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I decided to dye my hair today, not just my usual black dye but a full out color change. First I had to bleach it, which takes forever! I left the tips black and the rest faded from pale blond to dark brown, then the dye application. I am currently the owner of cobalt to black ombre hair, it looks pretty cool. The annoying part is of course my bathtub is the most porous thing in existence and is also blue, so I need to get some heavy scrubbing on after I go to the store for the proper supplies. Usually I am all for the ‘no chemicals’ approach to house cleaning, but there are sometimes when you just need a bottle of bleach.

If you have ever strolled through a supermarket in the US’s tea and coffee aisle you have probably seen a box of Vanilla Chai by Bigelow Tea. Created from black tea, spices, natural and artificial flavoring. I tend to avoid teas with artificial flavoring because I find that they taste fake so I do not have the highest hopes for this little teabag. The aroma of the teabag is very sweet, strong creamy vanilla notes with underlying spices. It smells quite warm and like vanilla fudge. The aroma is rich and very sweet, good if you have a sweet tooth.

The aroma of the steeped tea is very intensely creamy vanilla, like vanilla ice cream with a dusting of spices and an extremely delicate hint of malt. The aroma reminds me of the vanilla non-dairy creamer for coffee that you find in the same section of the grocery store this tea is in. I don’t hate that aroma, in fact I have been known to just drink creamers on occasion, but it is not an aroma I want to associate with tea.

Adding cream and a touch of sugar since this is a chai makes the tea taste like vanilla cream and a touch of nuttiness and the most delicate hint of spices. Not surprisingly the tea tastes like the non-dairy vanilla creamer that it smelled like, but with a hint of spice and black tea malt. This tea isn’t terrible, if I was at a restaurant and was given a mug of this instead of Lipton (cringe) I would be thrilled, but I do not see myself seeking this out of my own volition.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/02/bigelow-tea-vanilla-chai-tea-review.html