Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘vanilla tea’

Hmm, the scent of this dry rooibos is legit. And by legit, I mean it legitimately smells like vanilla. Not fake vanilla like is used in various desserts, but real vanilla. Adding three teaspoons of this tea and steeping it in two cups of water for six minutes, I was left being tantalized by the aromas of vanilla wafting from my teapot as I waited. The tea smells sweet, but not in a fake sweetener way. It is more like the sweetness that comes from plants like mint or various fruits. The liquor is clear, yet a very dark red-brown.

My first cup smells warm. And not just from the hot tea. It just has a warm, and soft, aroma about it. It softly caresses the senses and lingers in the nose. Eagerly, I take my first sip and am immediately surprised by how sweet it tastes. The sweetness is very passive, but it is definitely there, and a quite pleasant surprise. This tea’s mouthfeel is thick and smooth. The flavour of vanilla is, of course, at the forefront. The rooibos, sadly, seems to have taken a backseat in this brew, as it does not show its head much, except in the aftertaste.

The flavours do not change much throughout the rest of the pot. I very much enjoyed drinking this tea. It is good, it is unique, and it is well worth a taste or two. I give it a 77/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

You can purchase the Vanilla Rooibos directly from the TeaFrog website.

Let me start with the statement that I do NOT consider myself a tea snob. My philosophy is, any tea, any time, any way. However, it was with some trepidation that I approached the Celestial Seasoning Sleepytime Vanilla Tea.

You see I grew up drinking tea via teabag. You know, Tetley, Sleepytime, etc. When I discovered loose leaf tea, I felt that I had moved on, forever putting behind the regular boring old teabag. Much to my surprise however, a shipment from Celestial Seasonings showed up on the doorstep for review, so I thought, why not? Of course I will try it, I am not a snob, they must have come a long way since I was a kid, after all, it is their 40th anniversary, so there must be something to the tea!

The scent when you open up the package was amazing – sweet and minty like peppermint candy. I could feel myself starting to drool already! I was really looking forward to this cup of tea. I extracted a teabag, and the butterflies started. They are the regular old teabags we all know – paper, attached together and perforated for “easy” separation, (I ripped 2 open trying to “easily” separate them…) but the smell… mmmmmm…

When I examined the bag’s contents, it was pretty much what I expected, not just small leaves, but pretty much dust, not much recognizable here. Preparation numero uno was boiling water, 5 minute steep. This produced a golden amber liquid, with distinctly distinguishable scents of Chamomile, Mint and Vanilla. As I went to remove the teabag, it occurred to me that there is no string attached! That is odd, and unexpected, and, well, inconvenient if you did not have a spoon around, as that water is HOT!

As for the taste, the best way that I can describe it is hot, and frankly, tasteless. I was so incredibly disappointed. The scent to this point, and even now as I reminisce about it, was incredible, the buildup to tasting almost unbearable, making the actual tasting experience a total of a letdown. I thought I was in for something different, but memories of drinking tea as a child flood back as I sip hot, tasteless, colorful and beautiful scented, water.

What to do? Well, why not go back to my roots I figured, so I added *GASP* sugar! Just a bit, maybe half a teaspoon – that could not hurt it right? Well, with just that bit of sugar, all of a sudden the tea came alive, and I could taste the Chamomile, and the sweetness of Vanilla and even the Peppermint goodness!

So, in the end, all is well that ends well, I would recommend that if you are not a sugar person, avoid this tea, as the taste of the tea by its self is remarkably unremarkable, but with that sugar, it is a good tea, delivering what you would expect. The only question left is, will Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Vanilla Tea put me to sleep tonight, or will I be tossing and turning all night, ruminating how this tea could have been so much better?

You can purchase
Celestial Seasoning Sleepytime Vanilla directly from their website.