818 Tasting Notes
I am perpetually using this for my dragonwell tea from an unknown plantation in China. So good with honey! I think I tend to prefer roasty toasty green teas to the grassy type. I’ve noticed this one has a bit of a lemon note as well….goes well with the honey! Mmmmmm.
First two cups of the day! I can’t seem to get to 5 steeps, even though you are supposed to be able to with this tea. I just like variety too much! This tea is AMAZING, as always. :)
I set my leaves in the fridge for awhile and come back to them :-)
Do they go bad after awhile if you leave them in there?
I’ve seen some people on here say that they steep them a few days later. I’ve never done that. But I have done the next day and they’re totally fine. In the refrigerator of course.
Awesome! Have you done 5 steeps of this one yet?
I can’t wait until I can order this one….
Sil – get the tin! You won’t regret it! :)
I second that!
Even though I was taking a break from coconut teas (I was seriously coconutted out!), I decided to have this with one of the chocolate chip cookie bars I made tonight. Nice pairing, actually. It’s a nice sweet coconut, but not an overpowering coconut, which is good. :)
Ha, for me ‘coconutted out’ doesn’t exist for me. :D I absolultely positively love coconot. I put shredded coconut into my oatmeal this morning, and then later had a cup of Coconut Cream Pie tea from 52Teas. xD;
I’ve been tempted to try this one since it’s from Butiki, but I’m unsure about the rooibos of it all. Not sure if I’m really fond of rooibos or not yet.
Sounds delish!
The rooibos scared me away as well. Glad to hear it doesn’t over power.
Ya, I go back and forth on rooibos, but this one’s not bad.
Since this morning’s teas have been less than exciting, and in honor of the 2oz. bag I just ordered of this tea, SIPDOWN! Yum yum yummy s’mores.
Thanks for the sample, Laurent! Like others, I found this one to lack flavoring. The black base is nice and smooth, but I could only detect a slightly fruity flavor. Maybe more fruit bits per serving? My sample had one piece of what looked like papaya. It was a little too subtle for me.
Okay, I think I know what is throwing my taste buds off. It’s cocoa nibs! Why are there cocoa nibs in a vanilla tea? This would be better without them. As far as vanilla black teas, my favorite was ESP Emporium’s. I had a sample of Lupicia’s that I didn’t like….too much like rum. I wonder why vanilla teas are so different across companies. Now I know why some of you steepsterites have been searching for the perfect vanilla tea. This one misses the mark for me.
Strange! I haven’t tried this one yet, but I have a sample so I’ll give it a go too. Vanilla really is a hard one. It’s either too perfumey, too light, the tea too light or dark, or any host of other things. Starry Night from art of tea and vanilla cream from culinary teas are both really good. I think there can still be better though. I’ll have to try ESP Emporium’s sometime. Loose leaf Vanilla tea is what first got me interested in loose leaf, so I like many others here, am always trying to find the “ultimate”.
I’d love to hear your opinion on this one!
I got the the blueberry cream cheese danish in the mail yesterday so I’m sipping on that right now, but I’ll have the Vanilla one a bit later and get back to you! I always have hard time choosing which tea to drink so you just made it much easier for me :-)
I was curious about that blueberry cream cheese danish tea, but I just ordered blueberry crumble from Della Terra. Too much tea to buy!!
I’m only a few sips into this tea. And I’m totally with you. I even had my expectations tempered by your review so I was kind of hoping to be pleasantly surprised, but this one doesn’t’ do it for me either. The cacao nibs don’t bother me per se, but the vanilla flavor is a vanilla that I tend to not like in any vanilla teas. I have no idea what it is. But whenever it’s present I can tell immediately and just don’t enjoy it very much. Bummer.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone!
Lucky me…my 100th tasting note and steepster isn’t updating. Meh!
So, this tea did not meet my expectations for a chocolate tea. It really tasted like carob to me. So disappointing. I haven’t had a lot of luck with chocolate teas lately. Maybe my taste buds are off?
To be honest, in my case, when the tea is TRYING to be chocolate, I never seem to enjoy it. =/ I find it always just tastes like muddy tootsie roll or something. Whereas teas with a chocolate like note I seem to really like.
I think I’m with you on that!
You should try the Tisano Cacao. It’s just staight cacao nib shells. You can drink it alone (hot chocolate) or add it to teas you want more chocolaty. I’ve been doing that a lot lately. Not tootsie rolly at all. I used to hate chocolate teas for that exact reason.
Congrats on 100! It’s hard to find a good chocolate tea.
Thanks for the tip, TastyBrew! I’ll look into that!
I think the information on this tea is incorrect, as it appears to discuss the attributes of de vendome. Anyway, this is a very fruity black tea. I’m usually not a big fan of fruity black teas, but occasionally, I like them. This one tastes strongly of passion fruit, but the black tea base is pretty smooth. The passion fruit taste stays with you in what seems like a never ending aftertaste, so if you really like passion fruit, this one is for you! It’s not too tart, which is nice. No hibiscus here! I think this would make for a very nice iced tea in the summer. Thanks for the sample, Laurent!
We are definitely on the same page with a lot of teas. I’m all about the roasty toasty greens as well. I’m still trying to find the roasty-toastiest.
:)