The Tea Spot

In my mind, this is Boulder (as in Colorado) Breakfast. Because I can in no way connect the taste of this tea to something that would qualify as “fearless and daring” or even “clear and distinct”. Not that it particularly connects to Boulder, CO either but regionally named breakfast blends rarely make sense to me.

With “bolder” in the name, I would expect something that has a bit of a wow factor as far as taste. This one doesn’t. Oh, that’s not to say that it is bad. It’s just milder and smoother than I would think given the name. It is chocolate and earth with a little hay thrown in. The chocolate is not the best chocolate I’ve had but it’s not the worst either. It’s a little dry tasting and more cocoa nibs than chocolate but that’s okay. So taste-wise, not overly bold (at least to me). Theoretically they could be talking about caffeine making it “bolder” but after having the likes of Samovar’s Russian Blend, I can’t say that this would hit that definition of bold either. At least compared to how it stacks up with other teas in my pantry, this could really only be called “bolder” if it were and afternoon tea. Then I would agree.

Anyway, this morning I gave the tea a try with a little half & half and sugar, which really didn’t work out all that great. I’m not sure if the sugar canceled out the natural sweetness of the tea or if the half & half covered it up, but it tasted like it needed more sugar. Considering I didn’t feel the need to add sugar when I had this plain, I’m taking that as a bad sign. The half & half seemed to make the pu-erh taste a little more hay-like and a little less earthy so the taste didn’t blend quite as well with the cocoa nibs taste in it, making the tea a little uneven. So I definitely prefer this tea taken straight but even then it falls a little short of its name for me.

This has pu-erh in it but it also has other stuff which, I will admit, is the reason I picked it up. The thought of chocolate + pu-erh was interesting to me especially since the reviews I’ve seen for the Numi Chocolate Puerh make me want to try it. But the store didn’t have the Numi, just this. So I got it.

This is like pu-erh with training wheels – serious training wheels. I can pick some pu-erh characteristics – the smell has a faint sweet hay note to it and the taste has some light earthy notes that can only be the pu-erh. But if I hadn’t had pu-erh before this one, I might have missed those things so it certainly doesn’t strike me as a strong pu-erh blend. The main taste I’m getting is mostly a fairly standard Yunnan-like taste and a bit of chocolate. The chocolate smells a lot like Lupicia’s The Au Chocolat (of which I am a big fan) but the taste is milder. The chocolate really comes through as a cocoa aftertaste for me. Occasionally I get a hint of tart on the end of a sip but not so much to impede my enjoyment of sipping.

The tea is smooth and a little silky. Pretty full-bodied texture but not chewy. I’m not sure if I would really call this ‘robust’ – I suppose with my lean towards Scottish and Irish breakfast blends, ‘robust’ is fairly typical for me so while this is more robust than your typical English breakfast blend, I think this guy might be intimidated by a few of the other blends I have in my pantry (Samovar’s Russian blend would kick its butt and the Samovar Breakfast blend would laugh while it happened… Shoot, Thomas Sampson might get in on the action but ultimately, he is a gentleman).

Anyway, this seems a little gentle to me to be considered (what I view) a breakfast blend. That might be the chocolate to it, though. Well, the chocolate and the overall smoothness to the tea. But that’s not a bad thing. Not ever tea can be an aggressive, wake-me-up-so-I-can-attack-the-morning tea (though it does seem to have a good caffeine kick). So as a breakfast blend, I think I’m missing the boat (probably mostly because it is chocolaty). But as a general tea, I think this is pretty tasty. Smooth, rich, dark, chocolaty and caffeinated. Not the best chocolate tea I’ve had (that’d be Lupicia’s The Au Chocolat) but certainly not the worse (TeaGermanname anyone?). But I won’t be sad to have to drink this and I could see repurchasing it under certain circumstances. Though I really don’t think this has the taste profile to actually qualify as pu-erh.
4.6g/12oz

I did like this tea…it was sweeter than other matchas I’ve tried; I tend to like the grassier, vegetal tasting aspect of teas, with a little astringency to them. This one caught me off guard a little with the sweetness so prominent in the forefront. Whisking it up took a little effort, it never really produced the creamy foam unless you vary the amounts used or took your time in preparing it, you never really get a rich, dense, creamy foam.

The Tea Spot’s matcha is a good “starter” matcha because you get a little more than the average size for the price.

For the matcha connoisseur, I would not recommend this tea. It’s tasty and sweet but a little too much for me…Not my cup of tea!

Smells of strawberries which carry over slightly diminished in the steeped tea. Smooth with elusive sweet fruit flavors.

Black teas flavored with raspberry. Too fake, too sweet, too bad from a good company

Rooibos based, supposed to taste like Orange Julius. Orange, Vanilla and a bunch of other stuff. It was ok, but I didn’t like it.

Ooh this is a good one. Mild but deep, with lilac and peach notes, but not sweet.

Surprisingly, I really liked this tea. The rhubarb saved it from being too seet and the base tea – Chinese Dragon Well is excellent.

Dry leaves smell like pink grapefruit. Infusion has a cookie-like scent with grapefruit sneaking in. Taste is pleasantly citrusy—lighter and brighter than other Earls.

I have not been a fan of rooibos, but this is really good! Dry blend has the scent of tobacco and vanilla with just a hint of almond. The vanilla aroma and taste carry over into the deep amber brew with just a slight nuttiness. Very mellow with a natural sweetness.

I was apprehensive of this blend, but I really wanted a strong breakfast tea this morning. This did not disappoint! The deep amber tea was full-bodied, malty with a sweetness, and elusive chocolate notes. The chocolate did not overpower the aroma or flavor but added to the rich complexity of the brew.