Smoky Chocolate

Liberteas Thanks for this one!

This has more of a dark chocolate type taste to it with that strong LS base. It’s ok but not my fave from 52 Teas. The aftertaste lingers a little weird for my liking but I can handle it…maybe a tad smoky-bitter??? I’d love to taste more chocolate as my Sororitea Sister mentioned…I agree!

Smoky? yep. Black? yep. chocolate? nope. Where is the cocoa!? Hrmmm. Agave didn’t do much with it either.
Really not much more to say. Seriously, that’s all I got.
Anyhow, thanks to Kittena for the sample! I always wanted to try this one.
Rating: 73

So I wasn’t too sure about this open but figured what the hell when the girls asked me if I wanted to try it….I say girls because by now I’ve completely forgotten whether it was kittena or indigo loom who gave me these…though most will fall in indigos world. I’m not sure the smell would warrant keeping this tea around if it came back. It’s damn overpowering! But that being said, the tea itself is actually really nice. It could be a little more chocolatey but overall I really enjoy it. It reminds me of camping back when my parents used to take me…this tea tastes like your clothes smell once you get them back to civilization after a week of campfires haha I love it!

Thanks to Amanda for this sweet sample! I had my first Lapsang Souchong at my local tea house (Happy Lucky’s) last month and really loved it. When Amanda and I arranged our swap and I saw this Smoky Chocolate I was excited to try it. You either love or hate the smoky tea’s it appears to me, and I’m a lover. I read the other reviews and agree that this is lacking on the chocolate taste. The smoke is not too powerful at all which would be a relief to those who are timid about trying a straight Lapsang Souchong. Adding some sweetening does improve the tea and brings up the chocolate a bit so that in my opinion the aftertaste is almost like a chocolate Necco wafer candy. Malty, chalky. Don’t brew too long or you’ll have a bitter brew. 3-4 minutes max. I did not add milk.

Backlogging. 9 days ago. Thursday early afternoon.

The February Backlog: From the 1st to today.

I’ve had these teas since last February but this was my first time trying this one. Maybe that is why I am getting more smoke and less chocolate. The chocolate is just a little bit in the background. Still this tea is good. I drank a second steep as well.

Backlog: I tried this tea yesterday and wrote a review to be published this evening, here it is: http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/02/17/smoky-chocolate-tea-from-52teas/

This one gets better as it cools slightly (not cold, but not piping hot either), but I still think it would be better if there were less smoky and more chocolate. Good, but not great.

I really didn’t think I was going to like this. The other smoky tea I’ve had, a black gunpowder, was just undrinkable for me. This I can do. And I like it a lot. Some of the best chocolate I’ve had has included smoked salt and almonds, so I figured I would give it a try.

It smells like chocolate melted over a campfire, and that’s almost how it tastes too. But it could use WAY more chocolate, for me as it’s cooling it’s like the chocolate is getting lost.

I didn’t use boiling water, I let it cool for about a minute after it reached boiling. Not sure what that made the temperature, but I was kind of scared that maybe at boiling it would be too smoky or something.

Maybe at some point I will try straight lapsang souchong but for now I’m going to try that method on the black gunpowder and see if it makes it drinkable!

So here goes my attempt to try a bunch of 52teas before ordering! This generous sample was sent to me by LiberTEAS in her big box of teas :)

The smell of the tea is majorly smoky. MAJORLY. Not unexpected, and very intriguing! I have yet to try a lapsang souchong, so am not sure what I’ll think of it.

Steeped, it’s just SMOKY smelling. So interesting. Really like liquid campfire! I wonder if it gets into your clothes the same way…?

The taste is very smoky, slightly sweet, and perhaps there’s some chocolate, but I can’t really taste it specifically.

I think this would be better if there was more chocolate. I do like the smokiness, and can see myself craving that flavour if I was in the mood, but there’s a similar flavour in the Mayan Chocolate Chai, so I think that would suffice :)

I had a friend over this weekend for a tea party and an excuse to catch up. As we discussed tea, she told me how one of her greatest favorites is a nice Lapsang Souchong. Knowing that I had just received a sample of this tea, I showed it to her and she immediately wanted to try it!

I enjoyed the smell of the dry leaf quite a lot. It’s mildly smoky and chocolatey. I could tell it would have a hearty flavor. It reminded me of camping trips with my family and standing around the fire as the tenuous breeze would blow the smoke onto each of us in turn.

Once I brewed the tea, I was a little less optimistic. The smokiness had become a much stronger aroma than it was with the dry leaf. Like when the wind puts the smoke from the fire on you alone for too long, to the point where you have to move. Unfortunately, the flavor, for me, was much the same. Almost like I had inhaled too much smoke. It reminded me more of liquid smoke than tea. So, personally, I wasn’t a big fan of this.

My friend with me loved every sip and refilled her cup 3 times. So it’s definitely still a nice tea, but just doesn’t fit my tastes. If you are interested in it or have a particular love of Laspsang Souchong, definitely give this a try!

Wow, smoky! Not sure I taste the chocolate in this one. Not bitter or too sweet, but very smoky which is throwing me off. Not sure this one is going to be a keeper for me.