Vahdam Teas

I’ve been searching for a good vanilla matcha (preferably unsweetened, but I’ll take anything at this point). Vahdam had a 5 matcha sampler, so I went for that. Made the vanilla first, and it’s actually the best of any vanilla matcha I’ve tried. No bitterness to the matcha, and a nice creamy flavor. It’s a bit more of a coconut, rather than a pure vanilla flavor (which tends to happen a lot with vanilla flavoring, I’ve found). But, it’s still tasty. I’ll probably finish the bag I got, but won’t necessarily repurchase.

Scent of dry leaves is herbaceous fennel and rye bread.
Wet leaves give off more fennel and cocoa.

Steeped twice western style, 12 oz of 200 degree Fahrenheit water.

Flavor is light, herb-y, with fennel and rye taking center stage while malt and chocolate linger at the edges. Sweet toasted bread-fennel-malt aftertaste. The end is slightly astringent and drying.

Second infusion is much like the first, though with less astringency. Gentle toasted rye bread, juicy malt and chocolate, maybe caramel. Some apple and apple skin dryness in the aftertaste.

While not your typical oolong, it still offers an interesting range of flavors. I definitely recommend it to people who love rye bread, the rye note stayed throughout. If you enjoy summer darjeelings or want something different, I’d recommend giving it a try.

Over all a good white tea. Clean end floral with a slightly sweet overall flavor

Well I sipped down this whole bag of tea, so I figured it deserved a tasting note. The last cup from the bag was just as gingery as the first, and I did enjoy the spicyness of this cup. That being said, the clove note of the Chai was dominant as well, and rather competed with the ginger note. By this last sipdown cup I concluded I don’t like my ginger mixed with a chai, if I need the two mixed, I can do that myself. I’d rather have a ginger or ginger/citrus tea.

I am getting close to the bottom of the bag, and somehow I don’t get a whole lot of cinnamon from this cup. I think most of the cinnamon pieces floated to the top of the bag, and I drank all of them last winter. This is one yummy cinnamon cup of soothing tea for a nice cold day. I think I liked the cinnamon more than the chai taste, which is still nice , but cinnamon says chilly fall days and warming up with a nice cup of tea.
If I get this again I’ll make more of an effort to equally distribute the cinnamon in each cup.

Sipdown (685)!

Finished off this morning while I set up a tasting for us at work; to be honest I was pretty unimpressed by this one. I know it’s quite old at this point, so I wasn’t expecting greatness by any stretch – but the buds themselves were all quite broken up and shoddy looking and the fact it was an old sample shouldn’t have affect the quality of the tea at all at least in that sense…

Taste wise it was fine; sort of a “creamed cucumber skin” kind of thing – which maybe sounds unpleasant, but is actually a combo of flavour notes I really quite like in a white tea. It was a bit abrasive in its astringency and that was the big kicker for me – but noted that this could be a very different tasting cup from what fresher tea would have been like. As it stands, it was fine.

This Darjeeling tea has leaves about 3/4" in size and good quality. The color, steeped, is a light brown, and I really liked the freshness; the tea was packed only a month before shipping, and sent in a vacuum sealed container. A full flavor, but not harsh at all. Definite Muscatel flavor, but don’t look for spicy or peppery notes.

This is not a subtle or in your face smokiness, but a very balanced in between. This one is a great candidate for grandpa style brewing as I’ve never gotten any bitterness from brewing too long or too strong. I don’t get a whole lot of maltyness, I was surprised it was an Assam. It is a mild, smooth, smoky cup of tea. Maybe even a good introduction tea to those who think all tea is strong and bitter.

Dry leaf smells like tangy tomato leaf.
Wet leaf has a blackberry jam aroma.

Brewed western style, this is a delicious assam that can enjoyed heavy or light on the tannins depending on steeping method. I prefer the lighter flavors of dark fruit and malt with just a hint of drying astringency to balance it out at the end.

I saved a sample of this from the last tea box – so thanks! As soon as I steeped this, I realized it would not really be my thing. It smells like it would be a tasty dinner, but it’s not what I want in a tea. I’m not too good at picking out individual flavors, especially when there are so many. I can just say that it’s quite savory with some sour rose and a bit of bitterness (possibly my fault) and that I tasted all herbs and not so much the tea itself. I won’t leave a rating since this is all a matter of personal taste – someone else might love this blend!

This is the penultimate tea of the samples I ordered via Amazon. I found it quite delicious, it’s a good green tea.

I have a few Vahdam sample teas left to try and this is one of them. It’s quite a delicious tea, I enjoyed it.

Teabox Tuesday! It’s in the herbal hours of the evening and I’m quite low on herbals left from my teabox stash, so I’m hoping this green tea is low on the tea leaf since the ingredients certainly make it appear that it is leaning towards more of an herbal blend and I won’t be too jacked this evening. This came from the Discovery Teabox, so thank you to Skysamurai for organizing and to those that participated for sharing!

The dry leaf smelled very peppery/spicy and a bit floral. I still used 175F water but let this steep in my teapot longer than I normally would steep a green tea because I wanted to allow all the herbs to get a good flavor, so I hope the tea leaf in there hasn’t gone astringent… guess we’ll see. The steeped tea is a gingery color and smells very spicy, musty, earthy, and herbaceous. My first thought from the aroma was “Ugh, ginseng!” but, much to my relief, it doesn’t taste like that to me at all. I get a strong lemony citrus flavor from the broth, and I’m tasting a bit slight mint note with a stronger fennel/black pepper spiciness. There is a fresh woodiness present as well… like sandlewood incense? The one thing I’m not getting, despite being called “Ayurvedic Rose,” is any floral component… It smelled a bit floral before steeping, but there is no rose flavor coming through after the steep. I would expect this to be a scent marketed for a men’s bedroom, which sounds weird trying to translate that into a tea flavor, but… there you have it. It’s quite pleasant, though! Certainly one of the more unique teas I’ve tried, too.

Thanks for sharing!

I’ve had Earl Grey and masala chai teas before, but not in the same cup. It has a strong taste, both citrusy and spicy. I steeped the leaves a second time and whilst I expected the flavour to be stronger, it was less so.

I bought some loose leaf tea samples from Vahdam via Amazon, and most of the ones I have left are pure black teas like this one.

It has a bitter flavour to it but not overly bitter. Overall, I quite enjoyed it.

This tea has a very floral taste, it’s tasty but not as delicious as some of the other teas I’ve tried from the samples I brought from Amazon. I steeped the leaves a second time, although for five minutes rather than three, the taste was stronger but still likeable.

This one is from Meowster! Thanks so much! This sounded lovely — a High Mountain Darj. Sometimes I just crave some Darj, and a High Mountain Dark sounds even better. It has a very fruity, bright flavor, a note almost like an assam but with plenty of muscatel. A deep red color. It’s a darker Darj… while some usually have a light flavor, this one is like a mid-level black tea. It gets a bit brisk even with one teaspoon and a low steep temp (note to self). I’m not describing it well enough, but let’s just say it’s delicious. And it’s certainly a Darj I’d prefer to steep up.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon for a full mug // 25 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 13 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep

This is quite a tasty tea, earthy and vanilla in flavour. I don’t drink or eat a lot of vanilla flavoured things, but this was quite delicious.

Minty is one of my favourite flavours in tea/food, so this one sounded interesting to me. It tastes delicious with neither the green tea or the mint overpowering the other. I decided to steep the leaves a couple more times – the second cup had a darker appearance than the first whilst the minty flavour was stronger. The third steep was similar to the second.

This is a tasty and likeable black tea That was really refreshing after a chilly morning walk.