Sweet Velvet Fog

Backlogging from last night…also a SIPDOWN

Tried this one again. Bumping the rating a little as I seem to have found a better balance between the temp and steeping times. Still not my favourite though – there are better caramel/vanilla type teas out there.

Enjoying this delight as my last cup this evening. Decided to end with one of my favorite classic comfort teas. It is sweet, creamy, and wraps around you like a warm blanket. A fitting end before a start my one week “tea-fast” tomorrow.

To read more about it and follow my daily updates check out my blog… www.iHeartTeasTheBlog.com
P.S. Be prepared for some rather emotionally charged blog posts starting tomorrow while I go through tea withdrawal.

This is actually for the Adagio version, though I do also have some of the one Rachel made for iHeartTeas itself. But I’ve had this one longer so obviously I am drinking it first.

I just made the most ridiculous dessert and included this tea in it. I was given chocolate cabernet pasta for Christmas and remembered I had a bar of white chocolate…so I made a sauce of it, half a cup of this tea brewed strong, and coconut milk. It was still missing something though…in went some blueberry jam and some gelato that really needed to leave the freezer. Topped everything with strawberry slices. I probably just took five years off my life but it’s worth it.

Now I am also drinking the rest of this tea that I made because actually I can’t eat that much of the pasta. (Gee I wonder why). I let it cool while I cooked, and then I added milk and ice to it.

I think this is like the first time an Adagio blend has tasted this good on the first cup. Probably the weirdest thing is that this tastes exactly like the pasta minus the berries. I was hoping for a white chocolate sauce but when I added the pasta, it turned my pretty blue sauce into a chocolate milk color, and it definitely gives it a chocolate cream taste. So, if you do not have ridiculous chocolate pasta on hand, this tea does not have the calories and tastes pretty darn close.

It’s definitely really good iced. I’ll give it a shot as a hot tea too, but I can’t believe how chocolate tasting it is with none of the astringency and grossness I usually get from Adagio flavored teas. Yay!

Food coma bye.

Dessert for breakfast? I think so! Yum! I taste a lot of caramel in this! My husband guzzled his mug down. Delicious!

This is just what I wanted this morning.
One of those days where I woke up thinking “THIS is the tea I need today”. I love days like that. And oh man did it ever hit the spot. Mmmmmm.

Received yet another package of tea today… this time it was my order from iheartteas.com!! Exciting! I ordered a few of Rachel’s custom blends (and some Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong), and am trying to make some good headway on trying everything this evening, even though I should be sleeping/working on things (but I’m so stressed out all I can do is post mindlessly on Steepster… thank goodness it’s working again!)

The aroma of this one is pretty familiar, steeped. Luckily, it’s familiar in a good way. Malty and caramelly/vanilla-y. I can see why someone (is it Angrboda???) is questing for the perfect vanilla black. So decadent.

With 3.5 minutes of steeping, I’m getting more astringency than I would like, yet the tea’s a bit weak. I think I may have overdone the water a bit, and should drop the infusion time down to 3 minutes. However, in spite of the astringency I can taste some really nice caramelly/creamy notes. Definitely looking forward to my second attempt! During which I should also brew up some of 52teas’ Pot O’ Gold and Market Spice’s Rum Butter for comparison. No need to have a plethora of similarly-flavoured teas in my cupboard.

In spite of the astringency, I’m definitely enjoying this cup of tea – it’s nearly gone already. It’s tempting to add some milk and sugar, but I think that would ruin me for drinking flavoured blacks without! Nom nom. Off I go to brew up another new tea before I toodle off to bed for the evening.

ETA: 199F for an accidental 6.5 minutes is surprisingly not astringent. Obviously not as flavourful as I’d like, but worth the second round :)

This tea did not smell like much at all in dry form.
Steeped it smells A MAZ ING!
Taste: A very creamy indulgence! Notes of vanilla and caramel just as described!
Perfectly sweet but not too sweet!

Thanks for sending this to me Rachel!!

Mmm… I love adagios caramel tea so this tea is right up my alley. It is a little less caramelly and a little more creamy than the plain caramel tea. I am really enjoying it! I had my first cup with milk which brought out the creaminess and I am about to have my second cup plain. This was an excellent first tea of the morning. And really is an excellent tea for anyone with a sweet tooth like myself – haha!

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this tea because sometimes teas that have a lot of flavors, especially caramel, come across as too sweet, or you can’t taste the tea for the flavors. Wow, am I glad I decided to give it a try. This is the best vanilla tea I’ve ever had. It is intensely flavorful but you can still taste the black tea. The flavors all blend together beautifully. The caramel gives the vanilla extra depth. I didn’t detect as many of the cream notes, but perhaps if I try it iced I will. Thank you, Rachel, for creating this delicious blend that caters to my sweet tooth without adding any extra pounds! I will be back to buy more.