Spicy Chocolate

Yesterday I was at the Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco which is one place you can get the mini 1 oz. Kusmi tins. I have had the “Russian” series but this is the “Afternoon” series I am currently working on.

Yeah, it’s the morning and not the afternoon but I am drinking this anyway! I’m not normally a huge fan of chocolate teas but I do kinda like this. It definitely reminds me of a chocolate chai and has a peppery element with some cinnamon in it. I added some soymilk and it is really good that way. Some of the reviews here are mixed, but I liked it pretty well.

Steep Information:
Amount: 4tsp
Water: 212 ° filtered water 750ml
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL (Black, strong)
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: chocolate and some unidentifiable spices (pepper? cardamom?)
Steeped Tea Smell: chocolate, black tea, a hint of pepper / cardamom?
Flavor: spiced black tea, astringent, a touch bitter
Body: Full
Aftertaste: astringent
Liquor: dark orange-brown

I found this at Kitchen Kapers when hunting for a monther’s day gift for my mother. I got this instead for me (and two others).

It’s very much a chai-tea to me, and I think next time I will make it with honey and milk.

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/kusmi-tea-loose-leaf-black-tea-spicy.html

Mmm..yum!! (thank you Lori for forwarding this sample!)

This is delicious! Almost like a mocha chai cafe latte! :) The taste is rich and almost coffee-like, to me. Nicely spicy and cocoa-y.

The scent is very much like mocha (very cocoa-coffeish). And the spices…I detect plenty of cinnamon, maybe a bit of cardamom and black pepper? It’s very chai-like.

This is a flavored tea done right! I’m so happy to try out a Kusmi tea. I’ve been so curious about this brand. This is definitely full-tin worthy!

_{(lol! I crack myself up— I’m remembering a Seinfeld moment— “Sponge-worthy!!”)}

Delightful balance of spicy chai and chocolate. The chocolate flavor tempers the chai spiciness making this a wonderful dessert tea. I am looking forward to trying more Kusmi teas….

I ordered this tea from the online Kusmi store. Delivery was prompt my tea arrived at my door in less than a week. They also added a couple of tea samples….

This one is a freebie teabag that was put in my recent(-ish) Kusmi order. I’m not a huge spice-in-my-tea type girl, but hey, always up for trying stuff. (Well, almost always.) And I do enjoy Lindt’s Chili dark chocolate so who knows!

The smell is more cinnamon spicy than cayenne spicy (and I was anticipating/wanting more cayenne so that’s kind of uninspiring). The chocolate is there in the smell, somewhere between a cocoa and a not-so-creamy, kind of cheap milk chocolate. So far this isn’t looking good.

The taste isn’t all that… well, all that anything. It’s a bit warm spicy. Warmer than cinnamon, not as warm as cayenne. The chocolate… isn’t. I mean, maybe there is a faint hint of it but it’s more like Tootsie Roll chocolate than chocolate bar chocolate and the strength is more like licking the wrapper than eating the Tootsie Roll.

All in all, it’s just kind of boring. It’s not bad. But it’s not great either. It’s not going to turn me into a spicy-in-my-tea fan but it’s not going to turn me off of tea, either. I give it a solid ‘meh’.

(By the way, is it just me or are notices not working? I mean, the little red number shows up but I can’t get to the page to see them detailed.)

This one is going in the TTB (take 2) box that will be sent to Jason tomorrow THANKS TO AMAZONV!!!! She told me I could sample it before sending off! Woot! Thanks girl!

It smells like a Chocolate covered coffee bean with a bit of spice!

It’s a nice medium brown with a slight orange-ish hue.

I’m getting more spices than chocolate but it’s an interesting taste. The spices are certainly tolerable enough. I would love to taste more chocolate but I must say this is pretty good as is.

I’m so glad I was able to try it! Thanks AmazonV!

