Vanilla Black

Next to Lapsang Souchongs, this is my youngest daughter’s favorite tea. I wanted to make a pot of tea that everyone in the house would like today. I had just made a batch of sugar cookies based on the America’s Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated recipe that is supposed to be nearly perfect. (It is.) Hubby got off work early – well, he got off slightly later than he was supposed to, but having just worked one 18 hour day followed by a ten hour day, it felt like “early” and I wanted to have a family tea time to celebrate. Plus, tomorrow is our annual Christmas shopping trip out of town and we are feeling festive!

This was the best choice for an “everyone will drink it” tea. I am not sure, but I think that for the first time, hubby drank a black tea without adding milk or sugar! If so, that is a huge deal. He drinks greens, oolongs, and puerhs without additions, but black tea ALWAYS gets at least some sugar!

Great tea, great cookies, a very nice day!

I am not proud to admit this, but I grunted when I tasted this tea. Not a mmmmm or an ahhhh but an absolute grunt like a pig. It touched the primal vanilla loving animal in me (who I have just discovered is porcine). I guess it could have been worse — at least I didn’t oink!

A subtle and delicious vanilla bean flavor. Slightly rubbery/tarry/dark (that’s a compliment) and the tea base is WONDERFUL. Smooth and flavorful and not the least bit bitter. Extremely elegant. Perfect. I’m drinking it with some sugar and milk, and it’s just lovely. Harney and Sons describes it as baking sugar cookies with your grandmother, but I completely disagree. It’s more like being served shortbread with your grandmother…the Dowager Countess!

…which makes my grunt even more inappropriate! I hope I can learn to control myself around this tea!

In short, I love it.

Six hours of sleep last night. Lets just say that it was agony to haul my carcass out of bed this morning.
Rewarding myself with this lovely vanilla blend.
Day two of waking up totally exsausted. Bravo, sleep schedule, bravo.
Hopefully tomorrow I will have plenty of tea, and today I will nurse along with tea!

Oh yeah baby, getting down with my h and s samples before busting open the tins. I still don’t have a system of attack regarding how I’m going to open them-I don’t want to savagely tear into everything simultaneously (despite the temptation) because freshness problems, but then how do you decide what to do and all that stuff? man, problems!!

I’m always on the hunt for a vanilla tea, and vanilla Comoro was a pretty significant let-down for me, because I could barely taste anything. I read reviews for this tea while I was at work today, and got kind of excited when I read a few people say it was like a smoky vanilla, because that sounds like a perfect combination (someone needs to do a vanilla keemun one of these days). Anyway, when I opened the package, my nose was immediately assaulted with the sweet scent of baking vanilla, but also a hearty dose of something chemical and distinctly alcoholic. It was like unscrewing the lid to and inhaling the fumes from a bottle of vanilla vodka (which don’t get me wrong is wonderful, definitely soothes the soul and all that sort of thing, but I don’t want that shiz in my tea). But whatever, I set to work and steeped it-a teaspoon for eight ounces of water, four minutes.

When I lifted the basket out of the mug, I instantly thought “I’ve smelled this before! where have I smelled this?” and then I realized that it smelled similar to many of Frank’s banana blends (butterscotch banana, and banana pudding). definitely not a bad association, but definitely a bit of an unusual one. A few seconds later, however, the intensity of the scent dissipated and I could smell gentle vanilla paired with a fairly noticeable but nondescript black base.

My thoughts as I finished the cup:
1. Hmmm. Not what I was expecting. Too much base, and somehow it doesn’t work well with the chosen vanilla, but I can’t quite say why. No smoke, though.
2. I should put this in my swap pile. I wonder who’ll want it. I’m sure there’s someone.
3. Mmm this is pretty good, actually. I’m going to have another cup tomorrow, perhaps.
4. This would be terrific with a bit less sugar in it, you know.
5. Ugh. There’s something cloying about this one. The vanilla is too…something. Cloying. I should give this away.
6. Great cup! last sips were excellent!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had an experience like this while drinking the same cup of tea. Oh, the internal dialogue. It’s probably not a bad thing though, ultimately. I think it speaks to the fact that we’re determined to give the tea a fair shake, are appropriately self-deprecating when there aren’t fireworks at first steep, and generally want to like a new tea we’re trying because liking things is a good feeling.

So yes, definitely glad I didn’t purchase a tin of this, and as to whether or not I’ll finish the sample pack, it just depends on my mood in a given second. ha.

Also, I received like nine million swap packages in the mail today. Thank you to all of you who sent something. I don’t have access to functional eyes at the moment, but as soon as I do, I’ll set to work labelling samples and thanking those of you who sent them along! but unlike me, you know who you are, so thank you!

