Vahdam Teas

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Recent Tasting Notes

25

Can definitely taste the stevia. And not in a great way

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70
drank Earl Grey by Vahdam Teas
236 tasting notes

Pretty good earl grey. smooth and no bitterness

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40

It’s an ok tea that has a little too much ginger for my liking

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78

Vadham call this a “low caffeine” blend, which seems to put it in no-man’s land between an herbal and a good proper cuppa, but it tastes rather like a classic chamomile Sleepytime type tea. I get only a minimal hint of the green tea at all.

There is a lot going on here. Heavy on the chamomile, then pops out the orange-peel citrus and an indistinct mint note, probably due to the blending of both spearmint and peppermint. There’s also a good whack of lemongrass.

It’s not bad by any means, but there are a lot of competing sensations. It’s well-balanced but I feel I’ve tasted this before. I am experimenting with using “low caffeine” teas between my usual blacks so I don’t start vibrating, but I feel there are a lot of herbals with this flavour profile, so I’ll stick to those.

Oh: don’t oversteep this one. The previously undetected green tea will turn to battery acid after minute 4.

Flavors: Chamomile, Lemongrass, Orange Zest, Peppermint, Spearmint

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 2 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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78

A new brand to me, Vadham. This one’s an herbal tea, which I am approaching cautiously since I personally do not like anise or fennel.

The ingredients are: blend of Hibiscus, Cardamom, Fennel, Chamomile, Star Anise, Rose Petals, Blue Corn Flower and Rose Extracts.

It brews to a nice pinkish colour due to the hibiscus and smells strongly of fennel/anise. The scent reminds me of a high-class room freshening spray, the sort that comes in a small glass bottle from a fancy boutique. Oh dear.

Despite the aroma, the hibiscus and rose are the dominant flavours. The fennel and anise are very present, though. The cardamom is barely a whisper. If you like these notes, this would be a solid choice. It does get quite an ashy taste as it cools, so it’s best done piping hot.

While anise and fennel are two of my most-disliked ingredients in tea, I managed to make it through this cuppa. It’s a nice quality, even if not to my personal taste. I am looking forward to trying their other selections.

Vadham also states they are climate neural and plastic neutral, as well as donating 1% of revenue towards education in India, so that’s a nice bonus.

Flavors: Anise, Cardamom, Fennel, Hibiscus, Rose

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 7 OZ / 207 ML

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40

The Strange VariaTea TTB arrived this week, and I’ve been having the best time! Not with this tea though :P I’m always attracted to pumpkin spice, but here I don’t understand why there’s so much turmeric. The rest of the spices are sort of warming and pleasant, but they’re overwhelmed by the savory, bitter turmeric.

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drank Darjeeling Summer by Vahdam Teas
3986 tasting notes

From my September Sips by.

I’m honestly not a Darjeeling lover, so this was just okay. It was very smooth and subtly grassy with some bready and woody notes, and a touch of honey peeking through at the end of the sip. Pleasant enough tea, just not my personal favorite style. If I want a smooth black tea, I’m more likely to reach for Chinese or Taiwanese varieties.

Flavors: Bread, Dry Grass, Honey, Musty, Smooth, Woody

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 16 OZ / 473 ML

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drank Hibiscus Rose by Vahdam Teas
53 tasting notes

I had a sample of this tea from the advent calendar. I was kind of nervous to try this tea because of the combination of ingredients. I usually do not like rose in teas but I love the rose teas from Vahdam. The rose is not strong at all. It goes really well with the hibiscus and chai spices.

Flavors: Cardamom, Hibiscus, Rose

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Absolutely not a Cookies & Cream flavour…

I guess it does taste like chocolate which is sorta half of the equation, but when you complete the blend formula with turmeric instead of cream it produces a drastically different final product. IDK why I went with a half hearted math metaphor, but here we are. Anyway, turmeric and cocoa is not terrible together – it’s soothing, semi-sweet and kind of earthy with a denseness to it I’m not mad it. Actually, because of how powdery all these ingredients are, it does literally have a dense and thick mouthfeel which is fine.

It’s just… not close to what it’s name for and that’s really disappointing.

