Raspberry Truffle

Soooo, my last experience with this tea was, um, memorable, to say the least. One might also call it completely horrifying, but the tea itself was not in any way responsible for that. Let me tell it from the beginning.
I didn’t have all that much left of this tea, and it had been a while, so I pulled it out and steeped myself some. I noticed some weird looking white things in the strainer, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. After a few sips, I decided to look up the ingredients online, and when I found nothing that might fit the description of what I saw, I opened the tin back up to get a look at the dry leaf.

What I found there still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

THERE WERE BUGS IN MY TEA. THOSE WHITE THINGS WERE LARVA. AND I HAD DRUNK SOME.

I proceeded to have myself a nice little flip out, clamp the lid back on the tin, run outside, and dump it in the grass on the other side of the carport. Then the rest of what I had brewed went down the drain. I have no idea how they got in there, since it was in a sealed tin, just like all the rest of my teas, so I then had to go check every single other tea that was on the shelf with that one. And then all the others, just for good measure and peace of mind. It was the only one that had been infected. And it’s not like I just got it, so I can’t assume these bugs were in it when I got it. The only thing I can think of is that at one point when the tin was open, one bug got in and had itself a nice time, and… little bugs. shudders

Brrr! It is a chilly night here in Albany and I wanted something different tea-wise while I worked on a few things in the home office. I opted for this one it arrived earlier this week and I’ve been itching to try it since Thursday. Milk chocolate sweet – check! Fruity raspberry – double check! This is yummy! I really like that these two flavors really bring out the flavor of the black tea used as a base. The result really is like drinking a raspberry truffle without the guilt! A new Fall favorite.

Another sample from my Butiki Teas pack. I have to admit I’m a bit disappointed in this one as I expected something with ‘truffle’ in the title to taste richer and more chocolatey than it did. It might just be that I needed to steep it longer but unfortunately my sample was only enough for one cup. The raspberry flavour was strong and real, which was nice as I’ve found that many so called raspberry-flavoured teas don’t deliver. My verdict is that it’s nice but could use some work.

I’ve had this several times, but I don’t think I’ve logged it yet. This is another really good one from Butiki! It tastes so much like a raspberry truffle and it is so rich, yet guilt free. Yum!

Additional notes: sample sipdown! I’m not sure WHAT is going on with my tastebuds lately… it seems like every black tea I’ve been having tastes like chalky woodchips. And it doesn’t matter how I steep the tea… it’s still chalky woodchips. It better fix itself. I don’t want these delicious teas to taste terrible!

When I first saw my sample I was really impressed with the number whole raspberries and chocolate chips in it. The tea itself steeped up with a nice sweet-tart raspberry flavor and I could see this making a nice iced tea during the summer. I wasn’t really able to taste the chocolate nearly as much as I expected to, although it did provide a really nice creamy feel to the cup, even if I couldn’t really taste it.

The resteep of this was very lightly flavored, even with a longer steep time. I still wasn’t able to taste the chocolate, but the raspberry still came through. This probably won’t be a reorder for me any time soon, but I did enjoy trying it. Thanks Stacy, for including this in my order.

Brew temp 208

I have too many teas.

That must be the reason that I don’t drink this delicious tea every day. I’ve had many different chocolate teas before-and even chocolate raspberry teas before and this is the only chocolate tea that I have ever had that has actual chocolate chips in it! And this has real raspberries too.

The Kundaly Nilgiri base fuses well with the chocolate and the raspberry. You can taste all the flavors. I have no idea what the natural flavoring is, but it is definitely very natural tasting. The tea is sweet-as you would expect in this type of blend-but not cloying. It tastes great plain, but a teaspoon or so of sweetener (like rock sugar) enhances the flavors very nicely. Of course it is very smooth and has zero bitterness or astringency. Chocolate and raspberry is a kind of classic flavor combination to me-something that I would always come back to over time. I’m sure that I’ll be buying this in the future after my current batch runs out. Excellent.

A big thank you to Sandy for the sample of this one!

The chocolate is very tasty, with a tangy raspberry flavor following it, before the smooth base tea at the end. The chocolate leaves a surprisingly noticeable aftertaste that kind of lingers for a little while, and is very pleasant.

Overall, a very enjoyable tea.

Thanks out to Rachel Sincere for a surprise sample of this!

I’ve been craving chocolate all yesterday evening and this morning! Hope this tea hits the spot!

DRY: Lots of big chunks of raspberry and chocolate chips! Though, some of my chips started to melt as it was 30c / 85f in my house when I got this tea in the mail. I got mad later in the day and made my husband turn on the AC.

STEEPED: nice amber brown colour. Smells like black tea, tart raspberry and something earthy.

TASTE: Great black tea that is not bitter or astringent. Delicious raspberry is there, with no tartness! Also a nice warm chocolate to compliment. I find the black tea is more up front here, with raspberry and chocolate right behind but still going strong.

Sweetened, the chocolate and raspberry come out to the front – almost getting creamy. I think I like this unsweetened as I enjoy the black tea base more that way.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Those fruity tea peeps, I know you are out there! Chocolate lovers too! Also this is a great black tea, so don’t be scared to step up and try it non black tea drinkers!

COMMENTS: MMMmm tasty! Enjoyed this tea to the last drop! I love the black tea in this, so dang good! Having raspberry and chocolate was just icing on the cake! I’ll probably end up ordering this in the future!

I don’t always love chocolate in tea. That said, this is just delicious.

Very light cocoa and raspberry flavor. It smells divine in the bag and equally yummy in the cup. The big chunks of raspberry are really quite nice.

I finished this off with a very small amount of German Rock Sugar. The tea would have also been fine without it.

I’m glad I bought extra of this. I feel like I had my desert for breakfast.