You know, I had a hard time evaluating the vanilla teas from GM, and I’m having a hard time evaluating this one, too. On the one hand, I really do like the creamy warmth of actual vanilla. On the other, I am beginning to think that it’s difficult to represent it at a strength sufficient to contend with black tea whilst also avoiding the risk of an aftertaste that isn’t necessarily flattering.

That aside, I’m enjoying my cup. The aroma of the tea itself is heavenly. Harney’s description of the tea, while enchanting, is completely inaccurate for me — I didn’t ever spend any time in the winter baking sugar cookies with my grandmother, and if they’d known any of the three women I called variations of the name ‘granny’, they would probably kill themselves laughing at the very thought — but if I had, then perhaps it would’ve smelled like this. It’s a nice, musky, low vanilla scent, not the super-sweet vanilla of confectionary. Vanilla is one of those flavors that, when most natural, makes me think of…thick-petaled flowers with sweet, oily scents, sitting in pots half-hidden in shadow in a warm, dark room, in which the only lighting comes from a low-burning fireplace. It’s sweet and shadows, but warm shadows.

It isn’t completely overpowering, either. The aroma is stronger than the flavor, but only by a hair. I’m drinking this plain because I want to see what the tea does in my mouth, because of this aforementioned inclination for vanilla to leave an aftertaste…and, sure enough, it does have one — even high-quality vanilla-bean ice cream does, so that is by no means the fault of the tea — though it certainly wouldn’t prevent me from having another cup.

It’s good enough that I think my next go-around I’ll be sipping it with some sugar to see if that decreases the tang in the aftertaste. I expect that a tiny bit of sweetener will elevate this from being merely a warm-fuzzy cup of comforting tea to a real treat that borders on indulgence.

This has been in my cupboard for a few weeks, and I am just now getting around to trying it out. Really, ashmanra should get some kind of kickback from Harney…there were a few things in my last order where I just skipped the sample and bought a tin. I think I did that in my web order before this one, too, come to think of it…..

This is really good. It is definitely different than Vanilla Comoro. The vanilla is lighter, but oh the tea base is sooooo smooth….. I do think I might add a little more leaf to the next pot. 24 oz teapot, 3 perfect teaspoons- level (aren’t these really a tsp and a half? I bet that throws all of my previous notes off for readers, because I always use this spoon to measure tea), freshly boiled water, 4 minutes.

Finishing up the last of the small amount I had. I didn’t even have quite enough for a pot so I ended up with about 1 tsp Vanilla Black and 1 tsp Assam. The combo is actually quite nice. The vanilla is nice and strong without being over the top and the strong black tea is holding its own. If I ever end up with more of this, I will probably mix it half and half with a stronger black tea because I think it is much better this way.

this was vanilla tea #2 out of 4. must admit i am rather let down with this one but am glad i bought a sample versus a whole tin. with the sample bag sealed i smelled vanilla, but as soon as i snipped it open all i smelled was alcohol.

i had one cup, steeped lightly (alcohol shouldn’t be in my tea unless i put it there which i did not) in order to make sure i wasn’t crying wolf…

i did not like this one and won’t be finishing my sample. our youngest son who has become a ritualized tea drinker alongside me wouldn’t try it because he couldn’t get past the smell.

the paris blend is great, the hot cinnamon spice is an excellent boot to get you moving in the morning, but this one surprised me. it wasn’t as refined as i’ve come to expect from harney and sons.

When I ordered this, the idea was that I probably wouldn’t like Vanilla Comoro much because it’s decaf and I thought that was weird. Of course, that wasn’t the case. I fell in love, face-first, with Vanilla Comoro. So the roles have reversed. This tea now has to live up to what I thought would be the loser.

It smells lovely as it steeps, brewing up to a pleasant reddish amber. The aroma is sweet vanilla and faintly smoky, leathery black tea. I’m a little surprised by the smokiness, as I wasn’t expecting it. This doesn’t have the buttercream, cupcakey vanilla that the Comoro had, which disappoints me a little. Oh dear, I’ve gotten spoiled.

The flavor is much more smoky than I expected, followed by the vanilla. It’s decent, yeah, but not what I was hoping for. I wanted a sort of cake or ice cream flavor, and this isn’t it. It’s a nice vanilla bean taste, but it’s too subtle for me. Sorry, Vanilla Black, but I’ll be reordering Vanilla Comoro instead. (And mixing it with French Super-Blue Lavender, oh god yes.)

Pretty good vanilla flavor. Kind of toasty. But not as good as their decaf one-Vanilla Comoro. The aroma is similar, between the two. Although for pure, rich, caramelized flavor alone, Vanilla Comoro wins hands down.

But for a “real” (non-decaf) tea, I’d go for this any day. The black tea base is prominent and has a definite kick. The vanilla flavor is more in the background and serves as a delicious accent—it’s very smooth, creamy and authentic and seems to have a slight floral edge.

Pretty good, overall. I’m happy with it. :)