I was unpacking and chopping up boxes (recycling pickup tomorrow), when I found an order from Friday Afternoon Tea. It’s my first order from them, yay new tea! And yay for opening the box upon—or close to—arrival, instead of two years later.
Okay, anyway, so I opened the box and there was this little packet of Double Cream Earl Grey separate from my main order. It looks like they included a free sample, but wow, it’s a very generous sample. This has got to be at least 5-6 cups of tea. That’s so lovely of them!
I was so jonesing for earl grey. Just, like, simple black tea with a ka-pow of bergamot. Something delicious and safe, pretty much guaranteed to take me to my nyum-nyum place.
I wish this were that, but it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not terrible. tea-sipper likened it to bug spray last year, which wow, that sounds awful and I’m grateful that wasn’t my experience. It’s just heavy on the vanilla and light on the bergamot for me. It’s a bit light on the actual tea, too. I’m just getting a whole lot of vanilla. Maybe that’s because I don’t like vanilla so I’m extra sensitive to it, or maybe it’s because I didn’t get a balanced scoop of leaf in my spoon, I don’t know. I definitely like it enough to keep drinking it, so I’ll probably have a better feel for it after another cup or two. One thing I appreciate is that I oversteeped it and it was very forgiving: no bitterness or astringency.
Flavors: Vanilla
Preparation
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Do you dislike vanilla in general or mainly in tea? I have a tea that my husband’s likes well enough but he says it reminds him of a certain shopping mall tobacco shop his father frequented. I realized that he was thinking of the heavily vanilla scented tobacco his father bought and that particular had a rather thick (thicc lol) vanilla flavoring.
I don’t love vanilla in general, but I recognise that it’s useful. Like, when I make chocolate frosting, the vanilla extract brings out the chocolate flavour and makes it smooth, without making the frosting taste like vanilla. So I’m not so against it that I absolutely won’t tolerate it in anything, but I don’t love the flavour—especially in ice cream and tea.
Understood! It does help accentuate flavors and when a blend says it is cake flavored I find it is usually mostly vanilla flavored to me. I do like vanilla, and use it a lot in baking..so much so that we make our own in vast quantities.
My palate and preferences have changed so much, and I have to give Steepster a lot of the credit. The first time someone said they tasted roasted carrots in a green tea I thought, “Ma’am, are you for real?” Then one day I was roasting carrots and thought, “Man, I would really like some green tea. This is reminding of….WAIT A MINUTE! IT REALLY DOES HAVE CARROT NOTES!” That was eye opening for me.
It is really neat to see sich a friendly community where we can admit to liking or not liking hibiscus or bergamot or whatever, and everyone respects that we all have different tastes!Absolutely. =) And yes, while I still strongly favour dessert teas, and while I haven’t ventured beyond pouring hot water over a sachet or loose leaf—like multi-steep oolongs, gongfu, and pu-erh cakes—Steepster has definitely broadened my horizons.
You make your own frosting?!? I’m in awe of you now!
I found a recipe that takes 10 mins or so: mixing butter, sugar, cocoa powder, milk, and vanilla extract. https://www.theconsciousplantkitchen.com/vegan-chocolate-frosting/
haha! I see “Friday Afternoon” and “Earl” and I say OH NO for anyone drinking it (even though in this case, it was free!) But I’m VERY glad it’s a tea that you enjoyed and didn’t get the dreaded “bug spray”. :D
Do you dislike vanilla in general or mainly in tea? I have a tea that my husband’s likes well enough but he says it reminds him of a certain shopping mall tobacco shop his father frequented. I realized that he was thinking of the heavily vanilla scented tobacco his father bought and that particular had a rather thick (thicc lol) vanilla flavoring.
I don’t love vanilla in general, but I recognise that it’s useful. Like, when I make chocolate frosting, the vanilla extract brings out the chocolate flavour and makes it smooth, without making the frosting taste like vanilla. So I’m not so against it that I absolutely won’t tolerate it in anything, but I don’t love the flavour—especially in ice cream and tea.
Understood! It does help accentuate flavors and when a blend says it is cake flavored I find it is usually mostly vanilla flavored to me. I do like vanilla, and use it a lot in baking..so much so that we make our own in vast quantities.
My palate and preferences have changed so much, and I have to give Steepster a lot of the credit. The first time someone said they tasted roasted carrots in a green tea I thought, “Ma’am, are you for real?” Then one day I was roasting carrots and thought, “Man, I would really like some green tea. This is reminding of….WAIT A MINUTE! IT REALLY DOES HAVE CARROT NOTES!” That was eye opening for me.
It is really neat to see sich a friendly community where we can admit to liking or not liking hibiscus or bergamot or whatever, and everyone respects that we all have different tastes!Absolutely. =) And yes, while I still strongly favour dessert teas, and while I haven’t ventured beyond pouring hot water over a sachet or loose leaf—like multi-steep oolongs, gongfu, and pu-erh cakes—Steepster has definitely broadened my horizons.
You make your own frosting?!? I’m in awe of you now!
I found a recipe that takes 10 mins or so: mixing butter, sugar, cocoa powder, milk, and vanilla extract. https://www.theconsciousplantkitchen.com/vegan-chocolate-frosting/
haha! I see “Friday Afternoon” and “Earl” and I say OH NO for anyone drinking it (even though in this case, it was free!) But I’m VERY glad it’s a tea that you enjoyed and didn’t get the dreaded “bug spray”. :D