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Backlog 1/67

What clever name do we have here for “Try all the backlogged teas you have received samples of!”? I have received an immense amount of tea lately and as much lovely as that is, I need to start catching up. I counted earlier, and I have 67 teas that I currently “need to try”, whether I’ve never had them before or if I just need to try them a second time to give them another chance or what have you.
I probably have 20 or so more teas than that total in my cupboard… Including all the samples I know I like and want more of and the teas I have an actual long-term amount of.

That said, today I’m trying Vanilla Bean Cacao because it’s been sitting on my kitchen table with the others I received from Cameron B., Mandy and Cheri and my sister said it smells delicious and demanded we try it next. I added Stephen Hockman’s enormous pile of tea to the “need to try” today. My goodness, Stephen! Thank you for all the tea. Yours is on the way!

I can’t wait to try all these. Everything sounds delicious. I especially can’t wait to try the mystery tea with the Chinese letters. :D

SO! Vanilla Bean Cacao. Wow… no one has reviewed this before? Weird.
Okay. So it looks weird! IT looks like… flaked bark or crushed acorns or crushed dry leaves. Really weird looking tea. :D IT smells strange, good? Like Vanilla, chocolate and something else… a sweet woody scent I can’t name. Maybe I’m just inventing that because of how it looks. It’s a very SUPER sweet smell tho. Almost too sweet.

It was a herbal so I usually go about 8 minutes, but I went 6 because the tea had all settled to the bottom of my gravity steeper by then so I figured it was about right. I can say the smell once it gets wet is weird. SUPER weird. More Woody than before and maybe more …. I dunno, like raw cacao rather than chocolate. Maybe?

The first sip is sweet (I sweetened it with regular sugar) with a nice rich vanilla and chocolate flavor. It is a nice full flavor, very sweet all the way around. A bigger drink makes me feel that it would be better with a touch of milk.

I may go add milk to this.

Okay, added milk and had to add a bit more sugar to avoid the milk overpowering the flavor. Somehow, another tsp of sugar plus a bit of milk = now I can taste the flavors of this tea better than I could before. I don’t know. It just brought the flavors out.

This is very tasty. It’s almost too sweet for my tastes. (I know I added more sugar, but it really needed it. Before that, the flavor VANISHED into the milk and I didn’t even add much milk.)

I like it. I don’t think I’d go seek it out specifically because it’s entirely too sweet when you get it to the point where the flavor appears, but I do think I’d drink it again if offered a cup. It’s nice. Just maybe not quite my cuppa tea.

I will be totally honest and say I can’t remember which person this one came from (apologies!) but whoever sent it, thank you for the experience! This is not a bad tea!

Flavors: Chocolate, Round, Sweet, Vanilla, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Mandy

It’s under a slightly different name I think, at least that’s where I put my notes. I preferred it steeped for like 10, or made chai style with milk as water and the tisane simmered together on the stove. http://steepster.com/teas/herbal-infusions/36211-vanilla-cacao?page=2#tasting-notes

Arshness

Weird. When I searched, this is the only one that came up.
Oh wells. I will try it that way next time. :D

madametj

sipdown is when you finish a tea

Arshness

What fancy steepster name do we give “trying all the teas we have backlogged”?

Mandy

I believe Sherapop calls it Blazing New Rating, haha

Arshness

haha Well I just renamed it “Backlog” XD

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Mandy

It’s under a slightly different name I think, at least that’s where I put my notes. I preferred it steeped for like 10, or made chai style with milk as water and the tisane simmered together on the stove. http://steepster.com/teas/herbal-infusions/36211-vanilla-cacao?page=2#tasting-notes

Arshness

Weird. When I searched, this is the only one that came up.
Oh wells. I will try it that way next time. :D

madametj

sipdown is when you finish a tea

Arshness

What fancy steepster name do we give “trying all the teas we have backlogged”?

Mandy

I believe Sherapop calls it Blazing New Rating, haha

Arshness

haha Well I just renamed it “Backlog” XD

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Loves tea, reading, music, art, video games, roleplaying, and spending time with her wife and daughter. :)

Ask me for a $5 gift cert to Adagio if you’ve never ordered from them!

As for tea, loves flavored black teas, herbals, and good lattes most. Green is hit or miss with me and I haven’t found a white I like yet. I like my tea sweet, no matter how much some tea connoisseurs turn their noses up at me for it. I love trying new teas and I’ll try anything once!

I noticed this elsewhere on the site so I’m going to post a ratings legend as well:

95-100 Favorite; This is one of my favorite teas. I will want to keep this in stock all the time. I will drink a lot of this tea. I’m likely to send samples of this in swaps because I LOVE it and want to SHARE my love of it with you!

90-94 Excellent; Some of the best teas I’ve tried. Delish. I will probably buy more.

80-89 Very Good; I liked it and would like to have it again for sure. I will surely buy it again at some point. Not quite “The best” of any category, but some good stuff to be sure.

70-79 Pretty Good; Maybe it’s just not quite my type of tea or not quite my flavor, but I acknowledge that it’s a good tea. I might drink it again if the mood strikes me. Not very likely to buy it again. May still recommend it to others based on their tastes.

50-69 Okay; I probably won’t buy it again, but will probably finish drinking what I have. It’s not bad. Not good… but not bad. I probably won’t recommend it.

50 or less Meh; I didn’t really enjoy this tea. I won’t buy it again and can’t recommend it.

10-0 I must have really, really hated this tea. It may have killed my puppy or absconded with my cheesecake. I’m pretty sure it killed Professor Xavier.

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Alabama :c

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