Spicely

I haven’t had this blend for a long time. I think I am “over” flavored pu’erhs, but I still have quite a few of them in my stash to get through. This is actually better than I remember it being. I also had 1/2 of a TCHO chocolate bar before drinking this, so maybe my tastebuds are already chocolate’d up. I steeped for 2 minutes, with a hefty teaspoon of tea in an 8 oz. mug. Nice combination of earthy shu and cocoa. I only hope this doesn’t keep me awake too long tonight. Might need to up the rating after trying this a 3rd time….

I wonder if it’s too late in the day to be drinking any caffeine at 9:43 pm. However it’s a Friday night so I think I’m living dangerously. WooT!

I haven’t had this tea in a long time, so long in fact, that I had to read my previous tasting note to remember anything about it. I like the idea of a chocolate pu’erh but this is just kind of light on the chocolate flavor. Do you ever write notes to yourself on your tea tins? I wanted to remember to steep this for at least 4 minutes next time.

I haven’t been drinking many pu’erhs at all lately. Haymen at the Aroma Tea Shop says I might be all pu’ed put… lol

On another positive note I am happy with the progress I am making in PT. Although it is overall exceedingly slow I am doing a little bit better all the time so I am optimistic that I will be able to avoid surgery! wheeee

This Spicely tea is still somewhat of a mystery to me – why are they selling it at the San Francisco store but it isn’t on their website? So I couldn’t really get a photo or a decent product description form the website. Maybe someday they will add it.

This is a pu’erh blend with cocoa mixed in and it smells fairly decent in the store so I thought I’d take some home to try it.

I decided to step this Western style for 3 minutes to see what would happen. I got a very dark tea that looks almost like coffee and has a definite chocolate aroma but it sure smells like shu pu’erh as well. I wonder if I steeped this for too long but I have no idea what to do with flavored pu’erhs.

The flavor of this is interesting, to me it seems somewhat bittersweet and I wasn’t sure I liked it at first. As the cup cools down I’m getting more of a velvety, rich brew. Normally I don’t add sugar to pu’erhs but about 1/2 tsp of raw cane sugar brought out more of the chocolate notes in this tea.

Not sure if I will buy anymore of this but I have almost 2 oz. It was pricey but I also like the fact that all of the ingredients are organic. Someday I’d like to try the Arbor Teas version of this.

Will try next time with slightly less steeping time. This will be an enjoyable dessert tea, I think.

Tea of the afternoon here – I love banana and coconut and this is a decent blend but the base tea could use some improving, I think. It’s better with a little soymilk and some rock sugar but I doubt I will be buying this again once the current supply runs out…

Tea of the morning here.

They opened up a Spicely store on Market Street where I catch the bus and they have quite a large tea collection. Oddly I don’t see any teas when I go to the Spicely website. Maybe we’re a test market?

Anyway this wasn’t cheap, I paid $11.99 for 2 oz. of tea and even complained to the checkout girl that this is a lot more than I am used to paying for tea (I almost bought some other flavors too!). The tea is organic which is a bonus and non-GMO. Is any tea made with GMO’s? I haven’t a clue.

So I steeped it up this morning and was slightly disappointed. The black tea base is a little bit thin and so is the banana flavor. I got more vanilla and coconut. this was better with a touch of rock sugar. They recommend a steeping time of 2-3 minutes but I might let it go for 4 minutes next time. It certainly smells divine in the tin but I was hoping for more banana ‘cause I love banana flavored things. I’m hoping that messing around with the steeping parameters will make this better.

IMO 52 Teas always makes good banana teas. Maybe Frank will do a version of this someday? ;)