Chado

Thanks to LiberTEAS for this one! It’s Friday and I want some RUM…so…since I am at work I will have to settle for this! LOL

I agree with LiberTEAS – I cannot see a single Chocolate Chip. I am getting a slight rum comparison to the nose but not overly. I really smell the stereotypical Rooibos scent tho. Once infused I can smell a SMALL Chocolate smell as even smaller amount of rum-like aroma. The Rooibos isn’t as aromatic as before infusing but it’s still the scent I pick up the most on while sniffing.

The taste is more flavorful overall than I assumed it would be. The Rum and Rooibos blend together pretty well…they are both subtle flavors tho. The chocolate isn’t very chocolaty but it’s a nice touch! This is ‘ok’

In my sample pouch, I didn’t see any chocolate chips at all. I realize that the chocolate chips don’t really add all that much flavor to the overall cup, but I am just mentioning this because the tisane that I measured into my smart brewer didn’t look at all like the photo… it looked like plain rooibos.

The flavor is very delicate here. Rum is the most prominent flavor, and fortunately, it does mask some of the woodsy flavor of the rooibos. I was a little worried about that because when I first strained the tea into my mug I could smell that very distinct rooibos smell and I worried that this would taste strongly of rooibos, but it does not.

The chocolate is softer than I’d like it to be, but I think it’s very well balanced with the rum flavor… neither is really overwhelming the other. I do get a nice chocolatey taste in the finish.

Eh…. It’s pretty good.

On the road this week, staying at a Fairmont Hotel for the first time, which features a line of teas in their own name. They do a great afternoon tea at this particular hotel, and I chose the Kenmare Ceylon to go with the little sandwiches and cakes. It came in a good-size pot with a moderate amount of leaf; the first cup had only been steeped about a minute, but by the time I got to the end of the pot the leaves had been sitting in the water for a long time. This was an interesting way to go about it because it let me examine the flavors that came out over the course of more and more steeping.

At the beginning there was a mild toastiness and a little bit of ripe fruit. Over the next couple cups the toastiness developed more fully, and the fruit gave way to more tannins and astringency. The final cup was very “leafy” – it really reminded me of fall. It was dry leaves, and the light smell of smoke in the air, warmth by the fireside. Up to this point I’d been drinking it straight, but added some milk and sugar at the very end and really liked it that way as well.

I had two cups of this – this morning. I’m passing what little I have left to Azzrian. See previous tasting notes…

Thanks LiberTEAS!!!! Another thumbs up!

This is a marvy twist on EG! One that I have been craving, it seems! It’s not your standard Earl. This is really nice! Black, yet oolong, a slight stereotypical Darjeeling taste but somewhat hidden because of the EG Flavors. The flavors are NOT overdone…they are just right!!! What an interest and tasty Cuppa!

Thanks LiberTEAS!

You know…I was just saying to someone today I can usually “take or leave” mate. But this is pretty good! Prob will go to the top of my Mate list thus far.

It may be the amount of sweet cocoa I am tasting…it’s JUST right!!! Yum.

I really like this Earl Grey a lot… I like the unique flavor that the Oolong and white (both Darjeelings) bring to the cup. It gives the tea a very interesting complexity that is sometimes absent in a “standard” Earl Grey.

The bergamot is a pleasant balance of citrus and flower-esque notes, and the vanilla smooths the edge of the bergamot just enough to make this a very smooth, rich, and delightful cup.

Oh wow! This is a really good Earl Grey!

When I first smelled the dry leaf, I was a little worried, because it smelled a bit perfume-y. But the flavor does not come off as perfume-y… floral, yes, a little, but not perfume-ish.

The citrus flavor is very nice here too. It blends well with the Oolong and Darjeeling teas… making this a smoother tasting Earl Grey. The vanilla might have a little to do with that too… although this definitely is not a typical Earl Grey with vanilla.

I’m liking this one a lot.

I do wish that I had read the description of this tea again, though, so that I could have brewed it the way I’d brew an Oolong (at a lower temp), rather than a black tea. Next time, I shall!

This is the last that I have of this because I’m sending the rest of it to a friend.

Today I’m enjoying it latte style with a splash of milk. This really gives the chocolate a nice creamy taste. This is one of the better yerba mate blends I’ve encountered. It’s tasty!

After reading Auggy’s review of chocolate mate, it inspired me to brew a cup of mate (and hope that it would be a better tasting cuppa than what Auggy experienced). I ordered this sample some time ago, and haven’t tried it yet (I have a lot of teas in my possession at the moment that I’ve not tried yet!)

