95

I always wanted to try this one and I’m now able to because of Ost’s sale. Thank you! The age of this tea might not be the newest, so I will take that into consideration. I didn’t want to use all the leaves I had for this steep session, so I used one teaspoon while not pouring water to the top of mug. The leaves are dark and wiry and I didn’t notice too many actual vanilla beans if I was supposed to? The resulting brew is a light copper. I expected a darker brew almost? Probably because when I think of this tea, I’m always thinking of people mentioning chocolate. The flavor is DEFINITELY still cherry which is surprising if this is a natural flavor coming from the tea. I’ve never tasted that before — natural cherry notes coming from a plain black tea. Possibly it tastes mostly like a Ruby tea to me, but here there are many more flavor notes that are much more unique to this tea. It also reminds me of a Fujian tea for having those light starchy chocolate notes while also being sweet. The mouth feel is very smooth. So this hits the cherry notes that I expected but I’d love to have noticed more of the chocolate and vanilla notes. The third steep was a bit tapped out on flavor. I’m thrilled I finally was able to try this though.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for partially filled mug // 14 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 7 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 5 minute steep

Flavors: Cherry

Maddy Barone

I am so bummed that this tea isn’t available. Or the Golden Orchid, which was my fave. Maybe Brendan will bring the Vanilla Dreams collection back again someday.

derk

I got a very defined cherry note in a 1.5 year-old bag of WP’s Cheshire Black which has a base tea from Ailaoshan. I’m guessing some of that leaf in is Cocoa Amore.

Nattie

I always wanted to try this one too.

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Comments

Maddy Barone

I am so bummed that this tea isn’t available. Or the Golden Orchid, which was my fave. Maybe Brendan will bring the Vanilla Dreams collection back again someday.

derk

I got a very defined cherry note in a 1.5 year-old bag of WP’s Cheshire Black which has a base tea from Ailaoshan. I’m guessing some of that leaf in is Cocoa Amore.

Nattie

I always wanted to try this one too.

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Bio

Hi! I love tea and trying new ones – it adds a bit of variety to my day! Books, music, TV & movies are my thing… and tea, of course.

Some of my favorite tea shops (still operating):
birdandblendtea.com
teavivre.com
52teas.com
svtea.com
whisperingpinestea.com
justea.com
harney.com
Dammann Freres
fusionteas.com
Javateaco.com
Lupicia
Octaviatea.com
Davidstea
eco-cha.com
what-cha.com
singleoriginteas.com
teasenz.com
tealyra.com
Mandala
verdanttea.com

Favorite tea shops (RIP):
butikiteas.com
steapshoppe.com
steepcityteas.com
aquartertotea.com
dellaterrateas.com
zentealife.com
angrytearoom.com
theteamerchant.net
joysteaspoon.com
tealiciousllc.com
Rivertea
Specialteas

My icon photo is Richard Mayhew from the graphic novel ‘Neverwhere’ by Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey & Glenn Fabry.

Most of the teas listed in my cupboard are actually sample sizes. I don’t really have 2,000 ounces of tea around here! Many of my teas have only one teaspoon left… maybe two. But I like keeping them in my cupboard list for reference to what I could be sipping. Usually, I write tasting notes once for each tea. I’m still drinking them, just not writing tasting notes each time!

I’m always in search of: Hattialli, Qu Hao black, Jin Jun Mei, teas using marshmallow root.

My dislikes: hibiscus, ginger (unless in chai), turmeric, bee pollen, charcoal type flavors

My ratings:
95-100 – Super awesome deliciousness favorites – cupboard essential
80-95 – Also pretty delicious
65-80 – Pretty good
50-65 – Okay
1-50 – Probably won’t want to sip it again

I’m planning on being a Steepsterer as long as there IS a Steepster, so if you’re not hearing from me, that means something happened to my health… if you know what I mean. (Or as evidenced by the great computer hiatus of 2019, something happened to my computer… I have a dumb phone so can’t access internet on that. As of 12/20/21 my wifi might start getting unreliable.)

Happy sipping!

Location

USA

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