Mayan Cocoa Spice

It has been a long time since I last had this! I’m having this as a super late night cuppa. This tea was something that my husband actually liked a lot. So I just found out I wasn’t out of it and I figured I’d give it a run.
It is warm and spicy, but not overly so. I like the slight chocolate. I think a lot of the Yogi teas I’ve had lately are very cinnamon-y. Which isn’t bad at all. This has an underlying flavor I can’t quite put my finger on. But it is all pretty good.
I seem to like all these Yogi teas everyone hates. lol

This is the first and only Yogi tea I’ve tried that isn’t annoyingly, cloyingly licorice-y. As a matter of fact, licorice doesn’t even show up on the ingredient list. The sweetening evidently comes from stevia, chicory and cinnamon. Not bad straight, no milk. Worth finishing the cup, but don’t know that I’d do a rerun.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Water: 8 ounces hot spigot water
Steep Time: a little over 3-5 minutes (steep.it for 3 min, plus walking around office)
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, hints of coco
Steeped Tea Smell: hot chocolate with hints of pepper, cardamom, and cinnamon
Flavor: sweet chocolate with cinnamon pepper hints
Body: Light
Aftertaste:
Liquor: cloudy light brown

Tea Tag “Gratitude is the open door to abundance.”

The instructions actually call for sweetener and milk or milk substitute! I fail to follow directions apparently.

I was expecting a stronger flavor, but this is a very nice spiced chocolate tea (tisane). It is very tempting to make this with some black tea and honey though so it’s a bolder body.

This was a gift from a co-worker who heard me and my mad science experiment with the milky way packet and coconut chai earlier.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/yogi-tea-teabag-herbal-tea-mayan-cocoa.html

Strange taste…almost artificial. The cocoa tastes almost like leather…milk&honey don’t do much good either. And what are those oily spots that swim on top of my brew?Actually I start to feel kind of nauseous.
Oh God…and still a whole bag to go.

Okay, so, the first time I tried this, I’m not going to lie, it was AWFUL. It was watery, weak, and barely smelt of anything it promised on the box. It was pathetic, and the one thing that was supposed to make the Grammys bearable [tea solves all my woes, ’kay?] just made it worse, haha.

But. I have been looking for a nice, spicy chocolate blend for ages because I am trying to cut down on my chocaholic tendencies. Since I have no concept where to begin online, figured trying something boxed might be a good start…

There is hope! Today, I steeped it in a smaller mug, double-bagged, for ~10 min., added a dash of milk, and some real sugar. Can’t say it is suddenly a gift from the tutelary Mayan Tea Gods and Goddesses or anything, but it is definite improvement from last night and means I may even be able to finish the box. I taste more of the spice and smell more of the cocoa, which is not exactly the desired balance, but quite tolerable. All of the flavor tends to sit at the bottom of my mug, but I believe in the power of my white chocolate strawberry scone to combat the powers of evil. A new hope? If double-bagged mixed with some chai, it should be even better. I have tried to salvage this tea!

Kind of a weird duck. Not tea, not hot cocoa, not creamy, but not totally watery, has some mouth coating/filling quality. Not traditionally chocolaty, but reminiscent of a chocolate cocoa-y flavor. Boardering, on but not quite medicinal.

And yet not bad. It grows on you. I think it would be good late at night when you don’t want caffeine and might otherwise have a cup of something by Celestial Seasonings, but want something fuller, more flavorful and mouthfilling. But without caffeine or calories. Best with sweetener and warmed milk added.

I’m a fan of reading ingredients before I buy stuff… I know licorice and I don’t get along, for instance, so most Yogi teas are out (incidentally, people with high blood pressure or on blood thinners shouldn’t consume licorice)…

I’m confused by the migraine and wouldn’t blame tea—especially as the neurological signal from sip to brain would take about fifteen minutes with even the most intense triggers like MSG. Fluorescent lights are a bigger risk than ANYTHING on this label. My background is in neurology AND I have migraines at times… they come with hormone changes (females especially at the start of a cycle), they come with free glutamic acid, and then environmental and stress triggers… maybe if the person were SUPER SENSITIVE to ginger that could make for a reaction, but not the amount in a tea bag.

