Cacao Tea

Queued post, written August 20th 2014

This one was shared with me by Courtney. I have actually had this stuff before, although from a different vendor, and I wasn’t exactly impressed. Watered down cocoa, it turns out, is not something I find pleasant.

I considered trying it as a mixer this time, but I didn’t really have anything that I thought it would mix well with.

I considered steeping it in milk and heating the lot on the hob, but that would take is into something more appropriately posted to ‘cocoaster.com’ if such a thing exists. Or ‘Chocster.com’.

Then I decided to just try and squeeze all the cocoa out of it that I could in one feel swoop and see if I couldn’t take it beyond the watered down hot not-really-chocolate stage.

Courtney had written steeping recommendations on the bag, and I threw caution to the wind and pretty much ignored them. The entire sample went in. All of it. The lot. Well, okay, I didn’t completely ignore them, because I adhered to the time and temperature.

No, it doesn’t work.

Oh, it tastes like chocolate all right, so if this floats your boat, by all means hurry out and get some. Chocolate does float my boat as well, but only if I get the whole experience. The richness. The thickness. The creamyness. And again, I am left with chocolate flavoured water.

I get the flavour. I don’t get all the other things that I associate with chocolate and it just leaves me wanting.

Holy hot cocoa batman! This tastes exactly like hot cocoa. Amazing. I bet this would taste incredible iced. This tea is way too good to wait until it cools, though. I got two solid steeps out of it. Also, it takes beautifully to a shot of Bailey’s. This is so going on the ideal cupboard list. Thank you MissLena!

Wow!

I’d never heard of this before when Courtney surprised me with some to try. It looks interesting dry and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I followed the successes of others in steeping it for a long time to maximize flavour, I may have slightly underleafed because I probably let it sit for close to half an hour and it wasn’t SUPER potent, but still tasty.

The smell of the dry leaves isn’t much, but whoa, once it’s brewed it smells of pure chocolate!

This was a nice treat. I’m looking forward to trying the strawberry version and I would not be surprised if I decide to order some in the future.

It’s definitely not a replacement for hot chocolate, it’s missing that creamy thickness. But nice to satisfy a craving and I can see it being great to add to other teas to make them more chocolatey. Hmmmm.

Thanks so much for sharing this unique tea with me, Courtney!

i originally drank this on March 18th and still haven’t gotten around to making a note.

point is i barely remember my true thoughts on the tea and now it’s all gone.

i remember not liking the first cup very much, but then REALLY liking the second one. I think i just needed some time to sort out my expectations or something.

i’m sorry for neglecting posting about this and many other teas you sent me Cavocorax !! i swear guys i’m enjoying them all!

now. i’m perplexed. i just don’t see how my bucky/grumpy cat combo nails aren’t getting re-tumbld to high heaven. i think they are hilarious!! and um …. yup, i guess that explains it. :) self-entertainment is reason enough ain’t it. http://shmiracles.tumblr.com/post/87664905533

Tea #18 from Considering a new TTB
I’ve been eyeing up this tea for some time and somehow managed to forget to order it during my Black Friday binge. It smells just like hot cocoa, although the lack of sweetness takes a little getting used to. I think this is exactly what I need to head off my chocolate cravings without all of the calories.

This tea won’t be continuing on, I finished off the last of it.

This one is from MissB! Thanks so much! I knew I would love this sort of tea, since I saw someone call it Mexican hot chocolate. Though I’ve never actually tried Mexican hot chocolate, it seems like it would be my sort of thing. I steeped this cup for a VERY long time with just boiled water…. like 10-20 minutes. The chocolatier the better, I think! The flavor is addicting! It’s a dusty chocolate that fills up the entire mug. Unsweetened tough chocolate. It’s exactly my thing. There has to be SOME caffeine in here since it’s chocolate though, right? Especially if the chocolate dust is in the mug? I could drink a ton of this stuff. I would DEFINITELY choose this over hot chocolate since I wouldn’t have to worry about the sugar. Anyone on a diet who can’t go without their chocolate, this is the drink for you.

courtney both rocks my world and may have ruined LB for me for a little while. heh. She sent along some cacao for me since HI is annoying me in their lack of consistency with their service…so that i could try her receipe of adding this to LB.

So this morning i did a 1-1 ratio of this + LB in my travel mug for work…fogot about it…and sometime this afternoon took my first sip. dear.god. SOOOOO good! it enhances the deliciousness of LB and makes it a totally decadent treat tea… I may need to keep this in my back pocket for when i’m having a really bad day…though i’d have to get lots more cacao tea.

thanks a bunch courtney!

Thanks to Dexter3657 for this sample!

I had this last night. I’m leaving for a business trip in a couple short days and I have been so busy and working long hours so excuse my tasting notes – they may be a bit chaotic!

Anyway, what I remember about this is it smells exactly like brownie batter which is pretty awesome, but although I steeped for nearly 30 minutes, I still had to add sweetener to get it chocolatey. It was palatable without sweetener, but nowhere near the other reviews. I also think this would benefit from over-leafing.

Also, I’m now going to just buy the 7oz bag of organic cacao husks that I find at my local super market ($12.99) or see at Home Goods ($10) every time I go. I’d like to try the flavored versions from Herbal Infusions, but this is just plain cacao husks right? This can be gotten a lot cheaper.

Want this to taste more like true hot cocoa and even have a texture closer to the real thing? Steep it for TWO HOURS. No joke. I left it to steep in my Timolino, and thought I would sip on it during a colloquium, but it sat in my bag. When I got home just a while ago, I opened it up, poured the contents into a mug, and was astonished by how murky the liquor is. It looks very close to what water + cacao powder looks like.

And, to top it off, it tastes a lot like it too. Maybe not as bitter, but for me, it’s the perfect amount of richness and bitterness without having to add any sugar. Because after all, whenever I make a traditional cup of hot cocoa, I make it with milk (sometimes half and half) and sugar, which is my grandma’s method. So in other words, this is like a healthier alternative to that.

Awesomesauce. But also sadsauce. This is also a sip down. So far 2/4 cacao teas are 50g-worthy.

Ok, so I don’t love this tea. It’s just too thin for me. I’ll probably toss the rest into the moose tracks tea.