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Getting to the end of this…which will put me without smoky teas! (oh noes!) I plan to get the black dragon from Upton on my next order, but that’s not going to be a while because I’m heading out to Japan in a few weeks. (Summer Intensive Language Program) Oh well guess I will have to survive until then.

My other 52teas purchase (yes! I limited myself to only 2. Why do you think I then had to avoid steepster until the sale was over?) I had been extremely interested in this for my original 52teas purpose in the hopes that it would be able to replace my matevana-toffee rooibos blend from Teavana (they no longer make the toffee rooibos). Unfortunately, they were out of it at the time, but have (obviously) since restocked (yay!).

Interestingly, I do not get the overridingly chocolatey scent that other people have reported from my batch. Mostly I get a roasted smell – almost like burning wood, as well as a light kind of dusty cocoa smell. Very interesting.

For my first cup I decided to just go with it completely plain, going with 7 minute steep time after reading the other notes on this. After seven minutes, the tea’s color was a fairly midrange brown, and the scent of the cocoa had come out more but the roasted/malted scent was still dominating.

The taste is…quite complex. There’s spiciness, which has since resolved itself into more of a cocoa flavor as the tea has cooled. The malty taste is also there. And SOMETHING is combining to produce this almost minty taste. Perhaps that’s the mate itself? I confess to not having had a lot of plain mate, although the taste I associate with it is also there, so…dunno!

When hot, it was all spicy, malty roasty good lord this is heavy. As it cools the chocolate is coming out a LOT more – which makes me think (for some reason) that the addition of milk would bring it out even further. That will definitely be trial number two. The spiciness is also receding as the temperature decreases, which is good because we are not quite past the time in the morning when my belly rebels against spiciness of all kinds. Oh yes, I am definitely getting the liquid chocolate vibe a lot more, although the malty taste is still providing a fascinating backing to it.

Aside! So last night I dreamt that I went to a big gourmet tea place which for some reason also sold chocolate malt balls (and was haunted, but that’s not as relevant. Besides with the aid of some kids and their lovable dog I was able to discover that it was just the groundskeeper trying to scare off customers). Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to try this last night when it actually came in and between that and worrying about my tea frog order possibly being stuck in customs, (I didn’t get tracking on my order so I have no idea what it’s actual status is but Morgana mentioned that her package appears to be stuck at the border, so…. Are they just confused about what it is? or…are they DRINKING MY TEA THE BASTARDS) I guess I have tea on the brain. (End Aside)

Anyway, so I was thinking of using this as my morning tea but I think it’s a tad to heavy for that – although we’ll see what adding milk to it does. I’m still quite pleased with it, though – a very nice addition to my tea cupboard. I’d noticed lately that it was getting a little black tea heavy, so I’m definitely glad to introduce a little variation into it.

(This post brought to you by: parentheses (yay!))

Wewt! I just got in my 52teas memorial day order. (My teafrog order has yet to get here though ;_;) I decided for the first try of this to make it using the stovetop method. I used vanilla almond milk instead of regular milk though, so I think that’s affecting the taste a bit. Clearly need to get some normal milk.

Now, my experiences with my other 52teas teas have been overwhelmingly positive but this is, if you look at it, a highly intriguing tea. I mean, cheesecake tea sure fine. But cheesecake chai? THAT is a lot less straightforward. It requires the marriage of two extremely distinctive flavors – moreover, flavors that, I would argue, (pardon me if I’m a little verbose by the way, I’m kind of in end of year research paper mode right now) are highly opposing in nature. Cheesecake after all, has a mildness about it that is generally at odds with the spiciness of chai. Of course, when making chai, one usually mellows it out with the application of milk BUT in this operation the milk is subsumed into the taste of the chai. (that’s actually the topic of my dissertation)

So yes, cheesecake chai. VERY interesting to see how it works. When I opened the tin, I was immediately overwhelmed by ginger, also some other spices, but mostly ginger. This, I felt, was not a good sign, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Once I dropped the tea into the water, the fragrance began to shift becoming…well, mouthwatering. Then when I added the milk, I would start licking the spoon each time I gave it a stir, and at one point I was all like “Whazzat? Zat’s CHEESECAKE!” So yes, by the time it was finished I was super duper excited and really did not want to actually wait a couple of minutes for the chai to settle a bit.

I should mention at this point that cheesecake is my favorite kind of cake/pie type thing on grounds that it is super delicious. So I when I say “super duper excited” I am not exaggerating.

Anyway so on to trying it. OMG NOM NOM NOM this is sooooo good. There’s this lovely cream cheesiness about it and I just love how the spices interact with it – especially the ginger, which I feel is a great foil to keep the cheesecakeness (and the sweetness, since I used sweetened almond milk AND a bit of sugar) from becoming too overwhelming. It is still quite heavy, we’ll see how that changes with different (read: lazier) methods of preparation. And with normal milk. Good times are ahead!

Verdict: This would be a great addition to any chaibrary
Secondary Verdict: The above sentence was basically just an excuse to use the word chaibrary.

My green for the day! (yay)
Taking a break for trying to figure out what the Elusive Spiced Green tastes like to finish up this sample. I continue to be pretty meh on it, I’m just not that enamored of the base tea I think. Also, the sesame taste really isn’t particularly prominent. Well, it’s gone now so I guess I can stop trying to reason out my ambivalence to it.

The pattern of liking it less with each cup continues and at this point I have to say that I am just glad to be done with it. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced that pattern before. I wonder if my initial fondness of it was some sort of novelty thing? And then the novelty wore off? Oh well, goodbye Tokyo!

PS: man, my 200th note came and went without me noticing! Need to start paying more attention.

The perfect breakfast tea for when I do not need something to wake me up in a swift and firm manner. I love this stuff sooo much, I really need to try all the other almondy teas on here (especially almond cookie!) to see how they stack up.

My green for the day. I am starting to think that this tea doesn’t even have any taste, considering that I seem to always “get distracted” while drinking it. Why did I order a tin of this again?

Well, I couldn’t take it anymore and tossed out the rest of the fail almond milk, replacing it with some Almond Breeze, instead. Hurray for no more almond milk fail! Today’s coconut cream pie latte was very very nice :D

So I’ve had this sitting in my cupboard for a while now, and I thought I’d try it again and see if adding milk made me magically like it. Nope! Mind you for reasons that I can’t adequately explain to myself but which can probably be summarized by “I’m cheap,” I am still using the Almond Milk of Fail, so that probably didn’t help either.

I really should just toss out the rest of that almond milk.

And another sample done away with…although this one makes me a bit sad. Because…no more Florence! AND I really need to go on tea lockdown!

We will meet again, Florence! This, I swear!

My green tea for the day, drunk just in case I have decided to stop hating this since the last time I tried it. That’d be a no! Earl Grey green tea is really weird. BUT! I think I kind of liked the base tea. So that’s interesting.