Peppermint Marshmallow Melting in Hot Chocolate

When Anne revealed that she was going to use Verdant Tea’s Laoshan Black as the base for this tea, I got super excited. I had Laoshan Black back in October, and its flavours of malt and cocoa nib seemed like the perfect way to complement and blend the marshmallow, mint, and chocolate.

You can see all of the elements in this blend in the dry leaf — the marshmallow root, the cocoa nib, the chocolate chips. When you open it up, it smells like an After Eight chocolate mint. Yum!

I used boiling water and let it sit for about 6 minutes; this is longer than the recommended 4 minutes max listed on the package, but I chanced it because the tea looked a tad light after 4 minutes. It was still fairly light after 6 minutes — beery amber rather than the kind of malty black I was expecting.

However, this didn’t negatively affect the taste. I got mint and chocolate, but the marshmallow was the strongest note to me. The tea was also kind of malty/bready, which made the whole thing taste kind of like a cookie. Nice!

Full review of 52Teas 2015 Holiday Kickstarter set at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/12/christmas-teas-from-the-52teas-holiday-kickstarter/

I don’t know why I haven’t logged this yet, because I’ve had quite a few cups. I can’t stop drinking this. It’s really good, and I’m so glad that I got the large size of this. It’s mostly a dark chocolatey flavor, and is dominated by the mint, though of course the mint is still there. This is an amazingly smooth tea, and I’m not sure how much of that is the base and how much is the “marshmallow.” I’m not actually getting a marshmallow flavor, but I’m guessing it’s contributing to that overall smoothness and melding of flavors. I don’t think I’ve tried this with milk yet but I will have to do that soon, to see if it brings out any more marshmallow

another one from the 51 teas kickstarter. This was the one i was most excited about (though let me tell you the orange, cranberry cider smells AMAAAAZING) because it has laoshan tea in it from verdant. The final execution of this? Not bad, but not as deliciously amazing as i’d hoped. This is nice though…peppermint, chocolate and the marshmallow rounding out the flavours and blending them together a little. I’m going to enjoy drinking the rest of this :)

Oh man, this smells so good! The dry leaf aroma is mouthwatering mint chocolate. The brewed tea aroma is something special. I can smell chocolate and peppermint, but there’s something else. I can’t put my finger on it. Whole grain bread? Sunflower seeds?

Mmm mmmm!!! The flavor has that something extra special too. You can tell this is a high quality Verdant Tea base. The base outshines the flavorings. The first flavor is tea, followed by chocolate, followed finally by peppermint. That’s surprising in a pleasant way. Most times, teas with mint taste first and foremost like mint, with everything else coming in last place. But this is the opposite!

The base does have lovely chocolate and bread notes. Laoshan Black! Is it Laoshan Black? I think there’s a bit of that in here. This is delicious! It’s not as much like peppermint hot chocolate as I expected. Yet I think I like this more than the alternative I had imagined, which was thick and creamy. This is light and airy like a puff pastry but flavorful and satisfying like a meal.

I daresay I want more of this. Dare because my pocketbook can’t handle another purchase at the moment and my cupboard really can’t possibly handle any more tea. But this is special! This is Verdant! A Verdant 52teas collaboration is the stuff of dreams. My two favorite tea companies!!! Joining forces to make one delicious cup of yum! Alas, I’m afraid I’ll have to hold off on any additional purchases for now. But you should definitely pick up some of this while you still can!