95

Based on the aroma of the dry and brewed tea, I really wasn’t expecting to like this one much. It just doesn’t have a lot of aroma – kind of like artificial flavouring, and tea. Not really chocolate, not really spice (though perhaps I wouldn’t want to be smelling that anyhow). However, completely different story for the flavour. The first flavour is a distinct honey-sweetness (argh! I bet that’s from the base tea, and now I’m sorely regretting not tasting this sooner and nabbing more of either it or the plain base), followed by a wave of dark chocolate, finishing off with a growing chili heat that prevents me from having more than a couple sips at a time because WOW it’s potent.

So anyways, this is pretty good. Definitely the best chocolate/chili tea I’ve had, because 1) there is actually a good dose of heat, and 2) the base here was a perfect choice. The chocolate here is nothing overly special, but everything works very well together – it was a genius move to use whatever this base is (a leafhopper-bitten tea of some sort, I imagine), because the natural sweetness really melds the flavours. Kind of sad I didn’t get more, but it’s ok, because to be honest, I probably wouldn’t pick out a spicy tea all that often, since spicy kind of screams heartburn to me (hopefully that’s not the end result, but my brain associates the two).

Happy I got a half ounce of this, and looking forward to an embarrassingly large amount of Butiki headed my way… (1 box almost here, 1 box just mailed, 1 box probably being mailed today, a few teas being mailed to Sil, and a few more teas in VariaTea’s possession. Yikes.)

ETA: This tea is so freaking amazingly delicious. So much honey goodness. I’m glad I have some Sansia Black headed my way if it tastes anything like this tea.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 30 sec
Sil

yeah i don’t think i picked up enough of the teas i’m going to love

Kittenna

Me neither. I gambled on a few I hadn’t tried, but still only got maybe 1 oz. instead of a half ounce. Not enough.

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Comments

Sil

yeah i don’t think i picked up enough of the teas i’m going to love

Kittenna

Me neither. I gambled on a few I hadn’t tried, but still only got maybe 1 oz. instead of a half ounce. Not enough.

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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