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Trick or Treat! This is a tea I picked up from a trip I took to San Diego back in fall of 2017 now, where I had High Tea at a quaint little shop that also sold tea and British collectibles and food called Shakespeare’s Corner Shoppe. Most of their tea blends were wholesaled, but they had a handfull that were unique blends they created that were named after famous British royalty, characters, or pop icons, and this is one of the ones I picked up.

This is probably one of the most chocolately teas I own, so it fits in nicely with my dessert tea theme this month! It’s a Ceylon black base, but they’ve added both milk and white chocolate, cocoa nibs, maple syrup (there is a certain maple sweetness mixed with the strong chocolate flavoring of the tea from the aroma), blueberries (because Willy Wonka!), vanilla, orange peel and lemon balm for a touch of citrus, and safflower and cornflower petals. It sounds like a lot going on, but the flavor comes out as chocolate blueberries! Which probably still sounds very odd, but somehow works, if you are in the mood for a very sweet, quirky dessert tea.

I can still make out just a hint of the black tea base, and it probably would be a hint bitter with some astringency if this tea wasn’t so darn sweet, but since I don’t like harsh, bitter Assams/Ceylons, I’m fine with that. This isn’t a subtle chocolate tea; it’s very rich, sweet, and fudgy in flavor, and the sweetness does have a maple note to it which I really like. About midsip and then lingering on the finish is a really sweet blueberry flavor, that mixed with that touch of maple really reminds me of blueberry pancake syrup, a really syrupy sweet blueberry note. I’m not really getting any citrus, though I wonder if they are helping bring the black tea base to the forefront a bit more, since Ceylons tend to be a bit citrusy.

Black teas aren’t the sort of thing I indulge in late at night when I tend to want a sweet-tooth hit, so I think my place for something like this is for those Fridays when I know it isn’t donut day at work… like today.

Trick or Treat! Still feeling exhausted… not sure why. Didn’t even have time to get up and make some tea this morning before work. Going all day without tea was so painful, I had to get a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine because not having any caffeine was hitting me hard!

Usually in the evenings I make tisanes, but I’m just so happy to have access to my tea again I decided to do this one tonight. I love chocolate oranges, and would happily enjoy one if it appeared in a Halloween bucket, even if it was leftover from last year’s Christmas.

This is… pretty mediocre, though. The tea just tastes really metallic. I have no idea if that’s just a note of this particular pu-ehr, a result of the particular orange flavoring Adagio is using, both, or what, but it is not really agreeing with me at all. The tea is quite earthy, and sometimes the metallic quality comes off a bit more mineral paired with that earthy flavor, which isn’t too bad, but then this really artificial orange flavor coats the tongue and it just seems to have this odd metallic quality to the flavor. I’m not really picking up much chocolate; there are some subtle cocoa notes, and the tea is quite sweet, but mostly it is just very earthy, orangey, and mineral/metallic. It just doesn’t really work for me.

Trick or Treat!

Augh, so exhausted tonight. For the last several days I’ve had to wake early to be able to call a pharmaceutical company right when they turn their phones on before my shift at the library starts, just to be transferred around, disconnected, and get no answers. My lunch breaks have been more of the same, with lots of sitting on hold and pretty much starving myself. But today, finally, after first being denied by my insurance, I now have pre-auth approved insurance for Aimovig and have Aimovig approval for two free auto-injectors and co-pay assistance to follow, which should lower the $100 co-pay from my insurance to $5 a month. This is a brand-new treatment for chronic migraine, a once-a-month injectable antibody that bonds to the CGRP receptors in the brain to help with migraine prevention, and I’ve been following the studies on it since 2005. It just now got FDA approval this year. It has been such an exhausting battle, but I’m just so happy to finally get to try this stuff…

And now that I’ve bored everyone with personal details, tea! I got this sampler from a Citizen Tea order last January and just felt like trying it as my nightly herbal. It brews up a bright yellow, which makes me a little surprised that I’m actually getting a coffee liquor aroma from the brew. I’m also noticing some bittersweet, dark chocolate and tart green apple from the warm scent coming off the cup.

Oh! The aroma had me expecting something on the bittersweet side, but this tea is surprisingly sweet. It’s actually very caramelly, which I was not expecting at all! The base is making me think of a light caramel/toffee that has a sweet apple note to it, and the mid-sip pulls in some subtle hints of a lighter milk chocolate/cocoa flavor and coffee, but they are more subdued than the aroma lets on. The flavor that lingers on my tongue is more of a caramel/butterscotch flavor.

I wouldn’t say it reminds me in a major way of tiramisu, but I can see what they were going for, and even though subtle, the flavor notes are there. Love that slight coffee aroma from the cup every time I take a sip. And as a dessert tea, it is very tasty; I do tend to be generous with my leaf with chunky herbals like this, but the flavor here is very good, and is really hitting the spot as a sweet-tooth indulgement before bed. And there are just days where one really needs that. Today was definitely one of those days for me.

