Velvet Tea

Backlog:

It took me a long time to actually try this, I think that I was jaded by the negative tasting notes here … but I actually enjoyed it. I didn’t taste much chocolate (as in no chocolate) and that is very disappointing, but, I got a crisp minty taste and a smooth vanilla flavor and I liked that combination. The rooibos flavor was not overwhelming, just a hint of nutty background.

It was pleasant. I’m not going to say it was my favorite rooibos blend because it wasn’t, but I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would.

WHAT IS THIS.

This tea is bizarre. And weird. And unnerving. And completely different tasting than it initially suggests.

Ugh.

The leaves. Well, they smell great! There’s sweet, fruit-like scents, but the dominant smell is definitely mint and chocolate and rooibos. Not bad at all. I figured it’d be a mint chocolate tea with a smooth consistency, right? Right?

WRONG.

I should have known when I smelled the wet leaves and it smelled almost tart and pungent. And I thought to myself, what’s going on here? The cup smelled faintly minty, but there was definitely nothing chocolate-like going on.

So I took the first sip… and I’m mainly getting rooibos and stale apple. Like those dehydrated apple chips but not as sweet and more tart. Dehydrated Granny Smiths. There we go. This is followed not by the taste of mint, but by the sensation of mint. But it’s not a fresh feeling. Instead, it’s almost tingly, and at points, was making my throat scratchy. No chocolate was anywhere to be tasted, even though I definitely saw cocoa residue in my filter. And the touch of vanilla? Not there at all. Just weirdly tart apple mixed with pencil shavings and chased by year-old Listerine tinglyness.

Blech. I mean, it wasn’t really as offputting as it was just ultimately bizarre. My mind was expecting one thing, my taste buds were sensing another thing, and everything was upside-down.

Now I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing with the rest of it. It’s too weird to drink.

Confession: I’ve fallen out with flavored rooibos blends. Honeybush tends to be so much better, and when I started all this rooibos didn’t bug me but lately it kind of does. Or maybe I’m just drinking stuff where it isn’t tamped down enough. Even when I like the flavors I’m tasting, the rooibos is always there on stage too, in front of the flavor I’m trying to pay attention to, waving its arms about and going “LALA NO LOOK AT MEEE!!!!” I have a feeling this is a phase I go in and out of though, and eventually I’ll go back to not minding it (and when it’s gentle enough I actually can find myself sort of liking it, that sawdust woodiness when it fits the overall flavor profile, has been incorporated artfully). But right now, alas.

I say all this because I was feeling that way last night—I liked Art of Tea’s Blueberry Cheesecake but was definitely having that problem with the rooibos—but this one was sweet enough in a good way, not a pinpointy saccharine one but a smooth deep-reaching way, that I mostly forgot about my rooibos issues. As red velvet blends go this is the best one I’ve had, I think. It’s subtler than the others I’ve tried (from Fusion and Della Terra and David’s IIRC), but rounder, more warming and balanced. I would drink it again.

Thanks Jaime for sending this to me! It’s been on my wishlist for a while now!

This is a strange tisane! First…I will say I DO like this. I like the way it tastes! BUT…

It’s weird because it doesn’t really make much sense…I would say it’s fruity…like apple and pear but I would say smooth, per say. It’s also weird because it goes on and on about the chocolate-goodness but I really can’t taste any chocolate. This also has mint in it but if I didn’t read the description or see the mint in the blend I wouldn’t have been able to guess it had mint in it.

I will say this…I could smell and taste both the apple! There are LARGE chunks of them in there! This is a nice, tasty touch. It smells a little pie-like…almost like apple pie. There is a bread/pie-like quality to the aroma. It doesn’t taste like pie, tho! I would say a nice apple rooibos if I had to name it based on taste.

Like I said…I think it’s yummy BUT…I’m disappointed about the chocolate claims and can’t really taste the mint either and I really think there could be some pear in here and if there isn’t it tastes like there is!

So…based on taste – if I didn’t know what the ingredients claim or know the name I would say 79-ish…but because there are so many ingredients and claims and a name like this and me not being able to find those notes and touches or claims I would say like a 40. So…I’ll go with a 60 because like I said…this is so unusual it’s just something I had to mention. It’s almost like they put the wrong name with the wrong tea/tisane and the wrong tea with the wrong ingredient list!

This is a tea from Teaplz’s plea to take it away. I’m trying to find a decent rooibos tea or two as I’ve heard good things about rooibos helping allergies, and tis the allergy season. (Not that that matters for me, as I have them year round, but hey, if it means not having to take a pill that makes me feel drowsy and puts my sniffer out, I’m for it).

