Passage

Oversteeped, but it was still nice – more hazelnut than chocolate, which is the balance I want out of a chocolate and hazelnut blend. The flavour of the nut is way more interesting to me, and harder to convey, whereas I can get a chocolate tea just about anywhere…

Also, am I crazy or didn’t this tea used to have a longer name!?

Huh. I guess the name of this tea was shortened to “Passage” some point after this tea was added to the Steepster database. I had to google Passage du Desir, thinking it was one of the passages in Paris, alleys often with glass ceilings that have turned into shopping strips with cute cafes and shops lining them. A quick google search turns up reference to one passage with not much detail, but most of the results are of a sex toy or “adult novelty” shop. Was this tea named after a street or an adult toy shop? My curiosity is peaked.

Dry, this tea has that rich dark chocolate scent that reminds me of prunes for some reason. It is a deep chocolate smell. I drank most of this cup absentmindedly while running morning errands. As I sit with the rest of the cooled cup I notice the dark chocolate in the sip and finish. It is subtle and might be made more substantial with cream, but I’ll have to test that theory out on my next cup. There is a slight barley scent when I’m sipping and I’m not able to pick out the hazelnut in the flavors. Overall I’m still undecided on exactly how I feel about this tea.

GCTTB6

Consider me surprised when the first thing I tasted was roasted chestnuts. I decided to look up this tea to see if that was supposed to be there and googling “Passage du Desir” produced some pretty interesting results, non of which were this tea. When I did finally find this tea, it seems that flavor was indeed purposely present. Unfortunately some flavor notes were lost on that I really, really wanted to taste and so if I am being honest, I was a bit disappointed. Still I am grateful to Sil for adding this to the TTB because I heard great things and probably would have blindly bought this and not really loved it. Not that it was bad, just not my preference. Check out my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/04/11/passage-du-desir-from-august-uncommon/

It’s like drinking brownie essence. Many thanks to hawkband1 for giving me a generous amount in her swap.

Mmmm, this was so good. The chocolate wasn’t that each kind of chocolate, it was more the darker chocolate that I enjoy. It was sweet enough that I didn’t have to add any sweetener (which I don’t like to add anyway).
Nutty, chocolate tea…how can you go wrong?
If I ever order from this company, this tea would certainly be on that list!
Thanks to whoever added this to the Canadian Travelling Tea Box!

This is one of the best chocolate teas I’ve tried: rich, bittersweet chocolate flavor with a hint of hazelnut. It’s definitely on the pricey side, but worth it for a special treat. It was delicious straight, but I’m curious to also try it as a latte…milk and sugar might take it over the top!

This is a really tasty gourmand tea. The smell of the dry leaf is quite intoxicating and very unique – rich, boozy, chocolaty. I’ve never had chestnuts before but the nuttiness in this blend reads hazelnut (not surprising given the ingredients) to my tastebuds. The black tea base was quite smooth and naturally sweet. The cocoa beans and husk lend a nice, bold chocolate flavor. I appreciate that the tea didn’t contain pieces of chocolate that would melt and, therefore, create that unappealing oiliness that coats the roof of your mouth.

I steeped the leaves three times before giving up the ghost.

Did I seriously polish off 100g of this in under four months? For a tea that didn’t dazzle me, that’s pretty darn impressive. I had 10g left in the bag so I made a massive cup and it turned out very chocolatey. The chocolate note in this is the highlight of this, in my opinion. I’m so glad I was able to snag some on sale since I still don’t think it was worth its full price.

That means the cupboard count is down to 43.

In the words of Daylon R Thomas, “Liquid Nutella is the best description I can offer.”

These samples have so far proven that there are other types of tea out there that I’ve yet to try; which I plan on trying more of, once I drink down more tea. It’s not that I’m not committed to tea, but I’m literally running out of room in my cupboard. I’ve purchased an unnatural amount in the past few months (there’s no such thing as an unnatural amount of tea, though), and I want to create a challenge for myself to see if I can drink away 5-6 teas before buying more.

Anyway, thank you for this lovely sample, Whiteantlers. It has been an adventure thus far, and I can’t wait to try the rest this week. :)

Sipdown by giveaway. I could never get this as perfect as it was the first time. I quickly got tired of the hazelnut flavoring, though the chocolate component was still very good.
I gave the rest away to a novice tea drinker who I hope will enjoy it.