Ocharaka: Hojicha Mint Chocolate

So I am finally getting around to getting the mouthpiece and valve oil for my thrift store French Horn, took me long enough, and I find myself in a bit of a pickle. A lot has changed in the world since I played my little heart out 15 years ago, mainly I have no idea where to find sheet music…or really how to read music (I gotta start over from scratch, I hope the knowledge comes back quickly) so that is going to be a fun search. I definitely think one of the things I will look for is the Jurassic Park theme, that piece is wonderful for the horn and was a favorite of mine years ago…well that and Bolero!

Today is a lazy day, meaning I lack the brain power to write about a tea with many many steeps, instead I want something relaxing…so I turn to an old classic relaxation tea, a Hojicha! Looking at Yunomi’s Ocharaka’s Hojicha Mint Chocolate Flavored Roasted Green Tea, a blend of Hojicha , black tea, peppermint, cornflowers, flavoring, and my favorite part…silver sparkles! Edible ones of course. The aroma of this tea is like a piece of toast with chocolate sauce and a very distant mint. Like chocolate mints for someone who wants more chocolate than mint and I am totally ok with that!

I was gifted this tea from a tea friend and thought it was just chocolate hojicha, so it was quite the surprise when it had mint and the silver sparkles, it was kinda epic steeping it and seeing the sparkle. The aroma of toasty chocolate (reminds me of the smell of the edge of a pan of brownies, actually) with gentle cooling mint notes as an afterthought. The liquid is pretty balanced with chocolate and mint with a finish of roasty toasty notes that are quite pleasant, like blending autumn warmth and the crispness of winter.

I found myself really torn, was this a winter tea or an autumn tea? On the one hand the gentle sweet mint and chocolate remind me of winter, with cooling mint notes and my favorite holiday indulgence (so many chocolate mints get devoured that time of year.) On the other hand the notes of pine sap, burning autumn leaves, and woody leaf notes remind me of autumn. This tea is a perfect relaxing cup of sweetness that feels like a warm blanket and afternoon naps, which is something I was much in need of.

for photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/03/yunomi-ocharaka-hojicha-mint-chocolate.html

This tea is quite tasty. I bought this with my Yunomi order received today. It’s too bad they only sell this in a 30g quantity. I would have like to have the option to pick up a larger size in the future. I would definitely buy this again. This tea blends the chocolate and the mint with the roasty flavor of the hojicha. No one flavor dominates and the chocolate flavor is not in your face powerful. The chocolate flavor nicely balances the roasted flavor so the roasted flavor is not too powerful as it is with some hojichas.

I brewed this one time in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 175 degree water for 2 min. It came out quite well at two minutes. I normally give black teas three minutes but I find greens are better at 2 minutes.

While I’m mostly a black tea gal, I do relish my nightly cup of houjicha. I’ve been wanting to try these flavored houjichas for ages, but they were out of stock for quite some time. And when they came back Yunomius sadly removed the sample option. Cameron B. came to my to my rescue and generously sent me some samples. I’m trying to drink all my swaps/samples in the order I got them, but I decided to cheat and treat myself with one of these.

I’d had a houjicha + mint blend before and wasn’t super fond of it. The mint was too strong and the houjicha wasn’t of the best quality. But it sounded like a promising blend, so I was curious how it would work in this instance. The leaves seem to be a mix of regular hojicha and hoji-kukicha (my favorite!) and there are cute little silver balls hanging out in the mix. Sprinkles? Steeped a tsp for a bit over 2 minutes at 190ºish.

Yum! This is quite nice. The chocolate is creamy and melds right into the roasty houjicha. The mint is thankfully not overwhelming, but it’s barely noticeable. Just a refreshing bit of brightness. Not bad at all, but not really mint chocolate. The website recommends adding milk which sounds odd to me, but why not give it a try.

Added a splash and unsweetened soy and… yum! Surprisingly nice. The chocolate is very creamy and it tastes super nutty. I really like it! Sadly the mint is pretty much completely drown out, but it’s very tasty. Overall I really enjoyed this and will definitely consider picking up a package for myself. I do think it would be improved with more mint, or as a straight chocolate houjicha. But as-is it’s quite nice.

Next one up from Yunomi and Ocharaka! Now, I’m pretty picky when it comes to chocolate teas, so I was unsure whether to order this one at all. In the end, I figured a mint houjicha still sounded pretty tasty, so even if the chocolate isn’t to my liking, I’ll still have that combination. The base is the same mix of roasted stems and leaves, and there are big pieces of peppermint along with a few tiny blue flower petals. Oddly enough, for some reason they felt the need to add tiny silver sphere sprinkles to this tea. I’m not sure what they’re meant to add… Dry scent is mostly roasted with sweet chocolate and a little bit of mint.

For some reason, this cup steeped up much darker than the Grapefruit & Honey version. The aroma is strongly roasted with a tiny bit of chocolate. Hmm, this one is less impressive than the other two flavors I’ve tried so far. I can taste some mint, but even that is quite mild next to the houjicha itself. I honestly don’t think I taste chocolate at all, even if I concentrate on it. So mostly this is just a plain (but high-quality) houjicha with a bit of peppermint added. Not bad, but disappointing nonetheless.

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