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I felt a keen need for a cocoa-infused chai this morning and this is a glorious one. It is sweet, spicy, and dark with a strong taste of chocolate.

I woke up this morning from a dream about this beautiful golden tea and realized that I longed for it. I pointed out to my bed-warmed self that I always drink black first thing in the morning and if I didn’t do that, where would my caffeine come from? But something in me longed for this tea. So I am now warming my hands and sniffing the honey-apricot scent of this in wonder. It is a very light tea. As I recall, subsequent steeps bring about stronger sweeter tastes, so I will continue with this tea today.

The leaves are a deep dark green. It brews into a pale green liquid with floating sencha dust that smells delightfully nutty and has a light sweet taste.

Nice. I whipped up the matcha, enjoyed the deep green coloring and then added a spoonful of coconut milk and whipped that up with it. I like the creamy green coloring produced by the mixture. The green vegetal of the matcha marries well with the coconut taste and is more substantial on my tongue.

Today was my first trip to deliver meals on wheels to elderly people. After my work buddies kindly told me told me what to watch out for (naked old men who like to expose their privates and then grope female food bringers, elderly women who yell if you are late, vicious biting dogs, dirty houses, murderous neighbors, and so forth), I was terrified.

Fortunately, it was all untrue. Everyone was nice and it was fun to be out in the air bringing hot food to people who smiled at me. It was also fun to see the beautiful historic houses and the well-manicured lawns and shaped bushes. We even saw a camellia in full bloom. It was all good. Fun for me. A good deed. And I bonded with a work buddy. So, a total win-win-win. After delivering our meals and taking back the coolers to the agency, we went out to eat Thai food (our own private meals on wheels) and visited an antique store. They had this tea prominently displayed and I couldn’t resist.

The tea brews up into a murky reddish brown liquor that smells primarily of marzipan with a light coconut note. The marzipan fragrance carries through to the taste, but a strong black tea is married to it. It tastes like some sort of Ceylon black and the dry leaves are small, broken, and slightly wiry. There is a slight bitterness that tells me that four minutes was plenty of steeping time for this tea.

It’s a pretty golden green liquor scented lightly with apple, almost as if a smidgeon of apple juice had been added to the tea. The taste is sweet and light with more of an apple flavor than a sencha flavor. Bliss!

The tea brews up into a purple black liquor with the by now familiar somewhat pleasant, somewhat strange, wet yak smell of pu-erh. There is a strong overtone of orange and some kind of spice, perhaps a clove or cinnamon. Unlike other orange scented teas, this is not a sweet flowery orange but a strong orange, which I suppose matches the strength of the pu-erh. There is a whisper of ginger, but it is subdued.

Overall a very nice experience. It is a slow sipper for me because of the pu-erh, but I’m enjoying it with my morning rice.

Much thanks to takgoti for the tasting.

Ah, it’s a morning that demands balls. Either that or sliding back under the covers and sleeping in. As always the dragon balls are lovely and strong with a strong cocoa undertone. I ordered ten ounces from Adagio and I am in awe of the giant can they are in. I’m glad I did. This is shaping up to be one of my favorite teas.

A delightful milky caramel fragrance. It has a very light taste, not heavy at all. I had stir fried Brussels sprouts for lunch and needed a sweet chaser. This is a nice one.