Valentine's Black Tea

Advent Day 14

Interesting to have this included in an advent, especially when S&V has so many festive blends. It’s fine. Not a huge fan of the fake chocolate flavor, but it’s not too egregious. I do like that it’s distinctly raspberry, rather than the usual chocolate/strawberry blend. The aftertaste is quite tart from the hibiscus. Slightly astringent.

Simpson & Vail Advent Calendar: Day 14

I wish S&V included just a liiittle more tea in each packet, because I think some of the blends I’ve tried so far would really benefit from overleafing. I had a feeling that would be the case with this one, so I brewed it up with less water than usual. It still feels weak, though!

I’m mostly getting a zippy raspberry, with a noticeable tang coming from the hibiscus. I can pick up the scent of chocolate, but I don’t taste it… which is probably a good thing, because I suspect it would be that awful faux chocolate flavoring.

Meh, this isn’t doing much for me! The raspberry is verging on too sour without chocolate to balance it.

2021 sipdown no. 117

Thank you Cameron for sharing all the teas! This tea is one I really enjoy! It’s on my to-order list when I eventually place an S&V order.

Chocolate and raspberry sounded good this morning, so I steeped this one up as my first tea of the day.

Unfortunately, I am not a fan. All I can taste is chocolate flavoring, which always seems so artificial and waxy to me. There’s a little hint of raspberry at the end, but mostly it’s fake chocolate.

Nope, nope nope! This one is going into the swap pile so I can send it off to someone who will enjoy it more.

Thanks to tea-sipper for the share! This tea has definitely grown on me over time. The first time I had it, I didn’t find the chocolate strong enough. This time I overleafed it, and the chocolate is very rich and strong. The raspberry flavor comes out more as it cools – it’s like having a bar of dark chocolate with raspberry inside. I shared some with my dad, who said, “Now that’s a good tea! That tastes like a tea a rich person would drink!” So anyway, this tea is pretty high quality and really what other chocolate teas should aspire to be.

From the Samurai TTB.

I’m finally breaking into this beautiful tea box! It feels like I haven’t had tea in at least a week (though it hasn’t been nearly so long) and I couldn’t tell you why. I’ve wanted some but I guess I haven’t had the motivation to make a cup? Anyway, I thought I would start with the one tea in the box that I had on my wishlist.

The Simpson & Vail website mentions pomegranate in this tea’s description, though I didn’t taste any of that here. For me, it was unequivocally a chocolate and raspberry duo. Nothing else. I gratefully couldn’t taste the hibiscus one bit either. The chocolate was a bit thin for me at first, with the raspberry coming through after, but overall it was a well-rounded cup.

As I was drinking it, I couldn’t help but think about 52Teas’ Peanut Butter and Raspberry Jelly which is probably my favorite raspberry tea. That one doesn’t have chocolate, so I probably shouldn’t compare, but I do think I like the 52Teas raspberry better. It’s more jammy (jammier?) which I like. I’m glad to have tried this one and to mark it off my To Try list. Thanks, tea-sipper, for adding it!

So this Valentine’s blend never falls on the right day, so here it is now. I’ve had this a couple times, but the cup today was my favorite yet. Using one teaspoon, I don’t think the flavor was working for me. I think the magic is using more than one teaspoon. I saw plenty of big cocoa nibs in the blend, as well as something red (I guess raspberry bits and hibiscus). The flavor on both steeps is a lovely cocoa chocolate. Probably one of the best chocolate teas I’ve had so far (especially a chocolate tea that doesn’t include cocoa shells). Sadly, there is never a noticeable raspberry flavor. But luckily I’m also never tasting any hibiscus… I really love chocolate and raspberry together so a great jammy raspberry flavor with THIS chocolate flavor might be the most amazing tea ever. I definitely might have to indulge with this tea and use TWO teaspoons at least to see what happens, though the black tea itself seems dark enough and the perfect briskness with a teaspoon and a half, so I shall see. Both steeps were very similar in the amount of chocolate flavor. I dumped half the second mug on the rug… I rarely do that… I was really enjoying this tea too.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

The next day, I tried steeping two teaspoons while following the same parameters otherwise. Somehow this steep session was slightly less chocolatey than yesterday. However, now I’m noticing some hibiscus which is interesting. Obviously the hibiscus is not overpowering if I barely noticed it before. A little while ago, Mastress Alita mentioned a nice chocolate/hibiscus blend that actually sounded delicious, so it’s funny I actually HAD a chocolate/hibiscus blend around here. I do think the flavors are an interesting combination. I’ve had some unappealing chocolate teas, so this chocolate flavor being actually chocolatey is great. I guess the flavors that result are also in the luck of the scoop. The tart hint of hibiscus with chocolate is great. So basically I wanted to try the two teaspoons to make sure the black tea wasn’t too astringent, and it isn’t to me. I think the black tea strength was similar to yesterday’s 1 1/2 teaspoons. So I do prefer this tea with 1 1/2 or 2 teaspoons. This might get a rating of 79 with one teaspoon but using more tea makes this a tea I’d like to stock up on. And with a jammy raspberry flavor, this blend would be one of my very favorites.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 16 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Bought this because it contained chocolate and raspberry, my two favorite ingredients for tea. It is quite good. The raspberry comes on strong as does the cacao. Can’t really taste the hibiscus. This is good tea.

Brewed this in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 minutes.