100g Vanilla Bean Flan Flavoured Black Tea

**Discontinued**

Decadence in a cup! Smooth and creamy with a vanilla caramel finish. An impressive blend to end a perfect dinner party!

Luxury Ingredients: Black tea,  Cocoa beans, Bamboo leaves, Calendula petals,                   Natural  flavors (organic comploant).                                            

Small Batch Blended and Packed in: Canada

Tea(s) From: Sri Lanka / Kenya / India / China / Egypt                   

Region(s): Nuwara Eliya + Dimbula + Uva / Nandi Highlands /             Nilgiri + Kerala / Yunnan / Nile River Delta + Fayoum       

Antioxidant Level: High 

Caffeine Content: Medium 

Behold the Flan. This creamy, spongy tart-like delicacy is ancient  as the 7 hills of Rome. Why Rome specifically? According to culinary  historians, the flan likely first appeared in the kitchen of Roman  Bartolomeo Scappi (1500 - 1577) resident chef of Pope Pius V. Noted as  the world's first celebrity chef, Bartolomeo's legacy includes his 1570  cookbook Opera dell'arte del cucinare, in which he details upwards of  1000 recipes. (Notably, his cookbook also gives the world its first ever  image of a fork.)

Thankfully, we aren't living in Bartolomeo's  time, because the most famous of his flan recipes was reputed to be a  savory one stuffed with eel. (Believe us when we say Eel Flan wouldn't  be a top selling tea.) Instead, as various other chefs tweaked his  recipes over the centuries, the flan became better known as a sweet  dish, often characterized by a smooth touch of vanilla.

To  celebrate the Top Chef of old Rome, we've concocted a tea based on the  sweeter version of his creation - Vanilla Bean Flan. Our Master Blender  started with our proprietary blend of lush, luxury black teas, then  blended in a chef's table of cocoa beans, bamboo leaves, calendula and  all natural vanilla flavoring to create a cup with sweet notes offset by  gentle black astringency. Iubentium! (That's Latin for cheers.)

What type of tea do we use, how do we flavor the tea and why do we use natural flavors?
Firstly...  we only use high grown teas from the top 3 tea growing regions of Sri  Lanka - Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula and Uva. These three high-grown districts  produce flavorful teas that have classic 'Ceylon' tea character which is  noted by floral bouquet and flavor notes, touches of mild astringency,  bright coppery color and, most importantly - perfect for use as the base  tea of our flavored teas.  (We have tested teas from various other  origins around the world as base stock for our flavored teas, but none  of these teas made the grade.) Dimbula and the western estates of Nuwara  Eliya have a major quality peak during Jan/Feb, whereas Uva and the  eastern estates of Nuwara Eliya have their peak in July/Aug. This 'dual  peak period' allow us to buy the best for our flavored tea blends  several times during the year, ensuring top quality and freshness.
Secondly...  we use flavoring oils not crystals to give the tea drinker an olfactory  holiday before indulging in a liquid tea treat.  
Thirdly. we  specify natural flavors. High quality tea tastes good and natural  flavors do not mask the natural taste of the high grown Ceylon tea. (The  norm for many making flavored tea is to use overpowering artificial  flavors, which can be used to hide lower quality tea). Natural flavors  do not leave an aftertaste giving the tea a clean and true character. It  should be noted that natural flavors tend to be somewhat 'soft ' and  the flavors slightly muted, but for many this is a refreshing change and  one of the desired attributes of our naturally flavored teas.