Read My Lips

Yummy!!!! So chocolatey and minty, but not gross whole-leaf peppermint like I dislike, more of a candycane sort of peppermint, which I find completely tolerable in conjunction with chocolate! I thought I would finish off the tin of this from the advent calendar last night, but alas, there was more than just 1.5 tsp in the tin, it was more like 2.5. So I left the rest for my roommate.

Anyhow, I’m drinking this one cold as well as it has sat since last night. It tastes pretty much exactly like liquid peppermint patties, which I actually really like. And aside from the lack of actual… chewable matter in my mouth, this is quite satisfying as a dessert tea! Definitely one to pick up if you love chocolate mint.

Delicious! Just the right amount of chocolate and mint — neither overpowers. I’m not sure what else is going on in there (i.e. what role the pink peppercorns play? Depth and gravitas?) but OH did I enjoy my tea this morning!!!

I may tell you that I got this because I was out of the generous amount of Harney’s chocolate peppermint black that ashmanra sent me, and I missed the flavor profile. I may tell you that I got this because it is so well-liked here on Steepster. I may tell you that I got this because it has a Chinese tea base. But make no mistake. I got this because of the WEE RED SUGAR LIPS!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIQMTo6ryh8

(swoon)

They are also very Robert Smith-esque, but I’ll quit it with the 80s references (I can point to “Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me” too, but I said I’d be quiet now!). I wonder if the person who created this blend is about my age, and swirled and twirled to the post-punk that I still hold near and dear to my heart?

Read My Lips – this is the best chocolate mint blend, hands down! Thanks to Wifey_Woman for sharing some from her stash. I am officially a David’s Tea fan!

Love the blend of dark chocolate and peppermint. This is a liquid peppermint patty, which is one of my favorite candies. Chocolate and mint are a match made in heaven and sipping this tea will send you to cloud 9!

This blend of chocolate and mint lasted through three steepings, too. Longevity rocks!

P.S. The little lip candies are totally cutie too.

chocolate and light. sssssslightest bit of mint.
it sweetens and it deepens.
matching the christmas eve sky.
here is a poem for you to enjoy.

by ee cummings

if in beginning twilight of winter will stand

(over a snowstopped silent world)one
spirit serenely truly himself; and

alone only as greatness is alone —

one(above nevermoving all nowhere)
goldenly whole,prodigously alive
most mercifully glorying keen star

whom she-and-he-life ifs of am perceive

(but believe scarcely may) certainly while
mute each inch of their murdered planet grows
more and enormously more less:until
her-and-his nonexistence vanishes

with also earth’s
—“dying” the ghost of you
whispers “is very pleasant” my ghost to

warning, fitness-centric post!

so first things first, i use myfitnesspal to try to keep reigns on my eating so that i don’t out grow my pants and so i can continue to progress at running. today i added a category for tea hah! it goes TEAS, breakfast, lunch, dinner. duh should have done that long ago.
i also add every tea i drink to the database, even if they are adagio fandom blends and i’m the only person who will drink them. i love seeing bilbo or sherlock names when i go to log food.

now, i have also registered for a relay race in October. it’s usually a relay of 12 people but this year we are doing and ‘ultra’ team which means we each run twice as much over the 30 hr race. about 33 miles each person is the estimate. since i prefer long distances i’d have it no other way.
we need a name for the team, so i’ve been brainstorming puns. the race is 6 people in a van, 1 person runs at a time, and if you can decorate the van for a theme it’s even better. the first round of punny names include:
Repo Van
Vando Calrissian
Encino Van
Vans Labyrinth
The Hobbit: Van Unexpected Journey
VAN Hell Zing
The Van Who Wasn’t There
A Van with No Name

Another tea I get to cross off my TEA Bucket List thanks to Daisy Chubb!!!!

This reminds me of DT’s Santa’s Helper and I really like that! I think that one is a little more mintier and candy-like but this one is darned dandy, too!

It’s chocolate and mint and sweet and satisfying…might have to make some minty DT purchases soon! :) Thanks again DaisyChubb!!!!

