My darling tea-ple, before we get into this post about the wonderful 52 Teas Chocolate Eclair blend, I want to introduce you to Mr Nibbles:
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Flavored Tea
Where to Buy:52Teas
Description
A month or so ago, I went through a bit of a Chocolate Éclair obsession – which fortunately seemed to coincide with a sale that my favorite bakery was having with the delightful pastry. I’m not sure which came first, my obsession or the fact that they were on sale but as you can see, the obsession became part of this week’s tea of the week.
I started an organic Assam tea and blended that with a Fujian black tea. Then I added some organic roasted cacao nibs and shells for a rich, dark chocolate flavor and minced some organic vanilla bean and combined these ingredients with some organic natural flavors to create a creamy base with hints of pastry. I also tossed in some organic calendula petals for a little color.
The result is a lusciously creamy, sweet custard-y overtone with notes of dark chocolate and a subtle undertone of pastry with a distinct black tea flavor – with this tea you can enjoy ‘dessert’ for breakfast and not worry about all the fat and calories of the real thing.
YUM!
organic ingredients: black tea, roasted cacao nibs & shells, calendula petals, vanilla beans and natural flavors.
ingredients: black tea
Oh. My. Goodness!
This is so good!
It starts off with a really strong black tea flavor with prevalent dark chocolate notes. But as the tea continues to cool (or as I continue to sip?) the creaminess of the vanilla custard emerges and provides a lovely “cream filling” type of taste to this pastry in a teacup followed by a hint of pastry.
It’s kinda like eating the real thing – when I get an éclair, I first taste the chocolate that’s coated the top of the pastry and then I get that creamy custard that’s oozing out of the éclair followed by a hint of pastry. The flavor of the pastry is always sort of in the background while the custard is front and center and the sweetness of the custard is cut slightly with the bittersweet notes of the dark chocolate.
This tea has a serious yum factor going on! I hope everyone else loves this as much as I do!
To brew: Don’t overleaf this one – a slightly rounded teaspoon of tea to 12 ounces of boiling water – steep for 2 1/2 minutes and strain. Just as you won’t want to overleaf, you also won’t want to oversteep because the Assam in this can take on a bitter tone to it if you steep it too long. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before you start sipping!
