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Custom Tea Creation 2/5.

Ok, so there’s this guy I’m sort of seeing but not in any sort of formal or official sense of the word. Anyway; he’s great – and I’m really enjoying the progression of whatever this currently is for what it is, and at its own pace. We have this thing we say, whenever we disagree on something: “We Are Obsidian”.

The idea is that obsidian is made when lava and water meet; two opposites coming together to form something beautiful…

Originally I was going to let him create this blend, and have this be the name but I was trying to get him to pick the ingredients without letting him know what for – and it wasn’t working so well. He can’t taste/smell that much; maybe at 20% of what the average person can. So, every time I was like “Hey, if you could make your own tea what would you want in it?” he’d just reply with “Would it make a difference? I likely couldn’t taste many of the nuances of different flavours”. So I just ended up picking the blend instead.

I didn’t plan this one out the same way I did with some of the others; however, I knew I wanted to play off the idea of two dissimilar things/flavours to keep with the name so what I ended up going with was this sweeter, chocolate flavour using carob and cocoa nibs and then chocolate flavouring and something a little more tart/fruity to contrast – so cranberry and rosehip. Then, to differentiate it a bit from the other cranberry/chocolate teas I know are out there I added in clove and pumpkin spice flavour, not entirely knowing how it would work with everything overall. I picked as Assam base, because it’s sweeter/smoother and I thought those natural malt notes and general sweetness would work excellently with the chocolate.

This is really interesting steeped up.

I mean, I didn’t know exactly how it would play out in the first place but I’m really happy with what I ended up with. The top note is definitely more chocolate heavy, and I feel like I’m primarily getting the added chocolate flavours and carob as opposed to the nibs because it does have a sort of chocolate liquor kind of thing going on. It’s sweet, and more dark and decadent – kind of like a truffle?

The body flavour is definitely the intersection of all the flavours overall: you’ve got the same almost boozey dark chocolate note and then you really get hit with the clove/pumpkin spice. It’s weird to me, because normally I actually don’t love pumpkin spice but there’s like this earthyness to it that works with the chocolate and I kind of feel like I’m tasting the pumpkin itself to and not just the spices. Plus, I do really love clove so the fact it’s more clove heavy overall because I added straight clove to the blend just works for me. In fact; I generally don’t adore chocolate teas or spice teas but the combination here is very “pumpkin spice truffle” to me in a way that I’m really enthralled with. This body note also features the cranberry as well: and this to me is the most interesting part. I think what I expected was more of a contrasting tartness, but what’s actually ended up happening is that the cranberry is more of a sneaky, sweet fruity undertone that adds like this really beautiful layer of fruityness. It plays off the chocolate really well, which I HAD expected but more interestingly it works well with the clove too!

In fact, and I guess in hindsight I could have called this, it really paints this VERY autumnal picture with all of these flavour notes that I actually quite strongly associate with the fall/Thanksgiving/the change of seasons in general. It’s REALLY beautiful and well layered.

Finally, the finish definitely takes more of a shift towards the pumpkin spice/clove element and you finish the sip with that soft, sweet warming spice note and hints of brightness from the cranberry.

I didn’t expected to love this one as much as I did, but it really works for me. It does make me a little sad though, because I 100% want to share a cup of it with the not-boyfriend, but like he kind of predicted I’m fairly sure he’s not going to be able to identify the nuances of the blend the same way I do and so I worry he wont have as strong an appreciation for it. Fingers crossed, though!

Anyway; two for two success rate with these custom blends! This is another that I would actually probably buy again; though probably not until the fall/winter since that seems to be what it really evokes to me flavour wise.