Vanilla Almond Coconut (formerly Toasted Almond Cookie)

I have this tea as “Toasted Almond Cookie” by Par Avion Tea; it is sourced from TeaGuys. TeaGuys used to have it as “Toasted Almond Cookie” with the same blend ingredients that are listed on my tin (this was gifted to me in December of 2017, but who knows how long the little knick-knack shop my friend found it at had it before that!), but TeaGuys has since renamed the blend to “Vanilla Almond Coconut” and changed the blend ingredients a bit. I’ve noticed this quite a bit on several of these old TeaGuys blends I’ve had in these Par Avion Tea tins. This just happens to be the OG version of the tea! (Hopefully the coconut isn’t bleh, but I’ll know soon enough. Honestly, I don’t even see any in the leaf, despite it being listed in the ingredients… another thing I’ve noticed about these Par Avion repackages… I almost wonder if they got the… uh… rejects from the TeaGuys factory or something, because several of the other tins have been like that, missing flower petals or having them in when the ingredients don’t list them, weird things like that…)

The steeped black tea smells quite malty; the aroma doesn’t smell all that different from a breakfast tea to me. There is maybe a touch of graham cracker to the aroma? The flavor… The black tea is at least quite smooth and not leaving any astringency, but I’m not really getting any real flavor. A touch of small cinnamon toward the end of the sip, with a slight candied sweetness to it rather than a spicy note, but I’m not getting any nuttiness/almond flavor. Maybe a very subtle marzipan-like flavoring? But it is quite subtle. And definitely no coconut (I really don’t think there is any coconut in this leaf at all). All in all, a completely forgetable cup and I’ll be happy when it is sipped down.

I love Teaguys website, colorful teas, names, and pricing. I have four samples to try, and this is the first one I dug into.

The smell of this one is strong in the package – delicious. Smells good brewing as well. Big chunks of almonds -
http://instagram.com/p/xYekvRpxiC/

It’s called Toasted Almond Cookie, but it tastes like an Oatmeal cookie to me. Very smooth, no bitterness at all. I steeped as 1 tsp, but not 1.5 as recommended (didn’t read directions). Next taste test I’ll do 1.5 tsp. and get more flavor.

It’s a rather light tea, but I wouldn’t want real strong flavors of these combos, so that works fine for me. My taste buds picks up some of the cinnamon but I have trouble finding the coconut. Maybe it blends in and is what is making the oatmeal cookie taste? Not tasting a strong almond makes sense since they flavor is almost impossible to come across strong unless you use artificial stuff, and that’s just cloying.

Overall a nice, unique dessert tea that’s good with sweets. I sprinkled on some cinnamon-sugar to sweeten it further. It has a natural sweetness of its own from the cinnamon and flavouring.