Looking at the leaves, I see the wood chip looking red rooibos and mint leaves. The dry leaves smell sweet.

Once steeped this tea smells sweet and minty with a touch of fruit. I taste a bit of sweetness, can definitely taste the mint. I’ve never had minty rooibos before, but there is definitely more going on in this tea. Looking at the description, I definitely get no chocolate. I want to like this because of the mint, I enjoy mint when I want it, but there is something tart that doesn’t go quite well with this mix.

Hrmmm…I think I like my teas less complex than this. This tea is trying to do too much in my mouth.

If anyone cares to try this, I have about an ounce in a baggie I could pass along.

Mmmm… this tea is superb with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies! It is minty and smooth, and a little bit chocolately! I really enjoyed this tea. I am however extremely confused by the inclusion of apples??? But oh well it works!

Well, my belly was feeling a little iffy (this may be a common theme in my tea notes, my belly hates me and tries to stage a coup for control of my body at least three times a week) so I was thinking of grabbing the Moroccan Mint from Golden Moon, but then I noticed that this had mint in it and I was like, close enough!

So when I smelled the tea leaves, I was really encouraged, it totally smelled like mint and chocolate – I, in fact, specially went out and got some chocolate covered pretzels today to make sure that I remember what chocolate tastes like (i suspect that is what angered my belly), so I am pretty confident about it this time. Anyway, I was pretty optimistic since this tea actually smelled like what it said it was.

I let it steep for five minutes, poured myself a cup (the bamboo strainer that comes with this set comes very handy for catching stray rooibos!), leaned down to smell it and got…sauerkraut.

Note to self: either move slow cooker away from teapot or move teapot away from slow cooker.

Ok, so when I actually smelled the TEA instead of DINNER, I got…not much actually, a light feeling of chocolate and maybe some mint. This seems, at least from my initial impression, to be the most subdued of the dessert teas, with the rooibos actually noticeable from the beginning. The mint is also obvious, and the chocolate…is there definitely, especially in the light sweetness and the aftertaste. There MIGHT be vanilla there somewhere. I think. Sometimes I sense it underneath the mint, and sometimes in the aftertaste with the chocolate. The rooibos is definitely dominant here followed by mint. To tell the truth, after the caramelized pear its almost a relief. And the predominance of the mint means that my belly is being pacified, so that’s good. And it’s not like the tea is BAD, it just doesn’t seem to have quite the same amazing…totality of flavor that the other teas have. It just tastes like a blended rooibos.

So, I’ve tried all four teas in the sampler, and right now Caramelized Pear is in first place, followed by Chocolate Monkey (even thought it’s weird), followed by the Vanilla Berry Truffle, and then this. I’m sorry Velvet Tea! Please don’t feel bad…you were just up against some really tough competition!

Recipe for a tasty working-late tea

Start with: one mug
Add: a bit of Tea Farm Oolong Rose (http://steepster.com/teas/the-tea-farm/12471-oolong-rose-tea)
Add: a bit more of Art of Tea Velvet Tea (http://steepster.com/teas/art-of-tea/2887-velvet-tea)
Toss in: three flowers of JK Tea Shop Wild Purple Chrysanthemum (http://steepster.com/teas/jk-tea-shop/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea)
Fill with: boiling water
Steep: until the water cools enough to drink and most of the tea is at the bottom of the mug

Sip, occasionally straining rooibos from your teeth, until the chocolate/rose/chrysanthemum/rooibos savory combination puts you at your ease despite the spreadsheets still open.

Without sugar this is a more minty rooibos blend with might seem to have some kinda fruit in there some where. Having had another pseudo chocolate tea before I’m again getting some kinda weird banana taste where you’d expect the chocolate to be.

With a pinch of sugar… really one spoon at most… it’s waaaaaaay to sweet. The mint gets covered up by the fruit flavors and the chocolate appears only way back there in a malty milky kinda way.

So without sugar it isn’t really what was advertised but it isn’t bad either. A little odd but I would have a cup again if it was around. It is slightly refreshing and tasty in the very least. I can see how people would be turned away by the odd fruit and mint combo. It didn’t bother me though.

Gee, I just don’t think this is as bad as most folks seem to. It’s even decent for a rooibos dessert tea. The tea itself smelled really strong, like delicious vanilla and cocoa. In the water both were more muted compared to the rooibos itself, but they didn’t vanish as happens with so many rooibos tea blends. This isn’t an amazing flavored tea, but it seems like a decent dessert substitute to me.