Éclair au Chocolat (Chocolate Eclair)

French… Saturday?! I had absolutely no time to brew hot tea before work yesterday (and in all honesty, barely have enough before work today, so I’ll have to make this brief), so I had to push back the sampler from my baggie of French teas (thanks, Dustin!) to today.

The dry leaf smells reminds me of B&B’s Easter Egg Nests… a sweet chocolately, slightly roasty/nutty aroma. Brewed about 2.6g per 350ml of 205F water for 3 minutes. The brewed tea smells like Easter Egg Nests to me as well… a fudgy, milk chocolately aroma. I’m getting a sort of roasty, slightly coffee-like background note, a subtle roasted nuts note, and a rich chocolately top note. I remember that I had more of a bitter-sweet, dark chocolate tasting experience with Easter Egg Nests, unless I prepared it as a latte, which brought out more of a creamy milk chocolate taste… I’m getting something closer to a creamy milk chocolate taste from this tea as a hot plain cuppa with no additions. There is more of a bitter sweet than a sweet edge to it, but it is quite smooth and pleasant.

Sipdown 197/397! I’m down to 300 teas!! It’s a little embarrassing how excited I am about that.

I’m currently drinking this for today’s breakfast, paired with some strawberries from my newly-arrived Rotten Fruit Box! They’re an awesome company which rescue fruit that has been deemed ‘not supermarket grade’ due to its appearance that would otherwise be left to go rotten – hence the name – and freeze-dries it while it’s still fresh. So not only does it reduce food waste, but it provides a healthy and tasty snack for myself, and helps out small farmers (where they get over 80% of their produce) in the process! The bags the fruit comes in are compostable, too! I’m honestly so excited about their business model! If only more companies were concerned with all-around sustainability. Anyway, that’s my daily rant over. I swear they didn’t pay me to give that whole speech! On to the tea.

I really didn’t expect much from this. Partly because Marzipan, who sent it to me, wasn’t a fan, and partly because chocolate teas never seem to hit the spot for me. I sound like a broken record at this point, but I never actually get chocolate from them. This one, though, I actually do! It’s creamy but not artificial, while still being quite deep, and it pairs well with the roasty oolong base. There were a lot of cocoa nibs in the leaf, and it’s definitely that more natural, ‘raw’ chocolate flavour I’m getting, which I think is probably the way to go with chocolate in teas. I don’t think I would call it an éclair necessarily, nor do I feel the need to pick up another tin this instant, but it’s a chocolate tea done well and I’m pleasantly surprised.

This was a generous sample from a swap and I made it as the second tea of tea party. Tea number one was a bust but this one made up for it.

I have only ever had one Fauchon tea, Le Bonheur, and it is quite good. It reminds me of Paris from Harney and Sons. I chose this tea for today based on the dry leaf aroma. I had my daughter make it at 203F for 3 minutes.

Dry leaf and steeped tea smell like a creamy chocolate eclair, the real deal. I was glad that everyone liked this since they didn’t like the Rishi Wuyi Oolong that we had first. This was the favorite tea today.

Our dessert was a French Silk pie made by my daughter. The crust has pecan meal in it, and the chocolate pie was tall and fluffy and so cool on this miserably hot and humid day. Topped with whipped cream, of course.

Yay, 2000th tasting note!!

I decided to celebrate with this, which has got to be the most milk-chocolatey tea I’ve ever tried. No hint of bitter dark chocolate here, no sir. All sweet and creamy chocolate. It really was eclair-like. Definitely sweet as well, not sure if the “vanilla pieces” listed in the ingredients are really sugary pieces. I didn’t really notice the oolong base too much to be honest (it is a dark, but not very roasty variety), but that’s ok. I may try steeping this at a higher temp next time to see how it behaves. This is a dessert tea to be sure. Not sure how often I will really crave it, but I do very much enjoy it.

I had really high hopes for this one, but didn’t really love it. I think actually maybe I don’t like chocolate tea all that much, even though I keep thinking I should. This was just odd to me. I was able to finish the cup, but each sip got a hmm from me. I couldn’t figure out exactly what I didn’t like. But, you’ll probably be seeing this in your swap packets since other people love this one!

The first tea to be tried from boychik’s amazing swap package! This tea looked beautiful and smelled even better, so it won out over the other amazing French teas she sent. The oxidized oolong leaves are dark and quite small, and they’re mixed with yellow flower petals and pieces of what look like cacao nibs. Dry scent is super chocolate heaven! It’s somewhere between milk and dark chocolate, so I guess that makes it a lower cocoa percentage dark chocolate. :P I steeped a slightly rounded teaspoon of leaf for 4 minutes at 200 degrees (in my cute new bubble mug, squee!).

Mm, the brewed aroma is still chocolate heaven! There are also some cream and pastry notes there. First off, the flavor of this one is quite light, so I would probably use more leaf the next time I make it. However, the flavor that’s there is amazing! The main star is the chocolate, which actually tastes like chocolate (still a mix of milk and dark). Then there’s the fluffy pastry cream, which pokes its head out midway through the sip and is strong in the aftertaste. In this case, it seems like a mild coconut pastry cream. The overall texture is smooth and there’s a hint of buttery pastry taste that hides in the background. Yum! :)

blech. for whatever reason i didn’t like this one. maybe it’s because it’s that whole fauchon oolong thing. ah well, still good to get a chance to try it. it was just really bland and very…meh

Bubble bath tea from boychik.
Wow! Bread, chocolate, & cream = delicious!
Now I’m thinking I want to combine cacao nibs, vanilla, & something smokey…
It will either be awesome or terrible…

Wow, thank you so much boychik for sending me a sample of this tea! I was broke during the last Vente-Privee sale, and would have been reluctant to purchase whole tins in the future without tasting them first anyway.

Could this possibly be the perfect chocolate tea? PERHAPS! It is rich and creamy and so chocolatey, without being bitter or artificial at all, and I didn’t even add ANY sweetener! The base tea is mild and pleasant, and everything seems to meld together so nicely. I’m definitely going to set aside some money to grab a tin of this one the next time it is available.

Not jawdroppingly awesome but a heckuva lot better than that cat pee-smelling cassis blend, eesh.