Vanilla Bean Black

This has a nice vanilla and coconut flavor, which I hesitated to cover up with almond milk. I’m glad I resisted! This one gets bad reviews, but I thought it was really smooth and desserty and nice. This almost cookie-like vanilla really works for me. I don’t always love the base tea they use, but I really have no complaints here. Thanks for sharing, getanzt!

I got this one from the TTB and I’m quite enjoying it! It’s nice and creamy with a decent vanilla flavor and some hints of coconut. I haven’t been able to try many flavored black teas due to their usual high caffeine content, but this one says it’s low caffeine. Makes me wish I could try more black teas because many of the interesting flavors I’ve seen seem to use a black tea base!

Pulled from TTB 2022, shared by Inkling.

This one had some mixed reviews – I almost left it off my list, but I read one review that suggested it tastes like vanilla frosting so I had to try it. It doesn’t taste like frosting to me, but it’s not too bad either. I used about 1 1/2 teaspoons for 8 ounces of water and the liquid came out very light. I imagine this might be partly because there are so many other ingredients aside from tea and vanilla (apple pieces, white hibiscus, and coconut to name a few of the big ones). I do love seeing the vanilla bean flecks floating across the surface. Or at least, I hope that’s what’s floating in my tea. It does have a light vanilla flavor, but the tea itself isn’t nearly as bold as I’d like. I have other vanilla black teas I enjoy much more (Mighty Leaf Vanilla Bean comes to mind), so I’ll send this one along with the rest.

I wish I had steeped it for a bit longer – the taste was a bit too mild! But it was pleasant. It is quite creamy with a light vanilla bean taste. Almost coffee-like in its aftertaste. I feel like a stronger vanilla note would benefit this tea.

I echo what the previous comments have said – this tea is quite sweet on its own. I personally enjoy stevia, so I added another packet to it and it was perfect for me. I also added some plain almond milk.

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #170 overall / Tea #41 for April
Tuesday 4/27 — david’s tea vanilla bean black. I’ve made Micah 2 lattes from the bag (so maybe 4-5 PS gone?) and I came home from work and he had dumped the rest into hot water to make for kombucha (who knows what temp water or how long etc.). Well at least it is a sip down. I’m going to rebrew leaves to make another batch for kombucha then toss leaves. When I find the hopefully other bag of this somewhere in my stash I hope to try it before it gets used up.
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

(DavidsTea 25)

I really wanted to like this one. I was so excited. But this tea just does not work for me. Is it the stevia? Is it a bad choice of base tea? Is it the white hibiscus blossoms? I have no idea, but something is off (and, I’m pretty sure it’s not the coconut, yet). It’s not terrible, but with a name like “Vanilla Bean Black”, I think I had very high expectations that ended up being unmet. I’m also acquainted with some very delicious 52teas versions on this theme, most of which use better bases, and none of which have this weirdness. And certainly, none of which use stevia.

Anyways, this is a disappointment (along with Tahitian Vanilla, which I’ll get to later but should have known since it is a rooibos). Might try latte-ing (is it even strong enough for this?), maybe will pawn off on someone. It drives me a little crazy to have such a fantastic-sounding tea in my cupboard and not like it.

I know that stevia is a natural sweetner. I get that. But to me, it tastes so artificial. It leaves that same taste and feeling that those water sweetners (like Mio) leave in my mouth and throat. It leaves that weird aftertaste and I can’t handle it.

I got this one because I LOVE black tea and I love vanilla. But honestly, the stevia in this one sucks. Sometimes you taste it, sometimes you don’t. Today I absolutely noticed it. I actually want to try this one as a latte. I might throw a bit of sweetner in it when I do and see if that covers the stevia taste.

Anyways, I like this one, but don’t. And honestly, unless they take the stevia out, I won’t be rebuying it once it’s gone. I’m sure I can find a vanilla black tea that doesn’t have stevia in it.

I’ve been trying to be good, so haven’t made many DT purchases (or any tea purchases for that matter) lately. But, I couldn’t resist the ‘free shipping on any order’ promotion, on top of having a free 2oz of tea to redeem. So, I grabbed 4oz of Vanilla Orchid (which is apparently being discontinued :::crying:::), and 2oz of this. I was so conflicted- I love vanilla black teas, but I hate stevia. I decided to risk it. Luckily, the stevia is pretty unnoticeable. Made it as an oat milk latte, and it was quite nice. My boyfriend liked it a lot more than I did, so I will probably be reserving this for lattes for him.

Made a hot mug of this last weekend as a late morning/early afternoon tea to sip on while I lazed around the house – it was very creamy with a caramelized vanilla custard and coconut vibe. Sort of creme brulee like, but not that fully caramelized sugar type of vibe. I enjoyed it a lot, though I still 100% maintain that this is a custard and coconut tea and less so a “vanilla bean” tea…

With that said, I saw some people complaining that there wasn’t actual vanilla in the tea even though it’s in the name. While I don’t actually personally think this tastes like true vanilla, there is real vanilla bean in the tea. If you look carefully you can actually see it in the leaf. Now, to be fair it’s not a lot – but a little bit of vanilla goes a long way. Plus, vanilla is one of the most expensive ingredients to work with – it is NOT cheap! If you look at the vanilla blends from the majority of major tea companies out there, they’re not using the actual vanilla bean – exceptions exist, obviously. It’s just not the norm to see real vanilla in most vanilla teas, point blank.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.