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70

What an odd little chai!  And not just because the fragrance here is STRONG which is unexpected if the spices are mainly cinnamon, cardamom, saffron strands and almond.   The flavor is much lighter.  I wish the flavor is more unique than it is.  I wanted more almond, and really more cinnamon and cardamom in the mug to really be a cup of comfort.  This was really quite bland for such a new tea.  Maybe I was too careful with the one minute steep.  The second steep is savory to me or a bit floral, but also kind of like lemon verbena.  Possibly this is the saffron?  Really no notes of cinnamon, cardamom OR almond.  So this seems like a fail to me.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 32 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 29 min after boiling // 2 min

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75
drank Mint Melody by Vahdam Teas
4164 tasting notes

From my gifted box set. I needed a mint tea yesterday for a headache. So I thought I’d try a new mint tea! It seems there is plenty of mint with this green tea, proportion wise. And it does what it says in the name. It’s green tea. It’s mint. It’s fine! It tastes a little bit catnip-like though, which is odd if this is a fresher mint than all those ancient mint teas I’m usually drinking.
Steep #1 // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 3 min

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66
drank Turmeric Matcha by Vahdam Teas
4164 tasting notes

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – February 2023 Tea #5 – An afternoon tea

Quick cup, no resteeps — that says “afternoon tea” to me!  This is from my gifted set of ten teas.  I’m not sure if the water I used was too hot.  I figured Vahdam might have added turmeric to the matcha to disguise that the matcha isn’t great.  Really, I can’t even tell there is turmeric here other than a slightly yellowish color to the matcha.  Instead, it’s a marine vegetal matcha — neither great nor terrible.

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Sipped yesterday morning in the lab while setting up for a tasting.

It was my first tea of the day, and there’s something about having an Earl Grey as your first cuppa in the morning that always feels just a little bit “more right” than other teas. However, it was a busy morning so the extra bit of spice that made this an even bolder and more intense cup gave it a bit more of a flavour push that amped me up a bit – in a good way.

It’s certainly not a favourite tea and I find that there’s an almost brassy metallic undertone to the bergamot used here (but I get that in a lot of EG), but situationally… it was a good cup!

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drank Blooming Rose Black Tea by Vahdam Teas
2170 tasting notes

I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed in this one. I think this might be the first and only Vadham tea I’ve had and it did not live up to my expectations. The aroma and flavor is more cardamom than rose, which is find because I love cardamom. I do wish the rose was more present though and not overwhelmed by the other. My biggest complaint is that this tastes very watered down. It’s not even that the base is light, I think. It’s just watery. I’ll double the tea next time, for sure. One teaspoon was obviously not enough for me. I have a whole tin of this, so hopefully I’ll find a way to enjoy it. Holding my rating until I can try it again with more tea leaves.

Edit: I just realized this is my 1,984th tasting note which gives me a bit of a thrill because I was born in 1984. This’ll only happen once so I thought I should make note of it!

Flavors: Cardamom

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Kaylee

80s babies, whoo! The Oregon Trail microgeneration ftw.

tea-sipper

I also feel like I’m part of the Oregon Trail gen :D

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50

Taking a whiff of the dry leaf – oo boy.  Very HEALTHY earthy scent, which is probably mostly the turmeric.  The flavor is much the same, but also stevia.  The stevia and the turmeric are a BIT much together — like the stevia is supposed to make up for the earthiness.   The stevia and turmeric is about all I can taste here.  I can’t even taste the mint, let alone the cardamom.  Good to find out though:  fresh stevia is still really bad for these tastebuds and it isn’t a matter of aged stevia.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 33 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 30 minutes after boiling // 2-3 min

Flavors: Stevia, Turmeric

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This was part of a set that I got as a holiday gift. I made this as a stovetop chai with oat milk and honey using the double boil method. It was tasty enough, but the spices were very mild. Perhaps they’d be stronger if drunk straight without additives, or prepared as a latte (i.e. with less milk)?

As a side note – this isn’t a reflection on the tea but is something that I want to note for myself for future awareness: black tea doesn’t always agree with me, which is why I tend to avoid it. That’s been a little better lately, and I find that terroir tends to make a difference. But this particular tea seems to be one that my stomach doesn’t love. So probably not one to restock.

ashmanra

Tea from India, especially black tea, is a frequent offender for tummy trouble for me. Tea from China much less so.

Kaylee

Nice to know I’m not the only one! I’ve often wondered why – maybe it’s the sulfites in black tea? But that wouldn’t explain the regional differences, unless Indian black teas tend to have higher concentrations of sulfites. Somewhere there’s a tea scientist who knows the answer, surely.

ashmanra

I think the terroir and the species of plant makes a different. Indian tea seems to be higher in polyphenols perhaps? Harney and Sons says that Assam tea leaves actual particulate matter more than any other and that could be part of it. India is usual Camellia Sinensis assamica and China is usually Camellia Sinensis Sinensis except for in the south where there is assamica varietal. The way the different countries typically process their tea could be affecting it, too.

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85
drank Earl Grey Green by Vahdam Teas
4164 tasting notes

A gifted tea!  A set of ten green teas from Vahdam – the perfect sized samples for me, as they are each a few servings worth.  I started with this one — which… depending on the bergamot used, could have been the most disappointing of the ten teas in the bunch.  Not so!  To be fair, I did drink this while eating some lemon meringue pie, so the tastebuds might have melded these flavors together.   It’s an intriguing green Earl… this bergamot really seems to pair well with this particular green tea which is a nice surprise!  I’m generally not a reacher for bergamot on anything other than a solid black tea.  But this is a nice one.  A unique tasting, balanced bergamot on a tasty green.  Second steep was also great – not an overpowering bergamot, which is never good on a green base.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 32 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 31 min after boiling // 2 min

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Sipdown (2027)!

