89
drank Hot Choc by T2
1217 tasting notes

Holiday Tea-son! I got a discounted holiday tea sampler pack in an after Christmas sale from T2 last January, and this was one of them. Figured I’d enjoy a cup while waiting for my pizza to show up. Tonight is going to be a Netflix and Chill sort of night.

This is a nice chocolately tea, and usually I find chocolate teas either a bit weak on the flavor or the mouthfeel seems a bit strange to me if I don’t make them as a latte. I’m actually really liking this one, because the chocolate flavor is actually very rich, but also because something about the flavor is reminding me of a chocolate liquour, so the mouthfeel of the tea is working for me even without adding milk. The tea isn’t super sweet, with some deeper dark cocoa notes, and just a touch of nice bittersweet dark chocolate to its flavor, but there is also a subtle underlying sweetness from the blackberry leaf that I’m finding very pleasant, and that berry note really works, as well; it makes me think of those speciality dark chocolates that have fruity flavor notes to them. I really do seem to taste a sort of dry, alcoholic liquor sort of flavor in the aftertaste on my tongue, and a slight astringency which may be from the black tea; I don’t really taste the black tea as far as a flavor, but I can tell it is here from the qualities of the drink.

I am sort of digging this. While I like this exactly as is, which I really can’t say for many chocolately teas, I do still want to try this latte-style and see how creamy milk will change up the game. Likely it will be more cocoa-like and less liquor-like, but I’m hoping it will still retain more of the dark chocolate elements rather than becoming milk-chocolately. I’m very curious to try it out!

Flavors: Alcohol, Berry, Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Dark Chocolate, Drying

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec 3 g 350 OZ / 10350 ML
Nattie

Adding to my wishlist. I usually find chocolate flavoured teas so lacklustre.

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Nattie

Adding to my wishlist. I usually find chocolate flavoured teas so lacklustre.

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Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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