Chocolate Mate Chai

I picked this one up last summer from the London Tea Room and it was my first experience with pu-erh and mate. My fiancee and I were hoping for a smooth, chocolatey flavored chai, but it wasn’t quite as we expected. I’m rating it today so I can pass it along to someone who will hopefully appreciate it more. The dry leaves smell very sharply of a spicy cocoa. The description mentions a Ayurvedic long pepper, so I am guessing this is the reason for the spicy aroma. The tea liquor is a rather thick, dark brown color with an oily sheen on top. The flavor is overwhelmingly of pepper. A little of the vanilla comes out when sweetener is added, but it is still followed up by a strong pepper taste. It honestly is like drinking liquid black pepper, bleh. This one is just not for me!

-Dry blend is a mixture of small broken black and green leaves, pieces of bark/wood, twigs and coconut slivers.
-Dry leaves smell like sharp, spicy cocoa. Tea liquor aroma is very earthy and peppery.
-Tea liquor is a thick dark brown color with an oily sheen on top.
-Subtle cocoa flavor with an overwhelmingly strong peppery finish.
-Best with sweetener.
-Poor tea. Sweetener brings out the vanilla notes, but the primary flavor is overwhelmingly of pepper.

I sampled this tea yesterday at the London Tea Room (LTR), & it was quite tasty, especially with a little stevia (yes, I carry stevia around with me everywhere I go, & teabags, but you knew that…). The name makes you think it’s just mate & chocolate, but there’s also some puerh in there, adding depth, along with some vanilla & a little coconut. It was good, & it had promise, so I bought some.

Every morning the countertops in my kitchen are clean when I wake up. By evening they are littered with a selection of cups, saucers, miniature bowls, spoons, various brewing implements, etc. Every tea must have it’s own way of being brewed & served (to myself, mostly), & this one is no different. I want a Latte, so I’m using my tall ceramic cup that has its slide on heat absorbing band.

So I brewed 1 Tbl of tea (to make it strong) in about a cup of hot water for 4 minutes with a little stevia, meanwhile heating up some coconut milk (I did not measure it, sorry). Then I swirled them both together in my preheated cup, & yum! It’s nice & creamy, like a mild cup of hot cocoa. I might use even more tea next time, simply because I go for BOLD.