The first sample I’m trying from the puerh plus TTB.
1st off if this box has taught be anything it’s that I can’t say no to a tea that smells like chocolate. I grabbed samples of all three teas where I whiffed some cocaoy goodness. This being the only tea that contained actual cocoa was unsurprisingly the best smelling of all of them. So much so that when I added hot water the room started to smell like I was making brownies.
Now you need to understand that I love chocolate. Not “chocolates”, not melty dove bars or sweet mockolate candies, not even Hershey’s “special dark” if they still embarrass themselves by calling it that. I’m talking straight up cocoa nibs, 80-100% bars, hell I won’t even go less than 60% cocoa content for the chocolate chips I put into cookies. I always worried that cocoa containing teas just wouldn’t be enough. I was wrong.This tea brings out all the cocoa and the puerh adds a good dark base that keeps it from tasting watery. I brewed this in a gaiwan and through 10 steeps the nibs were present in every cup from the first light colored one to the later dark cups. The aroma cannot be talked about only experienced. The puerh did not get in the way of the chocolate which might happen with western style brewing. I may have ate all the nibs out of the tea when I was finished.
One note with this tea. It contains cocoa butter in the nibs which will slowly come out of the tea leaving a slight sheen on the top. Because of this you’ll want to make sure to use glazed teaware and give everything a good wash afterwards to keep from contaminating your next tea.
Flavors: Cocoa