Trick or Treat! This sample was a freebie kindly provided to me from Ost during her cupboard sale, so thank you Ost! I’ve been trying so hard all month to finish off my Creme au Caramel Rooibos which is one of my oldest teas (from 2006) because the flavor has faded now to the point where it is just kinda meh (I don’t normally sweeten my teas, but I have to now add either cocoa shells or honey to it since the flavoring just doesn’t taste like it used to be) and I’m kind of hankering for a proper caramely rooibos that hasn’t lost its touch… and this blend is also supposed to have maple! Man, but do I love maple.

I steeped up a pretty bold cup and have to say that after working on sipping down weak-sauce caramel rooibos for a month, this was soooooooo nice! It did have a nice caramely base, that reminded me a lot of a thick caramel sauce, but what really did it for me was that maple! I could definitely taste notes of sweet maple, brown sugar, and burnt sugar, and that just sold me. I think I’d be far more interested in restocking my caramel rooibos with this blend and having that sweet sweet touch of maple added instead of my previous Creme au Caramel blend. The maple flavor just makes everything better.

Hmm, I have a vacation to the Bay Area coming up, and they have DAVIDsTEA there…

Trick or Treat! I bought this tea under the name “Dark Chocolate Raspberry” from Snake River Tea in Boise, and it’s been a little difficult for me to Nancy Drew out the wholesale source. After quite a bit of hunting, I’m driven to believe it is the “Chocolate Raspberry Truffle” blend by East Indies Coffee & Tea Company… though I’ll admit I’m not 100% sure here. The private label company “SpecialTea Company” carries it, with the exact same ingredient list as what I purchased from Snake River Tea, and their stock of teas seems to be entirely comprised of blends from the large wholesalers International Tea Importers and East Indies Coffee & Tea Company, and Snake River Tea also has a lot of ITI’s blends… leading me to believe that SpecialTea Company may be their wholesale source. The only thing that confuses me a bit is I’ve also found a different set of ingredients floating around for East Indies Coffee & Tea Company’s “Chocolate Raspberry Truffle” blend (it included only raspberry leaf and flavorings, while the tea I have does not have raspberry leaf and includes raspberry pieces and dark chocolate with the tea leaf). Perhaps the blend was updated or changed over the years, though? That is actually what I’m leaning towards given the evidence I’ve gathered, though it is possible there is another major wholesale source that this blend belongs to that I just haven’t uncovered yet. I have already checked all the other major culprits, though (Metropolitan, Dethlefsen & Balk…)

I really just wish tea shops would honestly list their sources instead of private labeling to begin with, buuuuuuut that isn’t how it works… * shifty eyes *

Anyway, the tea! The aroma of the leaf is amazing, and this is one of my older teas, purchased in May of 2017. Opening the bag just smells of really tart raspberries and bittersweet chocolate, and already has me salivating. I’m really surprised it has held up so well!

The brewed tea is a pretty coppery color, and does have a chocolate-raspberry aroma. The flavor is… fine, but a little disappointing compared to the amazing smell of the dry leaf, because there is something about the raspberry that is coming off a little too artificial? The tea is sweet but not overly so which is nice; there is a nice tart fruit note here rather than it being really sappy or syrupy. I’m just getting a slight metallic aftertaste on the raspberry, which I sometimes notice from certain artificial flavorings. There is also a slight citrus note to the aftertaste as well, which is likely from the base black tea, which is quite smooth, with very mild astringency left after the sip. The chocolate is a more subtle note, it’s more of a base flavor and a dark/bittersweet note rather than sweet/milky/creamy. Which I think compliments the raspberry nicely. Overall the flavor combination is a win for me, I just wish it didn’t have that odd slight metallic note I’m getting in the aftertaste.

I was in the mood for a cup of green tea with my lunch, and I picked up a single teabag of this from Ost’s cupboard sale, so thank you Ost! This is exactly the sort of thing I want to sample first, because I actually really don’t like jasmine; typically it is always scented way too strongly for my migraine-sensitive head to handle, giving the tea a “perfumey” feel that I just can’t handle. Unless the tea has a very delicate touch of jasmine, or is blended with other flavors and scents just right, I just can’t take it, so I always avoid it in blends unless I can get a tiny sample first. Thus far I’ve only ever found one blend that hit my sweet spot just right, Bird & Blend’s Jasmine Poached Pears, but they don’t make it anymore… and the last time they blended that one, they were still Bluebird Tea Co.

I was wondering if the mandarin in this would be enough to balance out the jasmine, but sniffing the brewed cup… yaaaaaa, I’m smelling way too much jasmine. I don’t think this is going to be a tea for me, I’m afraid. The flavor is fairly pleasant (it’s never been the taste I’ve had a problem with, just the overwhelming feel that I’m inhaling grandma perfume because my head is so sensitive to strong aromas), with the strong floral flavor having a slight orange citrus tanginess toward the end of the sip. An added plus is the mandarin isn’t coming off with that extremely artificial taste like most mandarin teas I’ve tried, perhaps because the dominant flavor is the strong, sweet jasmine flavor. The base has a nice warm hay note and there is a green bean/vegetal aftertaste on the tongue, after some of the floral sweetness has died down a bit. There is no bitterness or astringency.

