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The last time I had this, I made it as a tea infused hot chocolate. At the same time, I made a plain hot chocolate for my sister the same way. Turns out she really liked it because about two weeks later the ingredients I need for the hot chocolate showed up in our grocery shop. When I asked what they were for, she told me so I could make her another hot chocolate.

Well, today is the day she wanted her hot chocolate. And I’m not just going to make it and not make one for myself. That would be silly. So I pulled this tea out again because this is the best way to work through it.

The hot chocolate really should be made with dark chocolate instead of milk, which is how my sister likes it. It’s just way too rich but in a sweet way, not a decadent one. The earl grey made for a nice counterbalance to the chocolate at least.

Sipdown (278)

This was the oldest tea in my stash. It’s from Sil from back in September 2017. Thanks for sharing Sil! but no commenting on how old my teas are!

This one was so good and so fruity. Unfortunately I don’t remember specifics because I had it while steepster was once again acting up. I just know it was so delicious!

Seems the key to this tea is having it as a tea lemonade. It tastes like what I imagine an orange Julius tastes like. Cold. Refreshing. Tart. And yet it’s also creamy and sweet. Nice vanilla/marshmallow flavor that goes nicely with the citrus. Think creamsicle but with more citrus.

I have a terrible habit recently of making tea and then not drinking it until it cools. So I have basically been having luke warm to cool teas for who knows how long now. This tea is no exception and I feel it would have been better when hot.

It’s ok. Sort of coffee. Sort of chocolate. Sort of coconut. Sort of vanilla. A lot of jumbled and not my favorite. I think I may try it as a latte…or toss it into my swap box…

My package of this tea was mislabeled which means I was brewing this blindly. However, I do know that 52 Teas rooibos blends tend to be steeped at a slightly lower temperature for a long period of time. So, with that in mind, I put about 1.5 tsps into a tea bag and tossed it into 10 oz of 190F water. I meant to leave it for like 10 minutes but I started playing Crash Bandicoot with my brother-in-law so this steeped for closer to 30 mins. Oops.

With all that said, something went wrong somewhere. It’s fine but surprisingly bland for the long steep time. It’s got a sort of strawberry-ish but mostly generic fruit note which is super subtle and a touch of the rooibos base. It isn’t bad but it isn’t necessarily good either.

This tea seems to be highly rated here on Steepster but at least from my cup today, I feel like it’s an alright milk oolong. But just alright. Not amazing. Not special. A milk oolong that is enjoyable but there are better milk oolongs out there. The Tea Haus milk oolong comes to mind and so does the random milk oolong from either Sil or Evol Ving Ness.

With that said, this is quite buttery. More milky than creamy, which is why I think I prefer other blends a bit more since that makes for a richer/more decadent mouthfeel. This also has more of a green tea-ish undertone aka grassy notes. It’s fairly smooth though and not overly heavy with any sort of flavor which makes it an easy-drinking tea for a daily drinker I guess. Since I don’t drink the same tea daily though, this isn’t something I need stocked. I will be alright to work through the sample that Roswell Strange sent me though. Thanks for sharing!