Many thanks to cteresa for this one! She left a careful note saying to watch out how I brew this one because it’s difficult to get right, so I took every precaution to time this one on a stopwatch. (I don’t normally time at all- maybe I should make a habit of this?)
It smells incredible… Both the unsteeped leaves and the brew have a lovely, fragrant, vanilla-y malt smell, but without being perfumey or, on the other hand, too off-puttingly malty. It’s almost like the flavoured syrups you get in coffee at this time of year, strong and sweet, practically alcoholic.
And the taste… my first thought was “I’m drinking chocolate”! It’s more like a chocolate bar in taste than any chocolate tea I’ve tried so far! And I’m actually willing to overlook the Assam a little for something with such a smooth, strong kick to it as this.
I can’t decide if I want to buy some of this for myself- the caramel’s syrupy and strong, nearly too strong, but the chocolate taste is so, so tempting. Might try this with milk.
