315/365
Latte! I’ve been waiting for the autumn before breaking this one out, and since it’s pretty much here I figured I could finally give in. This one’s a blend of matcha, cocoa powder, and “natural flavouring granules” which are tiny white beads. They worried me to begin with, then I decided they might be salt, and then I finally looked up the ingredients are realised it was all good. I whisked my ¼ tsp into about an inch of hot water, and initially it works up quite an inky shade of black. I guess that’s the cocoa powder! I topped it up with boiling milk, at which point it turns an intriguing shade of grey. Fairly unusual in tea, but I it would make a good Halloween offering!
So, anyway. It smells delicious – like chocolate and caramel. It tastes pretty good, too – not nearly as intense as it smells, but getting there. It’s quite salty, which contrasts well with the sweetness (I clearly have a talent for stating the obvious, since that’s the whole point…) but the salt does linger just a little too much for my tastes. The caramel is nicely prominent, the chocolate definitely a secondary flavour, and the green tea remains firmly in the background. It more than lives up to its name, though, and on the whole I’m happy. I could take a bit less salt, simply because it’s the last thing I can taste and it builds up a little too much with successive sips, but that’s just personal preference. I’d happily drink this one again – it’s a desserty wonder!
