Chroma Tea

John requested some caffeinated tea today :D, he is normally a coffee drinker but needed something lighter today. Chai black tea it is!

I am feeling slightly better today and so I partook in the chai as well. Mostly resting today though.

Preparation: Western with oatmilk and honey
Tasting note: Not a fan of chai straight, unfortunately, so I had to alter the tea right away. After adding oatmilk and honey, the tea reminded me of a dessert spice mix for a pice, maybe pumpkin or my family’s custard pie or egg nog maybe. The tea definitely gave me holiday vibes though and was really soothing.

Side note: I noticed on the website that 2 blends were out of stock. Also, that the it was a local business. Yay! Unfortunately, it did not look like they listed any local retailers or have a brick and mortar shop I could buy from. The blends seem to have been out of stock on their site for a while as I have looked up this site last year too. Might have to ask if they will restock those blends in the future.

I tumblered it on a rainy, foggy day after seeing some of Van Gogh’s original art at the Detroit Institute of arts. The silky incense and soothing chocolate malt of the oolong was insanely soothing, improving as it got some licorice flavor still sitting in the tumbler. I’m upping the rating. I’m determined to finish my other Derk teas since I now have the time to enjoy them before the break.

Thank you Derk! I was really into this one!

This tea is incense, but in tea form. I can see some people being a little bit off put, but the tea could have been more overwhelming easily. I’m impressed with how the sandalwood actually smoothens out the rougher edges of the anise. I also tasted the honeysuckle in hints in the body and texture. I think the cardamom might make it soapy for some; I think it enhances the Sandalwood. The oolong actually borders more on the cocoa side, but overall, it’s roasty/toasty and minerally.

I actually would have paired this one with Dune as a geek pairing because it has a mystical and contemplative vibe, and azure is the color of the Fremen’s eyes. Only problem is the lacking of cinnamon, since Melange is described as being like cinnamon.

I will likely finish this one as winter melts into spring. The spice must flow…

Is there any better time for tea, which was labeled from derk “if you dare” than now, when my senses are muted somehow?

I think not.

Visually, this tea looks very nice. I saw cardamom pods, some ginger pieces and lots of small seeds and other small particles that I have no idea to recognize what are they.

Anyway, I used only one teaspoon of the blend and used boiling water. The result wasn’t that perfect as I have thought. It was somehow muddy mess of all spices together. I noticed mostly the spices I have recognized — ginger and cardamom, but it was on same level as other spices. Nothing of cacao or _vanilla, nor the fruits. I know, that my taste buds are not working correctly, but anyway…

It lacks any base too. I mean, it is fairly nice blend of spices… but as there are that many different spices, none of them were really prominent and making the base. Maybe, the second teaspoon I have in the pouch, I will try with some basic black tea.

This sample kindly came from Derk

I love the smell of both the dry and wet tea leaf.
Unfortunately taste wise there is a little too much going on. It’s quite heavy on the spices and the balance just isn’t there. I’ve had a chai tea that tasted almost exactly like this but also smelled really good. I can’t remember which one it was though. Perhaps it’s meant to be taken with milk? Glad to have gotten the chance to try it though. I’d much prefer drinking a chai like this with a bit too much spice/competing flavors than a black tea chai with a bitter base.

Sipdown and glad to have this out of my stash.

Less mustardy than the other times but still too much going on. 16 ingredients with no flavorings added. The goji-elderberry-caceo-vanillla combination weirds me out.

First sips, I like the way this tastes well enough. I’m not sure I like the way it smells in my mug. The cypress oil is an intriguing addition to a chai-type blend but as I take more sips, I realize ultimately there’s too much going on. Not a fan of the mix of cacao and vanilla with goji and elderberry. I smell all that in the steam and it lingers in a sickly way in the aftertaste. When the mug gets to room temp, it all tastes like mustard. What the. Weird.

When I feel I have nothing left to give, when every cell in my being has been depleted, I turn to tea and music and prayer.

Meditation is the practice of death. And as I die, I am reborn.

https://youtu.be/KEFPtG4dP0k?si=einOp2vSPfA70S8j&t=1559

Backlog from last night.

