Oooooh am I ever a sucker for things with words like toffee in them! And when it also has vanilla in it, I’m just about ready to swoon before I’ve even got the leaf in hand.
This was my first order from Tea Palace and it came about via a swap with Scheherazade who introduced me to the company and made me aware that it was well within my reach. I’m so glad that happened because they have a large selection and I spent a lot of money. Everything I bought, I received in tins. Six samples (of 40g each!) in their own little tins with Tea Palace logo on the tin and the lid and a removable sticker with the name of the tea. And when I say removable I mean removable. Not those irritating paper stickers that come off in bits and leave a lot of glue behind (although I have recently been told of a tip to remove those effectively by warming them up with a hair dryer to soften the glue. Haven’t tested it yet). Also three other things that I got in 100g tins. You could get either a tin with a bag in it or just the refill bag, but the option with the tin was only a couple of pounds more, so I opted for the tin. I’m glad I did! I really like these tins, they’re very attractive. And the Queen of Berries blend is in a specially designed tin with green leaves and red berries on it. On the whole I’m getting a rather luxurious vibe from this which I find entirely in line with the name of the company.
I’m very impressed and I haven’t even tasted any of them yet (except the one that Scheherazade shared with me previously). Seriously, it’s been a long time since I’ve received a parcel and immediately gone WOW! at the presentation of the product. It made my day! I’m really looking forward to trying some of these on my own and with Husband.
So, first up is vanilla toffee treat. Basically I just got some of just about every vanilla-y black tea that I came across on the site, really. The only reason I didn’t do the same with every caramel one I could find was that the smooth caramel was sold out. That is to say, I think it was at the time when I ordered it because otherwise I can’t think what held me back. So either it was sold out or I wasn’t looking properly. Whichever one you think is more likely.
This particular one is a tea that I’m hoping will give me the same sort of experience that I got with the toffee flavoured black from Les Palais des Thes, which was something along the line of drinking liquid fudge. It was so awesome. Aroma-wise this one definitely delivers on that front again. It smells like a sweetie shop of caramel and vanilla and sugar. The smell alone is worth at least 95 points here!
To my delight I can actually find the base blend here. There’s Ceylon in it which I think is why I can find it. I’ve had a fair bit of high-grown Ceylon lately. There are some grassy hints here so a fairly high-grown one too, I think. The rest of the base is an unspecified Chinese black, and I’ve found that whenever a flavoured tea uses a Chinese base, then I can never really work out what I think it is. I would dearly love to one day be allowed to taste such a base blend on its own as a sort of control. (Or is that a work-related wish, when we have positive controls along side a large amount of patient specimins to ensure a correct procedure?)
The flavouring strikes me as rather subtle. It’s not a mouthful of toffee and vanilla which judging by the aroma I must admit I had rather been hoping. It is there, though, especially as it cools, but it sort of hovers above the flavour of the base and it feels like it never really unfolds properly.
If you are a person who likes sweetener in your tea then it’s possible that you can coerce it a bit, but I’m a person who strongly dislikes sweetener (apart, obviously, from the flavouring) so I’m not going to attempt any such thing. I don’t like the way the sweetener interacts with the tea. For me it only enhances astringency.
As it cools a little more it develops a rather nutty sort of flavour which I’m also quite enjoying, but it loses more and more of the caramel-y and vanilla-y notes, so that’s a bit of a shame.
All in all, though, I’m quite pleased with this and will greatly enjoy emptying the tin, even though the flavour couldn’t quite live up to the aroma.