So Vahdam sent me an advent this year without my knowledge before it was sent out, even though I’ve asked multiple times to be removed from their influencer/social media distribution list. For several reasons, I didn’t want to do the advent – so what I ended up doing was ‘harvesting" out some sachets from any flavours I hadn’t tried. The rest of the advent was left in the office kitchen for other people to enjoy.

I am always a little intrigued when Vahdam steps outside of their comfort zone of turmeric/Chai blends – some of my favourites when I did do their advent a few years ago were these more differentiated blends. This one is okay, but nothing to write home about either. It mostly tasted like strawberry jello but with a little bit of cinnamon heat to the finish. I wasn’t mad at it, and something about the red fruit/hibiscus with cinnamon almost gave me mulled wine vibes. But, like, if you made your mulled wine with ingredients available at a dollar store.

Cameron B.

I remember seeing a Cookies & Cream tisane from Vahdam and thinking it sounded intriguing too.

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74
drank Mint Melody by Vahdam Teas
435 tasting notes

Advent tea!
I haven’t seen the sun in several days it seems(probably not true) and its been raining all day today. I shouldn’t complain so much because the upper midwest is getting hammered by snow and the storm doesn’t seem in a hurry to move on out.
So this minty green tea is refreshing. Is it spearmint or is it peppermint? I have both in my cupboard separately as well as green tea, but I’m not sure I’d blend it this well. Thanks for sending it Lexie!

Flavors: Peppermint, Spearmint

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Advent Tea!
This one isn’t bad, there’s an underlying sharpness to this nutty Darjeeling, and the second steep smoothed that away. But it’s a rather dull and uninspired take on darjeeling, not bad enough to throw out, and not interesting enough to seek out to drink again. Thanks for sending it for me to try, Lexie!

Flavors: Astringent, Nutty

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51
drank Blooming Rose Black Tea by Vahdam Teas
14991 tasting notes

I don’t love floral teas but I’ll try anything once, especially if friends share with me. This one smelled like potpourri and tasted only slightly better. NOPE

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Strange VariaTEA TTB: Tea 29

This was day 1 of my DIY advent calendar and Roswell Strange hit the nail on the head with her tasting note. It’s spiced but in the wrong ways with an emphasis on turmeric. That made this very earthy and really not overly enjoyable. Add in the ginger and it doesn’t get any better.

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70

Day 1 of my Vahdam tea advent calendar.

Actually, it’s not. Instead of having the teas individually packaged per day, there is just a bunch of wrapped teabags in a box. I chose this one because it is herbal and I have had enough caffeine today. Plus my tummy is a little unhappy from supper, so I thought the ginger would be good.

I do not know what the ingredients are. The packet says “Blend of warming ginger and roasted cocoa.” It brews up a little cloudy, which isn’t unusual for chocolate teas. My nose is completely clogged and so are my ears—the last hanger-on from the nasty cold/sinus infection/ear infection I picked up in mid-November—so I don’t taste much of this. I think I am getting a mild ginger heat. As it cooled I found myself enjoying it more. It has a sweetness that tastes natural (as opposed to Stevia) and that may be from the ginger and/or chocolate. I don’t really taste the chocolate though. Maybe if I had a sense of smell I could taste it.

As it is I am giving this tea a cautious recommendation. It will not go looking for it but I was able to drink the cup.

Nattie

That sounds more like a selection box than an advent calendar!

Maddy Barone

@Nattie I am disappointed. Part of the fun of the advent calendar was the surprise each day. I should have figured something was wrong though, since it was only $19.99 USD

Lupiressmoon

Yes, I think they were being lazy and missing the point of the advent calendar, instead just throwing samplers together

Nattie

I would have been disappointed too, it’s not really what they were advertising, regardless of the price.

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Funny story…one of the younglings at work is also a fledgling teaist and was so excited when she ordered herself a Black Friday Vadham loose leaf sampler. Until she got to this one.

Today, she carried it into my office, almost at arm’s length, with a woebegone expression. “I hate not liking tea, but I can’t stand this one. Could you use it?” I laughed out loud because I think that was precisely my first gut reaction to lapsang souchong many years ago.

That said, though it’s not a deliberate go-to for me, I fired up the office kettle and steeped a trial cup. The leaves are long and luxurious, and the smoke strength is actually mild enough to suit me. Especially nice with a couple of snagged biscotti: the holiday office snacking season is upon us.

ashmanra

Biscotti and Lapsang sounds like a good afternoon to me!

Lexie Aleah

Lapsang in winter is always yummy. I’ll have to try pairing mine with a biscotti.

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