I should have fixed this last night when I was having my bad tea night, I wanted chocolate tea and the three I tried kept turning out watery and flavorless. Rather than enjoying a relaxing cup of tea I spent hours trying to diagnose my problem, testing water temp, finding multiple thermometers to verify my results, and making lists of what my problem could be since it obviously wasn’t my water. I just hate giving up on a tea and managed to find three in a row that I just gave up on. It left me in a bit of a sour mood which I solved by binge eating kettle corn (that is absolutely not going to help me fit into my dress for the wedding I’m attending next month.)
Thank you JustJames for sending me this in our swap, it helped me start off my day on the right foot. You’ve also helped me find a viable option for my chocolate tea tin that has sat empty for the last three months.
I can’t even begin to explain the flavor of this tea, but I can tell you what it is lacking, and that is artificial chocolate flavoring. That immediately makes this tea a viable option for when I need a chocolate fix. Most of the chocolate teas I’ve tried use the same flavoring agent to obtain a chocolate flavor, but it ends up tasting like low quality chocolate, for a chocoholic like me that just isn’t going to work.
The raw cacao & nibs give this a slight chocolate taste, but if you’re wanting milk chocolate out of your chocolate tea you will be disappointed, because this isn’t it. The vanilla beans lend a slightly sweet flavor and the “exotic spices & essences” make things interesting. I do wish Silk Road went into more detail about what the exotic spices are since I do have food allergies it makes it hard to avoid what I can’t have if it isn’t clearly on the label.
The last thing I want to note is that my tin said to pour 2 cups of water over 1tsp tea. I didn’t do that, it just didn’t seem like enough tea so I used 1t per 8oz. I’m glad I did because I don’t think I would have enjoyed this at a weaker strength. I also think this would make an excellent tea latte.
Oh god, I can definitely relate to just having a really “off” tea day—when even the teas you love so dearly somehow taste awful, and everything new is just so disappointing. Glad things turned around, though! they always do :)