Cocoa Amore

So, I’m finally nearing the end of my bag of this really delicious tea. It’ll definitely be sad to see it go – today was yet another fantastic cup with all of those vanilla, chocolate and fudge notes that I’ve been enjoying so much.

As with some of the other WP teas I bought (though certainly not all of them), this was too expensive for me to keep a regular stock of. But I know I’ll certainly treat myself to it again, in future – for an indulgent, dessert-like tea, I’ve not yet come across anything more delicious! :D

I’m getting chocolate, blackberry, and vanilla. This tea is so robust and tasty. An absolute must-try.

With some high-quality and relatively complex teas, I can’t really manage to detect all the notes and flavours written in the description. Undertrained palate probably.

But THIS. Fudge, cherries, cocoa powder, malt, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, mineral, barley sugar… I could taste them ALL. Even in the second infusion.

And I was sad when told that someone had thrown out the leaves before I could use them for a third steep. I don’t even usually resteep.

Simply put, I love this a lot and am very grateful for its existence in the universe.

I figured that i might as well splurge on having this one today since i had time for a couple resteeps and because it’s close to being finished. I really do want to keep on getting my cupboard in order – i’m thinking maybe a goal of 50 for the end of next year heh I enjoy this one, though with the discussion taking place about quality vs price this one comes to mind. I have a hard time justifying prices like this one tea, EVEN if it’s a tea that i can resteep and rather enjoy. Mainly because 9 times out of 10, unless i’m doing a puerh session, i don’t want resteeps. I want a different cup of tea. and secondly, there are other teas that are “nearly as delicious” that are half the price. So the majority of the time, i’m ok with those other teas. What i do like, is being able to splurge occasionally on more expensive, quality teas as a treat. So that i take the time to slow down and really enjoy them when i have them. This is one of those teas that falls in to that category. I really like it, but it’ll never be a permanent tea in my cupboard. Rather, i’ll rotate it in when i want a treat :)

While this tea probably deserves to be brewed gongfu today it got brewed Western style. I think the only thing added to this tea is vanilla beans. But it works. It is a very chocolaty base to the tea. And somehow there seem to be notes of cherry as well as vanilla. I rarely buy from Whispering Pines because his prices are so high. But with the recent sale I just couldn’t resist. His quality is as high as his prices I’ll give him that. This is one good tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 min.

Finally I got to try this tea after hearing loads of amazing reviews. I wasn’t sure if I would love it since I’ve only started liking some black teas recently (very few) but from the description it seemed I would. I only got a sample size. In the bag it smelled so good: chocolate & vanilla. Mmmmmm. Brewed it according to Brenden’s directions. It was so chocolatey! It’s hard to believe that comes from the tea only. I could smell it and taste it. Yum! It also had notes that were similar to a Li-Shan black tea I’ve had before: bready, sweet , malty. couldn’t pick up any cherry notes but that may be because of my untrained palate. However, I also didn’t get much or any vanilla notes. I tried to shake the sample up a bit to distribute the vanilla pieces but maybe I just didn’t get any in the spoon. I could definitely smell vanilla in the bag but it didn’t come through in the taste. The tea was excellent but holding off rating until I have this again. It may just be a fluke that I didn’t get any vanilla notes.

Cheri was kind and generous enough to provide me with a sample of this (pricey) tea! Thanks so much, dear! The leaves are black, long, quite thin, and twisty. They definitely look similar to Fujian Black and Ailaoshan Black, the two teas that make up this blend. Dry scent is very chocolatey with sweet vanilla, yum yum! Cheri’s sample was about 2 teaspoons, so I just used the whole thing and used slightly more water (10 oz versus 8 oz) to compensate. I let it steep for 3 minutes.

Once brewed, it smells very strongly of grain and bread with plenty of malt. There’s also lovely chocolate and sweet vanilla with a bit of dried fruit (from the Ailaoshan I presume). I must say, I was expecting much more vanilla in the taste… The strongest notes are heavy grain and bread with that dill/caraway flavor that I often get with Fujian teas. There’s also a lot of dark bitter cocoa flavor and a touch of dark dried fruits (maybe raisins or prunes). I am surprised to not find much vanilla here, and I’m also surprised that this tea comes off are more savory than sweet to me. I’m partially relieved that I don’t love it based on the price, and partially worried that I’m missing something that other people are tasting… Lol.

According to the Steepster Chat Room, this should be my evening cup. I really like the name of this tea. It smells fantastic… very much like a rich, creamy chocolate. There are notes of fruit, and a bit of malt from both bases. The flavour makes me think of a really good hot chocolate with a light cherry/ chocolate dessert in a rich graham cracker crust, and a bit of creamy vanilla ice cream. And now I’m hungry.

Thanks Cheri for letting me try this.

I made it through the 2nd week of teaching classes, & although it was a very very busy action packed week, it went by quickly & was good :)
I’m rewarding myself with this cup of awesomeness. Thick & rich, I steeped 1 T x 3min/5min resteep.
A worthy reward!

Oh BTW, my favorite vendor on Ali Express, Make Friends by Tea, has all their yixings at 10% off…just thought some of you would like to know!
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/346539

I got another sample of this tea from another most generous Steepsterite! Thank you SO much! And this time I even brewed it properly, LOL.

Man, I have to be honest here…I didn’t WANT this one to live up to be hype. I didn’t WANT to fall in love! But alas, this tea is everything everyone says about it and more. Seriously ridiculously good. I had a couple of non-tea drinkers taste my cup, and they really thought there was some chocolate in there! Nope, just two insanely good black teas and some vanilla beans. sigh I combined steeps one and two in a hot-to-go mug. I got notes of cocoa, tart cherries, pastry, malt…even some powdered sugar notes. GAH! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO GOOD!!! Sigh. Expensive tea but worth it. I’m a convert! Maybe my fave black tea of all time now??? Ambrosia!

starts saving pennies

:)