Framboise Chocolat

For the last few weeks I’ve really been craving fruit/chocolate combos, and have been making a lot of choco-berry smoothies. Looking through my tea, I only had this and Lupicia’s Strawberry and Chocolate pu’erh that fit the bill, so I decided to try this.

I always forget that Lupicia often uses a CTC base on their blacks, so I’ve been a bit mindful to not overleaf or oversteep. It is still quite a rich black tea, but not so much as to hide the flavor. The chocolate is a little softer than I was imagining, but is more cocoa sweet/bittersweet than that strong chocolate liquor flavor usually found in teas, and the raspberry is simply lovely… a little jammy, a little candy sweet. I’ve had many nice hot ’n plain cups of this in my work thermos the last few weeks.

This morning I decided to make a latte, since I figured the strong CTC base would be up to it. 3 parts tea (double the leaf), 1 part warm frothed vanilla almond milk, and it is very nice! It’s very creamy and full of sweet raspberry, but still has a nice classic black tea body in the undertones.

May Sipdown Prompt: National Eat What You Want Day – Drink what you really want!

I started the day with this tea and took the holiday seriously. Waffles instead of oatmeal, then a Stouffer’s frozen “emergency” meal instead of making a smoothie or a sandwich, iced pomegranate oolong from Harney for my lunch drink out on the patio, and got takeout instead of cooking supper.

In addition, I made ice cream this morning flavored with rose black tea and jasmine green tea and had it on my afternoon break and gave the rest to a neighbor and Ashman to have for dessert tonight. It has been a day of culinary decadence and throwing caution to the wind! Ha ha!

Sipdown 17

Delicious. Authentic (non plasticy/fake tasting_ dark chocolate and juicy, tart raspberry flavor. Lupicia continues to impress with their flavorings.

Tea by Candle Light Sipdown (In Progress): Framboise Chocolat

I don’t actually have candle lit for this one but it reminds me of something you would drink by candle light. Also, I don’t think I will be able to finish this off by the end of the month as I have both a few cup sample and 50 g bag, but progress is what matters.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: This is the first time I have tried this tea and I like it a lot. It is malty and sort of creamy but it has a nice raspberry dessert flavor (both of a raspberry sweet and raspberries on their own). I have only had Chambord once before and it has a similar taste. The chocolate is nicely balanced with the malty tea and raspberry. It does remind me of decadent treat. Thanks for the share, Cameron!

Total side note about Lupicia ordering. I tried a tea from Cameron not long ago that isn’t carried by Lupicia Hawaii anymore (or not currently) and talked to customer service about getting it. They essentially lead to the complicated but interesting process of forwarding addresses. So this week I have started doing my first Lupicia Japan order with Tenso.com which is a company forwards your mail orders from their japan warehouse (which acts as your domestic address in Japan) to your country of residence. Completed the first 3 steps of the process which are 1) signing up with tenso, 2) getting your identity confirmed after sign up, 3) ordered teas from Lupicia Japan with Tenso’s designated address. I got a confirmation email from Lupicia so now I guess I just have to wait until Tenso receives the package and I can “consolidate” it (I think this just means pay for the forwarding and international shipping costs and confirm that this is my package). Then it should be on the way to me. I guess to be continued… Oh also, new years tea resolution of not spending until next November already broken 10 days later… bah. Clearly I will have to try again.

Thanks for another lovely tea, Dustin!

This is hit-you-in-the-face raspberry, wow. It reminds me somewhat of 52teas’ Peanut Butter & Raspberry Jelly but without the nuttiness and way more raspberry. It’s just so good. This will be going on my to-buy list next time I make a purchase from Lupicia.

Love at first taste! This tea was added to our Lupicia order at the last minute because my husband and daughter absolutely love Lupicia’s Strawberry Puer and I thought I might like this one better since raspberries are my favorite berries. The 50 grams disappeared in a flash and as a mea culpa for drinking it all, my better half bought me 250g for my birthday.

It reminds me of the Weight Watchers chocolate-covered raspberry ice cream pops. So good! Lupicia is so good at capturing the taste of fruit in a way that feels natural and they sure know how to make chocolate teas. No tartness at all here. Just sweet raspberries and melted chocolate… a great dessert tea!

