Cabaret

Finished up my little bag of this. It is a very unique tea. I like it, and sometimes I don’t. It’s for certain moods and certain palettes; however, I don’t feel I’ll order it as a staple. Love the name, though, so that’s kind of a shame, but there’s so many teas and so little room and time.

Well, there’s a name to raise eyebrows and either pique some interest or completely drive it away. XD. With all the deep notes of cherry and cacao, malt and wood. The alcohol notes are stronger than any other tea I’ve tried before. It highly reminds me of whiskey.

This is a tea from AJRimmer. I’m always excited to try an AU blend, they’re always interesting at the very least.

For some reason this one tastes like chocolate and banana to me. I don’t know if it’s because I let it get cold or what but how strange! I’ll certainly have to try this again and see if I get a more expected result

This one tastes very similar to Bird & Blend’s black forest cake. I get a pretty balanced fruit and chocolate flavor. It’s done decently well, though it’s not one I’d really choose frequently due to my own preferences.

I can’t really decide how I feel about this tea! I got suckered into a purchase thanks in large part to the write-up on the August Uncommon site. (AU hires some fab copywriters!) It’s probably just my pandemic-induced wanderlust exerting its influence, but the description of a gilded café in turn-of-the-century Vienna won me over. Plus, chocolate and cherry! What’s not to love!?

The thing is, I don’t really get much of the cherry flavor. Chocolate, yes, and it’s not a bad chocolate, either — it’s rich and slightly bitter. But the cherry gets a bit lost for me, other than a whiff in the dry leaf. Like many AU teas, this one has almost overwhelmingly powerful scent before steeping, to the point where it’s almost off-putting. Thankfully, the flavor is more subdued.

Hmm… as it cools, the cherry is maybe coming out a little more. But I don’t think I’d identify it as such if I didn’t know it was in there. It’s just a round fruitiness backing up the chocolate and the slightly astringent base.

I’m definitely digging it more as it cools; the flavors come together and make this a satisfying cup. I bet it would make a good nighttime dessert tea if I weren’t sensitive to late-night caffeine.

Worth a try, I’d say, though I don’t imagine I’ll repurchase.

This is a super cozy cup and so easy to drink. Trading the smoke of Outlaw for chocolate, this blend almost makes me like chocolate cherries and remember that Black Forest Cakes exist and are some of the few cakes I like.

This tea is also a nice consolation for an eventful Canadian Thanksgiving (only three of us this year). First, my father accidentally poured the gravy into a pot with soap (ahhh… he’s the saddest about the loss of gravy). Then I placed a stirring fork on a hot stove element and then touched said fork with my middle finger, somehow. My finger is currently in a nice cold glass of water… but I at least I have tea!

Taken with oat milk.

April Sipdown Alphabet Challenge: “C” Tea
This one has a nice and authentic dark chocolate flavor. It has the bitterness and fruitiness that the darker chocolate bars have. I also get some of the booziness but unfortunately, my sample didn’t have any pieces of cherry in it. It’s also somewhat drying on the tongue. Something to note is that my cup did have quite an oil sheen to it on top and I know that bothers some people. It’s a nice chocolate tea and I bet it would be even better with the cherry. I just noticed that they recommend trying this tea with milk so I’ll do that next time.

Chocolate and cherry are both flavors I tend to steer away from in tea blends, as chocolate is often too thin and artificial-tasting and cherry tends to be either medicinal or hibiscus-tart. But this one was a pleasant surprise! It’s one of the better chocolate flavorings I’ve run across…rich and dark and just the tiniest bit bitter, like a quality dark chocolate. The cherry plays second fiddle, but provides a nice dark fruitiness that combines well with the chocolate…no hibiscus and it also doesn’t taste like cough syrup! This blend is quite pleasant straight, but I’m thinking it would be outstanding as a latte.

Sipdown! (18 | 91)

Wow, the leaf for this one is tiny! There were some big dried cherries/cranberries but everything else was in very small pieces. I really like chocolate and cherry together, but I tend to be disappointed by chocolate teas, so we’ll see how this goes…

It’s not bad. The chocolate isn’t terribly artificial, which is saying a lot for me. There’s a definite boozy note to it that I don’t love, and the cherry along with it is making me think of amaretto. But there’s also a deep, syrupy bordeaux cherry flavor.

My only issue with this one is the base. It’s an Assam, and it tastes very generic and tannic to me. The astringency is conflicting with the other rich and smooth flavors, which makes me sad. So this probably won’t be a repurchase because of that…

But it’s quite good for a chocolate tea, and that’s coming from me, a self-proclaimed chocolate tea hater!

Sipdown (1287)!

A bit sad about this sipdown – this is one of the better chocolate cherry teas I’ve come across. This cup was divine; dark chocolate with a fudge-y cakey quality while also having that boozy chocolate liqueur note. The cherry was dark Bordeaux cherry; the kind used in fancy AF craft cocktails in place of maraschinos. I like the sophistication of this blend, and how it’s sweet in a way that’s sultry and heavy and not sugary and over the top.