Oh, my, chocolate! My husband and I acquired this from Whole Foods recently, and the following morning we steeped it up with our (nearly) full breakfast.
The smell of the loose leaf is very earthy, with a hefty dose of dark chocolate and a hint of cream. I steeped it for two-ish minutes (I didn’t get my timer started right away), and it surprised me how light-colored the brew was, considering it has pu-erh in it! But the leaves had mostly sunk, so I knew it was done with the first steep.
The flavor is DEFINITELY chocolate-y. The pu-erh adds a nice malty, almost fermented note without being completely overpoweringly musty. In fact, if I didn’t know it, I might not have ever guessed that this was blended with pu-erh. It’s actually pretty naturally sweet, but we added a little light cream and sugar anyway, because, well, it’s a breakfast tea. We did end up resteeping it later, for four minutes, and it was almost identical to the first steep. Quite lovely! Glad we sprung for it (although next time I may try to get it cheaper… looking at you, Whole Foods, Land of the Fancy Grocery Store Upcharge).
