Laoshan Chocolate Genmaicha

097/365

This is one of the most interesting teas I’ve seen in a while, with its clumps of creamy coloured jasmine rice, scattered pieces of wild rice, and copious cocoa nibs. I’m also intrigued by the fact that it uses both Laoshan gongfu black and Laoshan roasted oolong – this clearly isn’t your typical genmaicha!

That’s borne out in the flavour, most of all. Whereas the roastiness in a “normal” genmaicha comes from the rice, here it’s clearly a result of the oolong. It’s roasty in the best possible way, with just an edge of almost-bitter toastiness amongst a lot of retained sweetness. I imagine a significant amount of the sweetness is coming from the strong malty backbone provided by the Laoshan black, but some of it is the oolong.

Underneath the roastiness is a pretty significant chocolate flavour – to my tastes, it’s milk tending towards dark; creamy, with a hint of deeper, richer cocoa. The rice itself doesn’t appear to be contributing a lot, other than a very light starchiness. It adds to the mouthfeel, though, so I guess that’s something.

This is one of the best genmaicha blends I’ve tried, even though it’s not particularly traditional. The quality is undeniable; it just shines through, and I’m enjoying the chocolate twist. It’s a shame LP doesn’t blend anymore because he had a hand for this kind of thing.

I’m sad to announce a sipdown of this fabulously rich dessert tea. I brought it over to a tea tasting with friends. Tea + horror movies + great friend is a good combo.

Very malty and smooth base. Flavourful, hints of porcelain (stored in a foil pouch and clean teapot/cup. Cocoa powder, dark chocolate, something nutty. Nothing resembling genmaicha/toasted rice or grain, but it is still very tasty.

mmmm sample from evol ving ness yep. happy to try this one finally, even if i can’t currently purchase it lol. This one feels more chocolatey than the version from verdant and more “oolongy” It is also missing the roastyness from the rice that i always really enjoyed. I think this is a tasty blend, but it’s not quite the verdant blend that i want it to be. However, i would totally pick this up on it’s own merits for a different sort of taste experience :)

Final count: 100 (since even if i have more tea tonight, not time to log until tomorrow)

This might actually be more chocolatey than the original Verdant blend. Thanks to Zennenn for including this in my Secret Pumpkin package!

It’s been a long and difficult week so I needed something sweet and comforting. This did hit the spot, but happens to be one of those black teas that hurt my stomach. Call it a bittersweet experience. The flavor is really nice though. More hot cocoa than rice krispy treats. I’m on my second steep and it is still sweet and flavorful. Yum.

Another very well blended tea from LP. Flavored teas can be totally awesome when made with quality ingredients, and this one is certainly an example of such. The dry leaf smells like a bar of good chocolate. Once it’s brewed, I smell more of the maltiness from the black/dark oolong base.

My first steep was about 2.5min, and yielded a wonderful cup of tea. It was malty and honey tasting with a pleasantly light chocolate finish. Going into this one, I was afraid that the chocolate I smelled so heavily on the dry leaf would dominate the flavor, basically giving me hot chocolate. Thankfully that was not the case. As the cup cooled, I started to pick up a subdued flavor of dark fruit – I’m thinking maybe currant but it was hard to tell.

Next steep was 3m. The chocolate taste was a bit lighter but certainly still around. It mixed with a toasty/roasty note to make this steep taste like friggin chocolate cookies. It was nuts. Very tasty. I still got a bit of that fruitiness as it cooled.

I pulled two more steeps out of this tea, with times of 5m and 12m. The 5m steep was a slightly lighter version of the previous, while the final steep was sort of an echo of the tea. Most of the ingredients had given about all they could, so it was just some light malty sweetness for the most part .

The balance between the tea base and the added ingredients is excellent, producing a very interesting experience in the cup. I again commend the skill of the blender!

Finally introducing this to the SO. She thinks it would go well with ochazuke or tamagoyaki with shiozake and rice…which sound like very interesting pairings to me. I would drink green tea with those. Upon taking bigger sips she starts to really taste the chocolate and the earthiness of it. I love how the taste of this tea evolves after a few steeps. The dark chocolate taste gradually gives way to the sweetness of the rice and the leaves themselves. Such good stuff. As we get to the last steep she’s very smiley and giggly. I am intrigued by this effect.

BRAVO, SIR. Bravo. 205 degrees for 3 minutes and I got a chocolate treat.

Last of the LP teas! It’s been such a chocolatey, desserty kind of day for me. Happy Birthday LP!

Now that I’ve brewed it, the liquid smells like burnt chocolate pudding and yams, which sounds disgusting, but I am a fan of. I love overcooking chocolate pudding and eating the skin off it.

The brew actually tastes pretty simple. It’s sweet, with a strong flavor of sweet potatoes. These sweet potatoes have the skin on, as that earthy flavor is pretty strong. The cocoa comes up next with a sharp buzz on the finish. A sweet, very strong raisin flavor comes back up the palate after swallowing. I was surprised not to get any of the nuts or rice in the flavor.

This is the best tea I have ever tasted. I just love the dark chocolate bitter sweet and smoothness.

I originally bought an ounce of it, and went through that super fast. I bought a couple this time, and I’ll try to make them last.

I skipped drinking the Mate Nectar for this. I’ll get to that tomorrow!:)

Well done with this one, Andrew! Well done. :)

Started my morning with a cup of this one.

I thought the toastyness of the tea would be the perfect hug this morning for the weather; and the sweetness of the chocolate notes creeping it fit perfectly as well. It was very much a cup of tea for pensive reflection and engulfing yourself in the surrounding environment.

It’s been raining heavily all week, and is expected to do so for the rest of the week as well and while my roommates are heavily complaining about the rain I’ve been loving every second of it. At the very least, I’ve been hanging out in the living with the balcony door open just listening to the pitter patter and soaking in the smell of the petrichor.

However, this morning I was actually on the balcony during the storm with a hot cup of tea, and Eilert behind the gate with a bowl of spinach just soaking everything in and enjoying it all. My roommate Cathryn got up to make breakfast/head to class and saw me out on the balcony – and of course I had my laptop propped right inside the balcony door so it couldn’t get wet and I could listen to my obligatory music whilst enjoying my cup of tea. It just heavily tied into the overall mood and aesthetic of not just the cup of tea but the rain storm as well.

Today’s song pairing was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G10fjK9bUJk

But holy shit, I didn’t expect it to lead into the conversation that I wound up having with Cathryn. She very happily came outside to tell me that “I know that song!”. Which, honestly, kind of excited me too ’cause we have such different tastes in music. So, this was a rare occurrence.

“Yeah, isn’t Fleetwood Mac great? I mean, I’m especially partial to this song but they’re just great in general”. This got a very puzzled look from her.

“No, it’s a Dixie Chicks song. I should know, I just went to their concert over the weekend. It’s one of my favourites and they sang it there. But yeah, this is a decent cover I guess…”

“No, Cathryn, this is the original. The Dixie Chicks version is the cover…”

“I’m running late for class – so I’ll just let you have this one.”

“But… I’m right…?”

So that was a thing that happened this morning. I’ll admit that it made me feel quite old; and Cathryn and I only have two years of age difference in the first place. Well, we almost agreed on something music based. I guess that’s something.