Not a grassy green tea. Very delicate. The strawberry flavour is refreshing, not fake or jammy. Steep carefully. Evocative. Helps ease me into a meditative state.
397 Tasting Notes
My favourite black tea blend, ever, and I have drunk many. While David’sTea’s David’s Organic Breakfast gives this blend a serious challenge, Britannia’s English Breakfast remains my Writin Tea, my comfort, and, when needed, my wake-up. I am not sure what’s in this blend, but I will guess at a goodly amount of Keemun (winey), Assam (malt and heft) and possibly Ceylon (brightness). Deep and complex, with many tastes dancing in the mouth. I never let myself run out of this one. I steep it just over three minutes but have drunk it after 5+ minutes. Can get a little tannic and astringent around 4-5 minutes, so just treat it nice.
I must have a REALLY fresh batch this time, because the apple-y taste of the green rooibos dominates. And that’s fine. I get the cocoa on the aftertaste. Perhaps not as much cinnamon as last time. Still, my favourite rooibos-based blend ever. And really refreshing.
I wish, I so wish, I could find or blend a tes and spice mix that satisfies like this concentrate; I always feel like I’m cheating somehow when I enjoy this. I make this withone part conencetrate, one part milk. If making it on the stove, I might add an extra ginger&black teabag or two (Stash Ginger Breakfast). Pleasantly warming with a goodly punch of ginger; creaminess from the milk soothes any burn. A bit sweeter than I’d normally drink milky tea, but then adding water or more black tea can help fix that. Fabulous treat when you’re chilled through to the bone. Not much black tea taste on its own. Prepares easily in the microwave, but it tastes and feels better to me on the stove, with extra black tea added.
Yes, I’m yakkin about Super Chocolate again.
Today I steeped 1TB in a filter bag in a 300mL glass mug rather than in my 450mL travel mug, and I forgot to add stevia. So I have a stronger tea base, and I can really get the sharp nip of cinnamon this time. Seriously, the more I drink this stuff, the better it gets. Puh-LEEZE, Canada Post, bring me my order that you said would arrive on the 28th.
Sweet, almost too heavy on the papaya, and grassy. Potent kick through the bombilla. Gives at least four good infusions. For all the sweetness, I find I still need to add stevia to it or the blend upsets my stomach. Not an everyday cup for me, but it certainly delivers what it promises.
Trying the ‘Improved’ version of this today, ‘improved’ apparently meaning new, mostly white box and individually wrapped bags.
I don’t smell anything cuminy, thank GAWD. Eugh. I do get minor spiciness, some decent carob with a distant whisper of cocoa. They show ginger and clove on the box, and list ginger in the ingredients, but I’ll be steeped if I can taste any.
Lessee … roasted chicory root (ah, bitterness and barkiness), carob pods, spices (how mysterious), natural flavour (of what, I should like to know), cocoa shells, ginger, licorice root (gag — except I can’t taste it, either), stevia leaves, cocoa.
Usually I run away from anything ‘Chocolatey,’ as it tastes fake.
This is not a disaster. It’s not brilliant, either. A bit like spicy cardboard with carob rubbed into it. My teabag’s been in the cup now 8 minutes and cooling off. It might be better brewed in a pot and kept hot. It gets sweeter and deeper the longer it’s steeped. The carob smells medicinal to me, but then I’ve also encountered it in various health tisanes, like Traditional Medicinals’ PMS Tea. The Chocolatey Chai tastes better than PMS Tea, but then one expects mediciinal teas to be a little harsh. Yeah, cardboard. I go back to cardboard from the back of the spice rack with some carob and cocoa on it.
Okay, at the 9-minute mark it gets bitter and barky, probably from the cocoa shells and carob. I know, 9 minutes is a bit extreme …
I expect I’ll finish the box, if only out of a sense of duty and to ration out my dwindling stash of Super Chocolate from David’s Tea, but I wouldn’t recommend any of my buddies waste their time on this one, ‘improved’ or not.
Maybe if I steeped the box instead …
I think this stuff is helping me beat back a cold. And it gets better every time. Try being generous with the amount of tea; I use 1 TB for 450mL. Tastes of cocoa, apples and cinnamon, yet it doesn’t. Like no other tisane I’ve tried. I steep this one a long a time, keeping the leaves in the infuster basket of my travel mug as I sip it. Not candy-bar chocolate.
