Decaf Vanilla Nut Creme

Rewatching the Sherlock Season 3 Ep. 1 with Tre, and needed some tea to drink with the episode. My teeth are killing me right now, and I’m not sure if that’s related to my just generalized feeling of sickness or whether they’re actually sore. Anyway, supposedly a hot teagbag on a sore tooth is a good home remedy so I made bagged tea to watch with the episode.

I also figured I might as well make it a sipdown, and try something new! So, this is from VariaTEA who sent me a couple Stash teabags a while back after noticing that Stash is my favourite bagged tea company (so thoughtful). Since she sent one each, that makes this my first time drinking it and also a sipdown! This one is sold at my local grocery stores though, so if I do really like it then it will be attainable.

So, boiling water in a 10 oz. mug with one teabag, steeped for three minutes. Dry, the bag smelled sweet and nutty and loosely reminded me of mulberries. Steeped it smells much the same, very sweet and creamy with nut notes. After steeping, I actually held the hot teabag to my teeth for a few minute prior to taking a sip – and it did briefly work to ease the pain. But, it certainly wasn’t a “lasting” cure. It only numbed things for like five minutes – so back to the drawing board for home remedies for toothaches…

Taste wise – pretty good. Very smooth, with lots of rich vanilla flavour and a kind of “medium” presence of the nuts. The black tea is there – but it’s relatively well masked by the all the other sweet flavours. No mulberries in the actual taste – but I didn’t expect there to be any, so all is good. It’s very sweet, though and not painfully unique as far as the flavour combination goes. So, I did very much enjoy the cup (despite the tooth pain), but I don’t think I’ll be seeking it out to restock.

Why are black teas tasting fishy to me lately?
Okay look I do not have high expectations for any bagged tea anymore now that I have learned how wonderful loose leaf is.
This tea smells good.
I actually still enjoy one cup of quality coffee each morning.
This tea does taste a bit like a latte and I am okay with that – a really weak latte though. Its colored like watered down coffee too. But then again I drink turkish coffee often so watered down looking to me is normal to most folk.
Still what is with this slightly fishy flavor? This is not the only black tea recently I have tasted this way.
I wish I could find a couple of good decafs for my stash because I really don’t need the caffeine late at night but I don’t feel this is one of them.
I mean its “okay” … but weak – I really am not getting a lot of the flavors coming through – I am sure this is another one of those “its better after it has cooled down some” teas.
So I shall wait.
(time lapse)
Well I waited …still not better.
Sorry this does not get the thumbs up from me.

Edit note: After much time – and another go at the Harney and Son’s Vanilla Comoro – I have noticed that both the black teas I accused of tasting “fishy” are both vanilla flavors and both decaf … hummm – so tomorrow going to try some NON decaf vanilla and then if I can fit it in will have some decaf (if I can find any) of a non vanilla flavor. I am thinking it may be either the flavor or the decaf.

Thanks to Josie Jade for sending me a few bags of this tea to try out! The dry tea bag smells like vanilla and reminds me of coffee (full disclosure, I’m not a coffee drinker, so you may disagree). After brewing, I can definitely smell more of the nuttiness coming through. It also is very dark like coffee (again, not a coffee drinker, bear with me). The tea tastes like vanilla at first and finishes with a nutty aftertaste. The black tea base seems weak but I’m not sure if that’s because it’s decaf. I think it would taste great with some milk added, but as I am still unpacking, I don’t want to swim through my stuff to go get some. I’m super sensitive to caffeine, so I’ve been on the hunt (sorta) for some good decafs and herbals. Next time I will try this with milk to determine whether to add this more permanently to my stash (haha, Stash, get it?).

It smelled so good. Tastes amazing – definitely an after dinner tea. Added milk and Splenda and am really enjoying it.

It’s kind of like a cappuccino!

Tied with Stash’s Holiday Chai as my favorite supermarket bagged tea of choice for a quick dessert treat (bonus, little/no caffeine!). I always add milk and a tiny pinch of raw sugar.

Tastes like aspartame-soaked sticks. No tea flavor detectable by me, just a lot of cheap vanilla-y perfume.

With cream it’s almost like drinking coffee. The hazelnut flavor really comes out, more so than the vanilla. Don’t go by smell because the smell of it in the packaging isn’t that appealing, but once it gets brewing it smells wonderful. It’s just a bit too much like coffee to be something I’ll drink all the time, but the fact that it’s decaf is nice.

Here’s Hoping TTB

I really wasn’t a fan of this one. It had a weak nutty flavor with the barest hint of vanilla and an odd, slightly sour aftertaste. Definitely not something I would drink again!

This tea is okay— I can taste the vanilla and nut— but it’s a little artificial-tasting. A friend gave it to me because she ended up not liking it, and I’ll probably drink it when I don’t have anything better around, but it’s not all that impressive.