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My other chocolate tea. Purchased last night. I was swept away by the strawberry smells and the very mild chocolate aspect. This evening as I stared at the snow that seems to be 6 feet deep I thought I’d give it a go. The mild chocolate aroma became much stronger when steeped, and really became the front flavour. It reminds me strongly of chocolates with strawberry in them…You know, the strange creamy strawberry chocolates that always disappear from the box right away, along with the caramels. Anyway, it’s quite nice. Probably good to have on hand for the occasion when I want it, but not something I could imagine drinking every day. Maybe only in winter..

In a fit of economy, I brought my smaller teaball to work today. Fair disclosure, I never use my teaballs. I hate them. They’re hopelessly inefficient, and always seem to drop little bits of leaf in my tea because the little metal thing at the bottom that holds the two halves together is always misaligned, leaving a gap between the two halves which lets a LOT of leaf through.

Back to my economical decision – Why use a T-Sac when I’ve got a teaball? What could go wrong? Oh wait. I now have a mug of tea I love full of bits of leaf that I don’t. Economy be damned, I am using my $.07 per use T-Sac. They only let me down if I rip them, and then it’s my fault anyway. Of course, all that aside I bought a teaball last night for the upcoming bridal shower but when you’ve got nothing, you gotta start somewhere : )

Tea making woes aside, I love this tea. I wanted it for a very long time and finally bought a tin a few months ago. I always have to remember it’s a green and steep it accordingly, but it comes with a lovely vanilla/lime combo, It’s sort of a hint of the mojito I so love, without the mint. The lime doesn’t get too sharp, and just works nicely. I find it takes quite a while to really flavour up (maybe because of lower water temps) so I let it sit for 5 minutes, easily. Oftentimes, I’ll leave the tea in for the whole mug.

This poor guy was forgotten for the past week, but I thought a nice energy boost was needed this morning. We’re in the middle of a snowfall dump (no snow right now, but treacherous looking sidewalks) and I need to convince myself to go to work.

Back to the tea.

It has a strange smell – more lemon peel than lemon juice. There is another aspect to the smell that can’t identify, I presume that is the guayusa. The liquor steeps up an ugly deep green/brown. Very much like an olive green. For those who have had it, this tea reminds me (in colour) of David’s Tea’s Swamp Water. The steeped smell is a little more friendly, but I still get a sharp tangy sort of smell.

I don’t know anything about steeping guayusa, so I went with 1.5 solid teaspoons for 2 mugs of tea. I usually under-tea a little bit as I tend to go for longer steeping times. I used water that had cooled for a minute after boiling, and I let it steep about 5 minutes. Partially because I forgot.

I’ve managed to have a few sips so far. It’s very mild, surprisingly. I taste a hint of lemon something. Not nearly what I expected. As for the guayusa, I don’t know what it tastes like, but nothing is leaping out at me. Bigger sips have the same result. Interesting mouth feel at the end of the sip, but might be the brown bread I’m having with it.

This is an interesting tea. Not bad. Not knocking my socks off. Just an interesting option among the others, I think. It seems to remind me more of medicine than any other tea I have, a little reminiscent of neo-citron, only without the terrible medicine punch.

First things first – I do not like the idea of chocolate in tea. That is what hot chocolate is for. That said, I’ve wanted to try this for a little while – I really like mint, and I realize that I have to try chocolate in tea sometime so I took the plunge. Well, really, I bought some of this for an upcoming bridal shower and tried a cup first. Don’t tell the bride!

Anyway, I brought this home, continuing to be unsure of my thoughts. I brewed a cup right away and am now sipping. I am getting a pretty strong mint taste – I like that. The chocolate comes in as well, but in a weird way on the sip. Almost like I had recently eaten some dark chocolate and am having a mug of minty tea afterward, but still have a bit of chocolate flavour. I think I like it. I’m not really sure. I don’t know that I would buy it for myself because I don’t see the point, but I think I will keep a little bit, in case I ever need it. It’s almost like a cocoa with mint in (something I often do) but much milder on the chocolate.

ps – I bought another tea with chocolate in it for myself. When I push my boundaries, I really push, apparently. We’ll see how that goes.

EDIT – The further I get in the cup, the more I think I like it.

Re-steep from yesterday. Despite having used half the appropriate leaf the first time around and adding none the second this cup is still really flavourful. It’s bordering on bubblegum sweet, but I am so impressed to get 2 solid cups out of half the required tea. I can’t wait for my order to arrive and drink proper strength though – get a little bit of everything in my cup. Mmm!

Quite lovely. I had taken a big 52Teas break after my disappointing Peach Cobbler and confusing Cantaloupe Bai Mu Dan, but this tea tipped the balances. I know that rooibos isn’t really tea, but I still love it. The berries sifted nicely into this drink, very sweet. I couldn’t distinguish one berry over another, but I think if I had to pick one it might be blueberry. I don’t even know if there are blueberries in it!

Yum yum yum!

My lovely beau tucked the rest of my sample in my purse…I know I shouldn’t, but I’ve split it into two. I finished Wellness the other day, and I need a bit of emergency Ruby Red to hold me over until my order arrives. I’m so in love with this that I saved my T-Sac for a resteep, despite only having put half as much tea as I ought to have (FYI – still really strong! This is a FLAVOURFUL tea). Hopefully I can get the second steep. : )

Had some of this for breakfast. The smell is amazingly peachy, and after shaking the tin I found I got a good even mix of the different components in my teapot. Steeping, it continued to smell good and peachy, with a yellow liquor. Reminded me of the sun that never comes around anymore.

The smell of the leaves after I poured off the tea was actually quite bitter, so I’m worried that I had the water too hot, but the taste is still delicious. Sort of fresh and peachy, with a mild tea background. I will do a second steep later on and see how that goes.

All that said, this is a nice tea. It doesn’t taste nearly as good as it should ot justify the $18 I paid for 100 g of it. My tin was barely 3/4 full, and it just really isn’t amazing enough to justify a re-buy. I think I would rather have the more full flavours of zing me, for much less cost. Still lovely though, especially if you don’t have to worry about cost.

A big mug got me through an extra sunday morning at work. Luckily, I finished the project in 2.5 hours. Now I plan on going nowhere today. Yay!

Hip to the hop to the hibi-top. Hibiscus! And kool-Aid. : )