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Okay, I’m not ashamed to say that I was deeply intimidated by this tea. When my TeaFrog box arrived, the only thing I smelled when I opened it was chocolate and spice — and it was all coming from this one sample bag. I wrapped the sample bag (unopened) in a second bag and put that in a cannister, and still that entire corner of my kitchen was overwhelmed by chocolate and spices. I made myself a cup tonight because it seemed like a good night for it, but also in a bit of self-defense!

I was surprised, then, to find that the steeping tea smelled hardly of chocolate at all. The predominant spice when dry had been ginger; brewing, the peppercorns met up with the ginger and began taking over. I was too impatient to steep it for very long, and began sipping it from a spoon right away. The tea itself is a reddish-brown, not dark but rather murky in a way that matches the spicy scent.

Hot, it tastes almost entirely of peppercorns, but it’s very smooth underneath (is this where the chocolate comes in?). There’s a peppery tingle on the tongue and a gingery tingle at the back of the mouth — this is not a tea that’s sitting still to be drunk! And I was quite right to wait until I had an evening to savor it, because this is a tea that demands my full attention while drinking. As it’s cooling, there’s a little more chocolate flavor coming through, almost like the peppercorns, having made their point, have decided to graciously back off a step and let the other ingredients have their say.

ETA: A second steeping, at five and a half minutes, brings out rather more chocolate; I would still call this a pepper tea with chocolate and ginger flavors, but it’s an interesting change. It’s also distinctly darker from the longer steeping.

And now the quandary: I want more of this tea, but I’m not sure I dare acquire an entire tin of it lest my entire kitchen wind up smelling as though my spice rack and my cocoa powder just staggered in together after a wild night on the town.

Slightly bitter yet tasty underneath: yes, I’m at work on Saturday morning, but I really do enjoy my job. Also I’m drinking tea.

Okay, I think I’ve figured out the trick of this tea, and that’s to let it steep and steep and steep until you’re sure that it’s going to be wickedly bitter.

I first tried this tea years ago (looking at the possibilities, probably 2004, so, yes, years ago — time is scary on occasion) when I went to MediaWest*Con every year. (Now I actually run a local con in the same timeframe, so I haven’t been in quite a while.) One of the room dealers sold products from Cyphre Voudou and I picked up a bag of this tea on a whim, along with some other things like a calendar of woodcut leaves and soap shaped like a tombstone. The calendar was pretty, the soap is still my preferred brand, and the tea, the tea! The tea was indeed ambrosia. I nursed that little bag of tea along for almost a year, and every cup was wonderful. And I kept the little tag on it just in case I ever went back to MWC so I could find that dealer, until it occurred to me that perhaps since then they’d put up a website. And they had! And I ordered this wonderful tea from them! And it was…okay.

sigh

This is just as disappointing as you think. Did I imagine it? Has their blend changed? Did I just get a really good packet the first time, or a bum one this time? Heavily oversteeped I do get some of the spicy-sweet fruitiness I remember (and, in fact, none of the bitterness you’d expect from abusing an innocent tea this way) but this is in no way the tea of the gods I know I had before. It’s not a bad tea! But I can’t help feeling disappointed.

Oh, this is exactly what I wanted tonight! It’s a very light, gentle fruit tea, neither sweet nor sour but perfect for sipping at the end of a long day.