I meant to review this last night as I drank it with Kaliska via Skype, but I ended up getting too distracted.
First of all, this tea smells fantastic dry. Its aroma is decadent dark chocolate with just a hint of peppers. Mostly, it smells like cocoa. The leaves are dark brown and pretty uniform, in small pieces. They’re loaded with pink and orange peppercorns and chunks of cocoa. There are also a few pieces of something I can’t identify mixed in… looks kind of like dried fruit? It might just be pieces of a pepper.
Once steeped, there’s a bit of oil collected on top of the dark brew. I’ve seen this before in coconut teas, but never chocolate ones. Not sure where it’s coming from. The flavor is very chocolatey, but not entirely what I expected. There’s not really any burn from the chili. In fact, it’s hardly present. I think I’d have to double-up the leaf to really get it. Also, there’s a taste that reminds me of popcorn. Yes, popcorn. This tea tastes like chocolate-covered popcorn. But in a good way? I’m going to have to try this again with milk and see what I think.
Chocolate covered popcorn?? Oooooh! I really need to try this now.