant things. So why shouldn’t there be some similarity? In any case, the more intense the vanilla, the more it seems to me to have chocolate overtones. With chocolate, it’s a little more difficult to make a generalization, but I have found vanilla notes in chocolate on a number of occasions.

I like this one. Really. So what to do here?

I’m going to solve the rating question by bumping up Samovar and Mariage Freres slightly, to give what I think is an appropriate space between them and this on the rating scale, which will enable me to give this a slightly higher rating than I would have otherwise.

Mmmmm.

This is another tea that Auggy sent me in a nice batch of samples, and it’s so super-yummy that I can’t stop sipping it as we speak. It’ll probably take me forever to write up this log as a result.

This tea is pure black, little scraps of tea, with some vanilla mixed in. The tea itself, when dry, smells deliciously of cocoa and vanilla. And when I say cocoa, I mean dark chocolate, unadulterated by milk. Pure, raw chocolate. The vanilla has that wonderful natural smell that I crave! The last vanilla tea I had was a bagged abomination – Bigelow’s French Vanilla, which tastes as fake as it horrifically smelled. So I was a bit apprehensive as I steeped this one. But I trusted Auggy’s judgment to lead me in the right direction.

This tea smells delicious in the cup. It’s a rich red hue, with a lovely vanilla scent that invites you to just stick you face into the cup and breathe. AHHHH. Smooth and rich vanilla.

The taste actually surprised me, because it’s deep and rich! I wasn’t expecting such a strong black flavor! At the forefront of the taste is definitely the rich taste of raw chocolate nubs. And then the vanilla hits, in a sweet, sweet wash of natural-tasting goodness. It’s gentle, but not cloying. It doesn’t talk down to you. Or try to sell you something you don’t want. It just invites you in for a stay, and wraps you in a hug.

I know I’m going to be staying up late, so caffeine is not an issue. However, on a normal day, this flavor would be perfect for night-time. My mom is really allergic to caffeine, but she can muster a sip or two of tea. She loved this one, and also wished that it was available decaf as well.

More yumminess from Auggy! She’s two for two! And this just shows me that yes, flavored tea can actually be really delicious and natural-tasting, instead of fake and disgusting.

A nice strong black. Smooth and rich. The vanilla is not overdone but lasts and lasts on your tongue. I have to thank Missy for another wonderful sample!! It’s good!

Warm fuzzies inna cup!

After the exciting contest put together by Daniel Mann, Morgana and I decided to both try the Colonille. Can I tell you how cool it is to have a tea buddy thousands of miles away? Yeah, it’s pretty cool. My sample of this tea comes courtesy of the wonderful JacquelineM a.k.a. my fairy tea sister! Okay, onto the tea: the first few sips the vanilla seemed to be all coy and hiding in the background — teasing the back of my throat with its presence. As the cup began to cool the vanilla gained strength and was just nummy. It’s one of those “sink into your chair” type of teas. Aaaaah…

I think that it’s a lot more subtle than the Tea Guys’ French Vanilla — which I’ll have to try again tomorrow to compare more accurately. Thank you so very much JacquelineM! TG

I needed a break from brain work earlier today, so I decided to make some tea and beat up some people on Fat Princess. I got some chai cooking on the stove and brewed a cup of Colonille, sent to me by Auggy, to tide me over while I was waiting. And beating.

It could just be that I was distracted because I was too busy burninating on little cartoon people, but I couldn’t taste the chocolate that this is supposed to have in it. What I did taste was the vanilla. I’m going to have to try this alongside the Rooibos Bourbon Vanilla Carolyn traded me, because although one is rooibos and one is black, they remind me very much of one another.

What I can say about this is that it’s warm, inviting, and for me is equivalent to a tea hug. It’s something I want to revisit when I’ve got some place comfortable to sit with a blanket and a book. And maybe a fire. And maybe replace the book with a PS3 controller. And maybe whilst sitting there I’m destroying some cartoon lives on Fat Princess.

I’M SORRY! I’ve got asploding on the brain.

Seriously, though, going to need to drink this again when I can give it the attention it deserves. What I got out of it, though, I enjoyed.

This is a great vanilla black tea option. The vanilla flavor profile is kind of medium and doesn’t get in your face. It balances nicely with the black tea used here which is rich, malty and gives off chocolate notes. This is naturally sweet and I enjoyed this best unadulerated.

I thoroughly enjoy this tea. I find it rich and inviting. The lovely, vanilla aroma is very relaxing. I pick up a bit of the chocolate but the vanilla is the dominant flavor. The tea shines through in the end. It has an interesting feel on my tongue, a smooth almost velvety texture. That seems silly because it’s just water flavored by the tea leaves. I think this one shall be a staple tea.

Found this at a local farmers market, never heard of the company. Really good! Nice find on my part!