Bolder Breakfast

Lewis & Clarke TTB

Yum, chocolate black tea & puerh blend? Sounds tasty. This one is in sachets. The leaf is fairly small with some larger sticks in it, and a few yellow flower petals. It smells lovely and chocolatey! The instructions say 1 sachet for 16 ounces, but I didn’t listen because I’m a rebel… Lol. I did 8 ounces for mine.

Brewed aroma is chocolatey and brisk with just a little hint of puerh “pond” smell. Well, it didn’t come out super bitter so I guess the 8 ounces of water was okay. :P I actually quite like this one. The chocolate and the puerh go together very well and the flavoring seems like part of the tea. The puerh gives that lovely almost woody quality that I’ve experienced with Mandala’s shou, while the black tea is just generally malty and somewhat brisk. There’s a little bit of mineral quality to this, but it’s not strong enough to bother me. Overall, pretty tasty! :)

From Marco Polo TTB, thanks The Tea Spot!

This tea has been on my radar for a long time, but for some reason I was intimidated to try it. I am determined to make my way through all of the Marco Polo samples since that’s the top thing on my “Tea Do” list right now.

I really liked this! It smelled really delicious when I opened the sample (which was a sachet in a package). Very strong cocoa notes, with a bit of something else. The flavor was bold, as promised – a bit of chocolate and a bit of tea. Very very nice, and different!

So, if you don’t want to hear about Tre’s sorta sex life, skip to the bolded line!

I think I’ll end my night’s tasting notes with this one, and pick up the back log of notes maybe tomorrow night? I want to watch more Gossip Girl this evening, and I still need to stream tonight’s episode of Big Brother so that I can compare thoughts with Tre. Although, he’s actually in Regina right now – he left yesterday afternoon. He’s spending the next three days with a girl named Brooke (a former classmate of mine; and a sort of perpetual “crush” of his for the last year or so). He basically got booty called or whatever you call it when it’s a three day stretch of… Well, you know.

He was very elated and took some time off work to go. So, I guess I’m happy for him and, err, “little him”? Even if I don’t exactly like Brooke that much (for a variety of reasons), and if I think that he’s maybe being used to scratch some, uhh, itches? I mean, at least he’s pretty aware he’s being used?

People are weird. Sometimes sex is weird. And, I feel like I know more about his sex life than is normal for friends/roommates. I mean, I know the rather intimate details of his, uhh, first time. Is that a normal thing roommates share, ‘cause if it is I missed that memo and I definitely don’t plant to reciprocate on the sharing of details.

In other, non Tre related, news: I had to close the store with my manager a few nights ago and that was awkward as hell. It was very weird because it sorta felt like I had to hold her hand through the process: she does not normally close (in fact; she NEVER works in the evenings unless it’s a cleaning shift) so she was very out of practice with how everything was done.

It was honestly like I was closing by myself but under some weird sort of supervision, because I had to do my half of closing and then reteach her how to do her half. It’s a good thing I’m awesome (and not at all modest) though, because I was able to carry us both through closing and still get us out of the store on time and on schedule. I think I earned some major brownie points!

But enough of that!

We’re ending the night on this tasting note (and off colour rant) because it’s tasting note 1771 and that feels like a fun enough number to end up. I don’t think I can count it as a monumental number; but yeah, it’s fun.

Thanks to whatshesaid for the sample of this! I likely would not have picked it out for myself, but turns out I would have been very wrong in doing that! Why? Because this was pretty fucking spectacular. Honestly, I don’t think it’d be much of a stretch to call this the best (or at least close to) chocolate tea I’ve had – and I am not really a chocolate tea person. Rather, I’m pretty impartial to chocolate in my tea.

But this was deeply satisfying and indulgent in the most surprising of ways, with very thick, rich dark chocolate notes that reminded me of fancy truffles! And then combine that with almost equally rich notes of caramel and honey with an insanely smooth black base and an undertone of earth notes from the Pu’Erh and you have a really well formulated breakfast (or really anytime) blend that’ll have me enchanted for days.

Seriously; this should be called something more interesting than “Bolder Breakfast”. How about Seduction Tea? ‘Cause, you know, that’s much more on point. I have (well, “had” – the sipdown note for this is in my queue) one more cup of this and I definitely cannot put off having it. I need this one again! Mmm!

And so yeah, we’re gonna end the night on that semi uncomfortable and weird tasting note. Sometimes I feel like I share too much on Steepster; but at least I gave you all a heads up. Besides, this is sorta like a mostly tea focused diary for me; so I want to write about what’s relevant to my life in addition to tea. I don’t want to feel guilty about that…

I bought this solely based on other reviews. I was looking for teas from companies who charge a lot to ship to Canada (or don’t ship to us at all) to purchase and have sent to my relatives in the States to bring to me when they visited this summer.

