Mayan Chocolate Puerh

This came today! Can someone please explain how an order placed on 4/26 and one placed on 5/6 can come on the same day?

The raw leaf smells much like Mayan Chocolate Chai only with a faint fecality to it from the pu erh (which I’m assuming is shu) base.

I’m quite surprised by the steeping parameters on this… up to 10 min?! Ok, well I have tea I wanna get thru today so I think I’ll get as much as I can out of this cuppa before moving on.

1tsp/6oz just below boiling water for 10 min.

Whoa… this is BLACK like this text color black. By far the darkest tea I’ve ever seen. The aroma has the earthiness of pu erh, but the smoothness of chocolate and the spicyness of the cayenne. It even has complex qualities that are coffeeish.

When I take a sip the 1st thing that hits me is the cayenne followed, surprisingly, by the pu erh base. I expected more chocolate. There is an occassional chocolate sip, but most of the time the chocolate just comes in as smoothness. It tastes kinda flat and I think could benefit from chai spices.

I got LOTS cayenne pepper in my first attempt. It kind of knocked my socks off. shocking! It’s ok. Personally I would LOVE more chocolate and less cayenne but I can certainly see the market for this the way it is as-is…

I received a package of this from Doulton – thank you so much!

I didn’t steep it for the suggested 4 – 10 minutes, I did a quick rinse and then steeped it for just 2 minutes, and so far am happy with the results. I don’t taste a lot of the Pu-erh and I don’t mind that, the cayenne is subtle but pops through with a nice amount of heat, and the cocoa flavors dominate. I like this way better than I expected to, given that it is Pu-erh, but then, I have been very pleasantly surprised by Pu-erh as of late.

Thank you again Doulton – I probably would not have ever had the opportunity to try this if you hadn’t sent it to me, and I’m certainly glad I did!

I actually finished the whole packet in the course of a week! I really enjoyed it! I loved the cayenne-kick and the earthy, chocolately puerh. It was just a yummy combination. One caveat, though—there was a bit of a “stale” undertone to the flavor. Just a bit. Maybe I waited too long to try it. But I enjoyed it nonetheless. Cayenne works great with puerh. I want to try more spicy blends now.

This ‘was’ going to be the final tea of my 52teas/mysweethoneybush/manteas week-end .. However I’ve decided to pull my pouch of ‘Kitchen Sink Green’ out of the box I’m sending to a friend tomorrow, and doing a write up on that in the morning .. I’m not really a Green Tea drinker though, aside from Jasmine Dragon Pearls, so it may not read favourably – but we’ll see ..

Anyhoo, Mayan Chocolate Puerh .. OMG I LOVE THIS TEA, and wouldn’t want to change a thing! I steep it for the recommended time yet it never gets too strong or bitter .. It brews to an impressive dark cola-black colour, with a red hue that’s most obvious if you choose to add milk .. And just a heads up – taking a good huffin sniff from the pouch isn’t advisable unless you enjoy sneezing :P

Personally I prefer it with milk, but I’m not fussed if it has sugar or not .. It’s smokey, chocolatey, spicy (as in hot, not Masala’ish) – the Cayenne will make your tongue tingle nicely, and I think I’m getting some nutty flavour from the Almonds but I’m not 100% sure on that .. It’s definitely malty and full-bodied, and it holds up to a repeat steeping without loosing any of these characteristics!

This really is an all-round delicious tea, and my absolute favourite out of all seven teas I’ve drunk this week-end .. I’m actually surprised it doesn’t have a whole list of rave reviews with requests for a re-mix of it?!

If it were still available then I know I’d have to order a lot more ..
http://i52.tinypic.com/2me4q5t.jpg

I’ve never had tea with cayenne pepper in it, so I was pretty knocked out by the sharpness of this tea. It’s a very odd taste. Or maybe it’s best called a sensation, rather than a taste. I’m sort of ambivalent about it right now. It wasn’t good, yet at the same time it wasn’t bad either. It’s such an odd, exceptional taste that I think I’m going to need another cup of this before I can consider it seriously.