This is the kind of evening for which I’ve been saving this tea.  Rainy February nights here in the Bay are like (I really don’t want to say it!) cold November rain in Ohio.  Contemplative, maybe depressing if one possesses that lean.

I want to write so, so very much something poetic about this tea but I’m exhausted.  To further derail my effort, this tea is inducing a mental and physical state that is utterly calm.  

This is a beautifully scented oolong with a dark, woody-grassy-earthy sweet incense aroma of aloeswood and vetiver with smooth integration of the licorice-like star anise and cardamom.  I also smell something dark and fruity; I can’t shake the idea of mulberry. On the sip it transitions to sandalwood then mid-mouth to a general woody-mineral oolong.  On the swallow it moves back to the aloeswood, vetiver, star anise and mulberry, though less pronounced than in the aroma.  Cardamom is noticed in the aftertaste as those flavors slip away.  A zesty tingle and some mouth watering arrive after that and then the cardamom and aloeswood return.

I couldn’t see myself drinking Azure often but this is something I definitely want to keep in my cupboard.  It’s almost medicinal in character (drying, warming, deeply calming) and smells and tastes wonderful.  Try this if you’re an incense fan or seeking an air of the exotic.

Trying to finish this off. Finding it to be a pretty average (perhaps slightly below average) chai. 1 cup left.

Edit: Ended up making the last cup for my partner, so it’s sipdown 52!

I really enjoyed Chroma’s Azure, so was quite interested in diving into the others that I purchased. I love the idea of a chai with some extra oomph, and was particularly intrigued by the saffron in this blend.
The dry leaf smells boldly of cinnamon and clove. Brewed, it smells a bit more mild, but still nicely spiced. I’m not tasting any saffron or orange peel, but it is a really nicely blended chai. The clove and cinnamon are at the forefront, with a bit of ginger in the finish.

This is probably my least favorite of the Chroma blends I’ve tried. The goji/elderberry fruitiness is just not working with the heavy spices. The cinnamon, ginger, black peppercorn, and clove are most distinct, with the fruit lingering in the aftertaste. I was hoping to taste the cypress oil, but alas.

Derk was kind enough to send me some of this tea to try! Thanks so much! It had been on my wishlist, so I was super excited to try it. I’ve tried one other tea with sandalwood in it and it wasn’t a prominent flavor. This is all sandalwood! It’s a pretty looking blend both when dry and steeping. There is something roasty in the sip behind the sandalwood. I’m not sure if I can taste the oolong. The sandalwood is very aromatic in the finish, lingering for a long time. It almost goes soapy if I wait too long to take another sip. Overall I really like it! It’s the first Chrome tea I’ve tried.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJrS6_yAaQg/

I placed a small Chroma order, as I could no longer resist the lure of the interesting ingredients and blends (especially after the sandalwood discussion!)
This is the blend I was most excited to try- sandalwood, honeysuckle, vetiver, star anise, cardamom, and aloeswood? Generally things I enjoy in perfume….and that is exactly what this blend smells like. A really expensive fragrance you’d find in a perfume or candle. The scent translates directly into the flavor. Tastes like incense in the best possible way. The vetiver and star anise are strongest, with a bit of sandalwood and (what I’m assuming is) aloeswood. I’ve never tasted aloeswood (I generally know it by agarwood), but I’m decently familiar with the scent.
This is one heck of a tea. I wish there were more unique, interesting blends like this out there.

Chroma finally blended a new batch and I was so happy that I bought 50g a few months ago. There is no difference between the two batches. Impressive.

I keep trying to think of a way to describe how this tea makes me feel but fall short of the accurate marketing-speak:

“Inspired by old apothecary blends- the kind you might find in a movie stumbling into a dimly-lit shop to find a blue-green glass bottle on the highest shelf behind a pile of books.”

The best I can conjure is a cool stream emerging from the dark mystery of a rainforest, carrying the rich, earthy and spicy scents of the flora and terra, flowing gently into a shallow and clear warm sea under a cloudy winter sky. Have you ever felt the confluence of those two energies? Similar to the way it feels when you swim through tepid waters and suddenly a warm current envelops you in a momentary womb, or a cold current provides a blood-moving shock to the senses. This tea captures both of those aquatic sensations within the spearmint and fennel undercurrent that interacts with the dominant grounding profile provided by the roasted oolong base, cacao and cinnamon. Marigold and chamomile assist in the transition between the the cooling and warming characteristics and add some visual fluff.

