Tahitian Vanilla

(DavidsTea 2022: 93)

T is for… Tahitian Vanilla!

Project keep-baby-napping appears to have failed, so this is it for now. I liked this much more the second time than the first. More vanilla, less medicinal rooibos. Maybe “aging” it for a year helped?? Still not sure if I’m a fan, though.

I grabbed this after reading the Steepster reviews for it. I needed more herbals on hand anyway. It has a buttery toasted sesame flavor. It’s sweet and nutty and a nice balance of sweet and savory. I wouldn’t say that it reminds me of cake though. At times it does taste a bit alcoholic but I’m not sure from what. I would guess it’s either the cake flavoring, the stevia, or the apple. It’s unique in flavor and I enjoyed it. I think I’ll try adding milk to it next time to see if that lessens the alcoholic taste. For some reason, Sesame isn’t a tasting note option but it seems like it comes up in teas especially Japanese greens for example.

Roswell Strange’s note inspired me to get this one because I could tell it would be 100% my sort of thing. I’m happy to say that it lived up to expectations! It’s sweet and desserty and complex. There’s a bit of nuttiness and somehow a cooked or baked element to it. And of course, there’s lots of vanilla. I really like it with milk. It makes a tasty second steep as well.

Such a smooth taste and toasty smell

Hot – Yes

Last tea to review from today’s new launches…

This is a hard one for me – not because I dislike the tea, but because it’s one of those teas where I think the name doesn’t match the profile well/is a bit misleading. Is there vanilla in the tea/a vanilla taste!? Yes. However, I don’t think it’s the dominant profile of the tea and with a name like Tahitian Vanilla I would definitely expect this to be a “vanilla first” profile – and a really classic vanilla, at that.

So if it’s not vanilla forward, then what does it taste like!?

Well, to me I tastes like the Yellow Box Cake that I grew up with. We couldn’t afford Betty Crocker box cake mix most of the time, but for almost every school bake sale/function growing up we would end up contributing some type of off brand boxed cake mix. Usually made into cupcakes. I’m not totally sure how to describe that flavour as anything other than cake-y, but if you’ve had that type of yellow sponge/sheet cake made from any of those box mixes then you can probably imagine exactly what I’m tasting. It’s very distinct…

So, aside from tasting really cake-y to me I also feel like I’m getting a thick vanilla buttercream note accompanied by a mix of nutty hazelnut and a sesame flavour as well. The chicory adds the softest roasted nut, which makes the hazelnut seem a little roasted in flavour to me as well – though if I think about it too much the illusion breaks and I just taste chicory. In my head, what that amounts to overall is images of a big slice of cake with that almost inch thick frosting layer and crushed up hazelnuts and sesame covering it as some type of decorative topping. Ignoring the fact these is clearly pecan, this is sort of what i’m picturing:

https://www.cookingclassy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/butter_pecan_cake4.-500×500.jpg

It’s sweet and buttery/decadent, with a big hit of nostalgia to the profile for me. I like the way the honey/nutty notes of the rooibos lean into the sesame/hazelnut notes I’m getting, as well. I do wish the finish had a bit less stevia, but with milk I didn’t notice it.

And thus we circle back to the dilemma. I like the tea – but I don’t think this is what people expect from the name, and the name is so important to informing your expectations of a blend…

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.