Blue Velvet

Another great sample from VariaTEA!

I steeped this one at just under boiling (very scientific, left the kettle open for a few seconds after it came to the boil) for 4 minutes.

This one smelled fairly sweet, but I felt adventurous today. The flavour is actually great! I can’t believe I’m enjoying this as much as I am because I usually don’t care for ‘overly’ flavoured teas, but this one is well done.

This has a very smooth feel with a healthy dose of vanilla and coconut. The base is not astringent at all, which I love. Overall a really smooth and lovely cuppa this afternoon.

Thanks VariaTEA!

Another sampling from VariaTEA! Hmmmm…. strange. I get vanilla and some coconut creaminess. Something a little sweet at the start of the sip that I’m guessing could be cinnamon. The tea base adds depth. The scent has a deep perfume feel to it, almost a hint of honey. The large part of the sip is a little dull, but those notes come back out in the finish. Adding some creamer to the last half of the cup, which brings out the vanilla. I tried steeping this for 2 minutes, but it tasted a bit weak so I put the basket back in for another minute. I could easily sip the rest of this mindlessly while I work to struggle integrating my Square account to my website. I do so hate the tech part of artist life. Need more tea!

sample from variaTEA. the description was curious to me…but when i smelled it…it was coconut. shrug and it tasted like coconut haha. To me this was just a coconut black…middle of the road, nothing special but nothing terrible.

Delicious cuppa overall, but this really just tastes like a very good vanilla flavoured black tea to me. Super creamy and rich, and maybe a little bit of coconut but I’m not getting any of the other described flavours even though I’m enjoying it a lot.

Thanks for sharing, regardless, VariaTEA!

I was won over by the description of this tea and how everyone who smells it ends up buying it so I wanted to smell it too. Spoiler: it smells goooood! That smell does transfer slightly to the taste, leaving a velvety smooth coconut impression. Alas, there is a sharp metallic twang at the end of this sip that really distracts from it. Calabash doesn’t give recommended steeping parameters so I went with my usual of 3 mins at 200F. Won’t be doing that again.