Happy National Coconut Torte Day! My selection today is an herbal blend, so I won’t be reviewing it until this evening. So I’m using this morning to instead finish off the last two teas of my initial sixteen for March Mad(Hatter)ness!
Fourteenth tea for March Mad(Hatter)ness! This is for the mixed tea/misc. round, going against TeaSource’s Minnesota N’Ice.
I have previously reviewed this tea here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/390883 . This is an opened packet, bought in 2018, from B&B’s Bluebird days. I have always really enjoyed the dry leaf aroma of this one, it is such a nice chocolately smell! Brewed 3.5g leaf in 450ml 205F water for 3 minutes.
The steeped tea smells like cocoa, and I’m getting a bit of a dark bittersweet aroma that smells like a cross between dark chocolate and coffee. I’m also getting a strong coconut aroma despite there not being any in the blend (perhaps a vanilla or cream flavoring present?) I see that I originally got the coconut as well, so at least my nose is being consistent! Also getting a bit of a burnt toffee vibe.
The flavor is nice. I’m definitely tasting more of a dark chocolate/bittersweet cocoa note than a sweet and creamy milk chocolate, and considering I am quite fond of that flavor, I’m not particularly fussed by it. There is a sweetness there, sort of a mix of coconut and caramel notes, and I’m also getting a roasty vibe from the genmaicha, though paired with the darker bittersweet flavors, that roastiness is actually leaning more towards coffee/chicory to me. The tea isn’t astringent, it’s actually a very smooth cup, but I have to wonder why there is even green tea in this? One can easily add genmai to a blend without adding genmaicha and I wonder if the fact I brewed this as a black means the green leaf has added to some of the sharper/bitter notes in the chocolate. Unless that was the intent, but I doubt it… Easter Egg Nests seem more of a milk chocolate treat to me?
I do really like the flavor of this tea, but I always taste either a Mounds candy bar (not a bad thing!) or a coconut-milk mocha (also not a bad thing!) rather than Easter Egg Nests when I drink it. So while I enjoy the flavor, since it seems to somewhat miss the mark on its concept for me, Minnesota N’Ice moves on!
Flavors: Burnt Sugar, Candy, Caramel, Cocoa, Coconut, Coffee, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Chocolate, Nutty, Roasted, Smooth, Sweet, Toffee
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I was going to say that B&B sometimes means houjicha in a blend rather than green tea but looking at that picture, NOPE it definitely looks like green tea.
It is possible to get just the genmai (toasted rice) separately, so if they wanted that to be in the blend, it isn’t necessary to also add green tea leaf. Just seemed an odd choice!
Yeah, though I swear in my blend it looks like houjicha… I’m going to look.
The green tea in my blend looks darker than the green tea in the photo, but also not houjicha. And it doesn’t look like a ton of green tea is there. I’m surprised I don’t notice it more in the flavor though.
I was going to say that B&B sometimes means houjicha in a blend rather than green tea but looking at that picture, NOPE it definitely looks like green tea.
It is possible to get just the genmai (toasted rice) separately, so if they wanted that to be in the blend, it isn’t necessary to also add green tea leaf. Just seemed an odd choice!
Yeah, though I swear in my blend it looks like houjicha… I’m going to look.
The green tea in my blend looks darker than the green tea in the photo, but also not houjicha. And it doesn’t look like a ton of green tea is there. I’m surprised I don’t notice it more in the flavor though.