Love Tea #7

So it’s been a year or two since I last had this one and I figure my tastes have changed enough that I might feel differently about it. You never know. It’s a bad time that the smell from the bag makes me tummy do little flips though. I find Davids chocolate teas sometimes make me feel a bit queasy. Not good.

Steeped a little over 3 minutes, I have a brown liquor that smells of chocolate strawberries and liquer. So pretty much the same impression as always. The chocolate actually smells a bit more cocoa-y and not as sweet as I remember. Probably for the best.

First sips are dark and richm but with a sense of sugar underneath all that. I get dark chocolate and some cream. The strawberry has muted with age but I still get the chocolate strawberry smell. Or maybe just chocolate cremes, but either way it’s okay. Nothing to write home about and maybe a bit of struggle to finish but I’ll give it the old college try. I have some old tea that REALLY needs to be finished up. If I added it all up, I probably have a couple pounds of way old tea. Yikes.

EDIT to add that I am gifting the rest of this to a coworker! Schwing!

Daisy Chubb is my hero!

Funny…I remember when I thought Adaigo’s Valentine’s Flavored Black was da bomb…but…this kicks it’s ass 7 ways to Valentine’s Day! :)

It’s really great! The Black tea base is still around medium strength for having flavors on top of it. The strawberry is juicy, tangy, and sweet without being tart. The chocolate smells AMAZING and the flavor on the taste buds are marvy, too! the rose is a nice touch but doesn’t overly contribute to the end result of the overall flavor but I am totally fine with that. This is the way it SHOULD be…ahhhh!

MY ORDER FROM DAVIDsTEA CAME!!!!!!!!!!

I got this tea full size and I also received three samples (Darjeeling, Chocolate Chili Chai, and Jumpy Monkey) as they do with any online order.

I immediately opened it and smelled the dry leaves-not too keen on the smell. It’s overwhelmingly chocolate-y and I really hope that this will disappear when the leaves are steeped.

The aroma of the steeping leaves is much more pleasant-not as chocolate-y and a lot more fruity. The color is semi-dark.

First sip-I only got a little because it’s still EXTREMELY HOT. Tastes a little water-y, I might have to put the leaves back in for a little while…..

It’s cooled down a little and it’s more enjoyable. It’s kind of tangy and the black tea is definitely the forte. The chocolate is kind of there in the background and I can kind of taste the sweetness of the strawberry. There’s no rose, however, and I LOVE rose teas, so that’s kind of disappointing. It smells DIVINE! Like the way that chocolate covered strawberries taste, if that makes sense. It’s still kind of weak… A little disappointing. My cup is almost empty so I’m going to resteep and use some more leaves and perhaps steep longer……

Second steep: ~205 degrees (Fahrenheit) for 6 minutes. I didn’t actually end up adding extra leaves, I thought the amount I had was plenty. The first steep has left a lovely sweet aftertaste in my mouth, and it is actually kind of floral. This steep is much more enjoyable. The flavors are a bit stronger and the flavor has really evolved. I really like this steep! The chocolate is sweet and a nice foreground for the tang of the strawberry. Still no rose flavor really, so I will make sure to get some rose in there next time….

Overall a nice tea. I probably won’t repurchase this but is a nice treat and I’ll enjoy it while it lasts!

Whoa! This is a strong tea. Not really a rose flavor. But an odd, intense sweet strawberry liquer flavor- sort of like a strawberry schnapps (if that exists) w/a hint of chocolate. I need to try this one more time before I rate it. I am not even sure if I like it.

Got this as a sample with my David’s Tea order. I thought it was Daniel Scott, or maybe Daisy Chubb, who recommended using the entire sample and brewing strong. Now I can’t find who said that. But that’s what I did!

Hoo, boy!

I don’t know that I can add much more but this is delicious. I actually brewed it a little too long, more like 5-6 minutes I estimate, and it’s not bitter. I added half-and-half after a single sip but that’s mainly because I wanted it to be as decadent and dessert-y as it could be without adding sweetener, which it does not need. I think I would also like it just fine plain.

The roses are coming in as an aftertaste. The fresh-strawberry-with-chocolate is definitely prominent. I’m struggling not to gulp it down because it’s so good and I don’t have any more.

Until the next order. Mwa-ha-ha!

Tea #8 from the traveling tea box.

I’ve tried this one before and didn’t like it much; however, in my notes I mentioned wishing I had more to try a cold steep. I didn’t think I’d get a chance because I don’t order from DAVIDsTEA and then it showed up in the traveling tea box.

There wasn’t much in the package and I wanted to leave some of this for someone else to try, I think I used 2t to about 10oz of water and cold steeped overnight. This isn’t my normal method so it was interesting to see how it turned out. The cold steep brought out the berry flavor more, which was really lacking before when I tried it hot, but I still don’t care for the chocolate flavoring they used.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, so when I woke up this morning I thought that it might be one of my rare “gotta have coffee” days. But the further I got into the morning the less appealing the thought of coffee became. To be honest I wasn’t even sure that I wanted tea but I needed something warm and I hate just drinking straight hot water so I started digging through my stash. When I came across this one it was kinda like a light bulb went off, this was what I needed this morning.

I think I spent more time with my noes buried in my timolino then I did drinking it at first; I don’t usually get a whole lot of strawberry scent from this tea but today it was filled with it and I loved it. Especially with that slightly darker chocolate scent running underneath, heaven. The strong strawberry scent carried over into the flavor; smooth, sweet and yet a bit tart (strawberries are my absolute favorite berry but finding one with flavor can be tricky), this was just packed with strawberry goodness. And honestly, how can you go wrong with chocolate covered strawberry tea?!?! :D

It’s Valentine’s Day so I thought I’d try my one teaspoon of this! thank you Janelle! It’s a little light, but nice. The chocolate scent fills the room but it isn’t until you are over the cup that you can smell the berries. There are tiny rose pieces in the blend but it didn’t seem to affect the taste. But there is definitely a chocolate flavor and subtle berry flavor. It reminds me of a Della Terra blend. I can’t really taste the black tea itself. This is good and I’m happy to have tried it but my cupboard is glad it’s just the one cup.

sweet…and nice! it smells really good. the black tea is not strong but i like it just as it is :)

I’ve very much fallen out of “love” with this tea. It’s a bit too sweet & floral for my preferences. But, I’ve only enough left for 2 cups, so I shall diligently drink it up to achieve another sipdown today. (Need to make room on my shelf for the Summer Collection!)

Added a bit of milk to the cup to try and mellow out the floweriness a bit, and I have to say I’m liking it a little better this way. I won’t change my rating, because there was time when I liked this better than I do now.