Azteca Fire

Moving right along in my deep wade through my “everything with the word chocolate in it” buying spree of yestermonth, we come to this Teavana offering. I’m most excited by the fact that this has neither rooibos nor honeybush in it. I am trying to recall whether I’ve had an herbal chocolate blend that didn’t have rooibos or honeybush. Yeah, I think there was a TeaFrog sample of a tisane with chicory in it, but that’s all I can recall.

It’s got fruit in it (apple and strawberry) but the fruit morsels are surprisingly tiny in their chunkiness compared to the usual Teavana fruit blend. The smell of the dry mix reminds me of what I’ve smelled when I’ve stuck my nose into a Halloween bag after trick or treating. A lot of different sweet smells all mixed together, with chocolate and fruit among them. Oh, and there’s spice, too. A pretty strong spicy note, which fits right in with the Halloween theme as it takes up the banner of red hots and their ilk. Spicy sweet, but not cinnamony.

The infusion is the color of apple juice, the dark, no sugar added kind, and cloudy. It has a less intense version of that generic candy aroma from the dry mixture.

Now here’s the really weird part. As I started to sip this, I realized why I made the association with Halloween. Candy corn! Yeah, strangely, that’s what I taste. More of a corn syrup flavor than anything else. Maybe a tiny bit of cocoa, and some sweetness from the strawberry, but put it all together and I get candy corn.

The first time I made this it was pretty weak. I was able to strong it up a bit, but it didn’t change the candy corn note. The spice isn’t enough to make an impression.

Candy corn is ok, but I don’t really care for it in my tea. Fortunately it takes so much of this to make an infusion that is strong enough to have flavor, I only have about a cup’s worth left.

Tea/tisane of the evening…. (SRP #6)

This one comes to me from FairyFli. (Thank you so much!) She sent me such a generous bunch of samples of herbals and others from Teavana. Actually, I am excited to try them. I have not yet been to a Teavana, but I have placed a few small online orders with them for sale items or when they had free shipping. I do window shop for the teaware on occasion. We have a few stores locally, so if I find something really good and unique (and am lucky enough that it is in their current offerings), I can pick a little up for a special treat. I don’t think any of them will make my daily cuppa lists, but they are fun. And I am usually looking for a dessert replacement. This one is not bad at all.

I am going to be honest in that I went a little heavy on the leaf. I used 4 perfect teaspoons (which translates to 6 actual tsp) for my 24 oz pot. I also caved and sweetened this with Splenda. It is definitely sending me vibes of dessert. It is chocolatey, a little fruity, and there is a hint of spice. Really, it almost seems more like a hot chocolate than a tisane. Pretty tasty, and I might consider it if I need serious dessert tea without caffeine. Is this in any way a serious tea? No way! It is pure fluff and not for those who take their tea seriously all the time.

Thank you, Fairyfli! This is going to be fun!

Another tea I’m getting to try courtesy of…yep you guessed it AmazonV!

This one I’ve been curious about for quite sometime. I shop Teavana quite a bit in person while my son is making me wait for him while he shops the mall so I see this one alot and wondered if I’d like it the Teavana girl recommends it with there Black Dragon Pearls and well ya’ll know how I like my black Dragon pearls!

I need a real caffeine kick today as the weather here is just blah! It’s all overcast and just not a beautiful day. So I went for this and blended 3 dragon pearls and one and a half teaspoons of the Azteca Fire set the timer for 5 minutes and came back to what appears to be a cup of coffee. LOL this is not good considering that I hate coffee well I actually probably like coffee but the longer I keep myself from experimenting with coffee the better. I do not need another drinking habit so I refrain from coffees.

Anyway I’m rambling on to the tasting note these two mixed are dark like coffee and in the smell I get like a nutty smell mixed with chocolate. This cup is thick like much thicker than just plain tea. The two together taste like chocolate coffee with a hint of nut. I would have loved to have tasted the strawberry in this one I know it’s in there because I saw it in the dry leaf but sadly I could not taste it. This is a good cup I think I like it better than Mayan Chocolate Chai but it does not have the chili pepper kick that Mayan chocolate chai has.

This cup might actually wake me up and get me out of my sleepy stupor.

I was impressed with the scent of this tea while steeping, it actually smells like chocolate, which I can’t say of most chocolate teas. Once steeped, it didn’t look very appealing, the color was very murky and there was a lot of oil settling at the top of my cup. On its own I don’t think this is a very good tea, it was very watery tasting, but I do think it has potential to be mixed with something else that has a lot more body to it. I was also surprised by the lack of spice present in it.

