Cosmic Velvet

Drank this yesterday after coming home from a tea tattoo(!!!)… I thought for a long time I was going to ink California sagebrush, and then a couple months ago I suddenly realized why I hadn’t quite settled into pulling the trigger. Because it was supposed to be tea. Duh.

Leaves and liquor smell of a Three Musketeers bar: sweet milk (not dark) chocolate and marshmallowy nougat. Wowza.

I admittedly came to this tea looking for deep cocoa and malt notes layered with vanilla, and that’s just not quite what this little one is. I initially brewed western with a resteep, then went directly for a heavy-handed gong fu session, thinking maybe I underleafed my western brew. But no — the base is just fairly light. There was also a persistent acidic/sour note that I had a hard time reconciling with the rest of the profile..

I am finding that very rich blacks work nicely in my morning routine, but this isn’t quite that… and that’s okay. It was more balanced with food; a garlicky Impossible burger broke up my session, and the steep following that was more rounded, with the sour note tempered. Might try this iced, too.

Sipdown 156-2021

This cup had the most vanilla I’ve experience with this tea- makes sense as it was the bottom of the pouch. Also much less vegetal, and more of a dark baked bread flavor. Really nice, as are all Whispering Pines vanilla blends, but I prefer Golden Orchid or Cocoa Amore.

Interesting Brenden didn’t do notes for this one.

Anyway, it’s a really straightforward vanilla tea. If you’ve had the Golden Snail and Alice, you know what to expect-just in vanilla dreams version. Smelling the bag is a fun experience, and hits you with a soft vanilla. The tea is much the same in this first steep western. I used 195 Fahrenheit because it’s hot today, and I wished I used boiling instead to open up the the vanilla with the tea. I could taste some of the vanilla beans themselves as being cooler than the actual tea.

My mug was still plenty tasty. Bready malt is prominent in the body with a little bit of dryness on the tongue, and the vanilla follows nicely after some caramel in the after taste. The profile reminds me heavily of those caramels with the milky cream in the middle. I can see some people getting marshmallow or cream notes to describe how the vanilla hits you in the aftertaste with the smooth texture. The vanilla can get grainy, but that’s not too much of a problem.

I’m liking this one a lot so far from brew one. I will admit that my petty preferences do make me lean towards Alice and Cocoa Amore, but I like it more than Golden Orchid because it’s a lot smoother.

And now, for impressions of brew 2 and 3..in which I did not time it. 2nd steep was basically vanilla malt like what you find in the aftertaste of a malted Vanilla Milk shake, and steep 3 tastes like vanilla extracted sugar. Usually, the vanilla fades out in a tea in lighter shades, but the tea faded before the vanilla. I think over leafed the tea, and powered it too much in the front. It reminds me of Liquid Proust’s Vanilla French Toast….sigh.

Overall, I’m pretty damn satisfied with the ounce I have. Out of all the vanilla dreams teas I’ve had, this is one of the smoothest. I’ve been tempted to try Elderwood, but always hold back because I read it’s heavier on the earth and malt. I’ve yet to try Ambrosia if it ever returns. This one is a marshmallow golden fleece out of this world for a straightforward vanilla black.

Simple but sweet. Also decent resteep value for the vanilla flavour.

Steep Count: 3 (prefer the second steep to the more earthy first steep)