It’s a nice tea, and easier for me to drink than several jasmine teas I’ve tried in the past; if another sampler teabag showed up my way, I’d be able to drink it. But it’s still a little too aromatic that I don’t think I’d ever add it to my collection.

Trick or Treat! Another T2 sampler down. This one is mostly chunks of nougat mixed with sweet apple, which I fixed up as a strong warm cuppa before bed. I have a bad migraine tonight and just finished an overly herbal cup of headache tea, and need a sweeter chaser.

The brewed tea smells quite sweet, like vanilla and honey. The flavor isn’t as strong as I was expecting, though. My sampler said to use 450ml of water for the packet (and I’ve learned from experience that T2’s instructions are rubbish), so I only used 350ml of water for the whole packet. It still tastes a little weak to me. I get the notes of the sweet apple base, but it feels too much like sugary water to me, like I just added a bit of honey or vanilla agave to a very weak apple tea.

Very underwhelming overall.

Trick or Treat! I needed a reprieve from the chocolate, vanilla, and caramel and decided that lemonade is enough of a “sweet” to count for this month’s theme (it’s on soda fountains and I’ve already featured soda-themed teas, so why not?) Usually I prefer tea like this iced, but I received a single teabag of this in a past order back when B&B was still Bluebird Tea Co., so with so little leaf, I just made a single warm cuppa. And I can kind of get behind some warm hibi-hip on a cool night like tonight, even if I typically prefer to drink fruity hibi-hip blends iced.

The dry leaf smells very fruity, mostly of strawberry and lime. Steeped up, this was actually much sweeter than I was expecting. I drink a lot of hibi-hip fruit teas (I’m probably the only person on Steepster that does!) so I guess I was expecting up-front the tart and tangy fruit punchy taste I’ve just grown used to that those sort of blends always have. But this was more of a strawberry/red berry fruity flavor chased by an apple/pineapple sweetness. I wasn’t really getting much of a citrus note coming through, though; there seemed to be a subtle citrus tanginess toward the finish, but mostly it was just a sweet berry/pineapple flavor. It was nice, even for a warm cup! But if I ever get more of this, I’ll definitely be making it as an iced tea.

Trick or Treat! Made this as my work thermos tea. I got this as a free sample from Ost when I ordered from her cupboard sale, so thank you so much Ost! The dry leaf has a strong chocolately smell, and likewise, brewed up I’m getting a thick, chocolately aroma, a bit like warm fudge.

The taste, however, tells me this is a chocomint tea, just on a black tea base. Thus far I’ve had chocomint on rooibos and green bases, so I guess I’ve now pretty much tried that combination with everything. I’m surprised I didn’t smell the mint in the dry leaf. The tea is so sweet that I’m not getting much from the black base, aside from a very subtle spice note that comes out near the finish when some of the mintiness isn’t quite as strong. The comes on as the dominant flavor in the sip, very sweet and leaving a cooling sensation on the tongue, and there is a noticable chocolately flavor to the base, which does taste a bit darker/fudgy to me than other chocolate teas. Still, the mint comes off so strongly the chocolate and base tea are a little dominated, and I’ve had enough chocomint teas now that this doesn’t really feel very special. Not unpleasant, but nothing wowing, either.

Trick or Treat! Decided to make some houjicha as my nightly cuppa tonight, as the caffeine is so mild in houjicha it should be fine as a bedtime tea. I picked this one up from Ost’s cupboard sale, so thank you Ost! This is the original version of the tea, not the reblend.

I love houjicha, but it is so hard to find houjicha blends. I really wish they were tackled more often. This is a very rich, woody, roasted houjicha base, but there is a distinct lemony flavor to the tea, which really comes out in the aftertaste; the citrus really lingers on the tongue. The lemon flavor also has a slightly floral quality to me, somehow; it reads with a bit of a floral sort of sweetness rather than fruity tart, I suppose? But aside from the slight floral sort of sweetness I get in the aftertaste, there isn’t anything particularly sweet, creamy, or that would otherwise make me think of cheesecake or associate this as a dessert tea; this is really just reading as a lemon-flavored houjicha. I’m enjoying the flavor, but I think it needs some added sweetness or creaminess to bring in the dessert element the name implies. I don’t milk or sweeten houjicha typically, but I wanted to try to get this closer to what I was imaginging, so I added just a mere tablespoon of warm vanilla almond milk mixed with a small dollap of lemon-infused honey to my cup, and that pushed in some of those sweet/creamy elements without overpowering the rich houjicha base.