So I wanted something mellow and different but still familiar, so I grabbed this and cut open the bag. The first smell I was hit with was an alcoholic vanilla scent. Kinda like that smell you get when you smell the vanilla in the bottles from the store, but without that sweetness to the scent. So right off I was very doubting of this. But I brewed on.
I always go with the lower suggested steeping time, so this when for 2 min in my ingenuitea before decanting.
Smell wise the brew wasn’t bad. Nice creamy vanilla scent so I took an optimistic sip….and just about spat it back into my cup. Oh! Oh EWW! It tastes like when you lick the measuring spoon after measuring out vanilla extract without really thinking about it, expecting sweet vanilla flavor and only getting a sharp alcohol taste. BLEH! I even tried adding some sugar and I’m sorry to say that I only wasted the sugar.
Maybe the batch I got was very fresh made and the alcohol fumes of whatever flavoring they used didn’t have a chance to air off. But whatever it was, I’m not up for giving this a second chance. So Out Out OUT for this!
oh no! okay, maybe this one will interest you: vanilla plantation by silk road teas. all natural ingredients… i grabbed some for a vanilla hound tea buddy for one of our swaps. she said it was great. (and it resteeps over and over).