Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Beany, Creamy, Vanilla
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Leafbox Tea
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 4 min, 0 sec 12 oz / 368 ml

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17 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Sample six! Only one more to go and I’ll have made my goal. Sort of. It was supposed to be one daily, but that didn’t work out much. I have enjoyed this one, and shall enjoy the rest of it in bed...” Read full tasting note
    83
  • “I have a bowl of samples packages on the counter that I would really like to get through by the weekend. Only time will tell! This sample came from Tasty Brew who, if you haven’t had the pleasure...” Read full tasting note
    72
  • “Cold brew overnight. This definitely has the strength to still give a flavorful iced tea when cold brewed. Very very vanilla-y, and the black tea base is nice and subtle but definitely present. I...” Read full tasting note
    73
  • “This tea is probably one of the best examples of a Vanilla tea that we’ve encountered. It is a standard black tea, very much in line with the generic term, “China Black”. That said, it is a good...” Read full tasting note
    79

From Upton Tea Imports

A vanilla flavored, whole-leaf black tea base, with pieces of genuine bourbon vanilla.

Ingredients: black tea, vanilla bits, artificial flavor

Origin: Germany

About Upton Tea Imports View company

Company description not available.

17 Tasting Notes

83
1353 tasting notes

Sample six! Only one more to go and I’ll have made my goal. Sort of. It was supposed to be one daily, but that didn’t work out much.

I have enjoyed this one, and shall enjoy the rest of it in bed with some classic british comedy on dvd, and possibly a little WordFeuding on the side.

ScottTeaMan

How was the balance betwen the flavoring and tea? It wasn’t too artificial tasting was it? Hey! I love British comedies. :)) What do you like to, and what were you watching?

Angrboda

I was watching Dad’s Army. I got the boxset for Christmas from the boyfriend. :) Other favourites include As Time Goes By, Allo Allo, Keeping Up Apperances and My Family. Just off the top of my head. DA and ATGB are the only ones I own myself, though. All this more modern stuff like The Office and what have you, it’s not really for me. OH! And Red Dwarf, how could I forget? Bad Ang! Bad! And also QI, although that’s a quiz show, not a comedy series.

As for the tea, I thought this was rather pleasant. I have a far more elaborate post about it here http://steepster.com/Angrboda/posts/89415 and the cliffnotes of that is something along the lines of intense vanilla on the aroma, rather more subtle on the flavour, and that’s how I prefer it. It didn’t strike me as particularly synthetic tasting.

LadyLondonderry

Re-watching episodes of As Time Goes By and Keeping Up Appearances is one of my favorite weekend rituals. (One of the local public TV stations shows them every Friday night.)

Angrboda

ATGB is definitely my favourite. :D “Oh Mum!” “Don’t you oh Mum at me!”

ScottTeaMan

ATGB is my favorite . I just <3 it! I also like Keeping Up Appearances and the funniest Brit Com I’ve seen is Last of the Summer Wine. I chuckle just thinking about it.! :))

ScottTeaMan

OK last post got mixed up—-ATGB=Fav, Keeping Up Appearances=very funny, & LOTSW=funniest—I chuckle…….

Angrboda

I’m familiar with Summer Wine, but I’ve only seen a smattering of episodes when I’ve been fortunate enough to have BBC Entertainment and they’ve shown some. Some years ago I had BBC Prime as a regular channel, but due the whole channel voting system in the antenna club thingie where I lived, I lost it. I tried my damndest to get it voted back in but without much success. There was one channel, though, where they would show different things for two months at the time so people could try out other channels and I used to keep an eye on it in case BBC Entertainment (name change) came on. Where I live now, it’s right out, because I’d have to buy it as an extra channel from the local antenna club and we don’t watch enough actual tv that I think it’s worth it. Dvd and blu-ray then.
Anyway, I’ve seen a bit of Summer Wine, but not enough that I managed to work out who all the characters were. I thought it was funny though.

LadyLondonderry

My channel also recently added The Vicar of Dibley to the lineup, and I’m enjoying that too.

Angrboda

I don’t think I’ve ever seen more than one or two episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. There was one where she got drunk and one with a chocolate fountain, that’s all I can remember. I liked Dawn French in it, but it wasn’t enough for me to really form an opinion on whether or not I liked the show. I’d like to explore it further though.

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72
615 tasting notes

I have a bowl of samples packages on the counter that I would really like to get through by the weekend. Only time will tell!

This sample came from Tasty Brew who, if you haven’t had the pleasure of trading with her, has the cutest stickers for her baggies. Because what could possibly be wrong in the world when you have a beer bottle in a teacup?

The dry aroma is very vanilla, and there’s definitely a creamy/milky aspect…with maybe a touch of homemade caramel sauce. The wet leaf has less vanilla smell and is more, well, tea-y.

The taste is a nice vanilla. The bean pod pieces seemed to impart a smoothness and a creaminess I wasn’t expecting, but really like. The depth of flavor isn’t quite what I was expecting (and I really need to review Periwinkle because it is awesome for this) but the base is okay and holds it’s own. I think the smoothness here is what I like most about this one.

