Ok peeps, I’m finally getting down to this tea even though I purchased it last time I was in Edmonton just after the New Year. Time’s flying!
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this when I picked it up, but I got some anyway because I’m always in a TRY ALL THE VANILLA EVERYTHING mode. The vanilla pod pieces were a good sign too so I figured why not.
The dry leaf smells promising, at least. Like a brown sugary vanilla. But I agree with others that the base is quite robust and astringent. I didn’t even steep it for that long (maybe no more than three minutes) and I let the water cool down a bit before infusing, and it’s All Your Base Are Belong To Us. Almost. I do taste a little of the vanilla in the background. It’s kind of like a watered down syrupy vanilla, like what I’d imagine vanilla-infused-golden-syrup-diluted-with-water would taste like. Low viscosity syrup, for real.
So enough of that banter. Yeah, it’s not offensive but not amazing. It kind of reminds me of Silk Road’s vanilla since that one had an astringent, drying Ceylon base. This is an East Frisian blend so I’m sure it’s the Ceylon and Darjeeling having a massive freakout.
Would I repurchase? No, but I still want to do a side-by-side vanilla comparison soon, and I could always mix this tea with other stuff, mainly sweetened teas like H&S SoHo.
I don’t care much for Ceylon, especially as a base for anything.
Must always try all the vanilla always.