Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tippy’s Tea
Tea Description:
Decadent dark chocolate and vanilla. Extremely smooth, malty and chocolatey. Hand chopped Madagascar vanilla beans add a sweet and creamy vanilla flavour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Mmmmmmm! This is really good. REALLY really good.
I’ve tried more than one or two different vanilla flavored black teas, and I’ve enjoyed most that I’ve enjoyed. I can’t think of any vanilla flavored tea that I didn’t at least like. Maybe not love, but I think that I liked most of them.
This one – though – this is one of those that stands out as an EXCELLENT vanilla flavored black tea. What makes this one so different?
Well, I think it has a lot to do with the tea base. It’s a Golden Monkey. The combination of the natural chocolate-y notes of the Golden Monkey along with the sweet, creamy notes of the Madagascar vanilla bean works very well together.
The Golden Monkey is rich and slightly creamy tasting. The aforementioned chocolate notes are bittersweet and this is a really pleasing contrast to the vanilla notes from the vanilla bean.
Another thing that makes this one different is that this doesn’t appear to be a flavored tea. That is to say, it’s not been flavored with flavoring oils. It’s been infused with the flavors naturally using vanilla beans rather than oils. And this gives it a light, natural vanilla flavor rather than a synthetic one. It’s kind of like the difference between a vanilla bean ice cream and a vanilla ice cream. They taste similar, but there is a distinct difference that can be tasted.
That said, because this hasn’t been flavored with oils, the vanilla here is somewhat more subdued than you’d find in a vanilla tea that’s been flavored with oils. If you’re looking for a really STRONG vanilla flavor, then you might want to try a different tea. If you’re looking for a really GOOD vanilla flavor – you’ve found your tea!