I’ve got some low-key jazzy piano going and it really pairs well with this mellow cup.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec
Nxtdoor

And here I thought I was original! I just adorned Sil’s stuff with a variety of stickers… Copycats I tell you :)

moraiwe

I keep intending to stick in stickers, but I always forget! I put my compulsive doodling to good use though :)

Nxtdoor

I can’t doodle to save my life or I totally would.

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73
2201 tasting notes

Cold brew overnight. This definitely has the strength to still give a flavorful iced tea when cold brewed. Very very vanilla-y, and the black tea base is nice and subtle but definitely present. I think it would make a good sub with added interest for plain black tea in a big pitcher of sweet tea (which would of course make the vanilla really stand out, I think!)

Preparation
Iced 8 min or more

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79
17 tasting notes

This tea is probably one of the best examples of a Vanilla tea that we’ve encountered. It is a standard black tea, very much in line with the generic term, “China Black”. That said, it is a good quality tea base with a full black tea flavor.

The tea is advertised as a full-leaf tea, however, when wet, it reveals itself as a machine processed tea. The leaves are broken, cut and relatively small. This is in line with the tea being a standard China Black. Even though it does not appear to be a proper full-leaf tea, the base is still substantial enough to support the vanilla flavor.

This tea uses actual pieces of vanilla bean along with some artificial flavoring. The beans are exactly as they appear in the image, chopped pieces. In a sealed container, no doubt the oils from the bean pieces infuse with the tea. The flavoring is added for extra punch and works wonderfully.

Some drinkers may flinch at the use of artificial flavorings, however, Upton makes clear that the products they use are labeled according to FDA regulations which are fairly specific. However, Upton’s marketing material states, “…the so-called nature-identical flavorings which are used on most of our flavored teas, must be listed as artificial.” In other words, nothing to worry about here. Drink your tea.

The vanilla aroma is strongly present in the dry tea, and the liquor is properly infused with it as well. The subtle sweetness that vanilla offers is found throughout the sip and even lingers in the back of the mouth. The bean pieces really solidify what the added flavoring may not add, thus this tea has a creaminess to it.

We would go so far to say that this is one of the best Vanilla Teas available.

Note: Upton Tea is an importer, they repackage and sell teas from around the world. They are not blenders. This tea is a product of Germany and is blended there. Some members of the Leafbox staff are familiar with numerous German tea blenders and merchants. Vanilla tea is a standard tea in Germany available from numerous sources, this one ranks among the best of that segment as well.

Our tasters found this tea to be complimented well with a bar of good chocolate nearby.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 30 sec
Miss Sweet

How strange that they have to label nature-identical flavouring as artificial! Our teas are either flavoured with natural, artificial or nature-identical and are just labeled as ‘flavouring’. I realise it will vary country to country, but its still odd considering people are so turned off by flavouring labelled as artificial these days!

Jillian

Everything is better with chocolate! ;)

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60
206 tasting notes

Traveling Tea Box C #12
I don’t know what happened with this one. The dry leaf didn’t smell too much like vanilla and the taste was a very very faint vanilla Taste. I love vanilla teas but this one just isn’t for me. On to the next one! I need to get through this box but enjoy it at the same time:)

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224 tasting notes

Tea #2 from Traveling Tea Box C (I can’t find the first tea I tried in the database yet. Lol)
1 tsp/cup

I think the cup of sencha I had before didn’t completely wash out of either my cup or the steeper, because I’m getting strong impressions of that greenness smell, and it’s rather spoiling the whole cup because I tend to inhale the aroma before taking a sip. Lol. Not rating it because of this. If I pinch my nose and take a sip, I do get the vanilla in the tea, but really, it’s not that strong anyway. I would think a straight vanilla tea would have a ‘bam!’ sort of vanilla-ness to it, or at least that’s what I wish for. So while not bad, I’ve had better vanilla teas.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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90
136 tasting notes

Having 2 Upton vanilla teas to sample tonight, this choice was random (other being Earl Gray Vanilla). Turned cold and rainy here today, so in spite of a large Teavana (sale) order arriving today, this is what I wanted.

The words “black tea” always worry me. Will it be bitter?…too strong? Well in this one, the black tea is very well behaved, very nice. Obviously the vanilla is the star here, but they are very good partners, and am enjoying this cup of tea very much.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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75
74 tasting notes

It’s good, a solid tea for sure, but I had higher expectations for it.

As usual the base of the tea from Upton is great, but I found myself hoping for more prominent vanilla flavours, especially because there is vanilla bean in it. I am usually one for more powerful flavouring, so take this with a grain of salt. But I found it was more like a strong base with a mild flavouring on top, as opposed to a straight “flavoured tea”.

Still nice quality, but I think I’m gonna move onto some more of the 30 samples I just got from Upton :)

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 0 sec

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76
305 tasting notes

12/09/09 I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon fire. Brewed for 3 minutes and I have a wonderfully smooth cup of tea. I don’t seem to like this tea by itself anymore. I am on my second infusion and will try for a third before the evening gets too late.
12/28/09 Smooth. Tasty. Great with chocolate

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec

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87
328 tasting notes

Hmmm- brought about 24 oz of this tea to work.. the vanilla flavor is very distinct in this tea and the black tea flavor profile is bold but not astringent. I will definitely re-order this tea.

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