Originally posted at Tea Derivations.

Maker: Lipton
Type: Flavored black tea
Brew: 1 sachet per cup of boiling water, 2-5 minutes

It was such an innocent-looking box, and look, neat pyramidal tea bags (don’t know what the hell they’re made of though, but still neat)! And it’s Lipton. Oh dear. But leopards can change their spots, and it was a tea that supposedly had some vanilla in it. And it’s their new posh tea line. How bad could it be?

First let me tell you: caramel really can work in a tea. Beautiful when it works, though often it doesn’t work. But when it doesn’t work, usually one is just left with a dull-tasting tea.

Lipton’s Vanilla Caramel Truffle made me throw up. Literally.

I’m not quite sure what induced the severe nausea, but there was a lot of it to be found in that cup. Perhaps I just don’t react well to palm oil, which is unusual in a tea; perhaps cornstarch in a tea makes me ill. I don’t know. I’ve never had a tea before that featured either ingredient. Possibly it’s an acquired taste.

The Amazon reviews are a little bit… mixed. When it works for a person, it seems to be delightful; when it doesn’t work, there is puking.

When I taste-test a tea, I usually try it three times at different brewing lengths, and sometimes different brewing temperatures. I’m… not doing that with this tea. And I usually try not to let one tea prejudice me against an entire maker, but… it’s hard to do that after this… unique… experience.

I suggest replacing this with anything else in just about any other brand involving vanilla and/or caramel.

Rating: 0/5—Get this frakking tea away from me!