Valentine's Blend

So I wish i could do a comparison of this one and florence side by side, but since i only have this tea with me here – too bad so sad. This is a really nicely done chocolate tea. I have a tagalong thingy with me from winning the H&S contest on FB. I figured the sachets might do well for the travelling thing. In any case..starting to fade. Good night all…

P.S What i learned in china today. never let two men order your dinner…you’ll end up with too much food that’s nearly entirely meat. Also…deep friend whole fish? Not my thing even if it tasted good…they kept staring at me, with their mouths agape…yep. not for me lol

My tea of the afternoon.

There is a new chocolate tea in my cupboard, and it will have a permanent place as long as chocolate tea appeals. I knew that Harney’s Chocolate Tea was good, because I got a sample of it long ago from Fairyfli. I consumed that sample in record time. When it came time to replace some of my chocolate teas, it was definitely on my list, but I decided the addition of roses would be right up my alley. I am definitely not disappointed. The chocolate flavor and rich tea base is very much like I remember in the Chocolate Tea, but the addition of the roses gives a slight sweetness and light floral note. Tastes like chocolate, tea, and lightly of roses all at once. Perfection.

It is also working wonders….it kept me out of the ice cream for the afternoon! And my sweet tooth is sated.

24 oz pot, 4 1/2actual teaspoons of tea, freshly boiled water, 4 minutes.

Mmmm…this was the perfect choice to wrap up my first week of school this year! Everything has been great this week, but I haven’t had much tea and the tea I’ve had hasn’t been logged. This is a great start to a tea-filled weekend – rich chocolate and black tea with a hint of rose on the finish!

I tried a slightly longer steep today (though I didnt keep very good track of just how long, I’m afraid), and it has coaxed out some very noticable coco flavor.

Geez, Steepster is slow for me this morning. I was really not sure if the page was ever going to load. Anyway, I decided to have this “seasonal” tea this morning to hopefully wake me up and energize me a bit. I bought a couple of ounces of this tea a while ago but I haven’t had any of it too recently. This is a pretty tasty chocolate tea, but it’s not nearly rosey enough for me. I mean, I pretty much don’t taste it at all. I’m thinking I might have to start throwing in some rose scented black to amp up the rose and bring it to a level I want. In the end I probably won’t rebuy this one again, but I don’t think I’ll have much problem finishing it up anyway.

Enjoying this cup. I am breaking my rule though of no caffiene after 4pm…hopefully I will sleep tonight! I am so tired though, I needed a little pick me up. I am actually liking this one better than the first time I had it. Bumping up the rating.

Thank you to Sil for this sample!!

For a chocolate tea, this isn’t bad. Verrrrry astringent and light though.
I think it’s supposed to be a darker chocolate. Sorry that’s about all I can remember as I was running around getting ready for the day while sipping away.

Looks like I won’t have much time for tea drinking this week. I’m helping an old professor of mine mark exam papers and organize her stuffs, and she is anti tea/coffee! So I’ll be able to squeeze in a morning cuppa, maybe one throughout the day, and possibly an evening herbal. Forget about logging it on Steepster, as I don’t get cell reception at the office.
Ahh well, it will be fun. My prof always dotes on her assistants so I’ll be eating lots of chocolate and mall food (uni is attached to the Eaton Centre).
And now I must go to bed. So tired and depressed after reading about the bombings :(
Makes me feel guilty for being annoyed at my shopping excursion to Home Sense today, when I got excited to see an (advertised) cast iron pot for $20! only to look inside and see that it was glazed?! I was confused… I thought the whole point was that they aren’t????
Here I am whining about glazing when there are people suffering so terribly out there.
Sending out peaceful and healing thoughts to those affected by the tragedy…

Additional notes for NEW harvest: So I wanted to sample a couple new ‘harvests’ of blends from Harney I had been a fan of in the past. This was one. A few months ago, I tried my ancient blend of this again and it was even better than I remembered, like the chocolate was at the perfect flavor in the age of the tea. Then I tried it a couple months later and it seemed like the chocolate had faded. Almost like opening a tomb and letting the air out, opening the pouch changed the perfect chocolate flavor and then the next steep teaspoon session a couple months later was faded. (oh geeze. Tea problems.)
This NEW harvest… sometimes I have a problem with chocolate flavoring tasting like gasoline. I know that Frank’s 52Teas blends would sometimes do this. And this one is doing that now. But I’ve come to know that you just either have to air the tea out, or let it age. So I guess I will just have to ‘age’ this one so the gasoline flavor disappears. I’m not sure if past harvests were like this, because I think I acquired the last blend from another Steepsterer when it wasn’t BRAND NEW. Also, there are rose petals but not really any hint of them in the cup. I like the dark brew though. The rating wouldn’t be 90 now but I don’t lower ratings. I’ll try it again as it ages….
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon (in my smaller dragon mug) // 14 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

Sipdown! 865.

Still chocolatey and fruity, but I think I may have messed up the tea:water ratio, as it was a touch weak. Oh well, still enjoyable, as was the re-steep. (The remnants of the first cup are still sitting on my nighttable… I sniffed them and it smells tasty, but I’m not going to drink tea that’s been sitting for 3-4 days! Overnight, sure.

Hello Steepster!

I’ve been gone a while. Remember how I mentioned a while ago I was trying to sell my house? Well, things FINALLY heated up, and now we should be leaving our current place and getting into a new place mid-March.

And it’s all kept me a little busy. I’ve been drinking tea, but nothing I haven’t had before, or that inspired me to log it.

But I should log this one. Bought this for my hubby for Valentine’s day. He’s a big chocolate fan, and I love roses. He was happy. I was fairly meh.

The chocolate in here is lovely. It’s got a good, rich base to it. But I can hardly taste the roses. I was hoping for a more floral OOMPH from this tea.

If I readjust my mind and tell myself it’s just a chocolate tea, then I like it better. But whenever I remember it’s supposed to be roses and chocolate? Sigh.