Indian Night Decaf Black Vanilla

This was without a doubt the worst cup of tea I’ve had in a long long time. It even surpassed Adagio’s white cucumber concoction in terms of vileness. And it probably wasn’t even the tea’s fault.

See, this is a backlog from this afternoon on the way home from work. I’ve got a 45-50 minutes train commute and sometimes I buy some sort of coffee drink to go for the trip. Today though, I was super-sleepy (through every fault of my own) so I thought it would be good with some caffeine on the trip. Coffee does indeed have plenty of caffeine, but cappucinos and cafe lattes also have lots of milk, and milk is not all that good at keeping people awake. So something without milk and with caffeine in it. I thought, “hey, this place has Numi teas! Why not give that a shot?” Of course they only had a smaller selection and not the chocolate pu-erh one, so I picked this one because it sounded nice with a vanilla tea.

Erm yeah. Staying awake. Decaf. NEVERMIND!

So that was the first mistake.

I get a to-go cup of water of a temperature that means business, but with my mitten on it was possible to hold the cup. I steeped and then removed the lid from the cup, so I could drink it and get the benefit of the aroma as well. And this is where is started to go wrong, Steepsterites.

The aroma was extremely fruity and sweetly berry-like. Vanilla was there as a hint and I think the thing that added the sweetness.

The tea itself was pretty weak in flavour, and what flavour that actually was there was largely cardboard-y and rooibos-y. Very much on the rooibos, actually, in spite of the bag wrapper not saying anything about it containing rooibos. In fact nowhere I look does it say anything about it containing rooibos so I can only conclude that it’s not supposed to be there.

There was no vanilla in the flavour at all. Not one bit. As a matter of fact there wasn’t even any black tea in the flavour either. Nothing. Not even a hint. All I could pick up was a watered down plain rooibos, which a) wasn’t what I wanted, b) I don’t even like that much and c) doesn’t exist in this place. In fact you could have blindfolded me and let me taste it and I would have said it was a rooibos and I probably wouldn’t even be
the slightest bit in doubt.

How in the name of all that is sweet and wholesome could this have gone so dreadfully dreadfully wrong? I wasn’t expecting perfection but I thought I’d at least be able to get a mediocre cup of tea. I think I know the answer to this.

Cardboard. Cup.

I’ve had that happen before. A cardboard cup that stole all the flavour from an otherwise strong and oversteeped teabag. It was like drinking just hot water. I think this phenomenon was at fault here too. It stole most of the flavour and warped what was left of it into the rooibos-y stuff.

I’m not going to give this a rating due it the nature of the taste-thieving cup. Under other circumstances this might actually have been a lovely tea, but right now after having tried it, I still have no clue what it tastes like.

Let this be a lesson for you, Steepsterites. Cardboard to-go cups = Eeeeeeeevil! Beware!

Grabbed this at the cafeteria and added some cream and sugar. Sugar and paper is all I taste. And all I smell is cardboard.

I don’t even know what else to say. I’m seriously tempted to leave the remaining 1/3 cup of this behind.

Another of my “starter” group that I get to wave goodbye to. Not at all sorry to see this one go. Looking back on my previous note, I see I had convinced myself I’d been able to improve it some. Now I’m wondering whether it wasn’t that I was just better prepared for the assault to my taste buds.

This was the first vanilla tea I tried. In a way, it was probably good that it was the first because it set the bar really low. In retrospect, I now understand just how low as I’ve since had really, really excellent vanilla flavored tea.

So as I take my leave, knowing what I know now about just how good vanilla flavoring in a tea can be, I must dock some points.

Thank you adagio breeze for two samples of this tea.

Black vanilla based tea always makes me think latte so I might as well steep this into latte form. :) Gives me a good excuse to use up the milk before we go on holiday.

The teabag smells spicy and sweet like a vanilla chai. Also a little dry.

Once steeped this tea is sweet and vanilla scented with a dark and dry under tone. As expected the tea soup is dark brown in colour.

My milk froth looks good and the chocolate powder star on the top has promise so here we go sip sip sip Taste is rather dry but sweet and vanilla, very similar to the smell. The vanilla is more sweet than creamy and has an edge that makes me think it could be artificial. The black tea is very dry and rather dull, reminds me of leaves in autumn that are so dry they crunch in your hand.

I couldn’t tell it’s decaf and neither could my husband. He did however say that it’s very plain and I have to agree. This would not be anything that I would re stock or crave. Some sweetener would be better in this if I ever receive any more samples.

Ps…my throat is so dry I had to have a cup of water after drinking this tea.

This was included as part of a mixed box so thankfully I don’t have any more – otherwise I’d be pretty pissed if I just spent money on a whole box of this tea.

The tea has a faintly sweet vanilla smell, but I noticed that it also has this weird chemical odor to it. I wonder if that was left behind by the decaffeination process? The taste isn’t much an improvement. It’s a thin, weak brew (though admittedly I didn’t steep it as along as I could have) and what little flavour that is there is artificial and harsh-tasting. Next time I’ll pass on this one.

The vanilla in this is still too weak for my liking. A nice black tea even though it is a little on the weak side. The vanilla gets more brought out if you have peppermint beforehand. Just wish the vanilla was a little stronger.

“Boxy” isn’t normally an adjective that would spring to mind in describing a tea, but in this case it may be apt. Yes, there is vanilla in it, but it is extremely plain tasting nevertheless. And the overall impression is that of chewing on a wet piece of cardboard. Sorry Numi, not impressed with this one.

1 bag for 250mL water, bare.

Where’s the tea?

A pleasant vanilla taste, not perfumey, not fake, with creamy finish that reminds me of unsweetend soy milk.

But where’s the freakin TEA? I’ve kept the bag in the cup long past the recommended 5-minute max.

Vanilla-flavoured hot water. I kid you not. Grand if you want vanilla-flavoured hot water, which is soothing in and of itself, but I wanted tea. I won’t bother with this one again.

Surprisingly subpar. Tea courtesy of the Red Carpet Club – United Airlines. A bit watery. The vanilla compliments the black based only because none are strong evenly. Overall “Meh”

Tried this again tonight. Bumping down my rating because I definitely got a cardboard-y taste this time. I still don’t dislike it, but I’m sure there are nicer vanilla teas out there – not getting this one again.