Tastes mostly like real bananas and nuts, though there can be a strong sweet-banana aftertaste from the banana chips if you steep is too long. (I’ve left mine in the travel-mug infuser 15 minutes now.) I like the balanace of the nuts and currants, too.
A really good bagged black tea, probably the best of the supermarket teas. Doesn’t get bitter. I know women who make a pot of this, drink some while it’s hot, leave the bags in and then microwave subsequent servings — and it’s still decent. Not too much Assam, so other flavours play out. Not fancy, but not to be despised, either.
My first-ever tea, steeped strong, with evaporated milk added. My parents still keep King Cole in their kitchen. Malty. Hoo boy, is it ever malty. Sta-RONG. Can get bitter, but forgives a longish steep. I drink it plain these days, when I have it, which is not often. Sentimental favourite, though. Not fancy but certainly dependable. More robust than Red Rose, and miles better than Tetley.
Sweet, a bit chocolate-y, a bit marzipan-ish. Tastes a bit like flavoured coffee smells. I don’t taste either coffee or tea, but something delicious. It gets better with each sip.
Gets bitter fast, probably because the green tea base is not the best. But I want that jasmine hit, ooh baby, want it baaaaddd … can’t find a happy medium for steeping this one.
Sharp, minty and a bit fruity. Quite a different fusion. I feel creative after drinking it just because of the creativity that went into it. Needs a really long steep to get all the flavour.
An excellent and truly different mint tea. I love the wintergreen and orange.
Peppery and welcoming. Clears my mind. No bitterness. Very clean. An excellent Yunnan.
A really good blended bagged Darjeeling. Makes excellent iced tea. Does not get bitter. Sharp and snappy with some muscatel and astringency. Much better than many alleged Darjeelings on the supermarket shelves. (Twinings, I’m glaring at you.) Utterly dependable. One of my go-to teas.
Also forgives a long steep.
Clean and packed with caffeine. Forgives a long steep. Hardly a delicate or fancy tea, but delicious and dependable.
Lime. Just lime. Incredibly refreshing if you have a cold and might even aid recovery the morning after a hard night. But know this: LIME. In all its overpowering and possessive glory. Caveat drinker.
I keep steeping this too long to get more spiciness and end up instead with bitter Assam and a few bits of cardamom. The anise ruins it for me — I strongly dislike anise. Otherwise a bland chai. Expensive. Not sure this one is worth the retail price, though other Numi Teas definitely are.
My favourite Earl Grey, ever. The presence of bits of bergamot, versus ‘bergamot flavouring,’ with a decent black tea, makes an enormous difference.
Sadly, this tea is very hard to find in my part of Canada, and Numi doesn’t ship outside the US.
A fun tea. The scent coming all pent-up from a tin can be a bit overwhelming, but that’s rose petals for ya.
So, China black, chocolate and rose petals … steep gently, maybe sweeten if you like … a wickedly good afternoon or evening tea. A good balance. I feel more beautiful after drinking it; that’s chocolate and roses working their magic. If you like flowery teas, definitely try this one. Would make a lovely accompaniment to dessert on the way to … um, sorry, better keep this PG. :)
I ordered this in a 50g pack, which I’ve not come close to finishing, and have since received several free samples of it. I want to like it more than I do, but I find all I taste is sugar and a dull China black tea. Am I not brewing it strong enough? I don’t taste anything pumpkin pie-ish, either, just more sweetness. It tastes — to me — almost as though the tea has been much stronger and assertive but eventually got whittled down by committee until it became inoffensive. No spice kick, either. A calm and gentle chai, just not to my taste.
I dunno about skinny-ness from drinking this or any other tea, but something did counteract my last pigout. Maybe this tea. Maybe not.
It’s sharp with the ginger and ginseng. Quite hot with the ginger if you steep it over 3 minutes. The pu-ehr itself is almost lost until the gentle aftertaste.
Overall, I really like it once I start drinking it, but it’s not a go-to tea. Given my jeans size, perhaps it should be. ;) This one is like Earl Grey for me: I have to be in the mood for it, but when I am, nothing else will do.