So yeah, I read the ingredients… chicory has a chocolate mimicking taste-it’s what makes the chocolate Fiber One bars more chocolatey than normal (and it has fiber). This isn’t truly decaf, and for me, it requires 2 bags… but more often, I’ll make 12-16 ounces and use 2-3 bags vanilla hazelnut by Yogi and 1 bag of this (this one’s much stronger but still not especially strong). It MUST have milk—it’s awful without—and sugar, too, is recommended (it says upfront add sweetener and milk or milk substitute—this too makes doubling the bags a must)…

That said, I don’t fault Yogi for this phenomena, but tea bags almost NEVER have the amount of tea/spices that you’d actually use (even if your “loose” tea was crushed like this, it’d still be more than this)… so be prepared to use more with most bags if they aren’t abundant in “flavors” which could be anything and which almost always are extremely concentrated, unlike “real” ingredients.

I like it. Whether I should or not is debatable… I make it very strong, again typically mixing it with the vanilla hazelnut (which is oddly named as it’s also more like a vanilla chai flavored tisane whereas this is a chocolate chai type tisane)… but this came first, long before the vanilla hazelnut one was introduced, so I’ve plenty of experience with this… oh, and it’s also really neat to use steeped cocoa spice tea as the base FOR actual hot cocoa—droste cocoa, milk or cream (the latter if you’re like me), sugar, and a very strong concentration of this—4oz or so—and boom, you’ve cheated on your spicy cocoa and don’t have to stir and simmer anything on the stove.

This teabag was a gift from Lisbet. I luckily read the reviews here before I made it. I made a smaller cup with this teabag than I otherwise might have to increase the strength and I added a couple of tablespoons of rice milk to it. I don’t think I would have liked it at all without the addition of rice milk. It’s ok. Drinkable. I taste a mild chocolate flavor and a fair amount of cinnamon. It’s been a snowy morning here and this is a nice mid-morning treat.

Lovely evening listening to Donavon Frankenreiter with a cup of this and reading through my blogs. I love the bit of cinnamon that is present in this tea.

Tastes like hot cocao. I wouldn’t drink it regularly, but it is interesting.

I like this little chocolatey tea. It’s very nice with milk, especially if you heat or froth that too, and best to just let it steep. There has to be a fraction of the calories in a cup of hot chocolate, but gives you a very close feeling of being as indulgent.

I liked it but then it lingered, on and on and on and I wished it were over.

This was pretty disappointing for me because I love Yogi tea and I was expecting this to be as yummy as the rest. I tried it plain first and then dressed it up with some milk and sugar which didn’t really help the taste much. I just couldn’t get into this one.

for a powder tisane this is a nice mix. The best part about it is the name.

Fairly weak, but the chocolate-ly aftertaste does help my choco cravings.

Not technically a tea, but I’m totally sucked in by the cute tea tag (“Be proud of who you are.”). I can smell the cocoa shells more than taste them, although the scent is predominantly spice (I think it’s the cardamom). I think this would be great with hot cocoa mixed in. I like mine with some milk and sugar.

I truly wanted to like this tea – after all I love cocoa and spice.

BUT – and this is a WARNING for fellow migraine sufferers – this blend gave me a headache within a few minutes of the first sip! And it didn’t even taste that great, so it wasn’t worth the pain.

The cocoa flavor was far too weak for me, and the spices seemed…off. Not as fragrant and not the spices I would have blended with cocoa (like perhaps more cinnamon instead). Overall, I’m not happy about this purchase. I donated the bags to my office.

I used to love the Jamaican Roast Tea I used to buy from Yogi Tea. Seems like I have the baddest luck and many places stop making my favorite teas. I wrote Yogi Teas and they recommended this one. The ingredients sounded awesome, cocoa shells? clove? YUM! But as a tea…NO! It is bland, needs a “tea” in it, and it has an awkward flavor even with it being so bland. I had to throw it out. No where near being as awesome as their Jamaican Roast Tea, and not a good recommendation!

I’ve had other chocolate teas that have been much better, I recommend going that way!

This tea isn’t really that good, but for some reason I like it.

It was a little bland. Kind of an oakey afterbirth. Haha.