Chocolate Puerh

This pu’erh does not have the musty, fishy aroma that I’ve been accustomed to withloose leaf pu’erhs. Not that that’s a bad thing since I’m not really a fan of pu’erh. The liquid, after a 3 to 5 minute brew, is extremely dark, like a dark coffee. The straight pu’erh, without additives, has a bit of a spicy undertone. The aroma is slightly perfumed and earthy. The flavor- well it’s full bodied, but it’s hard to describe the flavor as it seems unique. I added a little Splenda to see if that would make the flavor stand out. It did make it seem little more earthy/musty, but not in a bad way. This is probably a good way to ease into the world of pu’erh teas.

Good god, this is good! Kasumi sent me a bag of it (smooches!) and included a note that it tastes like hot chocolate. It does! Smells like it too, with cinnamon and nutmeg. I added quite a bit of milk to this, and I think it might taste good as a latte too. =D

Enjoying this subtle chocolate, light earthy, warm note on this rainy night.

This tea was absolutely delicious! When you open to pouch you can immediately smell the aroma of the chocolate and spices of the nutmeg and cinnamon. The tea’s steep time was longer than it would call for but with this tea, the longer the steep time, the better the tea in my opinion. All of the flavors come together and give this tea a nice relaxing cocoa taste which is good for the days like today where it is rainy outside.

I was a bit apprehensive about this tea since chocolate teas are usually artificial tasting or taste like weird watery chocolate. This was a pleasant surprise. I don’t know if I would be able to pick out that it was a chocolate pu-erh from tasting it by itself, but I enjoyed it. It’s not too sweet so that it is reserved for a dessert tea (though I tend to drink my pu-erhs as a digestif) and it did not have any funky taste to it.

This is a great, grocery-store available introduction to pu-erhs for those that are a little intimidated.

Bonus: NUMI uses no pesticides in their tea or plastics in their tea bags.

I actually started out with this tea getting several samples from World Market with the “Pu-erh to the People” campaign. I’ve had some really high end loose pu-erh’s before so I figured why not try this one. I have to admit, for tea bags this is some high quality stuff! The chocolate blends perfectly with the pu-erh and they don’t vie with each other. It is worth noting that the other spices are almost all chai spices, but they don’t make this taste like a chai at all! In fact they sort of add to the chocolate and tea so you hardly notice them. Overall this tea was great as far as bagged pu-erh goes.

Tasty and a nice suprise.

I loved it the first time I had it – a tea bag in the Numi Collection box. I’ve since purchased the loose leaf. I like it, but there’s a flavor that sometimes hits me the wrong way – nutmeg? Maybe it’s picky about time/temperature, and I haven’t been very scientific about it?

Tastes like a cup of cocoa, tea-i-fied. Loved it. Nice with two sugar lumps for ultimate chocolatey deliciousness.

The coincidence of it all….I was drinking this tea at work last week, finally remembered that I needed to add it to Steepster, and the first item that shows up on my feed is chrine’s review!
So…as I commented on her post, my son got me this for Christmas (along with the Emperor Puerh from Numi) and I have been drinking them both last week at work. I swear…there is a hint of mint in this chocolate puerh! And it’s not left over from something else in my cup. Anyway, I do like it, it’s a nice pick up in the late afternoon!