Vanilla Almond Ceylon

The teabag is a modern invention, dating back to the turn of the 20th century.  The first commercial use of the teabag was in 1904, by tea merchant Thomas Sullivan.  The bag was hand sewn silk, and intended simply as a way of packaging small amounts of tea, but consumers began steeping the tea still in the package, and fell in love with the convenience.  Thus, the questionable modern advancement of the teabag was born.  At its inception, the teabag was simply a neat, handy way of steeping tea, but fairly quickly, tea companies realized the teabag made a great way to get rid of tea dust and fannings that were left over from sorting higher quality loose tea.  So, the modern teabag was born and, generations of people grew to believe the chalky, astringent texture of low quality tea was true of all tea.  Thousands of people learned to dislike tea, yet have never had a proper cup of the stuff.

I don't mean to come down too hard on teabags.  Loose tea vs. bag tea is really a question of quality vs. convenience.  Loose tea has a far cleaner texture and more developed flavors, but of course takes more time and effort to make.  Teabags typically brew up with a dirtier texture and less flavor due to the lower grade tea, but are so quick and easy  At home, I almost always go with loose tea, but at work I usually just settle for the quick option of teabags.  A nice compromise between both worlds is the tea sachet, or "pyramid" bag.  The larger volume inside the bag allows for true leaf tea, and gives the leaves a small amount of room to bloom, so to speak.  It's still not full leaf tea blooming inside an entire teapot, but it does make for a better cup of tea than an old fashioned bag.

So, then, today's review is a vanilla almond Ceylon from Tea Nation.  I've tried a vanilla flavored tea from Special Teas once before, and was underwhelmed.  The vanilla was from real Madagascar beans, and smelled absolutely amazing, but dominated the tea completely.  As much as I loved Special Teas for their great blended black teas, they didn't always do so well with flavored teas; it seemed they coulnd't find the right balance between tea and flavoring.  Tea Nation seems a pretty good company, and they got that balance spot on with this tea.  Hints of sweet vanilla and almond complement the tea, yet never overpower it.  The tea is Ceylon, with which I've had mixed results, but I really like this blend.  It's strong and flavorful without becoming overly astringent, and the sweetness from the vanilla and almond is perfect.  I'll add a splash of milk and sugar to most black teas, but this one doesn't need either; the sugar only gets in the way of the more subtle almond and vanilla notes, and milk just dilutes the flavor and weakens the rather delicate body.  For me, a tea that can stand solely on its own merits, not even needing milk or sweetener, is a quality cup of tea.  Score:  85 (B)