I just sampled this wonderful tea thanks to AmazonV and her generosity. What a delicious spicy chocolate tea. Like AmazonV, I am not at all certain which spices are used. There’s a peppery taste that is not too hot; in fact it’s perfect.

I love chocolate teas and this one is a perfect example of a basic chocolate enhanced beautifully by the addition of something extra: this is certainly one of the best chocolate spices I have had.

I really am disappointed in chocolate teas where the chocolate flavor is not detectable; this one really delivers. Thank you so much!

Hmm. Yes, it’s better than the plain Chocolate and probably the Chocolate Mint as well, but I’m not getting a strong chocolate flavor here. It smells divine and very promising in the tin, but the taste isn’t holding up the bargain for me.

The steeped tea does have an undercurrent of chocolate in the aroma. Mostly the spice flavor I get from this one is clove and cinnamon, perhaps a bit stronger on the clove.

The flavor doesn’t deliver much chocolate. It delivers a fair amount of spice, but it’s not a hot spiciness so much as a baked goods spiciness but without the sweetness I’d want from a pastry.

Now that I’m done sipping, there is a little spicy kick at the end.

I’m surprised, but I much prefer the Upton Melange de Chamonix as a representative of this genre.

Thankfully I’ve now tried all the Kusmi chocolate teas, so I can move on to something they (hopefully) do better.

wow this one is kinda good. the spicy part is just kinda a delicate nudge and really brightens and deepens the chocolate flavors. and it’s all very well balanced with the tea. i know we have some mexican hot chocolate in our cupboard at home and it tastes very accurate to that flavor.
i steeped it for over 4.5 minutes cuz i know kusmi does fine with longer steeps. i probably could have let it go even longer.
well done kusmi! well done.
NOW DANCE!
The BPA feat. David Byrne & Dizzee Rascal – Toe Jam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-ZpPq_stM

I’m really enjoying this tea. I think I may have found a chocolate tea I actually like! The spice really works well with the chocolate flavor. This was a great desserty afternoon tea. I think I may have to place an order with Kusmi after trying a few of their teas (courtesy of Lori). The next sample I’ll try with cream and maybe a pinch of sugar.

I’m having a cup of this thanks to a coworker who got a box from a student who traveled abroad. It’s a really really good cup of tea. I also happen to be drinking this after steeping in the muslin teabag that it came in. As far as teabags go this one is excellent!

For me the smell of chocolate is greater than the taste, and the spiciness is about the same in scent and flavor. There’s definite clove, though I’m not sure what else. It’s a rally nice dessert cup and I find myself wishing for more so that I could experiment with sweeteners and milks.

I am 6 months now, and its a girl! I am super excited! So, I chose to try this tea today. I received a teabag sample of this in the mail with my Kusmi order. I adore the cute, smooth brown and pink wrapping. What was even more interesting was the bag that this came in! It was a cloth or cloth-like teabag! WOW! I’ve never seen anything like it. I have the large reusable teabags, which is comparable. However, this is different because its not reusable (I don’t think).

Onto the tea! Have you ever smelled the scratch and sniff chocolate stickers or pencils? This smells exactly like that! It brought back childhood memories! I could definitely smell the chocolate and a bit of spice. It wasn’t that prominent though. After steeping, the liquid was a dark brown. The spices didn’t come through as much. In fact, it tasted like a very watered down sugary cocoa with a hint of warmth and spice. I was expecting a more robust cup, but this is good for those days that you want a small chocolate kick but nothing too spicy. There was no bitterness to this cup, which I love. I added some sugar to see if anything flavors would come up. I sense something nutty. Perhaps its cacao? I can definitely taste something woody and nutty with the chocolate. Very delicious. After that, I added just a tiny bit of skim milk, and this turned into a mild hot chocolate of sorts. VERY mild and light. This isn’t something I would purchase just because it wasn’t as chocolate-y as I would like it to be. The flavors were a bit bland. Perhaps a longer steep time would have helped it out.

