Bliss

When a currently-Category-4 hurricane is aimed almost directly at you, when you’re hunkering down and riding it out, and when you have two days to kill before the storm proper arrives? Drink tea. (Hopefully, of course, it won’t be a Category 4 when it gets here; if I thought that was likely I doubt I’d be sitting here writing Steepster reviews…)

Pre-hurricane time is a good time for something soothing and unfussy, so I thought I’d crack open my pouch of Yokotea Bliss. The dry blend looks interesting, like the cast-off outer husks of something a squirrel would eat, not that I mean that in a negative way. The blend is just … browner than I expected; I was thinking mint chocolate, with an emphasis on mint, not cacao shells with a scattering of chopped up mint leaves.

Dry, the tisane smells like a Peppermint Patty, a cool sear of mint on a backdrop of chocolate. About a teaspoon of tisane went into 8 ounces of water just off the boil, at a steep time of somewhere between 2-3 minutes (making tea during hurricane prep doesn’t always encourage precision). The fragrance is dairy-reminiscent, like hot chocolate with a hint of translucent mint on top.

The taste? Certainly not bad, but not mind-blowing. The taste gives an impression of sweetness without actually being sweet, like cool water on a hot day, and the cacao comes off like somewhat dusty milk chocolate, without much depth or staying power, the taste dissipating almost instantly after a swallow into a vague, if not unpleasant, mint that also fades quickly.

The brew seems a little weak, so maybe next time I’ll try a longer steep time, never mind the instructions on the package, or maybe it’s that this tea has been sitting in the package too long for its liking; hard to tell. Still, not a bad pre-hurricane brew. It tastes decent, and won’t put me to sleep, but it also won’t keep me awake, and right now, that’s all I wanted.