Did you know that Ceratopsians (the family of dinosaurs that Triceratops belongs to) might not have had those elaborate head fringes for defense like originally thought? I am currently reading an ARC of a book called Weird Dinosaurs, and finished the section on Ceratopsians where it talks about how the bony head fringe might have been used for mating displays. The theory for this is two-fold, a lot of damage marking on the heads of these dinosaurs match damage you would find on the skulls of deer and goats (and matches the horns on others of the same species) and more importantly the larger horns and weird triangular growths on the more bombastic species (like the fringe on Centrosaurus) didn’t develop until they started going through puberty.
This segues nicely to today’s tea, Tricera-Tips (Assam) from Tea-Historic, a blend of Nahorhabi Estate Assam and Cacao Husks from the Dominican Republic. If you think from the combination of an Assam and Cacao husks that it will be liquid brownies, well, you are right. The aroma blends malt, chocolate, molasses, and sweetness, and it smells just like brownie batter. Not really much else to say, too busy sniffing the brownie batter tea leaves!
After a nice steep in my steeping apparatus, the leaves still smell like brownies, even more so. With the chocolate and molasses comes malt and a starchy baked goods note that really fools my mind into thinking this is food and not tea. I am serious, pretty sure you could shove this under my nose with a blindfold and I would be convinced you were teasing me with incoming brownies. The smell of the liquid is much the same, with a little bit of an extra sweetness and a little less molasses. It reminds me of the constant brownie war Ben and I have, since he wants his brownies sweeter and I want mine loaded with molasses.
So the moment of truth, does it smell as brownie heavy as it smells…yeah it does, astoundingly so! I have had plenty of Assams and enjoy drinking cacao shells, and they are each delicious on their own, but something about the combination of the two really works. Cacao shells on their own taste like chocolate but with a woody and at times sour note, and Assam can be too brisk and malty, but when combined these aspects are balanced out so what you get is liquid brownies. What I really liked about this tea is it is sweet but not as sweet as brownies can be, meaning I could quaff a lot of it without feeling ill (unlike what happens when I fill my gorge pouch on brownies) and of course I had to share with Ben, who loved it and requests more.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/12/tea-historic-tricera-tips-assam-tea.html
“gorge pouch” LOL :)