Vahdam Teas

The first two Vadham teas I tried, I loved- this one I expected to love because I love Cardamom but not so. It has those little balls of rolled up tea which I have had before in a Harry Potter tea set I got as a gift from my sister. Its like the tea is not rounded enough or is generally lacking something for me. I do like the Cardamom. Idk there are other chai flavors in the sampler set I prefer more. Wouldn’t purchase a large of this one

Sipdown 165-2021
I’ve been putting off drinking this for some reason. There aren’t any ingredients I dislike, but I never quite felt like drinking it. Today was finally the day I tried, and….not a fan. Everything just tastes muddled and indistinct. It’s not spicy enough, it’s not citrusy enough. It just doesn’t have enough of anything to make it worth drinking.

Is this the best Chai? Yes! I never want the bagged stuff again. The spices are perfect, the tea is perfect. I make it on the stovetop with milk. Gotta be careful it doesn’t boil over. So good though. I started with the Assam in the sampler because i really like Assam tea… and I didnt know where to start. Anyway, if you like spicy chai tea, you cant go wrong with these.

Im a little suspicious of brands I fond on Amazon, but I decided to get the sampler pack, bonus it was on sale for only 10 Euro!! So about a euro a sample because there really isnt a lot of tea in each sample. Ive made golden milk a few times, usually with powder turmeric that tends to stay powdery. No issues with that. The scent was nice, so spicy smelling and also smells like fresh potent dried spices. You can really taste the ginger bite, the cardamom, and the black pepper. I made
Mine on the stovetop with milk and sugar and it was delicious! I would get a larger size.

I thought it was the flavour of spices until I saw ‘dates’ in review
Oh dates, why can’t I remember dates! It comes out more when it’s diluted (on third steep, almost watery ugh), can’t see any aftertaste though
It’s silky smooth and not bitter at all, but you have to steep in less amount and drink quick, otherwise the last bit would taste tannin/soury
The red colour is really beautiful

P.s.
actually this was not the Assam flavour I expected, it’s my first time having a pure Assam and I was expecting something like CTC Irish breakfast, but it’s totally different, interesting discovery

sample from variaTEA i wasn’t a fan of this one..not sure if i oversteeped or something but it was just too astringent for me to really enjoy.

I received this as a gift from our local Buy Nothing page. The original purchaser didn’t care for it and offered it up. I’d not heard of Vahdam before and she gave me 3 different teas to try.
I’ve been mixing it with other teas this summer to make pitchers of iced tea. This morning I had a cup and found it too bitter after steeping for 3.5 minutes with 200* water. I often hesitate to add to my tea but added a splash of skim milk and a tsp of sugar and enjoyed it on my patio. I think I’ll continue to use it for my iced teas and mixing with others but it’s not a “stand alone” tea for me.

Taste was woody and a dry with bitter finish.

Sipdown (191)

I didn’t feel like doing the alphabet teas today because I didn’t really feel like having tea at all today. Then I got a craving for Starbucks and rather than spending the money, I decided to try and recreate my order at home. I have been going to the iced chai latte topped with vanilla sweet cream cold foam. Since I’ve been making the cold foam anyways, I figured it wasn’t that hard to make an iced chai latte.

My attempt actually wasn’t bad. The chai, being double spiced, wasn’t the best since it was strongly peppery and cardamom heavy until the cream mixed with it. It also wasn’t as sweet as the Starbucks drink but given I used actual chai rather than a syrup or concentrate, that’s not surprising. The cream is the real star here though because it adds sweetness and tames the overbearing spice of the tea.

Check out a pic of my dupe here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRkJmfshgZ3/?utm_medium=copy_link

Salted Caramel Sweet Cream Cold Foam Latte Sipdown (201)

E is for…Earl Grey Citrus Black Tea and you can check out my “E” teas here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRNIMfkBjg9/?utm_medium=copy_link

This latte is really good. It actually tastes like a nut brittle with so much caramel notes and a roastiness that is rich and nutty. I think it’s my sweet cream I have to thank for that though. The Earl Grey adds a nice counterpoint to the sweet caramel though so overall I’m happy with this.

D is for…Darjeeling Premium Spring Black Tea and a battle with another Vahdam Darjeeling. Check out the note for that tea here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/420682

This one steeped up lighter and while it’s a bit better quality than the other in that it’s slightly less drying, it’s still more floral than I like. So this tea wins the battle but I don’t care for either very much.

D is for…Daily Darjeeling Summer Black Tea and a small Darjeeling battle with another Vahdam Darjeeling. Check out the note for that tea here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/420683

This steeped up darker than the other Darjeeling. It’s brisk and dry without being astringent. It has what I would call a classic Darjeeling profile, being muscatel and floral, and that’s not a profile I vibe with often. That means I don’t really care much for this one.

