New Virtual Tea Tastings FREE! #2
The base flavor tasted ‘green’. Maybe it was the fenugreek but I’m not convinced.
Plain (no cream or sweetening) there was a light cocoa flavor and caramel scent more than taste. A bit disappointing.
I was certain that what the tea called for was sweetening and milk. I added sweetening first, which brought out the caramel right away, then milk which brought out the cocoa taste just a little.
The only thing that I would love to taste more of is ‘chocolate’.
A little more of the nibs would be fantastic or a maltier tea.
I didn’t feel that the base tea was contributing enough depth to the blend. It wasn’t as big of a punch as it could have been. Maybe the fenugreek mellowed the base out. If fenugreek removes bitterness, can it also take the tang out of cocoa and the malty tang out of assam?
The fenugreek does so many things it has things that contribute and take away .. I think you are right about that. It give the caramel scent and flavor also the milky tones but it also has a bitter or tannis to it that comes up in the background. Which can make the caramel taste more like the sugar just caramelized on the stovetop rather than the more commercialized version we are used to
I definitely got the sugar caramelized on the stovetop taste! But really no chocolate….I’ve had assams that taste intensely chocolate-y, so maybe the fenugreek did dilute it?
I was reading about how the fenugreek dilutes bitter flavor and that’s when I began to think about how it might have effected the cocoa. But the assam, it should have been maltier and that would have helped the cocoa. The caramel would be fine if the cocoa was just bumped up.
Whew, I got my review written in time! I hate to “taste and run,” but (hurricane) Sandy’s rain has begun a bit ahead of schedule, it seems, and I can’t get my garage door open! D’oh! I can’t leave Max (my car) out in this weather, especially since the rubbish bins seem to like to go cruising down the street in this neighbourhood. I have to get her settled in her warm bedroom, and then I’ll see if you folks are still chatting. =)
In the meantime…
http://steepster.com/bleepnik/posts/136887
Thanks again, steapshoppe/Janet! I ♥ you for hosting these teastings and really appreciate being asked to participate.
Be safe! Sandy’s coming my way too (they’re actually shutting down the subways in NYC at 7 tonight), but I’ve got plenty of books and tea for a rainy night!
Thanks, everyone! I got the garage door open and Max is safely inside, along with those rambunctious rubbish bins. I’m still bouncing off the walls (and typing at like 120wpm or something) thanks to the sample I tasted earlier, but in theory I can now relax. :D
Alphakitty and everyone else in our neck of the woods/in Sandy’s path, here’s to minimal pain in the buttness over the next few days.
I have absolutely no idea what fenugreek tastes like, but this tea smells mostly like sweet potatoes to me after it had cooled a bit. For me, it was definitely better with milk and sweetener. I’m really in the same boat as Nik with the flavoring thing. I’m so used to my flavored teas being really bold that I didn’t get a whole lot of caramel or chocolate out of this. Maybe like an aftertaste of caramel, barely, but not really chocolate at all.
I didn’t try mine with milk, as I’m not used to doing that. Maybe I’ll try milk with the bit of this tea I have left.
It is true we don’t use the traditional flavor enhancers so our flavor notes are not as pronounced as those that were conceived in a laboratory. From the sound of it we will need to add more cocoa flavor. Can I ask would putting actual cocoa powder in the tea work. I questioned it due to it changing the consistency of the tea. We don’t use any chemically produced flavors so we are limited to what nature give us.
Would cocoa powder with the tea actually like, imbue the actual tea with it’s flavor or would it just float around and gunk up the strainer? I have no idea, you’d have to try it out!
I have used cocoa powder in teas before (especially with Moroccan Mint blends) and it does work quite well, imparting a lot of chocolate flavor without any extra sweetness. However, it does leave some sediment in the cup which I don’t mind but I don’t know how other people feel about that.
thanks for the info. We use it on our hot cocoa’s all the time but as you said we thought it would leave a bit of sediment. Our vanilla bean already does that so I’m not sure what we were so scared of?
Some people don’t like bits of stuff/sediment in their tea for some reason, but it doesn’t bother me especially if it adds a nice pop of chocolate!
Did anyone else try the White Chocolate? I guess I expected it to taste like white chocolate and not be white tea that tasted like chocolate? Make sense? Either way, what was the intention in adding the rosehips? I’m not quite sure what they did. I tasted a lot of vanilla creaminess but not really chocolate. Also, I was surprised at how dark this tea was. I guess I think of whites as being almost colorless, and this looks like the oolong I had yesterday!
The color comes from the Organic vanilla bean because it is actual vanilla bean and not flavoring it will change the color of the tea.
Of course! I never thought of it that way. If I want to make a super white cake I have to use imitation clear vanilla extract. I prefer the real stuff _
As stated in my review, I really liked the Smokey Mountain. I enjoyed the smell of the dry tea as much as the taste of the brew!
I had the smokey mountain last time, it is SO good! Still holding on to the last of my sample, but I think I’m going to have to place an order soon.
I am about to switch to my other sample but I will give my final thoughts on the Milk Chocolate Caramel: At the end of the day I don’t think I would reorder this one. Sorry Janet. I think if this were a straight tea the flavor notes would rock my world – there are some really interesting notes in here HOWEVER as a tea that is flavored, and given a name – I think our expectations are too narrow for what we should taste. Meaning if it is called chocolate and caramel we expect just that – not to have all these other albeit interesting notes come through. I do like those notes but I am just one who either wants a straight tea that has some complexity and depth OR a tea that is flavored and POW in my face with that flavor.
I can absolutely see though where others would enjoy this very much.
I can only speak from my point of view.
Its not bad AT ALL its just not enough of what I was expecting in a straight forward way.
Okay on to the next tea :)
I completely agree with you on…everything you said, haha. It’s a cool tea! But it exists somewhere in between flavored and unflavored.
It just may be! I was thinking if you renamed it something more elusive it would work lol. Yes I am that lame :)
I agree that the name makes me think of a really heavy dessert tea when the blend is really quite gentle and subtle. If I didn’t have the expectations of a decadent blend I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more for what it is.
I picked the Cranorange Clove Breakfast as my second tea and love it! I’m a big fan of cloves, but it’s hard to find clove-y blends that are done right so it doesn’t overwhelm everything else.
Here, everything is balanced really well: there’s a citrusy kick from the orange rind, a tartness from the cranberry (is there a hint of hibiscus too? my cup is hot pink!), and then warm, scrumptious clove. The black base definitely compliments it well, this is a super brisk breakfast blend that I could definitely see adding to my standard stock for when I need a kick in the butt to wake up!
I think it’s my favorite of their teas that I’ve tried (yes, even more thank Smokey Mountain!) but I might be biased because I really love clove.
I think I added too much water to the amount of leaf I had left. I loved this before and It is still delicious (White Chocolate) but its a tad week today. Looking at my leaf I now see why. My fault. It does have a white chocolate flavor though – which is awesome you captured that naturally! I actually have some white chocolate truffles here so I can compare side by side – yes an excuse to have a truffle with my tea :)
Brewing up some Chocolate Orange as tea #2!
Orange chocolate teas always remind me of those Christmas candy oranges you have to thwack against the table to open up. Yum!
They have raspberry dark chocolate ones now too, I hope they come in stores soon so I can buy a dozen and hoard them all year round.
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