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“shmiracles! I will have your little tea babies for this one :) i think there IS magic in this box after all. So part of the reason i REALLY wanted to try this tea is that there’s an ongoing joke...” Read full tasting note
“Sipdown, 167. When I started this note I was angry at having not gotten my car back from the mechanic even though he promised it to me today, but I just got a call and it’s done. This is especially...” Read full tasting note
“2013-05-23 late night. a rare occasion that i’m alone at home. watching Merlin and drinking a Mousse au Chocolat latte in my brand new tea cup. http://instagram.com/p/Zra-kDIc83/ and here are the...” Read full tasting note
“A tasty treat from Sil! Thanks!!” Read full tasting note
The heritage of “sweet treats”—gourmandises—is more than a mere childhood memory.
The evocative flavours of those creamy, fruity, wonderfully smooth and mouth-filling delights can still inhabit our lives. Rediscover the warmth of childhood treats through a succulent yet mischievous new composition—a fountain of youth concocted from black tea flavoured as mousse au chocolat.
It has been lovingly wrapped in a colourful, paper-covered canister with decorative silver motifs harking back to the blissful days of yore.
Company description not available.
shmiracles! I will have your little tea babies for this one :) i think there IS magic in this box after all.
So part of the reason i REALLY wanted to try this tea is that there’s an ongoing joke in my family about mousse au chocolat. My grandmere? She was from belgium and back in the day was one of the few woman in her day to train at le cordon bleu. It was there that she learned to make mousse au chocolat. As the story goes, she taught my dad to cook and shared with him the family recipe for mousse au chocolat. My entire life i have heard about my grandmere and her famous mousse au chocolat. Which my dad promised me when i was about 7, he would teach me to make…which he has never made in his life for us…which he still has not taught me how to make. And folks? i LOOOOOVVVEEEEE real mousse au chocolat…not to be confused with “chocolate mousse,” that they often serve in restaurants here in canada…which never seems as delicious as it ought to be…as the mousse au chocolat that i’ve had in france.
So when i found out about this tea via shmiracles, i had to try it AND coicidentally my parents were in Paris at the time. So my dad got an email from me: If you can manage it, i’d love for you to pick up this tea while you’re in Paris. I figure it’s the least you can do since you refuse to share grandmere’s recipe with me. :) All in fun of course. So now they’re back…and i suspect they found it somewhere in Paris, since i clearly challenged my father, but i won’t know until i see them again.
So for now, i’m content with this sample from Shmiracles…which is downright amazing! I lost track of steeping it..but this is delicious. It’s not sweet, it’s more like a rich dark chocolate mousse. i think with a bit of milk and sugar, this would turn into an amazing cup of chocolate goodness, but i love this the way it is. Dark and sinfully delicious.
Edit: resteep of this in the morning is also delicious!
Sipdown, 167.
When I started this note I was angry at having not gotten my car back from the mechanic even though he promised it to me today, but I just got a call and it’s done. This is especially important because I am driving it to DC tomorrow!
Anyway, this tea was made to soothe me… This time I made it strong with milk and sugar and it is deeeelish. So so chocolatey, and more mousse-like now. An indulgence, but a slightly less indulgent than actual chocolate mousse.
2013-05-23
late night. a rare occasion that i’m alone at home. watching Merlin and drinking a Mousse au Chocolat latte in my brand new tea cup.
http://instagram.com/p/Zra-kDIc83/
and here are the strawberries we picked from the garden!
so many!
http://instagram.com/p/ZrTabjoc-k/
2013-04-26
wow there are huge chunks of chocolate in this tea. mega decadent!
and dark. a dark decadent tea. it’ll be easy to drink this one up.
and i bet it will be AMAZING as a latte. like it should be outlawed or something.
dramatic effect.
(further notes redacted)
:P
This sounds devine!
ditto!!
mmmmmmmmmmm, sounds crazy GOOD!!!
shmiracles – hoard the rest of this. my parents were in paris and couldn’t find it anywhere lol
oh no don’t say that! that is awful! and you’ll give me no choice but to obsess about ordering them all online. today. arg.
haha my mom got it in her head that that was the one tea she had to get me…so her and dad were calling around to stores etc while they were there. It might be re-stocked i suppose but they had difficulty finding it…still not sure if they managed it since they’re keeping the tea they bought me a surprise heh
oh hah maybe they’re trying to fake you out! like they got the tea and are trying to bum you out for the big reveal.
oh that’s possible, but it’s likely they still ran into issues trying to find it. heh
A tasty treat from Sil!
