The latest BOMC box arrived yesterday! All the blends look delicious and exciting as usual, although I was a bit wary of the mate blend, definitely not a before bed blend! After smelling all the teas, I decided this one was the one I needed to try first. It smells deliciously of dark chocolate! It looks like there are whole cocoa pieces in the blend, or cacao, whichever it is, along with goji berries and the famed Zhu Rong base. I steeped this for about 2 minutes with 200 degree water. The resulting dark liquor smells of raisins and chocolate. Interesting!
As for the flavor, mmm this is reminding me of a lovely red wine with chocolate. The main flavors are a dry grape-like flavor, raisin like but not as sweet, it reminds me a bit of how Master Han’s Yunnan black tastes, a hint of olive oil in there too! There is also that lovely dark chocolate flavor, a rich flavor that melds with the mild astringency and raisin like notes wonderfully. There’s a sweetness in the middle of the sip that could be attributed to the vanilla as well, although it is faint and not a huge component, just smooths things over.
Overall, this is quite good. It’s rich but light, fresh and filling. All the flavors blend together quite well into a dark chocolate, grape tasting tea. It mainly reminds me of Master Han’s Yunnan Black, but with chocolate added. Very tasty, a perfect tea for a day like today – blanket of fresh, wet snow overnight and temperatures just over zero melting it away. Spring snow day tea!
Flavors: Chocolate, Grapes
