I was looking for something strong today so I settled on this wonderful chocolatey blend from 52 Teas! I steeped 1 heaping teaspoon in about 12 ounces of hot water for 2.5 minutes, as recommended (although I admit I totally failed to do the recommended “wait 10 minutes after steeping for best flavor” thing. I get a little impatient for my tea, lol).
Once it’s steeped, the tea is a medium darkness, not really red or orange but more amber-ish or cedar-colored. It has a few teeny oil droplets on top, which tends to happen when you put chocolate chips in your tea, lol. I can definitely smell both the black tea and the chocolate flavors as well as the rose.
One thing that puzzles me about this tea is that I was sure I saw a white chocolate chip among the tea leaves, but I can’t taste it at all. Where did the flavor go? I know white chocolate isn’t really a dominant sort of flavor though, so maybe it was intended to just add to the general creaminess without actually showing up distinctly in the flavor profile. If that’s the case, then it was a success. The flavor is quite rich and truffle-ish. Since the tea has plenty of sweetness already, I didn’t put sugar in, but I did experiment with adding milk. I then became unable to taste the rose flavor, which is unexpected. It still tastes nicely of chocolate and tea, though.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Description:
Blend is no longer available but check out the black teas that are here!
Chocolate Coconut Truffle from The NecessiTeas
Imagine my JOY…Chocolate Coconut Truffle from The NecessiTeas option! YAY! The chocolate in this flavored Black and Honeybush Blend is cocoa nibs. I really must pause and try and explain to the best of my ability the aroma that rolled out of the bag once I opened it. It was like a DARK Chocolate Brownie. Upon a second sniff I was able to take in the coconut aroma as well.
Chocolate Coconut Truffle from The NecessiTeas has a very dark sip at the beginning and then follows through with a sweeter middle sip. The end sip on to the after taste is much more creamy and dreamy and the flavor that lingers well on to the after taste is another treat in itself.
The apple ingredient is more of an afterthought. It’s very subtle but I couldn’t imagine Chocolate Coconut Truffle from The NecessiTeas without it.
Once this has had a chance to cool at room temperature for a bit I noticed the flavor becomes even more smooth. This is darn tasty! Now I want to eat a brownie! Chocolate Coconut Truffle from The NecessiTeas the ultimate sweet tooth tea.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea/Honeybush Blend
Where to Buy: The NecessiTeas
Description: A truly sublime black tea mix, this “island night” blend of real coconut and cocoa evokes the rich and calming beauty of an after hours exotic getaway. The undertones of honeybush tea, apples, and other natural flavors beautifully complement the chocolate and coconut, making this flavorful escape a full destination of deliciousness.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Dark Chocolate Oolong from Liquid Proust Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Liquid Proust Teas (No Longer Listed)
Tea Description:
Ingredients: Roasted Oolong, Cocoa, Flavoring
Learn more about this tea on Steepster.
Taster’s Review:
This is one of Andrew, from Liquid Proust Teas, crazy ideas but one which certainly looked interesting to me. I can’t actually remember ever trying a mind blowing chocolate oolong and so the possibility of this tea filling that whole intrigued me a lot! The dry leaf looks really interesting; and it has a soft, sweet cocoa smell and some floral notes too.
Hmm, this didn’t brew up to be the most appetizing smelling or aesthetically beautiful. It’s very murky/cloudy looking, and I get the impression it may have an oilier mouthfeel. However, the really concerning thing is the aroma of the liquor coming from the cup: it’s like the most floral oolong smell I’ve ever come across mixed with mildew and wet dog? And I know that’s harsh – but honestly that’s what I’m smelling and it’s making me gag just a little bit.
The weird thing is that it actually doesn’t taste bad; and I don’t know if I’ve ever come across a tea with such a disconnect between the taste and smell since those two senses are so incredibly intertwined. I mean it’s certainly not the delicious cocoa tea I was expecting but it’s actually nice enough. There are very strong nutty notes and then more medium notes of burnt toast and cocoa in the body of the sip. There are also subtle moss and floral notes. I don’t really like the way the more natural/floral notes pair with the toasty notes and sweet cocoa – it’s kind of like some sort of unholy Frankenstein’s monster of tea.
I’m gonna call it; this is the first offering from Liquid Proust that I dislike – I could probably handle it if, when I went in for a sip, I didn’t have to smell the steeped tea but that just kills it for me. That said, every other review I’ve read has been favourable so if you get the chance to sample this I encourage trying it and forming your own opinion. It’s just not for me.