I finally made it to the new store in manhattan (Bleeker) and I just love the staff there. So friendly. They were impressed that I came In with a list of teas. I am a dork, obviously. They were sampling this tea today and I’m pleasantly surprised. I didn’t expect to like it this much since mint blends tend to be overly minty and I’m not usually a fan of black tea but this is good. The tea base actually acts as a malty boost to the chocolate with a minty brightness keeping it interesting. I was almost tempted to get some. Instead, I left with about ten .5 ounce bags of different teas to try.

I’ll be back to try others. Yaaaay. I’m so excited that DT opened here.

Chocolate mint has always been a favorite combination of mine. It started back when I was a Girl Scout and got to try my first Thin Mint cookie. Now this season at work we are selling Peppermint Mochas and mint chocolate cookies. I have been dying to eat a whole mint chocolate cookie, but my diet will be so happy that this tea has been found!

Thanks again Kristin for the delicious sample. I will have to get my hands on a tin of this once I clear out more of my cupboard. This is a delicious tasting chocolate with mint and vanilla and black tea. I forgot I brewed it and let it cool quite a bit, and it is very delicious at room temperature. I bet it would make an even better hot tea, and a really good tea latte with some chocolate milk. I will have to heat up the next cup and review again. This tea makes me happy!

Bit of a backlog: My mom needed me to come in to her store today and price-sticker stuff for their grand opening on Saturday, so I did that. On the way there I picked up some steamed milk at SBUX to make this one into a latte when I got there.

I had nearly forgotten how good this one is. It basically remains the best chocolate tea I’ve ever had.

What’s really weird about that is that this is also a chocolate mint tea. And I hate chocolate mint, to the point that the smell of it can literally bring bile to my mouth if it’s strong enough.

But I like this one. Why?

I guess the mint is soft enough, perhaps? It’s like the mint is cushioned in a soft blanket of cashmere chocolate, while other chocolate mint things are like I’m being stabbed with peppermint and cocoa. Ugh.

Also, I picked up a bottle of caramel syrup from Second Cup on the way home (haha, gotta spread out my small bit of coffee-shop business) so I can mix it up with my vanilla syrup. I’m currently having a caramel matcha latte made with vanilla almond milk. HOLY BALLS, it’s amazing!

this is another tea I got from softrevolution.
If everything continues like it smells it’s going to be fantastic. This has to be the yummiest smelling mint chocolate tea I have smelt. The peppermint is fantastic and the chocolate smells like real chocolate, not artificial like many others.
Upon being steeped it looses most of the chocolate smell… oh no :( it tastes nicely pepperminty however the chocolate barely comes threw at the end. as it cools a bit more the chocolate comes through a little more. However I didn’t want my tea to cool today it’s a chilly morning.
Overall I wish there was some more chocolate flavour to it. but still very enjoyable.

oops I forgot about my strawberry zabaglione that is steeping

A tropical storm is coming, and the skies are a beautiful grey. This is one of my favorite times for tea, plus its saturday. I’ve been wanting to try this tea for a long time and thanks to Amanda and Nicole, I finally have some DavidsTea!

This has to be the best smelling tea ever. It smells almost as yummy brewed.

So first, I’m trying this without any sugar or anything in it.
I get the minty taste first and a silky mouthfeel.  If I didn’t know there was chocolate in it, I honestly don’t know if I would have thought of it, but as it cools I think I taste it more.

It is a nice refreshing wake up tea. I imagine it would be really good with milk and sugar, so I will try that another time. The fact that I can drink the whole cup without any sweetener in it is saying something, and actually, that makes it a winner. My boyfriend said he tastes a hint of spice and I agree. Its starting to rain and now we will visit my favorite tree covered jungle-like park, since this weather makes it the best time to do so!

