I tried this tea in the bagged form as it was part of a set of The O Dor teas that I had purchased. When I opened the bag, the aroma was overwhelmingly a delicious caramelized vanilla with a touch of berry. I brewed it for 4 minutes, then tasted.
Once brewed, the caramelized vanilla aroma mellowed a bit and the berry smell comes through much more. The flavouring of the tea was much more mellow on the vanilla and berry characteristics then I thought it would be, instead the black and green tea blend comes through. As well, based on aroma, I thought the tea would be sweeter than it actually is – I found it only slightly sweet.
There definitely is a slight berry finish as AJ previously reviewed, but there’s no discernible vanilla finish. I expected there to be a bit of a dry, tannic finish due to the vanilla and berry sweetness being much less than expected, but there wasn’t. If you drink your tea with a bit of cream/milk and/or sugar, I definitely think this tea could stand up to those and perhaps even enhance the flavour a bit.
I find that this would be a great everyday tea for me as it would most likely hold up to any way that I felt like drinking it (plain, with sugar, with milk, etc). However, that being said, even though I love drinking unflavoured teas (and actually prefer those), I’m a little disappointed that the berry and vanilla do not come through more. Due to that, as well as the expensiveness of THE O DOR teas and it no longer being carried locally, I’ll probably not repurchase.