Australia Houjicha Green from What-Cha
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: What-Cha
Tea Description:
Two Rivers Green Tea started producing tea in 2001 with the aid and encouragement of Japanese tea experts who were seeking to encourage Japanese style tea production for the domestic Japanese market. The Two Rivers farm was selected as it has the same latitude of southern Japanese tea farms, idea temperatures, rainfall and great quality topsoil.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Recently I placed a What-Cha order for myself, and one of the things I was looking for was a Houjicha to stock up since it’s one of my favourite kinds of green tea and while I currently have a Genmaicha stocked that I really like there’s a hole in my cupboard where a good Houjicha should be. This one comes from Australia, and personally I’ve never tried an Australian grown tea before though I was aware that they were produced. Australia is one of those regions that isn’t typically thought of as a tea growing region among people who aren’t more learned tea drinkers the same way people don’t realize tea is grown in places like Kenya or Hawaii and I’m very excited to get my first taste of an Australian tea, especially considering how affordable this blend was. It was an easy thing to gamble on.
I do think this was worth the gamble. While it’s not as straightforwardly roasty as I tend to prefer from a good Houjicha there are some very, very nice subtle nuanced flavour notes that more than makes up the different. For starters, there’s an interesting nutty notes that seems to make itself known in each part of the sip in a different way. With that first initial taste it’s light lightly toasted nuts, and then in the body it weaves in and out between the other flavours. In the aftertaste, you’re tasting the shadow of the nut flavour which once was.
There’s also some really nice sweeter notes like caramel and cocoa which gently stretch out across the surface of your tongue, creating this really nice, smooth body flavour. The finish is lightly smokey, and leaves you wanting to go back in for another sip so you can experience the flavour dynamics all over again. Overall it’s a very warming and welcoming cuppa.
I definitely think I’ll clear my purchase of this easily, and will probably go back for more after that. More than that, this only gets me even more excited to try more of what Australia has to offer!
French Toast Dianhong Black Flowering Tea from Liquid Proust Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Flowering
Where to Buy: Liquid Proust Teas
Tea Description:
As my first batch of French Toast Dian Hong, I decided to go lightly on the flavoring because the natural cocoa taste from the tea is pleasant enough to keep the flavoring at a low amount. This tea proves to pull out different taste from different steeps from my experience and I am hoping you find the same to be true.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Some of my favourite tea companies are the ones where you really get a feel for the owners as people; a hand picked sample, signed note added in to my order, and online interactions on sites such as Steepster are all touches that win me over quite a lot as a consumer; and something really cool about Liquid Proust Teas, a retailer which opened quite recently, is that I kind of got a feel for the owner, Andrew, before the company was even hatched since, first and foremost, he was a Steepster member himself and is a consumer as well as a seller too.
Recently, I did a swap with him and he generously included a few of his own blends. Personally, I thought this seemed the most interesting of what he sent me. A few other companies such as 52Teas, both under new and old management, have attempted French Toast teas but I’ve yet to be wowed by one and I think Andrew’s approach here is quite a bit different than the ones they’ve taken so I’m definitely excited!
I brewed this ‘Grandpa Style’ because that’s my typical approach with blooming/flowering teas. I knew that there was a possibility that it would get bitter because that’s a risk you always take when brewing Grandpa Style but this was unwaveringly smooth and silky. The entire time I spent drinking this (a few hours in total) there wasn’t even the slightest hint of bitterness OR astringency. I’m incredibly impressed by that.
The flavour was very fluffy and sweet, but reserved enough to not be cloying or make me feel like I was drinking syrup straight from the bottle. The rich notes of custard, cream, vanilla, cocoa, and, yes, egg hardly waned at all throughout the session. There were also lighter notes of cinnamon that I thought did fade towards the end of my session, and some pretty pronounced malt notes from the tea itself along with more muted floral notes. I likely could have continued to drink this for another hour or possibly longer with very little flavour deterioration. More than that, if it had not have been midnight I would have continued to drink this which is certainly high praise from me given that I dislike resteeping in general (drink as many teas as possible in one day is my philosophy).
My only criticism would be that the “toast” part of “French toast” was lacking; I’d have liked stronger bread notes contributed from the base tea to complete the illusion; but that’s just me getting hyper critical of one of the better flavoured teas I’ve had all month. If Andrew’s other teas are as tasty as this one I’m in for a real treat!