Chocolate Chili Chai

It’s only November and I’m already getting antsy for spring. The days seem so gray and dreary, and the nights are already so dark and cold. On the bright side, at least this cold weather is a perfect backdrop for a tea like this one.

I expected this one to be more of an in your face tea with the chili and the peppercorns, but it was surprisingly mellow. The ingredients complimented each other nicely. It was a fabulous first steep, but there was notable deterioration with each following steeping. It’s still a lovely seasonal treat, especially as an alternative to sugary hot chocolate or hot apple cider. This will certainly be a seasonal repurchase for me.

This smells AWESOME!!!!!

Like if you were in a kitchen with Chocolate Cheesecake and peppers! That’s the aroma I am getting BUT it’s certainly MORE Chocolate than chili and I am VERY happy about that!

Intense CHOCOLATE Aroma!!!

One infused the chocolate aroma mellows out a little and the heat is ON.

As for the taste…WOW! It’s not fireball hot but there is a nice kick to it! As for the chocolate…YAY! This is done right! I am still getting a very nice cheese-cakey type taste to it and I LOVE IT.

It leaves a peppery-roasted aftertaste which is interesting but I like that too!

This exceeded my expectations by FAR!

This is FAR OUT!!!! YUM!

Having a cup of this while in switchboard today. Unfortunately, today it isn’t quite what I wanted. The chocolate is still rich and bold, but I am not in the mood for that. I think I’m really in the mood (once again) for a lovely black tea with natural cocoa notes rather than a flavoured tea. I also desperately want to try the oolongs sent to me by MercuryHime (and the two I picked up at DT last night to go with them) but first I need to have time to sit down with my gaiwan (and the beau) to try them out. I am excited because I can use my tiny double walled glasses when the time comes!

Anyway, this tea. Getting dark chocolate, with a hint of sweetness (more on the end of the sip than the flavour). I am feeling a hint of chili burn on my lips, but it isn’t overly present in the taste. I do remember that coming out more as I got deeper in the cup last time though. Solid tea, just not to my tastes at the moment. If only I could afford to go home in the middle of the day for a couple hours and have lovely tea as I want it.

I totally meant to go to DavidsTea for Pom Power but before I made it out, I’d spent $20 and walked out with 7 other teas. I am so bad when it comes to deals.

The moral of this: GUYS! IF YOU WANT DT’s WINTER TEAS GET THEM NOW: 2- 25g bags for $5!

Really this was a terrible idea. I can’t even remember how excited I was about banana dream pie, and I bought two pouches. And do I really need more Cookie Dough?

When my bf saw my large blue bag he just asked, “So, how many teas are you at now?” Bahaha. He rocks.

I really like the “chili” aspect of this tea but i can do without the chocolate. I really don’t like the way that a lot of teas “chocolate” flavour tastes, and david’s tea is no exception. it was worth a taste at least!

Free tea from DT! Much better than the times I made it myself, although admittedly both agave and milk were involved. Also, a shout-out to the barista (er?) who looks like Orlando Bloom at the Guelph DT who let me have the tea without the coupon, since I brilliantly locked myself out of my Facebook-linked email.

Butter chicken and chai. Because I can!

I just picked this up a couple hours ago so it’s fresh out of the canister. The chocolate aroma immediately made me think of Read My Lips, so I figured I’d love this. At first I was kind of regretting getting only 10g.

That regret quickly diminished once I steeped this chai. Again, it smells like a mintless Read My Lips, which is nice and all, but where’s the spice? Even the peppercorns? I got maybe one or two in my packet. How can you even classify this as a chai (in the Masala chai sense)?

I get no heat from this whatever. If it were actually, simply RMP minus the mint I wouldn’t mind as much, as I enjoy the chocolate flavour in that, but it has that underlying artificial sweetness that a lot of other DT teas have.

Without additives, it’s a thin, faint chocolate black with that signature (I might as well use that term at this point) artificial sweetness.

With milk and brown sugar, it’s better. The soy milk lends the chocolate a hand, and at least the brown sugar covers up some of that artificial sweetness from the tea itself. Go figure.

This time I made a proper latte and it is not very tasty.

It just doesn’t taste good. I’ve had to let it cool way off to taste anything other than black tea and what tastes like fake chocolate. I added sweetener and now I can actually taste the chilies finally. But it just doesn’t taste good. It’s the same reason I sometimes have problems with Read My Lips: the chocolate tastes so artificial and reminds me of chocolate flavored lip balm.

Oh well, since I’ve gotten more from both Bonnie and Krystaleyn, I will give it another try. I wonder if it might taste good as an iced latte.

Another tea from the Traveling Tea Box! I am trying this on behalf of my future son-in-law. He loves chocolate tea and he loves hot peppers, so I wanted to see if this is a “must have” for him. I am a wimp when it comes to hot peppers, but I read a lot of reviews that said this is only mildly spicy.

It smells good. The first tentative sips surprised me. This really is very mild. Everything is mild. The level of chocolate flavor, the tea base, the chai spices, and the chilis. The aroma is rather intriguing and is the best part of this tea. I guess I am picking up the chai spices over the top of the mild chocolate.

Since I drink my tea sans additions, I can’t say this one wins my heart. It is a decent tea but not one I would seek out, but I suspect since Gav adds milk and sugar to some of his teas he might really enjoy it that way. It would give it that “little extra something” that would make it a great cup of comfort on a cold winter day.

I used 1.5 David’s Tea scoops for my Aqua-Ovo tea tumbler.

The smell of the dry leaf really reminds me of “Love Tea #7” by David’s Tea.

The aroma of the brewed tea is primarily a light chocolate with definite black tea undertones.

On the sip I am getting a full chocolately taste. I am getting a bit of a vegetable-earthy taste- kind of like taking a bite out of a red pepper. I’m guessing that this is the result of the different types of chili included in the blend. I don’t feel that the earthy taste really complements this mix, especially with such a strong chocolate taste. The black tea taste is mostly present at the end of the sip and rounds out the chocolate/earthy flavour. There is a little bit of spice present on the beginning of the sip and in the aftertaste (kind of a tingly feeling on my tongue).

This tea was good all the way through even as it cooled to room temperature.