Thanks!!
gee, what kind of a tasting note is that? ;)
I know I should offer more description, but all I can say is this: One of my students has a french au pair nanny who brings her to her lessons. I might ask her to pick up some of this when she goes home for a visit. We’ve had some nice conversaions about tea, & what a wonderful company mariage Freres is.
I figured she was saving her. Words for nanothingingmajiggy
I’m just used to more words here from Terri, granted they are usually more about gardening and music than about the tea. . but hey it’s something! I just like to give her a hard time :)
Ughghgh I’m so behind on my NaNoWriMo project. I hate to think it, but I might not finish by the 30th this year…I’m just above 12000 words. There is still a bunch of music to prepare for upcoming concerts, including one tomorrow! Oh well, thus is life…
:)
shelley – agreed..it was either that or she REALLY hated the tea and didn’t want me to know since it’s one of my favourite chocolate teas ever…
LOL, I loved it. Did you read the part about getting the nanny to try to get some when she’s in france? LOL
yes but THAT wasn’t in the tasting note
alright you two, get along :p
always… as much as a pain in the ass little sister can with her big bossy older sister grin
Hey!! I’m the oldest sister and I’m my littlest sister’s favorite! (^o^)
ok, I’ll shut up now. But I expect more entertaining notes from Terri in the future!
I’ll do my best! LOL!
Sil, I think you’re the same age as my oldest daughter, so theoretically, I could be your mother!
But I like being sisters better!
Shelley, I’m also the oldest sister. One of my sisters is on Steepster, MsWhatsit. The youngest sister is not, but I think eventually she might be.
The sister of whom I spoke is on here too, but not active. she drinks tea b/c I drink tea and she joined steepster b/c Im on Steepster (sweet little 15y/o protégé she is) but I coudln’t get her motivated to keep a tea log. She has a single tasting note. But she reads mine sometimes. she is ‘mountainfountain’ with an avatar of her super creepily cute cat ( the archetypal cat of so-cute-its-scary).
Terri…i have one pain in the ass mother…don’t need a second one giggling I have no siblings!
That’s good, cuz being a mom sometimes gets a little old. Especially with 3 of my adult children living here with me.
I’m much happier being a sister!! So we will continue on as Tea Sibblings, LOL.
haha love you lady! hug
Back at ya!
I had a cup of this last night while I started working on my French again (Je suis une femme! That’s about all I learned. Oh and the repeated use of Les robes et la pomme sont rouges. Got old. Quickly.)
This one is good though not as awesome as the macaron one. It was chocolatey but subtle about it. The black tea blends in really well with the chocolate flavor, which almost borders more on the taste of cacao nibs or cocoa powder rather than like milk chocolate. I really wanted to add a little milk and sugar but got distracted, so definitely next time to make it a bit more like mousse. It’s definitely really, really rich and decadent.
Thank you shmiracles for this awesome tea!
Another decadently exotic sample from Shmiracles.
I was pretty excited about this one. the leaves look and smell good enough to eat! The brewed cup isn’t quite so decadent (for me, anyway). It’s got a sort of tart or liquor-like flavor about it. The chocolate is there, but I’m not too fond of liquor flavor with occasional exceptions. I was hoping for more of a creamy backdrop for the chocolate.
But this really is all for the best. I still fear the day when I am tempted to spend more on shipping than on the tea in order to get it from afar!
Basically the closest that tea can get to hot chocolate. Almost (only almost!) could take care of my chocolate cravings. It’s downright cocoa-y. I did not try this without milk, so of course that could have added quite a bit of creaminess to it. I’m really enjoying it – definitely a successful chocolate-flavored black.
Flavors: Chocolate, Cocoa, Cream
And yet another CharlotteZero sample. This is definitely one of the better (and more authentic) chocolate teas I’ve had. It’s slightly bitter, like real dark chocolate, and smooth and rich. Chocolate teas aren’t really my thing, but even so if this weren’t so expensive I might consider picking some up in the future. Given how pricey the Héritage Gourmand tins are, though, I probably won’t.
I really wanted to try the Raspberry Mousse de Chocolat from MissB, but I figured it was probably a better idea to try the plain chocolate version for comparrison’s sake. So I made up a mug of this with some milk in it.
With the inclusion of milk this tastes spectacularly like chocolate milk; especially the more it cools down. I’m not a big chocolate tea lover, especially when blends use chocolate chips over cacao shells or nibs, but I’m enjoying this one. It’s pretty darn rich with a smooth black base and silky mouthfeel. Milk only enhances this!
I don’t think I’d want to stock this one because of how simple it is and because I know I don’t crave chocolate teas that often, and am starting to prefer straight blacks with cocoa notes over flavoured cocoa teas. But this is well done regardless, chocoholics would like it! It makes me excited for its raspberry counterpart as well! The inclusion of another flavour will greatly round this one out, in my opinion.
