This one presents an interesting idea: pu’erh tea and chocolate flavoring in a breakfast blend. It also has mallow flowers on the ingredients. I don’t know what they are supposed to taste like, so it was one more reason I had to try this blend.
The dry leaves in my tin do not look nearly as oily as the leaves in the picture provided for this entry. The in smells heavenly. The biggest note is chocolate, but I can smell some aged tea smells in there, too.
The color is a red-brown, with some murkiness; it is medium in darkness compared to other breakfast blends I’ve brewed. The aroma above the cup is mostly that of black tea. The chocolate comes in next.
I first get the flavors of a nice black tea. Flavors are generally bright. I taste some cinnamon. The pu’erh provides some powdery, back of the throat flavor but is not dominant here. Chocolate flavor comes in as the last and lightest note. I appreciate this. It is there, and it is nice, but the tea flavors are clearly dominant.
This gives me gum-tingling astringency, which I like in a breakfast blend. Bitterness is balanced and at the higher end of what I can enjoy without adding milk, also appreciated in a breakfast blend. However, it could definitely be bolder and still be enjoyable, especially with milk.
Adding milk transforms this cup. The chocolate comes out front, making it remind me a bit of a milk chocolate bar. Some of the black tea bitterness goes away and the pu’erh comes out a little bit more, and these are interesting mixed with the chocolate bar flavors. I feel like, with milk, I could never get this cup confused with anything else in a blind taste test.
Astringency starts to make my tongue feel dried out by the end of the first cup. I love it!
This is an interesting blend that I enjoy.
