East Frisian Sunday Tea (TB54)

Assam and vanilla sounds like a winning combination, right? Rich, malty Assam with creamy, cake-like vanilla. In my head that’s what this should be, at least! I think my hopes were a little too high though, this is tasty but not as full as flavor as I thought.

The Assam base is certainly strong but it’s not as rich and malty as I’d like. It overpowers the vanilla too, which is very mellow and not that strong. It’s not a bad tea by any means, just not as perfect as I imagined. It’s a great afternoon blend though when you’re feeling the midday blues and need a little pick me up.

I’ll admit, my interest in this tea was mostly because my Pakke’s family is from the section of Friesland that lies in The Netherlands. After tasting it I’m very glad that I decided to purchase it.

I’ve had this twice since my package from Upton tea came in yesterday. It is a very enjoyable tea with or without milk though I wish I had some cream so I could try it with it’s traditional presentation. The first infusion requires precisely 4 minutes, anything over and it starts getting quite bitter. If you go for a second infusion you can be much more lenient with the time, I forgot about it while dealing with my kids but even at 10 minutes there was no bitterness.

I drank this on Sunday, because I am a dork.

I was hoping for more from this tea than it delivered. Trusting in Upton, I bought a 100ish gram tin and now I wish I’d been a bit more conservative. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. It is rather unexceptional.

The tea isn’t deep and malty and the vanilla isn’t particularly present. I have a decaf vanilla from Adagio that is fine, but thought this one would be a big upgrade. While the tea is an improvement because the dullness of decaf isn’t happening, it isn’t anything to gush over. And the vanilla, while not cloyingly artificial, also isn’t very aromatic. I don’t know that someone given this would know it is vanilla tea.

I’ll finish without too much trouble because it isn’t a bad cup but I had hoped either the base or the flavoring or both had been exceptional.

I said “isn’t” 8 times in this review. Hmm.

I bought this for the mention of “bourbon vanilla”. How can you go wrong?! :)

While this tea did have a delightful vanilla aroma in the bag, I felt the flavor of vanilla wasn’t as present as I’d have liked. My 15g sample bag didn’t seem to have the large pieces of vanilla that they show in the photos of the tea, but rather very thin little slivers of vanilla.I think that with the boldness of an Assam base they could have been more liberal with the vanilla. It was good & vanilla-y but nothing that blew me away.

Second cup of this sample. I added more leaf this time (3 tsp to 15 oz of water.) I don’t know how long it steeped, but I’m guessing around 4 minutes. The vanilla seems more subtle than I remember it, and not at all artificial. It’s mostly black tea, but the vanilla is there in the background smoothing it out. This is lovely!

I must have forgotten to shake up the bag for my last cup… this is like a different tea. I’m increasing my rating!

I don’t normally add milk to my tea, but I added a splash to this along with sugar and it made all the difference. Still not something I’d buy on a regular basis, but maybe once in a while. Bumped up my rating a little because of this.

A nicely robust tea paired with creamy sweet vanilla. The vanilla is of a good quality, and I was delighted to see bits of the pod amongst the tea leaves. Extra cake like with milk and sugar :) A gorgeous treat on a chilly, rainy afternoon.

Been doing Upton Imports sampler thunderdomes, two teas at a time, sometimes with comparison qualities obvious (same flush or estate darjeelings, say), sometimes less so, like here where I compared Upton TB54, Sunday Tea with Vanilla East Frisian Blend, with Upton TB75, Baker Street Blend (keemun, darjeeling, and lapsang).

Love the way both of these smell dry; this one’s kind of forest-y. The vanilla comes out more while brewing. These are both dark, robust cups. Sweet, a little cake-like without becoming something only for dessert—it has a bittersweet, almost coffee-like robustness and the slightest tinge of smoke, or actually maybe that’s roastiness. I can definitely smell the vanilla in the cup initally (and my nose is stuffed up from allergies!), then it recedes a bit. You can smell it more than you can taste it. Something about this reminds me of extremely dark, bitter chocolate.

About halfway through the cup I added milk and sugar which didn’t seem to be an improvement but didn’t ruin it either.

I don’t think I’d make this a regular rotation thing but I also wouldn’t snub my nose at a refill at some point when/if i get sick of other more obvious go-to choices.

So this is the first black blend that I’ve tried from Upton. I like Vanilla and enjoy Assam, so though this would be just right. I like it, but in the end it was just okay for me. The leaves are dark and medium sized with small bits of vanilla. The smell is a lovely mix of chocolate and vanilla with the hint of Assam spiciness. I think this might be a good afternoon tea on a cool day. When I drink the beverage with milk and sugar, I really don’t like it; it makes the vanilla too sweet and loses some of the tea flavor. Drank it bare on a second steep. The vanilla though nice and mild seems a bitter superficial and the tea a bit astringent. Its nice, but didn’t quite live up to the expectations of a deep bourbon-like vanilla and good Assam.

I’ve brewed this with too much leaf a few times before actually measuring about 8 g for 16 oz. There’s a fine balance between too much leaf or not enough to get the vanilla bourbon to shine through. I do like a strong cup of tea, and even a bit of harshness to an Assam (awesome), but too much leaf here tips the balance and becomes too heavy and metallic.
So with the right amount of leaf this is an adequate cup, the second steep barely drinkable it is so much weaker than the first. While this is certainly an interesting combination, I like Upton’s Almond delight better for a flavored tea. This one is a bit to fussy to brew correctly to get a good cup.