They delivered the massive order about a week ago, including this tea.

I wasn’t sure what to expect…I guess I thought the chocolate would taste like a more natural note rather than an obvious added flavouring. (I’ve been spoiled by Laoshan Black, evidently). It kind of reminds me of the chocolate flavouring used by Harney and Sons, which I don’t love. Maybe I’m more of a creamy milk chocolate kind of girl. Well, no “maybe” about it, I definitely am.

Anyway, I’ve had this a few times now and the chocolate makes it not a breakfast tea for me. I don’t want to drink something flavoured first thing in the morning. Unless it’s coffee, oddly enough. But not tea.

The pu’erh definitely adds an earthy note. And this is a very bold tea. Mid morning or afternoon, for me.

I will try to enjoy what I have left but not a re-buy for me. I don’t love fake chocolate tasting teas.

Oh, my, chocolate! My husband and I acquired this from Whole Foods recently, and the following morning we steeped it up with our (nearly) full breakfast.

The smell of the loose leaf is very earthy, with a hefty dose of dark chocolate and a hint of cream. I steeped it for two-ish minutes (I didn’t get my timer started right away), and it surprised me how light-colored the brew was, considering it has pu-erh in it! But the leaves had mostly sunk, so I knew it was done with the first steep.

The flavor is DEFINITELY chocolate-y. The pu-erh adds a nice malty, almost fermented note without being completely overpoweringly musty. In fact, if I didn’t know it, I might not have ever guessed that this was blended with pu-erh. It’s actually pretty naturally sweet, but we added a little light cream and sugar anyway, because, well, it’s a breakfast tea. We did end up resteeping it later, for four minutes, and it was almost identical to the first steep. Quite lovely! Glad we sprung for it (although next time I may try to get it cheaper… looking at you, Whole Foods, Land of the Fancy Grocery Store Upcharge).

Thanks again for the sample(S), Sil!

I don’t actually care for the chocolate in this. Chocolate “flavour” or “essence” just tastes off to me, and this is no exception. The base is great, though. Maybe just the base without the chocolate stuff in it? Yeah, that could be good. Or mixed with Crio Bru? Hmm…

Anyways, it’s drinkable but I definitely wouldn’t seek it out.

I received a sample size of this from QueenOfTarts stash sale. Thank you!

I saw so many positive reviews of this tea so I really wanted to like it, but there was something about it that just hit me the wrong way. This one is not my cup of tea unfortunately.

Morning cup. First off I just noticed this is Bolder Breakfast not Boulder Breakfast like I spelled it on my blog a while back. Had to fix it. Second, I didn’t feel like searching to post, so I typed bolder breakfast into the search. There seems to be at least 3 different listings for the same tea. Such is Steepster in the morning. My blurry head tastes chocolate, something mildly spicy, and pu’er. That’s all I got until I wake up. I recall it being awesome from last time.

My computer won’t boot up again, and recovery doesn’t seem to be working, either, so I’m posting from my tablet.

I decided to try this one this morning because a little chocolate seemed needed. It was a very good choice. The pu-erh adds the right balance of earthiness to this tea, and the touch of chocolate flavor just rounded it out.

It smelled like an instant hot chocolate pack when I opened the sample pack, so I was actually a little worried this would be too chocolate, but my fears were unfounded. It was a perfect touch of flavor.

I can’t post a rating but it’s going to high. Even my husband likes this one.
Husband: It tastes like tea. It’s good. I like it. A+. Will drink again.
Me: would you like me to order some?
Husband: Sure. I like it.

This is the same man who laughs at me every time I get more tea in the mail.

So I’ll be placing an order with The Tea Spot later today.

I’m really glad Sil sent me a sample of this tea even though I didn’t request one. I have always been curious because this one is always compared to my beloved Organic Chocolate “O” from The Tea Spot, and it seems like most people prefer this one. I remain skeptical, however, because most of those people are puerh drinkers, and I am not.

That said, for anyone who is scared of puerh or is looking for flavored puerhs that don’t really taste like puerh, do yourself a favor and get some of this tea. The puerh here is unobtrusive and basically just adds a very slight earthiness to the cup.

Mostly this cup tastes like chocolate. I would say that if Organic Chocolate “O” is milk chocolate, this tea is dark chocolate. Not super dark chocolate (I’ve had teas that were darker, more bittersweet). Maybe 60% cacao dark? It’s quite tasty, and if I didn’t know about the Organic Chocolate “O”, it might be my favorite chocolate tea because it is a quite authentic flavor. However, I am a milk chocolate person, so the “O” ranks above this one in my heart. Glad I finally got a chance to try it, though, and satiate my curiousity. Thanks Sil!