This is a really cute tea in the bag. With the contrasting colors and little lips and chips. It smells JUST like this chocolate mint icecream candle I have that I absolutely love. I had good expectations.
To me the best part of this tea is the refreshing feeling from the mint after you swallow. I wish there was more chocolate, but all I’m really picking up on for chocolate is an artificial chocolate scent. Which is something I’d like to smell, like in my candle for instance, but not taste. If that makes sense. Maybe like how I like the smell of fresh laundered clothes, but I wouldn’t want that taste in my mouth. That’s how artificial chocolate scent is to me. I’ve worked with artificial scents/flavors in my life a lot so I guess I’m just picky when it comes to that subject. I’ve got quite the judgmental nose and palate.
Thanks to Jenn for a sample of this, really glad I got to try it!

Edit
Yeah, the more I try to drink this the artificial chocolate scent/flavor is getting on my nerves. Not my cup of tea! I’d love to just use the leaves as a pretty potpourri! lol.

This tea has piqued my interest for awhile and I’m finally getting around to trying the sample that came in one of the sampler packs I bought from DT awhile ago.

Both cups were steeped for 4 minutes.

The first cup I tried with a little rock sugar. There’s definitely chocolate and mint in here with a touch of peppery spice at the end of the sip. It wasn’t overpowering like other teas have been, but I could probably do without the pepperiness so I tried it again as a latte.

The half and half I used to make the latte helped drown out the pepper, so that was a step in the right direction.

Quite honestly chocolate is not something I’m usually drawn to in general, but this had a nice balance of chocolate and mint. Probably not something I’ll end up buying 50 grams of, but if it came in another sampler pack, I’d be alright with it.

Yay! I finally found my sample of this tea! I thought it had either gotten lost in the move or that I had drunk it and forgotten to write a tasting note. (Blasphemy, I know).

The aroma of the dry leaf is pure York Peppermint Patty! It smells amazing! When I first lifted the lid off my strainer to get a whiff of the brewed tea, I was assailed by overly strong mint and peppercorn. It felt like my nose hairs were burning!! Oh dear. But once it began to cool, the chocolate aroma came out more. I’m excited to try this, but I really hope those peppercorns die down. I’m not a fan of hot and spicy things.

First sip, hmm…this is interesting. It’s mint at first, and then it slowly transforms into a prickly peppery sensation on your tongue after you swallow, but then the mint seems to come back again. And then finally about 10 seconds after the sip, I get a dark chocolate flavor that’s so soft it’s like I ate a piece of chocolate 5 minutes ago and can still taste it.

The more I sip, the more the chocolate comes to the forefront. It’s definitely mint chocolate now followed by that prickly sensation from the peppercorns. I think it would be much better without the latter. I’m just not a fan of that sensation.

I’m going to add a little bit of sweetener and milk to try and overpower this strong mint. It’s making me feel lightheaded. Ah, that’s a little better. I think I probably should have used a bit less leaf. This is one strong cup of tea! I like mint, but I think this might be too heavily mint for me. I’d like more of a balance between the mint and the chocolate. It was fun to try though, and I’m sure others could enjoy this more than me.

When I smelt this in the store i was like oh jeeze its after eights! And just had to get some. Too me it tastes just like the after eight mint chocoalte candies, which tastes amazing. This is a great sweet treat tea.

My first time brewing this, and wow, not sure what to think. I thought this was a chocolate tea, but it is peppermint, a lot of pepppermint with some chocolate underneath. Irresistibly reminding me of After Eights – I know just which of my friends is more likely to loooooove this. But After Eights are not a particular favorite of mine. I am still pretty surprised by its taste.

About the tea itself, the base is very smooth. Pink peppercorns are included and are highly visible in the dry tea (which is oh so so pretty) and I think it adds a resonance to the tea of subtle heat. People sensitive to pepper, chillis or ginger might not like it as much as I do, but as I said, it´s subtle. The red “lips” seem to melt and add texture and sweetness to the tea.

This is the best smelling chocolate tea. Probably ever. Mm, smells like mint chip ice cream! Creamy chocolate, plenty of mint, and a hint of vanilla coming through. I used to drink a lot more of this when I first discovered it. It was the first chocolate tea that I actually liked. I find a lot of them to be gross-artificial, and they end up giving me a headache. Not this one though!

