Herbal Infusions

This tea is a nice treat. It satisfies the need for something sweet, without actually being truly sweet.

Update: I’ll definitely need more.

When I opened the package, the scent really intrigued me – dessert-like, but not sickly sweet smelling. Almost like a true dessert smell and not just an overwhelming amount of sugar. The consistency of the tea seemed almost ‘sticky’, which reminded me of Della Terra’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I know so many people here really enjoy that tea, but I was not one of them.

There is a natural sweetness to this, but it’s so very subtle. The graham flavour really comes through and it’s very enjoyable. The graham seems to be the most predominant flavour, followed up by the coconut, and then that natural sweetness. I’m really happy I ordered this sample and I may contemplate rotating this one in occasionally.

This is really nice. High quality milk chocolate melted into steamed milk – that’s what it’s like.
Thanks Courtney for sending me a sample of this.

I decided I wanted this delightful treat, but I also needed a bit of a boost to get some histology studying done. From that came the idea of 2 parts cacao and 1 part guayusa.

I wasn’t completely sold on the hot tea, but as it cooled the flavour became so much more enjoyable for me. I did enjoy it hot, but as it cooled it just became more and more likely to be a repeat order. The dark chocolate flavour from this tea is just so clean and refreshing.

Sipdown! Made up the last of this yesterday. Delicious as always. I’m now out of cacao, but will hold off getting some for a while, since it’s pretty readily available.

Nearly out of this now, so I probably shouldn’t have had it again, but oh well. LBCG will have to tide me through until I can reorder it. Made in a travel mug again, and just left it steeping while I drank it. Not even that annoying when bits get in your mouth, because they kinda taste good :P

Drank a couple mugs-full of this on the weekend. Left the leaves sitting in the mug the entire time, which works just fine for this sort of tea, and it was delicious. About as close to hot chocolate as one can get without the big caloric hit.

Still like this one just as much as previously – like a sugar-free (and dairy free) hot chocolate. I accidentally left the infuser at my boyfriend’s place, though, so probably won’t get a second infusion. Sucky :(

Mmmmm, after the success of my last bag of Cacao Mint, I was craving more chocolate, so brewed up some of this (of course, I neglected to finish off the last of my original bag, which would have been a sipdown… sigh). Anyways, it was delicious as expected. Chocolatey and just a hint of sweetness, and three good infusions total.

yep…still prefer just plain ol’ cacao from HI…though HI’s customer service and communication with their customers is so awful, it’s hard to justify either. I’m actively looking for an alternative to their cacao as a result. this one is mint and chocolate but it’s watery and wimpy. so meh. even after a 15 min steep

SIPDOWN! Figure i might as well finish this one off today since it’s the straight cacao that i prefer. Not that I have any of that one left but hey, not to worry! Still enjoying this one and it’s nice to start my day off with a few good teas (i’m ignoring the first two i drank today). Costco trip later this afternoon once my other half is off of work. I don’t really want to go since it’s a little chillier out there today but i figure i’ll just pack some tea and get through it.

choco mint! thank you :)

Popped this one into a mug today so see how it compares to the straight up cacao from Cha that i had earlier. I hadn’t been impressed with the vanilla one way back when, so i didn’t have high hopes for this one. Truth be told though? This is actually pretty good. I can see this being a decent enough replacement for the mint chocolate from the Persimmon Tree that i like in a pinch. I still MUCH prefer the straight cacao one though, so I will be looking to add that one to my cupboard eventually. Thanks indigobloom for sharing this one!

Sample sipdown!! yeehaw :P
Hmmm, I don’t mind this at all, for a green. I’m very picky about my green teas…
The dry leaf aroma, as Sil mentioned, is intoxicating. I wish I could have a perfume like that! Very fruity, like stewed plums. Compote anyone? Steeped, not so much, unfortunately.
No matter! The flavour is pleasant. Definitely plum like, in a natural and subtle way. With a little sugar(1/3tsp), that part emerges a bit more… moving from slightly tart, to that same stewed plum profile from the dry leaf.
The green tea part, well I like that to! It has a certain bubbly like effect on my tongue that I am getting a kick out of. That must be the guayasa!
Funny, when I first sipped, I was immediately reminded of a rather similar tea… Ume Vert, from Lupicia. But then as I got through my cup, I noticed a few differences, despite the fact that my Ume sample was gone eons ago. shrugs
So overall: Yum! I’d buy more, one day.

I love this tisane!!
Hot, it’s a cup of soothing creamy orange yummy. A little rough on my throat for an herbal, but then it IS lapacho and I figure there is no way around that.
Cooled down to room temp, it looses most of it’s punch. Maybe next time I’ll add a dash of sugar and see if that holds better, because I was so looking forward to having this iced over the summer, or as a popsicle.
So here is my rating…. Hot: 85, Cooled: 65 Overall: 75

1 tablespoon for 248 ml
Infused for 8 minutes

Cacao base with spice flavour in the background. I much prefer the pure cacao base which really allows its full flavour to shine.

Thanks to Indigobloom for sharing this with me!

SIPDOWN! (300 to go)

Thank you Indigobloom for sharing this on with me. The dry aroma of this is delightful! it really is a nice plum, green tea smell. When it’s brewed though, the scent becomes more green tea than anything. While drinking this, i get slight hints of the plum but nothing that really shouts out to my tastebuds. It’s a pleasant enough green tea but nothing to write home about on the plum side.

Whoops, missed logging this sipdown! 817.

Definitely tastes like mint hot chocolate, but my previous opinion stands that too much of the cacao deliciousness is overwhelmed by the mint, which makes it not much better than a mint rooibos/honeybush or mint chocolate black, except that it’s technically a herbal with no funky flavour (though in my experience, mint chocolate HB is usually free from weird flavours).

ETA: I retract my earlier statement. This is now my preferred way of consuming a mint chocolate beverage. Yum.

Fairly tasty chocolate mint tea, pretty much like mint hot chocolate. Yummers. The mint, however, covers up some of the chocolate goodness, so it’s not as obviously a better chocolate flavour than… chocolate flavour in other mint chocolate blends, so I’d be torn as to whether I’d want something like this when I could have a more easily obtainable mint chocolate rooibos. That said, there is definitely no funky rooibos flavour, which is a plus. I suppose, however, that this may not be caffeine-free, since chocolate does contain caffeine?

Thanks for letting me sample this one as well, Indigobloom!

Sipdown! Thanks to Indigobloom for a sample bag of this tea.

I found that it was not noticeably different from the regular cacao tea, though I didn’t brew them up side by side to really compare. Therefore, it tasted pretty much like hot-chocolate flavoured water. Tasty. I wouldn’t bother with purchasing the vanilla flavour myself though, just would stick with the plain.

I’m a little excited now…I just meant to get the teas out on the table for tomorrow’s packing up swap stuff..and uh 2 hours later all my packages are bundles up and just need addresses before they’re ready to go out! It also means that i’m now in a great place to have a bunch of sipdowns tomorrow bwahahaha! which is good since i added 3 teas to my cupboard tonight.

I brewed this one up and sadly, forgot about it for an hour…DO NOT DO THAT! it makes it taste not as good. lol I really wanted cacao..but i only have enough for a small cup and that’s being saved for tomorrow…

so the trick to this one is making sure your cup has a slice of the dried orange in it… that make this much tastier…though i still miss the vanilla :( It looks like ESP emporium has an orange vanilla version i’ll have to try someday :)