I’m going to call my first try “user fail.” May not have prepared it long and strong enough; just couldn’t get much more out of it than spicy water flavor, even with a little milk. Won’t be so chintzy with the leaves next time and maybe we’ll get some real chai-itude out of it.

Another Kusmi which I did not hate. In fact sort of liked. It is not going to my top 3 or even top 5 of best chocolate-flavoured teas but not damning with faint praise, this is nice enough.

Well, this one is a surprise to me. Intellectually, I’d say it isn’t very good tea, but the empty tin on my countertop would say otherwise. This flavor is the 3rd regular (4.4 oz) tin of Kusmi that I’ve consumed in entirety. The first was Petrushka, which I’ve since replaced with the jumbo (8.8 oz) tin. That blend comes in as near perfection to my taste buds. The second was — shockinly — Violet. Yeah, wow, who’da thunk it? I ordered the 4.4 oz just because the smallest quanitity of what I figured was a novelty flavor. I am now awaiting the Fedex man to bring my second 4.4 oz tin of Violet.

Which brings me to the subject at hand, the Spicy Chocolate. I mention all the above to establish the fact that I am a Kusmi fan, I have been won over and it is my current reigning favorite brand. I like their subtlty. I like that it’s “tea first — added flavoring second”.

So why am I surprised that I evidentally like the Spicy Chocolate? I think, it may have to do with the naming of the tea. I think maybe it’s a bit unfortunate to call it “spicy”. I don’t think it is particularly spicy. I also think it’s a bit … perhapse…. misleading to call it “chocolate”. But it does contain chocolate, so it’s not a falsehood, but I think it does the tea a disservice because it sets a person up to expect something like hot cocoa. Which it doesn’t resemble in the least. So, if that’s what the name led you to believe, then you’ll be disappointed. But taken for what it IS, Camellia leaves with cocoa nibs and some spices, then it is good tea. That’s just it…. it’s very tasty drinkable TEA.

This is a tea that I’ve wanted to try for the longest time! Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a sampling!

Yum! This is good. The chocolate and spice are in good balance – not too spicy, not even as spicy as I thought it would be, but, I like the level of spiciness here. It would be nice if there was more chocolate (there is never enough chocolate!) but it is fairly strong.

Ordinarily I wouldn’t invest in something indicated as “spicy,” but since it came in my sampler pack I decided to be bold and try it out.

I actually rather like this. The spice is a “cinnamon and cloves” kind of spicy, not an “Indian cuisine” kind of spicy. (Hey. I always expect the worst.) I don’t taste the chocolate too much, but it’s real subtle in the scent and aftertaste. And the leaves. The leaves are a bit sweeter-smelling than the tea itself.

It’s black tea with a little spicy kick. I approve. Another win from Kusmi!

TTB 1.2

This tea smells absolutely divine – rich, creamy chocolate. The resulting tea is smooth and not at all bitter with a fairly strong chocolate taste. I added a bit of milk and sugar which just intensifies the dessert quality of this tea.

Overall, this tea is a nice surprise. I wasn’t sure it was going to be strong enough on the chocolate for me. Although it could stand to be stronger, the chocolate level is adequate and absolutely delicious. I’m not sure if it lives up to the name “Spicy Chocolate” but it is a decent chocolate tea nonetheless.

Mike: “It’s nice.”
Ricky: “It’s a little light.”
Jack: “It’s okay. Not bad.”

^{Brewed in Huge Glass Teapot}

Hm.

I got a teabag of this as a sample with the Kusmi order I received in the mail yesterday. I thought at first “Yay, chocolate!” but after brewing and adding in a packet of splenda and some half & half, it seems pretty watered down. The black tea didn’t have enough umph to make a good cup. It’s almost like perhaps I got an old teabag, or someone swapped it out for leaves from a grocery store teabag.

I expect way more quality out of Kusmi, so I am surprised. Definitely won’t order more.