My only real gripe with it, and the reason I stopped drinking it as often, is that it doesn’t taste anywhere near as good as it smells. It’s delicious, for sure, but after you’ve smelled the dry leaf, the tea itself doesn’t even compare. Sigh.

Still one of my favourite chocolate teas though! I had it at work today and it made my boring day a little nicer. I need to start bringing ‘real’ tea to work more often. I could get used to this desk job business, if it means drinking tea all day :D

First things first – I do not like the idea of chocolate in tea. That is what hot chocolate is for. That said, I’ve wanted to try this for a little while – I really like mint, and I realize that I have to try chocolate in tea sometime so I took the plunge. Well, really, I bought some of this for an upcoming bridal shower and tried a cup first. Don’t tell the bride!

Anyway, I brought this home, continuing to be unsure of my thoughts. I brewed a cup right away and am now sipping. I am getting a pretty strong mint taste – I like that. The chocolate comes in as well, but in a weird way on the sip. Almost like I had recently eaten some dark chocolate and am having a mug of minty tea afterward, but still have a bit of chocolate flavour. I think I like it. I’m not really sure. I don’t know that I would buy it for myself because I don’t see the point, but I think I will keep a little bit, in case I ever need it. It’s almost like a cocoa with mint in (something I often do) but much milder on the chocolate.

ps – I bought another tea with chocolate in it for myself. When I push my boundaries, I really push, apparently. We’ll see how that goes.

EDIT – The further I get in the cup, the more I think I like it.

Decided, after much debate to go check out the farmer’s market today. Parking lot was UTTER MADNESS, so I went to DT instead. Purchase some new Pure Vanilla and a tin to keep my swap swag in. Tin isn’t big enough, but that’s another story.
I get home and let the dogs out, sit down, check FB and find out there was a dog show at another building on the grounds and that was why it was so busy. I would have loved to check it out. Disappointed.
Let the dogs back in, the brown devil aka Rally Rims is COVERED in mud. She needs a bath which will take a wrestle. It’s a darn good thing I have a great cup of tea in my hand or I’d go mad… Wait, the other dog just yarfed. Can it be a new day now?

I haven’t had this tea in a couple years, and bought a cup at the store back when DT just opened at West Edmonton Mall. I remembered liking it, but thought it was nothing special, so I never went back to it. But thanks to the Steepsterites, I have decided to give this another whirl and order some. So glad I did, so thanks to everyone for the suggestions!

The dry leaf seriously smells like a peppermint patty. And the candy lips and mini dark chocolate chips are adorable. Even the aroma of the steeped tea stays strong with the chocolate mint vibe.

Taste-wise, I don’t get as much chocolate, but the mint is clean and pronounced, and there’s a sweetness to this that separates this from most other peppermint teas. I don’t get any heat from the peppercorns, but once again (third tea I reviewed today that had this problem!) I think I should steep it a little longer. I’m always paranoid of oversteeping so try to take it easy on that the first time around. The tea base isn’t overpowering at all, so I’m quite positive that giving this another minute or two will only amp up the chocolate and wake up those peppercorns.

I think that was maybe the problem when I had a cup of it at DT? Perhaps the SA didn’t steep it too long, and together with the tea bag, the chocolate didn’t have a chance. Poor thing. But this is definitely a charming tea that I think would make an excellent gift, both because it’s so visually appealing and because it’s a more universally liked flavour.

So I went to Davids today. Again. And I picked up this one, even thought I’m not fond of chocolate. Also I picked up 2 pu’erhs. I have no idea how to drink them – and they’re brand new, not even on the website yet! Aloha and Berry Good. Can anyone give any advice or suggestions on how to properly drink a pu’erh?

This one smells pretty good. Everything seems pretty evenly distributed. Mint chocolate for sure. I did enjoy the red lip sprinkles mixed in haha. This is pretty smooth, a really nice drink, but not my cup of tea. My BFF would love this one – anything chocolate works for her!