Another tea from the Doulton gift, the second of the two I picked myself. I think it’s also the last one I hadn’t tried yet. I think. Not sure. I don’t have much in the way of a general view of the tea situation at the moment. All I know is that I’m halfway through the Lockdown Conditions I set, and that it doesn’t seem to be making much of a dent in the holdings. I’ll probably have to do a double of that or some such. I can deal with that. It seems like it’s going pretty fast at the moment. But that was a tangent.
Back on track, we have this tea that has received absolute rave reviews on the site so I’m very very curious about it and not a little nervous of getting disappointed. I have such high expectations of it now.
Unlike the leaves which smells primarily of hazelnuts and chocolate, the aroma of the finished cup is a more tea-y sort of sweet. Oh it’s still very chocolate-y and not so much with the hazelnut, but the sweetness is not only chocolate.
Hmmm. That was unexpected. The aroma made me think I’d get some sort of viscous liquid like for example milk is, but that didn’t really happen. I just got a sip of… tea. The flavour isn’t nearly as strong as I had thought it would be. This always happens to me, though, so I don’t hold much to it.
After a few more sips, it’s easier for me to figure out what it actually tastes like. I need that first one to realise that I’m not going to get chocolate milk here, however much the aroma might try to convince my brain otherwise. Now, with a more reasonable tasting sensation, I’m picking up a lot of hazelnut and a slightly bitter astringency of the tea underneath, but not really a whole lot of chocolate, except if I really look for it.
As it is right now, it’s a very nice tea. Nicely balanced with the nuts and the chocolate and the tea base underneath, but I think it could be better. That, though, I believe is result of my brewing. It seems a little under-done somehow. I’m just not sure yet whether it’s leaf amount of steep time or both that needs tweaking here. I guess I’ll just have to give one of them a go the next time I have this.
