Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Art of Tea
Tisane Description:
Sweet enticing chocolate swimming in a deep velvety base of organic rooibos and refreshing mint leaves. The perfect answer to a dessert tea. The finish is smooth, complimented by a touch of vanilla.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
Hmmm … not bad. Not my favorite rooibos blend, and not my favorite tea from Art of Tea, but this Velvet Tea Rooibos Blend makes an enjoyable cuppa. My biggest complaint with it at this point is the name, because while I can see the “Velvet” part of the tisane, at the top of the page on the Art of Tea website, on the index tab thingy, this tea is called “Red Velvet Tea.” I can even *understand* why it would be called that since it’s a rooibos blend (which is also known as “red tea”) and the chocolate-y notes are kind of velvet-y, however, the name “Red Velvet” conjures up too many thoughts of red velvet cupcakes, and this does not taste like red velvet cupcakes.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s not tasty.
It is chocolate-y (although the chocoholic in me does want more chocolate), and there is a nice minty note to this. The mint is cool and crisp and it gives the overall cup a delicious taste that is reminiscent to an after dinner mint. A nice dessert tisane.
I can also taste the apple in this, and it adds a little bit of sweetness to the cup without messing up the balance between chocolate and mint. The rooibos flavor is not very distinct, but that’s just fine with me. I taste vague “nutty” tones to the cup but I find that these seem to enhance the chocolate nicely, giving the cup some depth.
It’s a nice cup, tasty for later in the evening when you want something sweet to curb those cravings, and this won’t ruin your diet. (Yeah, I hate that word too.) It’s good, and I’d drink it again.
Chocolate Chai Blend from Chico Chai
Chai Information:
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Chico Chai
Chai Description:
Raw cacao is blended with black tea and exotic spices to create a spicy chai with a touch of chocolate. Blended in small batches, by hand in Chico, California. Only Organic Ingredients and Fair Trade Organic teas are used to make Chico Chai.
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
I started getting excited to try this Chocolate Chai Blend from Chico Chai as it brewed because I could smell the anise and the cacao. The aroma of the tea as it brews is so delightfully yummy!
And it tastes even yummier than it smells. The brewed liquid is kind of … well, I want to call it cloudy, but, in the tea world calling a tea “cloudy” is not a compliment, and I don’t want to insult the tea. The reason it is cloudy is because of the finely ground cacao. This looks a little like someone combined tea with hot cocoa. So with this chai, cloudy is a GOOD thing because that’s chocolate in there! (Mmm! Chocolate!)
I brewed this the way I typically brew a chai: with water instead of milk (I prefer to taste the tea brewed without milk first, and then decide if I need or want the dairy addition) and it’s brewed a little strong to make sure that I get a good representation of both spices and tea in the cup. Also, if the tea is brewed strong (with extra leaf), if I do choose to add milk, the addition won’t dilute the tea.
And after my first sip … this really doesn’t need milk. I believe that there is some vanilla in this chai, because there is a creamy element to the cup without the milk. Perhaps it is the cacao, although I suspect it is a combination of both of these ingredients that is giving this cup it’s creamy notes. Of course, if you wish to add milk to it, there’s be no harm in that – I’m sure it would be delicious! But, I like it just the way it is!
This is chocolate-y rich, but, I like that the spices are still the star of this show. OH … the anise! I love the combination of anise and chocolate together. So delicious. The anise is warm and zesty, and the chocolate tastes rich and dark and decadent. Mmm! Smooth, but, the snappy licorice sort of cuts through it at just the right point.
I also taste the pepper and the ginger, and the cinnamon is also strong, but, it doesn’t overpower the cup. This is a pleasantly spicy cup and it’s probably not for those who usually shy away from spicy-hot flavors. It’s not exactly hot, really, but there’s enough heat to it to slowly warm the palate and as I continue to drink, this builds a little in a very agreeable way.
I’ve had the opportunity to try all of the flavors from Chico Chai, and I think of all of the four loose leaf chai blends that they offer (you can try them all in their Chico Chai Sampler Box – it’s such a cute box – and it would make a really great gift for the chai lover on your holiday list!) as well as their strong brew concentrate, this Chocolate Chai blend is my favorite! I love the way the chocolate and anise meld together … I love the way the spices and the black tea work together harmoniously. I just … LOVE it!
Vanilla Coconut Black Tea Blend from Octavia Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black Tea & Rooibos
Where to Buy: Octavia Tea
Tea Description:
As if the individual ingredients weren’t tasty enough on their own… brought all together, this blend delivers YUM in spades. The apple does well in this blend and the red rooibos base stands its ground. You’ll probably want to make a whole pot of this one.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about subscribing to Amoda’s Monthly Tea Tasting Box here.
Taster’s Review:
My monthly tea tasting box from Amoda Tea arrived a couple of days ago, and this Vanilla Coconut Black Tea Blend from Octavia Tea is the first tea that I’ve tried from it. This month, Amoda Tea has selected Octavia Tea as their tea company of the month.
And this is Vanilla Coconut tea is really YUM! The black tea base is fairly mild – there’s not an aggressive black tea taste here. The rooibos adds some lightness to the overall cup too, I think, so we get an earthy, slightly woody background of flavor that is a bit on the lighter side. The base does more to complement the flavors of vanilla, coconut and chocolate (YES, chocolate!) than stand on its own in this cup. Everything seems to meld together to create an enjoyable union of tastes.
