Vahdam Teas

Day 1 of my Vahdam tea advent calendar.

Actually, it’s not. Instead of having the teas individually packaged per day, there is just a bunch of wrapped teabags in a box. I chose this one because it is herbal and I have had enough caffeine today. Plus my tummy is a little unhappy from supper, so I thought the ginger would be good.

I do not know what the ingredients are. The packet says “Blend of warming ginger and roasted cocoa.” It brews up a little cloudy, which isn’t unusual for chocolate teas. My nose is completely clogged and so are my ears—the last hanger-on from the nasty cold/sinus infection/ear infection I picked up in mid-November—so I don’t taste much of this. I think I am getting a mild ginger heat. As it cooled I found myself enjoying it more. It has a sweetness that tastes natural (as opposed to Stevia) and that may be from the ginger and/or chocolate. I don’t really taste the chocolate though. Maybe if I had a sense of smell I could taste it.

As it is I am giving this tea a cautious recommendation. It will not go looking for it but I was able to drink the cup.

Funny story…one of the younglings at work is also a fledgling teaist and was so excited when she ordered herself a Black Friday Vadham loose leaf sampler. Until she got to this one.

Today, she carried it into my office, almost at arm’s length, with a woebegone expression. “I hate not liking tea, but I can’t stand this one. Could you use it?” I laughed out loud because I think that was precisely my first gut reaction to lapsang souchong many years ago.

That said, though it’s not a deliberate go-to for me, I fired up the office kettle and steeped a trial cup. The leaves are long and luxurious, and the smoke strength is actually mild enough to suit me. Especially nice with a couple of snagged biscotti: the holiday office snacking season is upon us.

This is my favorite rose black tea. I usually do not like rose in black tea most of the time it too strong. But this tea is perfect because they add other ingredients like cardamom, pistachio, almonds snd saffron. The rose is not too strong. I am enjoying it as a latte with almond milk but it is good plain too.

Oops All Pumpkin (8/10)!

Oof, just nope! This one was very aggressively spiced and not in the right ways. Firstly, turmeric has no business being in a pumpkin spice tea – and especially not in this quantity. It was very raw, earthy and bitter tasting on top of just being too heavy handed in general. Also just way too much ginger.

This was my bottom tea of the day.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkYo7Xju3Rv/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTAkRHGbuM

Another (loosely) Halloween themed comedic song by BDG, this time a Western instead of a disco song. Way more enjoyable than the tea itself…

Love, love, love this blend! I tried this as a stovetop chai ( first attempt) and it was incredible. It was sweet, spicy, and cozy. I used 2 cups of water and 2 cups of milk with 3 table spoons of the chai blend and 2 tablespoons of Splenda/ sugar

For a couple of days I had been thinking about making a mojito type drink with tea. Since I figured other flavours might stand out more, I decided to go with a plain black tea I was pretty meh about trying. This was that tea and I made it over ice with mint leaves and lime juice. I then topped that all with some pineapple sparkling water. After a taste, I realized I was a bit heavy handed with the lime juice so I opted to add a splash of vanilla syrup to offset the tart citrus. That actually rounded out the flavour perfectly making this bright, sweet and super refreshing. The tea provided a solid foundation for the other flavours to thrive. I’d have it like this again but also I should probably try it plain once.

Grabbed this from a TTB, but it’s not really the tea for me. I prefer a malty black tea, and this one is a little delicate and floral for me. I added some raspberry extract and milk to give it some more personality.

How is it that I haven’t made a note for this one that has been hoarded in my cupboard and now is almost sipped down. This package is 5 yrs old and seems to have taken on a harshness when it cools now. When it was in its prime this Assam rivaled my favorite golden monkey for its smooth malty and nutty notes. On this cup, its quite pleasant awesome tea with a coppery ting to the aftertaste. I would buy this again and sip it down in short order, though I have trouble finding other teas I like from Vahdam these days.

This was definitely better than expected. Smooth. Subtle. Sort of chocolate. Mostly just a pleasant every day easy drinking black tea. One I probably won’t pay much attention to since I tend to drink mostly flavoured so I added it to the SVTTB.

My first good quality oolong! The leaves are a pretty dark reddish brown color. It steeped into a dark gold liquid, which was very good! Earthy, but still somehow light at the same time. Definitely going in my “I like this” section of the cabinet!

Chai/ Assam is not my favorite type/blend of tea, but cinnamon black teas are, so I wasn’t sure how I would think this tasted. I have to say I wasn’t encouraged by the aroma as it was brewing, which I didn’t love, but I was quite pleased by the taste actually. This probably won’t challenge for my favorite cinnamon tea, but it was enjoyable and I will enjoy the rest of the packet that I have.

Definitely a unique tea, I was really excited to try it. Its a broken leaf green tea… to be honest it looks kinda like black tea. Gently spiced with a unique flavor… I guess its the saffron- not sure how that tastes, the cinnamon, cardamom and orange. I enjoyed it but I don’t think its a re-order for me. Now I’m done with my sampler set. Once I drink through at least one or two of my newest Harney orders, I will probably pick up a Davids tea sampler

Mooore CTC bop and although I don’t like most of them, this one is a winner. Only spices are cinnamon and cardamom but they taste perfect in this blend. I guess they overpower the ctc taste ad I don’t have any issues with it in this blend. Add milk and some of the vanilla syrup that I have been into making the past couple of weeks and you get a yummy chai,

And more Ctc bop or the little buds Im not a fan of. Ive found the flavor is helped out a lot if you use cream instead of milk. I have leftover cream just from the batches of ice-cream Ive been making lately. Anyway.. this didn’t taste any different to me from the original chai. You can see some saffron in it. But its over lowered by the tea that Im not a fan of.

Turns out the Fennel tea is probably going to be the only the tea in the whole set that contains the ctc bop tea that I like. Overall I just don’t like the flavor but I am trying to finish them while I am on break since they keep me up for hours. The soice flavors in this one just wasnt as good as in some of the others as well

I could smell the fennel in this but not so much taste it… unless its that mapley note. I read you can make maple extract from fennel seeds. Anyway this might be the first ctc bop tea I like the taste of. Could be that I added cream and sweetener but I really enjoyed the tea when I drank it. But as usual, had the worst time trying to sleep after drinking this one. I need a different tea base…

When a company adds the word classic to their product name it makes one wonder if, 1. They did it because it is indeed a classic because it is consumed worldover, 2. Classic to the point of ambiguity, 3. The wet aroma is decent with its woody notes, better then bagged, but still notghing more than classic, 4. The mouth feel is soft, the flavor is perfect for milk / sugar and is classic enough to the point of almost needing it, though I prefer mine without. Unclassic.

This one sounds a lot more exciting than it was. I love Earl Grey tea. Not this one. More of the tea buds which I have since learned are ctc bop, i just don’t like the flavor. It also tends to keep me up. Better if you use less, but then it just doesn’t have the Earl Grey flavor or any memorable flavor. Unfortunately have a few more that have the buds. They are just not for me