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Oh no, the pressure of writing the first tasting note on this one. I tried this the day that my parcel landed and have had it a couple times since, wanting to experiencing it more than once before considering writing anything. Silly me still has my taster of Amethyst’s Gold from my last order waiting to be cracked open, so I can’t compare for the time being, but at the very least, I can compare—mentally—to the original French Vanilla Assam available a few years ago. As a side note, merely thinking of the original 52teas blends is making me feel really old. How time flies! I remember trying French Vanilla Assam in my very first order back in… 2012 maybe? It feels like yesterday. It doesn’t help that I’ll be reaching a birthday milestone in a couple weeks, which has been leaving me crying in my sauerkraut as of late.

So, this blend, I’ll be quite honest. When I opened the package, I was quite disappointed. The scent of the dry leaf smelled a little dusty. Nineteen-02’s Coffee Caramel comes to mind, whose base I sadly described as “pseudo-stale” and reminiscent of Metropolitan teas. Maybe it’s just my nose but that’s what I’m getting.

Steeped, it smells extremely lightly of melted vanilla caramels. In flavour, I am picking up mostly on honey notes, a touch of dried fruit, and there’s a slight smokiness in the far background. It’s not that malty, which I was expecting it to be. I can pick up on some marshmallow root but it’s quite faint, and is completely killed off once milk is added. Overall, it’s a decent blend but not my favourite. I’ve already tried the other two fundraiser blends but have yet to write about them, but I will say right now that I prefer the other two!