Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Bon Ton
Tea Description:
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Pardon the long title on this but I thought it was important to include as much as I could to give you a better search results if you were looking for it. This isn’t a tea that wasn’t a tea that I bought and it wasn’t a tea that a tea company sent for us to review – but a gift this past holiday season and I thought I would share my thoughts on it.
Up front I will tell you that this is a bagged tea. My regular tea tasting is loose leaf but I will try bagged teas that I haven’t tried before and will also consume them when I don’t have the time to spend preparing loose leaf properly.
I did enjoy the novelty of this gift set! 8 different teas come in separate boxes to fill a large faux book. Each box is inspired by a different part of the world. The one I am reviewing here is the French Vanilla Tea from the Teas of the World Gift Set…the box it was from was the Paris France City of Lights and the company that puts this out is Coastal Cocktails, Inc…and it’s available at Bon Ton.
I have to say that I wasn’t a real fan of vanilla flavored things until I got older…maybe in my late 20s or so…but I have acquired a taste for it now. Once I steeped this bag in water the aroma was very pleasant. It wasn’t overdone but it was a nice medium strength to the nose. Once in the cup the water color of this tea was a lighter brown but very clean. The base of this tea is a black tea base. The black tea flavor was NOT bold…it was fairly weak. I would have liked to have more of a bold black tea taste in this cuppa, personally. However, the French Vanilla flavor was delightful. It wasn’t overly strong but just right. Because this tea is weaker I can safely say it’s a ‘one and done’ type tea bag. You can’t get much – if anything – with a 2nd steep/infusion.
The tea base itself is a product of Sri Lanka and it was assembled in China. The description says it was made in the USA – which I find misleading. Perhaps it was packaged in the book/box in the USA but it says on the back of this specific flavors box that it was a product of Sri Lanka and assembled in China. Just a few things I noticed, here, folks.
But other that it not being a strong enough base and not being clearly labeled – this was a FUN product. Plus – it’s a gift set – so if you gift it – I doubt many tea lovers would push away free tea, you know what I mean!?