Grabbed this sample from a past tea box. I’d prefer more spice here. The base tea is pretty strong. There’s a bit of pepper. Maybe there’s a little of a different spice. It’s pretty boring, though.

Sipdown (221)

Reading a book called Uglies this week so it seemed fun to pair it with a pretty tea. Lookswise, this is beautiful with the rose petals. Taste wise this is just fine. Nothing particularly delicious about it. It’s just a meh cardamom rose tea. There is supposed to be pistachio but flavour wise that wasn’t really there. I am totally consent seeing this one leave my cupboard.

Check out the pic here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CeL60iwufie/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

B is for…Blooming Rose Black Tea and a mini battle of the rose teas with TWG Tea’s Bains de Rose, which you can see here: https://steepster.com/rachel12610/posts/420611

As mentioned in my note for Bains de Rose, this isn’t just a plain rose tea, as I originally thought. It also has cardamom, pistachio, almond and saffron. That makes it cloudier than the TWG tea and harder to compare.

I don’t get rose immediately because the other flavours are stronger. I do get the drying floral note at the end of the sip that the TWG tea had, but not as strongly. I also think the TWG tea rose flavouring was better but it was minimal and hard to pick out from the bitterness of the base. This overall is a better tea because while the base is floral and drying, the spice covers that up mostly. So I am getting a lot of cardamom. I don’t get much nuttiness or rose though and that’s disappointing. That means I like this better but that doesn’t mean I necessarily like it much.

Sipdown (212)

A is for…Assam Gold Summer Black Tea

I am listening to an audiobook for the first time and I don’t love it. I don’t really like when people read to me and it’s a bit odd having one author doing different voices. I also am unsure how into the actual book I am. I’ll finish though since I borrowed it from the library via the Libby app and don’t like leaving things unfinished.

As for this tea, it’s pretty good. It’s smooth. A bit of a date flavour to it. Not much else though. Maybe it’s just me but the few black teas I’ve had these past few days have been boring. This is no exception. Probably for the best in this case though since I don’t want to purchase it again so this one cup being good but not great makes for an easy good bye.

French Vanilla Sweet Cream Latte Sipdown (213)

The past few months have been terrible for sipdowns. This month is my last free month before I start back at work. I decided to take advantage and get sipdowns in – in order to do that, I recalled both the tea tournament and the alphabet teas helped get a lot of sipdowns (both inspired by Mastress Alita, thank you!) so I asked Instagram what they suggest I do again. It looks like alphabet teas is winning so I decided to check for an “A” tea I could cold brew for the morning. This caught my eye and I decided it would pair well with the last of my French vanilla sweet cream.

This tea is definitely best made on the stovetop but this is the first time I made it not on the stove and it’s still enjoyable. It’s got a lot of pepper and cardamom. The Assam gives it a full base that hints slightly at dark chocolate. And the vanilla sits in where this tea falls flat.

This would go perfectly with some spray cream on top, but I forgot to buy some. It’s really not one of the better EGs I’ve had. I mostly taste the tea, plus some flavoring, though I wouldn’t guess it’s leaning in an EG direction. There was only enough for a small cup from the tea box, which I’m not sad about. It was only okay.

Just received this from Vahdam over the weekend and was excited to try it. Brewed western style for just over four minutes.

The flavor was okay — nothing special. There’s a slight muscatel flavor to it — nothing further. I expected more, based on the price they are asking for it.

I haven’t been impressed with teas from Vahdam lately and this is an example of why. They started off delivering wonderful teas about 4-5 years ago, but recent shipments just haven’t had the same quality, IMO.

I’ll finish this off but won’t order it again. I’ll try blending this with another Darjeeling to see if I can enhance the flavor a bit.

Date of Picking: July, 2020

Cute test tube from the tea box. The flavor is mostly turmeric and a warming ginger, but it tastes decent. The second steep was pretty good as well. I wouldn’t really seek this one out, but it was fine for what it is. The turmeric kind of got stuck in my throat at the end of the cup since the particles sort of suspend themselves in the water.

A fairly delicate black tea, it does have notes of grape and muscatel from the Darjeeling, and a slightly fuller body from the Assam. Overall a pleasant tea, maybe a bit lighter than I expected.

Latte Sipdown (202)

It’s raining and I wanted chai. I was being lazy though and didn’t want to do stove top chai so I picked the flavor I would be least sad about if it didn’t come out well. Then my frother decided to warm but not froth my milk. So I didn’t have high hopes for this one.

Drinking it, it’s not strongly flavoured. That has been the case with all these Vahdam chais – when made like a usual latte, they aren’t very flavourful and they do much better with a stove top prep. That said, the flavor I do get is nice. Mostly cardamom, which I’m okay with.