I’ve been loving this tea for about a year now… how have I not written a tasting note?! Picked this up in Paris at the Lupicia store there. Wish I had time to visit their tea room in the back.
It has a dark rich berry scent to it. I’ve been enjoying it with a bit of cream. The chocolate is subtle. I think it works more to add depth to the flavor of the berry as opposed to tasting like chocolate in it’s own right. My cup is cool now, so it’s hard to pick out the flavors in the sip, but the finish leaves me with a light yet rich raspberry flavor. I’ll have to add more notes when I have a hot cup in front of me again.

Been working mainly on sipdowns the last few days. Watching everyone’s reviews while drinking as much tea from my shelves as I can lol. Thought I’d take a break and try something new and this just arrived from the Lupicia’s HI store. Wouldn’t have bought it but it’s only available till the end of February. She said it won’t be back till next year. They shipped fast, got it in 5 or so days.

I put 6g (2 tsp) in 10 oz for 3 minutes (boiling water). It has dark cocoa, dark bittersweet notes. Lots of berries, raspberries, strawberries. Tart and sweet notes. It carries a little more chocolate flavor than the Maroon chocolate and a couple of the others. It may be the way I prepared it though. I like it. I’m glad I got it.

Does what it says on the tin! (And I literally mean “the tin,” since I couldn’t resist getting my recent lupicia.fr haul mostly all in those decorative tins where you choose the pretty label art). This is nice and dark chocolatey and distinctly raspberrish! Very straightforward. And quite tasty.

Yet. Yet. I have to finally admit something to myself. I’m not really a sincere chocolate fan. Like being “in love with love,” I’m always seduced by the idea of chocolate, but rarely borne away on wings of desire when the rubber hits the road. If I buy a fancy dark chocolate bar (I only like dark chocolate, and only if it’s fancy :P) it will last me … two or three months? Less, because my husband usually raids it at some point, but I just break off a small piece to have from time to time, and there’s no temptation to gobble. (And trust me, I can be quite the shameless gobbler.) It’s nice, but not compelling. If I have a choice between vanilla and chocolate ice cream? I always choose vanilla (especially if it’s fancy). I adore a piece of super moist chocolate cake … but, in fact, I must confess that if you offered me carrot cake as an option I would go with that instead.

Why do I say all this? Because I have to finally admit that as much as I am undeniably beguiled by all the chocolate-y tea descriptions, I rarely adore them. Because I’m just not that much of a chocolate lover. I love the descriptions, I love the idea, I love a tasty morsel of excellent chocolate every now and then, but I have to finally face up to the fact that it’s not that everyone else is not creating chocolate treats “just right” for me, it’s that I’m not a true lover of chocolate treats.

I think Lupicia has done a very good job with this, but it will last me a long time, like one of my fancy chocolate bars. I enjoyed it, but I’m not already awaiting / planning my next cup, like I do with my best favorites. I’m not going to rate this one (but just for me? I’d probably give it 70 — not a low score!) because I’m not the person it’s really meant for. if you love chocolate and raspberry, I think you will love this.

Another sample from Cameron B! Thanks so much again! This one is particularly sad because I’m in love with this tea… and I have one teaspoon left. So sad. I’m very glad I was able to sample it though. So I was having this tea with raspberry jam this morning, so for a second there, I was having a Cameron moment from the past holidays with her jam advent. haha. Now, though I was also eating jam, this tea just TASTES like jam. The description says raspberry but it seems more like strawberry to me. I’ve loved plenty of Lupicia’s strawberry flavored teas, but they haven’t exactly tasted like strawberry jam before. I love the tiny flowers in the blend. I also love the darkness of the brew, though it doesn’t overpower the flavors. However, like a few other Lupicia teas that aren’t obviously chocolate for me, this one wasn’t either. But I love that strawberry jam flavor. It disappears slightly on the second steep, but more of a floral flavor appears, maybe from those tiny flowers? The second steep was a bit oversteeped… I should have made it like the first cup.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for a full mug // 14 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 5 minutes after boiling // 3 1/2 minute steep