Rather than dump my cup out I decided to mix this with an equal amount of black dragon pearls, also from Teavana, and thought it was much better. The black base gave it the substance it was lacking and with some added sugar it reminded me somewhat of a spicy hot chocolate. It isn’t perfect, but I think that with the right base I could enjoy this tea on occasion.

Thanks JustJames for sending this to me, it was interesting to try.

Thanks to Ze_Teamaker for the sample of this tisane!

Okey dokey, I am skeptical of chocolate flavored teas, they are almost always a disappointment, I think you should just cut the chase and go straight for the hot chocolate. :P

I steeped this for 7 minutes which is a little bit longer than the instructions suggested. It definitely SMELLS like chocolate. The flavor is sort of a watered down chocolate mixed with fruit, the spicy element is present but much milder than I thought it would be. I thought this was better after I added soymilk to it because then it became like chocolate milk. :)

I might try adding some black tea to the rest of it and see what that does. It was better then I thought it would be but I am not dying to get any of my own…

I got this in a swap, thanks * kallieboo*
So this is one I wanted to try, probably the most from Teavana. Once I smelt the dry notes it wasn’t what I expected. I figured it picked up the chocolate smell from another yea, my memory doesn’t serve me well, I didn’t remember this was suppose to be a chocolate tea.
I’m only getting a chcolate smell from the dry notes.
I used 3 perfect teaspoons for my 16 oz mug, as I usually do. Good thing too, because this is super light on flavour, something I’ve come to know from Teavana.
It tastes like hot chocolate made with water, which I don’t drink, my hot chocolate has to he made with milk. I’ll finish what I have I’d this tea, but I’m pretty sure I won’t buy it.
With the leaves I have left I think I will brew it up the chai way. On the stove with milk.

Thank you JustJames!

I guess it’s a teavana thing, but this Azteca Fire really reminds me of the Cococaramel Sea Salt blend. I guess because both are chocolate and oily? I don’t care that it’s oily though because it’s actually REALLY chocolatey. More than I’ve had in any tea I can remember.

Maybe because I oversteeped it?

But I’m mostly just grateful that I have an herbal tea that isn’t fruity and isn’t rooibos or honeybush like 95% of all my other non-caffenated teas. I’m happy JustJames gave me some to share, and I just remembered that Jackie T was sending me some along with the Cococaramel Sea Salt! So, I will be awash in Teavana chocolate teas. ;)

I’ve only ever had this mixed with Matevana (all in one tin – it was a gift) and that was super yummy. So I opted to buy a little of each on it’s own and try it. It isn’t bad alone. I can really smell the chocolate and strawberry coming through. It tastes pretty mild to me. I think this is a tea that would be better served mixed with something else. I have some Moroccan Mint I think I’ll try blending it with in the near future.

SIP DOWN!!!!

This little bit left has been around in my cupboard for a while now at least I can get rid of it to put my Yu Lu Lan Cha tea in.

Ok the last time I tried to spice this tea, I ended up burning the back of my throat…… to much red pepper flakes to blame.

Then when I tried it again with added red pepper flakes, it didn’t even register. This time I think I got a lot closer. It was about a pinch and a half of red pepper flakes.

Also I used almond milk which was put into the microwave for 30 secs. I don’t like trying warm up milk or H&H cause I am afraid of it curdling. Also I am starting to like mix it in my drinks. It is more flavorful then milk.

Also to revup the chocolate I put in a square of Lindt chili chocolate….. it’s spicy you see.

So after much trail and error I finally got a decent brew from this tea. The strawberry doesn’t get pushed to the side and shines through the chocolate. The red pepper flakes add a nice heat and tinge in the mouth, mostly on the back of the throat, but in a good way; not like last time. After drinking the whole cup my mouth has a nice warming and numbing to it….. hmmmmm.

Any ways on to the rating I give a eh. It is really just watery chocolate strawberry; plus you have to add stuff to get any heat. There are a lot of spicy hot chocolate recipes out there. You could probably make your own mix with a strawberry tisain and mix in chocolate chips and pepper your self that would be better and cheaper.

Specifics

Pot: Porcelain
Water: 8oz
Almond Milk: 4oz ish heated
Additives: pinch and a half of red pepper flakes, and one square of lindt dark chocolate
Sweetner: Not needed.