80
drank Chocolate Monkey by Art of Tea
382 tasting notes

Well, I have to say, nothing gets through my “need beer nao” haze, quite like the sudden arrival (at 9pm, wtf UPS?) of my Art of Tea dessert tea sampler. So now I am totally like “need tea, go away beer.” Ah, how fickle is woman, etc, etc.

Naturally, for my first pick from the sampler, I randomly drew one of the packets and this is what I got. Now, I have to say. Banana and I have a relationship that is even rockier than mine and Vanilla’s. You see, outside of tea, I am generally fine with vanilla. Whereas A. I have never HAD tea that involved banana and B. I am just not a huge fan of bananas. Unless I am in a banana mood. Which happens like, once every two months. Still, I was willing to give this tea a chance. Also, I am pretty sure someone else mentioned this, but monkey in the title! How can you go wrong?

Even before brewing, I am pretty impressed. This tea smells like a banana split! It has been ages since I had a banana split! I shouldn’t even remember how one smells! Which probably means that this smells like banana split should, not how it necessarily does.

The taste however…hm. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s tasty! So tasty, that I suspect Art of Tea of witchcraft, but it’s also kind of…confusing. Sometimes, I totally get chocolate and banana. But sometimes I also got this tang that puts me more in mind of a Polish dessert called kisiel. Which I am never in a million years going to be able to explain, so Wikipedia to the rescue: “It consists of sweetened juice, thickened with arrowroot, cornstarch or potato starch, and sometimes red wine or dried fruits are added. It is similar to the Danish Rødgrød or German Rote Grütze.” So, there you have it. It is usually tangy, has the consistency of custard (basically) and is super tasty with cream.

Anyway, which of the two things it’s gonna taste like varies basically from sip to sip, although the chocolate banana seems to be gaining the upper hand as it cools. My aim with ordering this sampler is that I want to find a dessert tea that I can use to full my sweet tooth into thinking that I have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred. I am unsure if this will serve the purpose. Further steepings are required! With milk! and possibly some sort of artificial sweetner! The more calories I can free up by avoiding dessert, the more beer I can consume! Yes, I have a one track mind, leave me alone.

Preparation
Boiling 6 min, 0 sec
__Morgana__

Dude, when you find a dessert tea that fools your sweet tooth “into thinking that [you] have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred” please PM me immediately with the details!

Ewa

man, don’t shatter my illusions. it COULD happen!

__Morgana__

I hope so, I hope to benefit from the discovery!

Cofftea

haha weird… well at least it was 9pm instead of 9am the next morning.

Lori

This sounds like a fun deal- the dessert tea sampler……I will need to try it!

SoccerMom

Lori, I agree this sampler does sound appealing.

Ewa

Yeah, I’d had my eye on it for a while, and then one of the steepster selects involved $5 off Art of Tea stuff, which essentially gave me free shipping, so…YOINK!

~lauren.

Just adding my two cents worth – we drink Kusmi Caramel or Harney & Son’s Florence as our post-dinner tea when we didn’t have dessert at dinner (that happens more than it should, sigh). Sweet. Decadent. Yum.

Ewa

Hmmm, Florence looks quite intriguing. Looks like my next batch of samples is come from Harney & Sons! Not to sure about the Kusmi, mostly because I’m not too keen to buy a whole tin of it without trying it.

SoccerMom

Florence IS yummy!

Ricky

Florence…. yummmm ….. Caramel…. Kusmi…. drools

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Comments

__Morgana__

Dude, when you find a dessert tea that fools your sweet tooth “into thinking that [you] have had dessert when nothing of the sort has actually occurred” please PM me immediately with the details!

Ewa

man, don’t shatter my illusions. it COULD happen!

__Morgana__

I hope so, I hope to benefit from the discovery!

Cofftea

haha weird… well at least it was 9pm instead of 9am the next morning.

Lori

This sounds like a fun deal- the dessert tea sampler……I will need to try it!

SoccerMom

Lori, I agree this sampler does sound appealing.

Ewa

Yeah, I’d had my eye on it for a while, and then one of the steepster selects involved $5 off Art of Tea stuff, which essentially gave me free shipping, so…YOINK!

~lauren.

Just adding my two cents worth – we drink Kusmi Caramel or Harney & Son’s Florence as our post-dinner tea when we didn’t have dessert at dinner (that happens more than it should, sigh). Sweet. Decadent. Yum.

Ewa

Hmmm, Florence looks quite intriguing. Looks like my next batch of samples is come from Harney & Sons! Not to sure about the Kusmi, mostly because I’m not too keen to buy a whole tin of it without trying it.

SoccerMom

Florence IS yummy!

Ricky

Florence…. yummmm ….. Caramel…. Kusmi…. drools

Anyone who signs up for comment notifications, SORRY for the spam you just received from my edits!

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Profile

Bio

I’m a Pole who grew up in Texas, is currently a graduate student in California studying Japan. How’s THAT for random?

Being Polish, my family has always drunk a lot of tea, and I am no different. I may drink more tea than water. On the other hand, I can’t say that I’m very particular about it; I’m generally pretty careless with steeping times and water temperature and I don’t even have a proper teapot (mostly because the lid broke during the move to California ;_;).

I always drink my tea unsweetened and I only add milk in the case of the most egregiously chai-ish of chais. (not really a big fan of milk in general)

Given that so many of my entries seem to be about my morning tea, I felt I should add something here about me and mornings: I fail at mornings. I fail at them a LOT. Therefore I often also fail at proper tea making in the mornings.

Location

Santa Barbara

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