Ratatam

This is a sample sipdown. I have received – and had – Ratatam before so I don’t know why there is no note on it from me. This time I had two samples sitting around so I made it for breakfast for me and the Ashman to share.

It is a decent black breakfast tea, a little brisk but not too much, and sometimes you need some briskness with food to clear the palate. But the vanilla is pretty subtle. It is so subtle that if I hadn’t read that it was there I would not have known that it was there.

Maybe drinking it as a stand alone cup or adding milk would make the vanilla more noticeable, but it made an acceptable breakfast tea. If you are looking for a good vanilla black where you really taste vanilla without searching, there are better ones out there. Expect a decent breakfast tea with faint vanilla notes and you will be happy.

From Lexie in her advent package, thanks! This one is subtle but vanilla at the end and maybe a bit of hazelnut (even more subtle than the vanilla). There is some malty assam goodness as a base here, with no astringency. Its quite a nice cup and I’d be tempted to add it to an order if I ever get around to ordering from Lupicia (tea-sipper published a sale code from 3 leaf tea so that sucked me in already this year).

It’s funny I must have been channelling Lupicia today, as I see Cameron B mentioning Lupicia’s Christmas teas are out today.  This is from a long ago order, but I haven’t written a note yet.  It seems that it is not as special as I wanted it to be.  It’s a tea with actual vanilla pieces on a strong black base!  I should love it!  But it’s just not vanilla enough for me – just barely (and I noticed this also when it was new, so it’s not an aging problem…)  I do see the occasional piece of vanilla which I appreciate.  But the black tea is also almost a fine powder – so maybe the base is a little TOO strong.  My blend seems like a much smaller leaf and also much less vanilla than the photo for this tea. The color of the dry leaf almost matches the color of the vanilla.   At least the real vanilla isn’t being drowned in artificial vanilla.  And I have no idea why I made the mistake of brewing the second steep so long.  Really, this should have been one of my top Lupicia teas in concept, but brewing it up is always disappointing. 
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a big mug // 15 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 5 minute steep

Edited and updated: I tried this a couple of days after Cameron B. wrote a review on it. I didn’t take notes but I agree that I couldn’t taste much, if any, vanilla in it. I recently had the sipdown of this. It was better than I remembered. It had malt notes, a little dried fried taste, chestnut notes too. I tried it cold brew and it’s way better that way. As Cameron wrote, I wouldn’t classify it as vanilla. It’s better than their “Vanilla” although there are no vanilla notes. Their Vanilla is far too artificial tasting while this one is not.

Bonus Tea Swap Sample Sipdown of the Day! (23)

Another Lupicia sample from Kawaii433!

This is listed as a “Lupicia Signature Tea”, and yet there are no notes for it here on Steepster. Odd. This seems to be a plain black tea with vanilla bean pieces mixed in. Simple enough, and sounds tasty.

This is a different base tea than I normally taste from Lupicia. It’s similar to a breakfast blend, with a strong and malty flavor. Very tasty, actually! I would guess that it has at least some Assam, as it has that pleasant raisiny tobacco note.

I will say, I wish there was more vanilla here. The base tea is powerful, and it overpowers any vanilla bean flavor that may be here. The closest I taste is a sweet woody note, which I often associate with bourbon vanilla.

So as a breakfast tea, this is mighty tasty. But I wouldn’t call it a vanilla tea…