Vanilla Orchid

Vanilla Orchid, sure has a pleasing smell to it, almost like a yogurt or something, certainly not the typical french vanilla smell most people are used to, this is REAL vanilla. This was my first try on an Oolong tea and I must say it is a pretty nice tea.

Dry the tea looks like dried up rolled up grass almost, very unique looking tea I must say, it has a soft natural vanilla smell to it. While it is steeping the tea retains it’s light vanilla scent and the leaves just explode open, and I mean this stuff will fill up your infuser, use caution if using a tea ball it might explode from the pressure!

The final brew is a light green colour with the same natural vanilla scent to it, the tea has a lovely soft taste to it, if you like flavored teas or real powerful black teas you may not enjoy this one. Would taste great with some of Davids (or other brands) Vanilla or Raspberry agave.

I was inspired by the Soritea sisters to sip a different tea each day leading up to Christmas. I made a list last night. I love all of my teas, but I think I drink my very favorites more often, and I need some motivation to drink the breadth of my stash!
Today’s selection: Vanilla Orchid. It is even better than I remember. This is possibly because I just got a variable temperature kettle. This says to brew it at 190, but I set my kettle to 180 and it turned out even creamier. It is a little less floral, which is fine with me. I added 1 tsp of sugar to my 3 cup pot and brewed it with 3 tsp of tea. I poured it off and then added water for a resteep. I mixed the two together to get 6 cups of tea total to sip on throughout the day. It’s a lovely vanilla cupcake-y taste, with just a hint of flowers. The oolong base is definitely there, too, and provides a nice undertone. I’m sad that I only have a few servings left in my tin. I’ll be looking into adding more around christmas time. It is almost as good as Silk Dragon oolong, and brewed the way that I did, it is even richer. Keeping me happy and warm on a cold and damp day.

This is my first oolong, and another part of my dessert sampler from David’s

It really expanded in my tea ball! I’ll have to use less next time, perhaps, since there was no room for the leaves to move around at all after a minute or two..

The smell is divine, rich and sweet, but not artificially so. More of a morning sweetness then a dessert one, if you ask me.
After a few sips, i’m unsure of the actual tea flavour, but the vanilla aftertaste is just as divine as the smell! I don’t really taste the vanilla until after I swallow, but then it’s all I can taste! The tea taste in my mouth isn’t that bad either. I’m starting to get the hang of this tea business I think! Oolong seems nice, not too strong, not to overtly “tea-y”. =)

I am not terribly impressed with this tea. I had been drinking rooibos all day and wanted some real tea to cleanse my palate. I threw a 50 g sample of this into my cart when I splurged at DAVIDsTEA the other day on an ice tea pitcher. I love oolong, and I love vanilla – I should love this tea, right? Meh.

The vanilla flavor is oddly enough both subtle – I can taste it but the is is not tasting overpoweringly of vanilla – and not – it masks the oolong flavor. Since I drink oolong mainly to drink oolong, this was a disappointment.

I’m glad I only got the sample so I don’t have a ton of this to go through.

This is quite good. Leave lots of extra room in the steeper.

Nice light oolong with creamy aromatic vanilla. It throws a sweetness that lingers, which I love. Smells much sweeter than it tastes. Second steep is more oolong with hints of vanilla. I also iced some first steep with a splash of milk and agave syrup and it was wonderful.

This is a nice, sweet oolong. I think I’d especially love it in the fall or winter, but it’s fine as a summer sipper too. It’s not too strong, and the vanilla and floral flavors both come through without competing with each other.

As I come to realize that my favorite tea is not green tea, but oolong tea, I’m amassing an oolong collection. I have absolutely no problem with this.

As always, I’m curious to try it iced.

I love this one a lot. The vanilla flavour is strong, but still allows you to taste the flowery notes of the oolong

This one was quite interesting. The smell, although it says natural vanilla flavouring, smells quite artificial…I thought that it smelled like vanilla yogurt (I knew it would be quite creamy). When steeped, it was really creamy (I knew it!) and it had only a light vanilla smell. For me, the vanilla really came out in the aftertaste and not in the actual sip. I like this enough to finish the 15g bag but not enough to go buy more.

Tried this to-go at a David’s today. It was quite smooth but I have to say I’m not usually a fan of flower scented teas, so it was a bit too perfumey (not a word) for my taste. I bought some Vanilla Oolong to make at home tomorrow. If it’s similar just without the flowery aroma, I may just love it!

So I had the vanilla oolong from David’s tea in December, but it was replaced by the vanilla orchid, so I decided to try it out. And it is also part of my goal to expand my knowledge of wulong teas. So I stopped by DT yet again on Monday morning and got this tea.

First Steep: On the bus ride to campus this tea drove me nuts with it’s enchanting and creamy/ vaniilla-y smell. The scent of this tea is so rich and inviting. The taste is light and creamy, kind of ice cream-like. It has a rich dark green, almost light brown colour. The taste is smooth and not too overpowering. It is a very cheerful drink.

Second Steep: My friend was with me at this steeping. She said it smelt like apricots. To me it was very much the same as the first steep in terms of smell and taste.