Cocoa Paradiso (Organic)

Can’t believe I haven’t added a tasting note for this puppy, yet.

This is my favorite from David’s fall collection. I bought an extra 100 grams to stash away, knowing that this is a limited tea, and I only drink it now on special occasions to make it last. Anyone who wants to try Pu’erh tea but is a bit intimidated by the signature ‘earthy’ taste should consider giving this a whirl. It’s creamy, excellent with a dash of milk, and has an excellent coconut-chocolate taste that isn’t too much of one or the other. (what I mean by that, is that even a friend of mine who doesn’t usually like the taste of coconut enjoys this tea). The blend is, in my eyes, absolutely perfect and if there was a way to rate a tea higher than 100% I would!

I wanted something rich to drink tonight, but I really shouldn’t drink a tonne of caffeine as I have been up all night the past two nights. I believe pu’erh has less/little caffeine, so this fits the bill perfectly. I hope.

I always get a weird scent when opening my tin of this tea, kind of soapy. I don’t know what causes that, but it always brews up creamy and rich. Rather than a chocolate flavour, I get bitter/raw cocoa from the cocoa nibs, but it is very smooth. This is always great to come back to.

I think I’m falling out of love with coconut. I love coconut teas!! or rather I did… arh, I must! I won’t give them up I won’t! Yes I am having a tea tantrum. A tea-trum!
This cup… it was ok. Not terrible, but then there was no tea love either. Coconut can taste somewhat fake to me, and this definitely has that sort of tinge to it. I feel as if they added artificial coconut, even though I can clearly see the flakes in the mix!!
The pu’erh part was nice, but not strong enough for my liking. Oh well, can’t win’em all!
I should try this as a latte…

Don’t stick your nose straight into a new bag. The amines/amides had really built up from the pu-erh and the initial whiff was strongly fishy. After letting the package breathe, it had a mellow, creamy, nutty cocoa fragrance.

The tea brewed to a bright rust. I’ve only tried a few flavored pu-erh teas and they were disappointing but this is pretty good. The cocoa and coconut are discernable but they don’t overtake the subtle flavors of the earthy pu-erh.

[From some other notes, it appears this blend is no longer available? I’ve had this for a little while and just discovered I hadn’t posted a tasting note for it when I was cleaning out the tea bins.]

This one came as a sample with a Davids Tea order a while back, and I’ve been saving it for a cold day like this. I was a bit worried it would be too rank because I didn’t rinse it in case I ended up rinsing the flavouring out. Turns out I didn’t need to worry as this is quite a mild pu’erh, mildly earthy and dark without tasting like a mouthful of dirt or manure. The smell actually has caramel undertones though the flavour is mostly cocoa, though it’s not as chocolatey as Numi’s Chocolate Pu-erh. This tea however has a distinctly rich smoothness, perhaps from the addition of the coconut which is otherwise quite subtle.

I really enjoyed this tea, so it’s totally too bad that Davids Tea stop blending it. I voted for it a couple times when they were doing that Halloween Back From the Dead revival, but no luck. Ah well.

This tastes like a creamy pu’erh. More creamy than cocoa-y but very nice. very nice indeed, With the earthiness and richness of the pu’erh , no need to add any milk to give this a full mouth flavor. This blend has coconut BUT the coconut is not discernable. But this does not take away from the pleasure of this blend. Oh and if you are not sure about pu’erh this is a good, well great first one to try, as NO FUNNY, fishy tastes AT ALL. I have several teas to try from David’s teas and I am looking forward to trying them all.

I’m still not sold on pu’erh, so I thought that this one would be a good tea to re-dip my toe into the kettle water with. Dry, I get no fishy smell, instead I get an earth-balanced coconut. This got my hopes up since it is the fishy that really has turned me off in the past.

I really wanted to avoid the fishy, so I rinsed the leaves in cold water for a bit before brewing. It definitely helped since I didn’t get fishy at all (yay!!). The tea itself has lovely notes of coconut and a deep earthy flavour. In reading the other tasting notes I see that this is a mild pu’erh, but I still could definitely predominately taste the notes that make it such a specific type of tea. I’m not rating this one though because I’m not sure yet that pu’erhs are for me. This is definitely one of the best pu’erhs I’ve had from David’s, but I still didn’t really love it.

Drinking what little I had left of this. How I regret not getting 100000 grams of it! This is my favourite DT ever, and I am still shocked that they didn’t make it permanent. I was so sure they would that I didn’t feel I had to stock up on it… at my local DT, it was clearly the biggest hit of the 2010 fall collection, and everyone I know who tasted it was in love! Sooo rich, creamy, bold, full, pure deliciousness! What a sad day, the day I found it wasn’t permanent, and that it was already sold out. Also sad was the day it didn’t win the Back from the dead poll. Those who voted for Fantasy Island never tasted this! It can’t be!

Farewell, Cocoa Paradiso, I will miss you a lot! I might tell my grandchildren how great you were when I get old.

This is the BEST tea yet

Bizarre. This kind of defies description. Strong, not quite cocoa-y, not quite coconutty. Something about it reminds me of coffee, in a way. Best to steep carefully, as it tastes straight-up bad if allowed to sit for too long. Doesn’t totally ring my bell, but I wouldn’t say I dislike it. I seem to crave it in Summer.