Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Herbal Infusions
Tisane Description:
An exotic and spicy blend of ancient Mexican vanilla, forest garden cinnamon, spices using a base of authentic Mayan cacao shells – truly medicine for your soul.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh my goodness. This Vanilla Cacao Tea from Herbal Infusions is incredible! When I was perusing their website and saw that they had authentic Mayan cacao shells in this blend, I knew I had to try it. I’ve tried a tisane of pure cacao shells before and I loved it, and so I was really excited to try this blend that is cacao shells, vanilla and cinnamon.
YUM! This tastes a lot like a “Mexican” hot chocolate. The chocolate is rich and decadent tasting and the vanilla adds a sweet, creamy element to the cup, while the cinnamon adds just a touch of spice. It’s not overtly spicy or hot. The three components in this tisane work in a synergistic way to deliver a flavor that is warm, sweet, and deliciously chocolate-y.
The best way I can describe this is that it’s like a really good hot chocolate, except that it’s a little thinner in body than a hot cocoa. It’s not milky,although I suppose you could steep this in a combination of hot milk and water like stove top prepared chai. I prepared this the way I would prepare most tisanes, using 195°F water, and instead of steeping it for 6 minutes (my usual time for a tisane with hibiscus) or 10 minutes (my usual time for rooibos or honeybush blends), I went with a 15 minute steep for this. And it’s perfect!
Rich with chocolate flavor. Just enough cinnamon and vanilla to add some interesting contrasts to the cacao flavor. If you’ve ever had an authentic Mexican hot chocolate, this tastes a lot like what you might have tasted … although I find that this is not quite as spicy as some of the Mexican hot chocolate drinks that I’ve had (I think that they also sometimes use cayenne pepper in them.)
This is a tisane for chocolate lovers. Like I said before, it doesn’t have that heavy, milky body. But, I personally prefer it this way. I rarely fix myself a cup of hot chocolate/hot cocoa because I find it to be too heavy and too sweet for my liking, but, this is just right. It’s a little thinner, and not quite as cloying. It’s just right!