Yum! Chocolate-y smooth and yet earthy. I suspect that the flowers are here for appearance sake, because I’m not getting much in the way of flavor from them (although there is a very faint sharpness from the sunflower – very faint) I can taste a slight woodsy “rooibos” flavor but, it is also quite faint in the presence of the stronger roasted mate. The almonds and the chocolate are very tasty together.

I am not sure what the cactus adds to this flavor, although I can’t say that this blend would be quite the same without it, because this is different than other chocolate mate blends I’ve encountered – whether that be from the cactus, or the sunflower or even the rooibos … or more likely a combination of these three components.

Either way, I really like like it!

Hmm… interesting! I bought this sample because the combination of mint and bergamot intrigued me and I had to try it. I wasn’t sure how I would like it (I’m not always crazy about green Earl Grey teas)… but I figured it was worth trying.

I like the way the flavors of the mint and bergamot complement each other. It has a very zesty flavor from the mint and a pleasant citrus-y flavor from the bergamot. I’m really liking this a lot more than I thought I would!

I’ve only taken a few sips so far, so I’m not yet getting much from the green tea, I can taste it, but, the other flavors are quite strong so it has a hard time expressing itself.

I’m really liking it though.

An excellent darjeeling and my first autumnal flush darjeeling. <3

one of my favorite Jasmine teas. the aroma is very surprising and gives you a pretty intense flavor. this tea was recommended to me by an employee at the chado tearoom based on the selection of teas i was picking up at the time. its really fun watching it unravel if you have a clear teapot, and the flavor is as amusing as the presentation.

Brewing up a bit of this, towards the end of a batch purchased probably more than a year ago. I had loved the pouchong I bought at TenRen—my first experience of a lightly oxidized oolong—and was looking for more of the same. What a surprise! This is a darker, spicier, fruitier tea, not as earthy and toasted as the SeaDyke Ti Kuan Yin I ‘grew up’ drinking, but not much resembling the lighter TenRen tea. I keep forgetting and rediscovering it in the back of the cupboard. Shame on me. It doesn’t deserve forgetting. The spice is reminiscent of the Rou Gui I recently tried for the first time.

The dry leaf is dark, long, relatively straight but twisted around the long axis. It smells fruity/spicy already.

Brewing about 1 gram of leaf per ounce or 30mL of water in a small gaiwain, water at about 195 degrees.

The liquor is amber to reddish, sweet, spicy, but like Rou Gui, doesn’t have the really long legs of a Dan Cong or Wuyi Oolong: it’s tiring at 5 infusions, with spicy still there but more astringency and the fruity gone. Even after all 5 infusions, the leaves aren’t fully unfurled, seems like there should be more to give, but tonight a 6th infusion is pretty much just spice.

If rated on the first infusion alone, this would be a 90; on the first-through-5th, it’s lower.

This tea tastes pretty much like a plain rooibos with the essence of something fruity in the background scent. Not much flavor at all. Such a shame. I was so excited when I saw that Lisbet had included a sample of this in her package to me. I really wanted it to be full of raspberry and strawberry flavor, but not so much.

I can’t think of much to say about this, as it is very weakly flavored, and I mostly just get ‘rooibos’ from it. I’ve added honey to try to make it more interesting, and tried oversteeping it. Fine, I suppose, if you enjoy very mild fruity notes. Very mild.

A mild, sweet tea that tastes mostly of rooibos and not the delicious sounding flavor additives. If I had to identify the strongest flavor in this tea it’d be the hint of strawberry. I’ve tried brewing this at different strengths and different durations and have just concluded that the flavoring isn’t strong enough for my liking.

I really like this chai. It’s great with a little vanilla almond milk and some honey. It’s also great on its own- the combination of whole cardamom pods, vanilla, and rooibos creates a sort of spicey-sweetness that I adore in a good cup of chai. Definitely recommended.

I really like the notes in this. The flavoring is mild, very lightly sweet- maybe not what you’d expect from bourbon, but more of a ‘bourbon vanilla.’ I do wish Chado teas’ rooibos flavors were a bit more strongly flavored, but I don’t dislike any of them, and this might be the best of my last big order. The sweetness definitely takes a back seat to the natural flavor of rooibos. I am oddly finding that the more I drink this, the less impressed I am with it.

Mild, with a slight hint of rum to it. The chocolate doesn’t come through particularly, and there aren’t very many chocolate chips. (This is okay because oddly enough, they didn’t melt on their own, and when stirred, didn’t seem to add much through a filter.)