Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity Brew

This tea is bold, minty, flowery, and slightly spicy. I enjoy this tea quite a bit on its own but I just found out I really like it mixed with Laoshan Black. I used 1 tsp. Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity and 1 tsp. Laoshan Black. The result was a tea that is smoother and stronger than Chocolate Chamomile Curiosity but much more flavorful and interesting than Laoshan Black on its own.

This tea is also very interesting as an iced tea. I do think it’s slightly too herbal on its own for my liking. I haven’t tried mixing it with Laoshan black while icing but I imagine it would also be wonderful.

Wow I looove this tea and wish I’d ordered more of it, an omission I’ll rectify as soon as my budget allows.

Visual appearance: very interesting visually, lots of varied color and shapes; striped fennel seeds, dark tea, light colored seedpods of what I suppose is marigold.

Scent: mmm cinnamon! Cinnamon really predominated for me, along with gingery notes and spicy, flowery scents. I’ve never had marigold or chamomile before so I suspect the gingery to be marigold or chamomile.

Steeping:
Well I didn’t read or follow the directions (lol) and brewed this gongfu style the first time.
WHOOOOOO wild tea ride !!! First steep- massive cinnamon blast, with fennel, gingery tastes off to the side, and a sleek , sweet silky aftertaste. Not really getting any chocolate- maybe just a faint faint echo. Assertive!!!!

Second Steep: still mostly cinnamon, but with definite spicy fennel- gingery . Left an interesting tingly feeling on the tongue and palate. Minty notes and a more defined but shy chocolately taste appearing.

3rd Steep- the cinnamon scent was much milder but the gingery scent was equally mild so I was not expecting SUDDENLY GINGERY SPICY EVERYWHERE . Seriously, it was an awesome unexpected flavor explosion. Left my tongue tingly and a lovely sweet silky minty-choco aftertaste, with hints of fennel. What a change from the first two steeps.

I kept going for a few more steeps, and things settled down to a nice spicy-minty-fennel-y tea with chocolate mint aftertaste.

The next tasting I followed the brewing instructions and got a more sedate but lively blend of cinnamon, fennel spice with chocolaty gingery overtones.

The interesting thing about blends like these is that due to the shifting during shipment, each portion of tea is going to have a different mix of ingredients, so each tasting is going to be a new adventure.

The only negative I have about this tea is that all the small bits of marigold, mint, fennel, chamomile, etc. do tend to either slip through strainers or clump together stubbornly, so there are always a few bits floating in the cup and cleanup is kind of a pain. Still completely worth it for the fun and flavor!

Definitely will buy again.

It’s official. I don’t like Chamomile. And unfortunately, the first thing I taste when I take a sip of this tea is a punch of brassy, flowery, chamomile. The mint and chocolate are quite nice, but rather over powering, to the point where I’m not sure what the base tastes like. (But I have some of the Big Red Robe and Laoshan Black on their own, so I guess I’ll find out.) And even though I tossed a good bit of this in a travel tumbler, so the leaves never got removed from the water, it wasn’t strong enough for me. sigh Oh well. My mother will probably like it.

I have to add, this tea is absolutely beautiful to look at. Cocoa nibs, chamomile flowers, marigold petals..I’m glad I brewed in a clear container!

I brewed it like a green, fearful of what the first cup would taste like. It smelled minty on the high note, a little spicy, with a light cocoa base. I tentatively took a first sip..to my surprise, it was smooth with no minty harshness. This is definitely a minty tea, but the marigold and cocoa really help to round out the flavours. I think I like this better cold, because I can really taste the sparkling on my tongue and the sweetness. I’ll probably save the rest for summer. Right now though, I wish the warm notes were stronger, since it’s still cold outside.

SO GOOD! Really delicious blend. I have no words.

Thank you TheLastDodo for the sample! I’m not too big on chamomile, but I was definitely curious about this one anyway. And, I promise that’s not a bad pun.

Steeped this one up hot last night; it’s a lot softer than I expected and very, very smooth. The chocolate is the focus here and it’s accented quite nicely by the cinnamon and the fennel which are subtle but add a delicate, sweet spicyness. The natural malt from the Laoshan Black is delicious; and the spearmint creeps in right at the finish to add a lovely, refreshing coolness. Also, thankfully, I can’t taste the chamomile!

All in all, this was a great tea for the end of the night! It had a rich flavour, but not an in your face one and with the chocolate and mint pairing it made me think of a really fancy, well executed tea version of an After Eight chocolate. Mmm!

This is kind of like a savory chocolate mint tea. Kind of.

It’s a hard experience to describe. It’s herbaceous with an almost soft quality from the chamomile, and the mint adds a vibrancy that is pretty standard of mint. Fennel seems to round out the flavors, while adding a bit of mouth tingle that I get from eating fennel bulbs. The LB adds a pretty substantial amount of cocoa and malt notes, while the oolong insures that it feels cool to the pallate. Like I said. Hard to describe.

In any case, it’s grown on me a lot over the last while and has become my de facto nighttime cup (though I’m drinking it mid afternoon right now while I finish up some projects that are driving me mad).

This tea totally embodies the hug in a cup sentiment that I give tea.

This is a strange and interesting tea. It tastes heavily of mint, I would have guessesed peppermint, but apparently it contains spearmint. What it does not seem to taste of is chocolate, however when you let the tea cool the chocolate flavor comes out. I found this out by accident when I was busy baking for 30 minutes after making this tea.

It is one of those teas you are not sure how to rate. There is the strong flavor of mint and the secondary flavors of chamomile and chocolate. But all in all I liked it enough to probably finish what I bought.

I brewed this western style for 3 min in an 18 oz teapot with 200 degree water and 3 tsp of leaf.

Chocolate, chamomile, mint, and Laoshan black? Sounded to me like it couldn’t get any better. I threw in a sample (because “why not?”) during my latest Verdant order, and it henceforth went in my little container of Verdant samples to try, awaiting an empty jar to hold the remainder.

Being such a unique blend, it was the first sample to go in a jar. I had to force myself to conquer my nerves about it and give myself a reason to try it! And there it sat in that jar, for months along with my Yunnan Jasmine White. Finally, I had another order coming in, and I was going to need the spare jar; the time had come.

I brewed it with care (as I tend to do moreso with the Verdant teas), and anxiously awaited a taste from my yixing. I kept lifting the lid to let the warm scent hit me, and whereas the dry leaves smelled of little more than mint, I could now detect the chamomile coming through nicely.

I poured my first taste into my handmade clay cup, and couldn’t resist taking a sip immediately. And then, disappointment hit me. As I later described to a friend: “It’s like…70% mint, 20% chamomile, 5% unimpressive black tea, 5% hot water.” Take note that there’s no mention of chocolate in that sentence. I’ve given the remaining sample to her, and in hindsight, I probably should have tried a second or third steeping of the same leaves to see if other flavors won back my favor.