Many thanks to Inkling for sending me some of this! I have been wanting to try it for a long time now and I’m grateful for the opportunity.
For the first steep, I used 1 tablespoon of leaf for 8 oz of boiling water, steeped for 30 seconds. The scent of rich hot cocoa wafts up as soon as water touches leaf. The pale golden color of the brew belies the robustly chocolatey smell and flavor. This blend totally tastes like chocolate rice krispies! It’s fantastic. Except… now my tummy kinda hurts… maybe the base here is one of those black teas that hurts me?
For the second steep, I used boiling water again for a 45 second immersion. This still tastes like cocoa rice krispies, but weaker than the first steep. I added some brown rock sugar in an effort to boost the flavor, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. The third steep, which was 60 seconds long, suffered from the same problem. For the fourth steep, I just let it sit. It steeped for a bit over 5 minutes. Alas, it was still weak even with a rice milk boost.
Thankfully, I have enough leaf to give this blend another try. Next time I think I’ll go with a longer second steep, maybe 3 minutes. Overall this is a very enjoyable cuppa but so far only for the first steep.