Following Chroma’s parameters of 5g to a mug (in my case, it’s 10oz), I get three fully flavored steeps. It’s a worthwhile commitment.

This tea is a mood for sure. I find myself craving it but not as a daily drinker.

This has SO MUCH going on. Rich, brisk, warm, minty-fennel cool, cinnamon spicy, chocolatey, woody, herbaceous, floral, darkly bitter-sweet, mineral. On first sip, I questioned the color namesake. It soon made sense. Read the Chroma (Verdant) description.

It’s mellow enough to drink at night and fall asleep. Enough strength to stack two steeps in my thermos as work fuel.

All with only tea leaves—spices—flowers—herbs!

Roswell Strange said sophisticated. Maybe a sophisticated mystery.

Rating would be somewhere around 95 for being unique, evocative, multi-faceted and multi-functional.

I was watching RuPaul’s drag race last night and one of the pieces of feedback a contestant received from the judges was that her looks weren’t edited enough. They gave the example of taking two things off before hitting the runway, to improve the overall look. That’s how I feel about this tea. It’s a little like Chroma just tossed all the ingredients they had on hand into one blend and the result is a very muddy kind of cup of tea where really none of the ingredients get enough space to actually come through in the taste. It’s just a sort of earthy and spicy mess of a blend.

Had this one last weekend while working on podcast outlines and, admittedly, I was two deeply enthralled in writing that I didn’t much pay attention to the tea. The loose leaf smells very potent and heavily spiced, and ticked my nose and throat on scent alone. I don’t recall the steeped tea having the same level of “oomph” to it and the dry leaf had but I will have to drink again to be sure…

Geek Steep S2E7 – Studio Ghibli: Grave of The Fireflies

This is the tea that both Marika and I drank during the recording of this week’s episode, immediately after finishing watching the movie. I think, as the credits were rolling, we sat in stunned silence for a good minute before immediately scrambling to get set up and start recording.

Because of that, the decision making process for our tea was carnal and instinctive. Marika wanted something for digestion because she felt anxious and sick to her stomach and I needed something soothing and comforting.

A mint blend with fennel and tulsi satisfied both of our needs.

I’ve had this tea near my kettle for probably over a month now because I’ve wanted to start sipping this tea down in the evenings – but I always start drinking caffeine free teas very late in the day, because I’m not worried about having lots of caffeine, and it just always gets put off in favour of another better sounding tisane. So last night I finally said “Fuck it!” and steeped it up…

In my head I had remembered this as a lot more mint forward and menthol/crisp than it actually is. That’s not to say it’s bad, but it has a lot more of a forward fennel and coating sweetness on the palate than I’d recalled and the finish is a bit muddier/lacking in clarity versus crisp and cooling. You taste the earthiness of the burdock and, with the fennel, it’s cuts through the mint notes enough that this becomes a softer and less defined cuppa.

It was still good, but I feel like I’d built it up in my head to be better than reality so I was a little bit let down by the mug overall…

This tea name makes me think of How To Get Away With Murder…

Anyway, this will have to be a revisit because I had it the day that the site froze and I didn’t take good notes for myself on the taste because I had expected to get this tasting note posted a lot sooner. It was very herbal and mint forward though, with that undertone of anise/fennel that I like but is so polarizing. Definitely the most simple Chroma blend I’ve tried so far, and while simple is never bad I also think I’ve just set myself up to expect a little bit more from this company in terms of blend concepts…

Cold Brew Sipdown (1466)!

Finished this one off, and it was really just so lovely and smooth! A lighter and more unique fruity herbal blend with soft yet sweet notes of pineapple, lemongrass, and just a bit of “oomph” and body from the yuzu oil to make those fruit notes seem deeper. I love the hint of warming cinnamon – it weirdly makes this feel like it has a sort of “Thai” influence, especially with the pineapple and lemongrass. The creaminess of the coconut comes through even if the taste doesn’t heavily, and there’s the faintest little bit of vanilla.

I think I would 100% order this again – it’s just very different from anything else I have in my stash right now.