Have you ever been tea shopping, come across a couple of tea flavors that interest you, and think to yourself:  “These teas sound really good, but I think they’d be even better blended together into one tea”?  Sure, I guess you could buy one of each flavor, but this could be quite costly, and depending upon the quantity of each individual tea, you could wind up with quite a large stock pile of tea.

The solution?  Adagio Teas.  Adagio Teas allows you, the tea customer, to become a tea designer.   You choose the tea flavors and the amount of each flavor that should go into your own custom blend.  What’s better is that this blend will now be available not just to you, but to all of Adagio’s customers, and you get creative credit (plus receive frequent cup points that can be applied toward discounts on future purchases with Adagio Teas).

Vanilla Tempation is one such custom blend, created by tea designer Chandler Weiner.  It is a blend of Adagio Teas’ Rooibos Vanilla Chai, Cream Tea (Adagio Teas’ cream flavored black Ceylon Tea) and Vanilla Tea (Adagio Teas’ vanilla flavored black Ceylon Tea).

So, needless to say, vanilla is a very prominent flavor in this blend:  smooth, sweet and creamy.  The spices from the rooibos chai do not dominate, but instead provide a very delightful backdrop for this blend, helping to accentuate some of the more delicate qualities of the vanilla flavor that are often lost in a black tea blend.

The Ceylon tea is a very nice, medium-bodied tea with very little astringency — or perhaps it could be that the vanilla and cream have softened the astringency to the point of non-existence — and has a rich, satisfying flavor that does not overpower the soft vanilla.

Chandler Weiner describes this blend as:

Vanilla is the most consumed ice cream flavor because of its simplistic and filling taste. Temper your vanilla craving with a sweet Vanilla Temptation. This mixture of vanilla chai, rooibos, and black teas is a delightful sweet treat and a healthy way to enjoy vanilla. Brew this tea with milk for an even stronger vanilla experience. Perfect for an after dinner treat or a sweet morning start. The rooibos vanilla chai gives this tea a sweet kick that compliments the smooth vanilla and cream of the black teas.

According to the customer reviews of this tea (which can be viewed here), including one from the creator of the blend, Chandler Weiner, this tea should be brewed for 5 minutes, and stated that the blend can be brewed longer without bitterness.  I would have to disagree with this, because I brewed my first cup for 4 1/2 minutes and the cup definitely had a bitter bite to it.  I tossed that out and brewed it again, this time for 3 1/2 minutes and it was perfect.

As it is a flavored tea, I found that a small amount of sweetener helped to bring out those flavorings.   A little bit of brown sugar is delightful in this tea, the molasses in the brown sugar really brings the chai flavors to life, and makes it a bit like a christmas cookie in a teacup!  This tea is also exceptional when served latte style, with just a splash of milk or cream.