Culinary Teas
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Culinary Teas had exceptionally speedy delivery service—thank you!
This evening I decided to try their Belgian Chocolate Rooibos and I was enthralled. The aroma is deep, rich, and exudes chocolate decadance.
After steeping for 7 minutes, I had a perfect calorie-free,, chocolatey dessert. The tea is smooth and lucious. I was open to adding sugar but simply did not need it. I often like the creaminess of a little milk, but this Belgiam Chocolate Rooibos was creamy “au natural”.
I’m still going to be sampling teas, but right now if I were told that Culinary Teas’ Belgian Chocolate Rooibos was the only dessert tea I could ever have, I would go to bed happy.
Preparation
I’m drinking this in the afternoon. It’s really gloomy, cold, and wet outside, and this is the perfect cup for this weather! Woke up my senses! It has a nice malty flavor, and it tastes great with a dash of milk and sugar. The color was a deep red. This exactly how I want my Assam to be.
I LOVE THIS! This allows me to use a flavored black tea (I love a blend of 1.12g each of caramel and chocolate black teas) and add the amount of of spice that I want. I can’t stand fenell or anise so it’s nice to find a product like this that doesn’t have them so I don’t have to putz around and make my own. The only thing this particular blend is missing is a pinch of crushed red pepper flake. Depending on my mood it’s either 1:1 , 1:2, or 1:3 ratio of chai spice mix to black tea. Steep in boiling purified water or simmering milk. Serve unsweetened.
To make it chilled I love making a large batch using as little water as possible to make a concentrate, chilling, then using milk to fill the liquid discrepency. If serving it over ice, make ice cubes from more tea or tea steeped in milk. I prefer it blended when iced.
Have a green, rooibos, white, or oolong tea you love and want to make a chai out of? Go for it!:)
Placing a note here, as I’m pretty confident this is a Metropolitan Tea blend that’s marketed by multiple shops; in this case, Bates Nut Farm in southern CA—shared by a work friend.
With that said, there’s something firing in my synapses that makes me think I’ve tried this many years ago (pre-Steepster). There’s an Assam base, some blackberry, a little less maple—almost hard to catch, and a “mystery green tea” that keeps the berry/maple from getting too sappy and murky. And also makes it a tiny bit finicky to steep. I think that’s what the synapses are remembering—some bitterness from too-hot water.
But today, I think I hit the parameters correctly, and it’s pleasant. No unwelcome sweetening added; just hints of fruit and syrup with a little crispness.
An hour of chipping away at the ice barely put a dent in it, but we were able to bumble and bounce out for a lunch break. This is dessert before going back outside in the (now slushy) tundra.
Enjoying the last of the packet that came from Azzrian; it’s still more floral-tasting to me than when I had a pouch of my own some years back. Wonder if they changed their formulation or my preferences have shifted some.
Recommendations for a decent grapey tea that tastes really grapey?
Okay, say it with me: My name is…and I’m a Steep-a-holic…
Good to be back, eh?
My tealog says I haven’t had a cup of this since 2009; Azzrian kindly provided a little sip down memory lane this weekend. Still good and grapey, but a little more floral than I remember it the first time. If you’re looking for a reasonable balance between good black tea and in-your-face fruity, this is a viable selection.