The vanilla is what I notice most prominently. It is sweet and creamy and adds a certain decadent quality to the cup. Then I notice the delectable flavor of the coconut. The coconut is not quite as strong a flavor as I think it should be, given that this tea is called “Vanilla Coconut” but, I do like the accent of coconut flavor here, and I find that more coconut notes come through if I slurp the tea. It might not sound like a very well-mannered thing to do – slurping the tea – but it certainly does enhance the flavor, and since i’m sitting here by myself at the moment, I’m going to slurp!
The chocolate is a soft flavor but, I like how it seems to accentuate the flavor of the black tea. These two flavors are very synergistic, they seem to play off each other very well … each flavor benefiting from the presence of the other.
And then we have the apple bits. Usually, the apple bits do more to increase the visual appeal of the blend than really add a whole lot of flavor to the cup, but, as the tea cools and as I reach the end of my cup, I am starting to pick up on hints of apple-y flavor. The apple adds a little bit of contrast for the palate, a slight sweet-tart taste that’s very enjoyable.
This isn’t the first tea I’ve tried from Octavia, but, it’s nice to be sampling their teas again! Thanks to Amoda Tea for making Octavia Tea the focus of your tea box this month!
And speaking of Amoda Tea, they have made some changes to their box which became effective this month. The first thing that I noticed – the box is a little smaller. (The boxes are super cool, they’re flat (maybe 3/4 of an inch?) and they’re about 10″ long, and about 4″ wide.) The samples are also smaller – just enough for a pot of tea. And with the smaller sizes came a smaller price. I’m really thrilled with the changes that Amoda has made to their monthly box!
Caramel Cocoa Loco Tea Blend from Kally Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea & Rooibos
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
We’re loco for Caramel Cocoa Loco! Guess we couldn’t decide what direction to go to with this one! Japanese green tea, Chinese green tea, Organic Rooibos, all mixed with a little roasted cocoa beans, hand crafted chewy caramel, and to top it all off, a little toasted sweet brown rice. Woo-Hoo!
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first read about this tea, I thought that this would be a tea that I’d prefer served hot … because usually I find that chocolate-y teas are tastier hot than chilled. However, I drank about a half a cup of this hot, and then it cooled off, and I’m finding that I like this one better when it’s cool! This Caramel Cocoa Loco Tea Blend from Kally Teas makes a really tasty and unique iced tea!
When the tea was hot, I didn’t get quite as much chocolate-y flavor as I would have liked (I rarely get as much chocolate flavor as I would like to … but that’s another issue all together!) but as the tea cooled, the chocolate-y tones really POP. As a cold drink, I can taste the chocolate very distinctly, and the caramel notes come through quite nicely as well.
I don’t taste a whole lot of green tea here, though. Oh, the green tea is there, certainly, and I do taste it. But I taste more of the nutty rooibos than I do the sweet, vegetative notes of green tea. The nutty tones of the rooibos seem a natural fit with the caramel and cocoa notes.
I also taste the “genmai” from the genmaicha, and I like the way the roasty-toasty taste enhances the chocolate and caramel notes, and it may be the toasted rice that highlights the natural nutty notes of the rooibos. Ordinarily, I’d be wanting less rooibos taste … but here it’s working for me. These components work very well together to create a very luscious taste.
Overall, a very enjoyable tea … but this is one that I prefer iced versus hot. A tasty, sweet refresher!
Café Latte Tea from Serene Teaz
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Serene Teaz
Tea Description:
A tea for the coffee lover in you. Chocolate chips and roasted coffee beans give this tea and enticing coffee aroma.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
If you’ve read many of my reviews, you probably already guessed that this Café Latte Tea from Serene Teaz gave me reason for hesitation because of the coffee beans. I’ve told the story numerous times: I used to drink coffee every morning until I realized that my eleven o’clock sick to my stomach feeling was caused by that morning cup of joe.
So I switched to tea and haven’t had any problems. So, when someone sent me a sampling of this tea, I was hesitant to try it … but, also curious. Wondering if it would affect me adversely because the tea DOES have polyphenols in it, which act as the buffers to the effects of caffeine (which is why we get a slow, steady stream of alertness from tea rather than that coffee jolt.) Maybe … this won’t affect me badly. Here’s hoping.
I like the flavor. It is rich and well-rounded. I definitely taste the coffee in addition to the flavorful black tea. It tastes warm and roasty and a little bit bitter … coffee bitter. Which reminds me of another thing that I like better about tea versus coffee: for the most part, tea isn’t bitter unless it’s been steeped incorrectly. With a cup of coffee, I always need a teaspoon of sugar … which is not the case with tea. On occasion, I’ll add a pinch of sugar to a cup of tea to accentuate the flavors, or if it’s a spiced tea because the sugar enhances the spices nicely. But my sugar consumption has definitely decreased as a result to switching to tea from coffee.
I also taste the chocolate-y notes, which gives the tea sort of a mocha-y taste and makes me think that this would be really splendid with a splash of half & half … so why don’t I go get some? I poured a little bit of half & half in the cup (about a teaspoon) and the flavor is enhanced significantly. This tea definitely should be milked and sugared for best taste! (of course, everyone’s tastes vary!)
Not bad. I like the chocolate-y notes. I even enjoy the coffee flavor together with the black tea notes. It’s an unusual and tasty blend. I hope that it doesn’t make me sick in a couple of hours, but if it does, I’ll be sure to update the review!
…
A few hours have passed since I wrote the above review, and I didn’t experience any ill feelings from the coffee beans. A tasty blend for those of us who can’t drink coffee anymore but occasionally miss the flavor of it. Don’t get me wrong … I LOVE tea and I’d choose a cup of tea over a cup of coffee any day, even if coffee didn’t make me sick, but, every once in a while, I do miss it. Just a little bit. And this is the tea to drink on those occasions!