A huge thank you to VariaTEA for giving me a sample of this tea! I’ve been super curious, but haven’t had the chance to really get my hands on any of this previously.
The dry tea smells very chocolatey, and cacao nibs are clearly visible – I don’t always like the inclusion of cacao nibs for whatever reason, and the smell of the blend came off to me as a bit fakey, so I was prepared not to overly care for it. Sadly, I was a bit wrong. It’s way better steeped. Like liquid dark, fruity chocolate. Maybe a touch artificial, but it’s so rich and creamy. And dark. I do quite like it. Not enough to pay the extravagant prices that it costs, though, but it will remain in my head as a great chocolate tea to recommend. The only thing that would maybe make it better would be some cacao shell and perhaps a bit of base tea roastiness. (But then I’m probably turning it into LBCG… which is my all-time chocolate favourite).
(Oh, also I steeped this for 4 minutes by accident. It was fine. So the black base here is clearly pretty forgiving.)
I want some!
If shmiracles isn’t sending you some and my parents DID manage to find some, i will for sure share with you.
Salivating
Man that sounds good!
i’m so glad i got to share this tea with you! i’m gonna totally savor the portion i have left xo
Wow yum
Sounds awesome. Except no, I need to focus on drinking what I have. Haha.
That sounds amazing! :-)
Oh this one sounds tempting indeed – and I have been coveting these tins, so an excellent souvenir from France indeed!
Any chance you can get the mousse au chocolat recipe? If it´s the official recipe from the Cordon Bleu school, it must be known! Good luck with it.
cteresa, i’m hoping to see it someday :)
And just noticed, Héritage Gourmand is absolutely perfect to describe your family´s history with the chocolate mousse!
The MF Héritage Gourmand teas sound pretty amazing. If only the MF site worked on my computer, I’d be in tea ordering heaven. It’s probably a good thing for my bank account that it keeps freezing on me, although I’d love to try some of them one day. Yum! That’s all I have to say.
i wish shipping/duties etc for france to canada weren’t so ridiculous lol
haha Sil I JUST added this tea & the macaron one to my chart & got as far as the payment to see how much it would be. With conversion $99.
UGH I want these.
i think someone had mentioned there are charges added on when they arrive here too. So the only reason i have any MF teas is because my parents or friends have gone to Paris (or through swaps) I DID find a place online that you can order from but it’s a limited selection and obviously doesn’t have any of these special ones. I can share that when i’m home later if you like.
$99 for 2 teas?
Yeah, the other downside is I’ve heard rumors that the tea MF sends to distributors for North America is sort of their…leftovers, like, the surplus selection. Explains why the choice is so limited at the places that do carry it over here. Alas.
Yup Terri, the teas are $25 euros each & $25 euros for shipping.
Sil I did find one site, but this one & the macaron are the only ones I’m interested in.
I like Mariage Frères very much, they are so very reliable to me though they price things at precisely the top end of how much I would ever consider paying for something. I have never ordered from their site though, because I can find their teas locally, including (luckily) a few of their teas by the weight which is so much more affordable. I pay from 7 to 11 euros per 100 grams for their teas by the weight. The regular black and gold tins are usually from 16 to 19 euros though I lucked out on a half price promotion once and got a stock.Their shipping costs usually start at 25-30 euros though they seem almost flat rate, whether you order 200 grams or 2 kilos, it makes little difference to price.
Heritage Gourmand or the yearly Sakuras, or the new Lily of the Valley or the colored cannisters for destinations (Maharajs) or the totally droolworthy glass apotechary style cannisters for teas to do iced (40 euros! 40 euros) are a different thing from their regular tea and priced much more than their loose leaf teas- I think they are geared for tin collectors (they know me very well, b**tards) or as gifts, so they are very expensive IMO, 25 euros and more for a tin of 100 grams of tea. I have so far resisted.
And if you are likely to be tempted, never ever ever check their teapots and teaware. I am ignoring it all, and pretending never ever seen it.
But weird as it is, how expensive their collector tins and teaware and fancy stuff like jellies and all; the loose leaf by the weight regular teas are priced OK indeed – or better said they are priced high-endish for the sort of tea they are, but are usually top quality for the kind of tea they are and worth it IMO.
Oh don’t even get me started on their teaware. So beautiful
Agreed. My jaw dropped the first time I looked at their teaware. First in awe of the beauty, then the price tags, ha.
I’ve never looked at the tea wares, & now I probably never will!
Tony & I have talked about taking a trip to Spain & France. I’ll just have to wait & buy their teas then…whenever that happens…