Chocolate Digestives

Sip Down/Backlog

I sipped the remainder of this with a friend who stopped over on Labor Day.* Thankfully, they are prone to drink any tea I offer, and I was two cups away from sipping this down. This was a great cup of tea to have with a meal and helped ease us into dessert (Strawberry Pretzel Salad). I enjoyed that the tea and flavors blended well enough that they worked together and neither overpowered the cup.

*Yeah, I’m very backlogged.

Isn´t it wonderful to receive an unexpected present? Like a couple of individually wrapped tea pyramids from Bird&Blend?
I had ordered from a fun stationary site (ohh deer) in UK, and my husband brought me the order when he returned from a visit to his team in UK (a colleague was so friendly to receive and store my order), and this was a special treat for Easter.
Chocolate Digestives is the right name for this tea where cacao is well present in nose and mouth, but the sweetness is controlled (by the liquorice and fenugreek, which I cannot detect separately?) so one feels like having a chocolate biscuit (digestive), more than a chocolate cookie or a hot chocolate. Nice

I think I messed up brewing this because all of the other reviews tasted some cookie and desserty notes. Steeped 3g leaf in 500mL hot water, not quite boiling. Steeped 5ish minutes and then 10 minutes in lukewarm water for a second cup. I really only tasted cocoa nibs, tannic lack tea, a bit of sweet licorice root (minerals, a bit metallic) and not much else. Going to try again and add milk before I review it properly.

TTB
Chocolatey and cookie-like, this blend did not disappoint! There is a flavor here like a chocolate dipped waffle cone. There is a black base underneath somewhere, but I only tasted the chocolate cookie. Thanks for putting it in the box!

When I sniffed the packet last night, it reminded me of Easter chocolates, hence why I’m drinking it today. Very rich and chocolaty-biscuity with an almost artificial bent. I think that’s the scent of buttery pancake syrup coming through because of the fenugreek.

Great dupe for the actual Chocolate Digestives! Very chocolaty and biscuity, faint cardamom intrigues, however, if I hadn’t known it was added, I’d never guess. The Sri Lankan black tea is a little brisk and bitter (or maybe the bitterness if from the fenugreek) but the creaminess imparted by the fats in the cocoa shells binds together the tea taste and flavorings such the flavor doesn’t separate. I get some lingering heat in the back of the mouth and my tongue has been tingling for quite some time.

As the tea has cooled, it tastes more like generic flat ‘black tea’ and with that fenugreek pancake syrup smell. Definitely going to have to drink the rest of this packet piping hot.

Thanks so much, beerandbeancurd! And here’s some chemsitry for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotolon Also present in candy cap mushrooms.

2022 Bird & Blend Advent calendar Day #2

It’s school vacation week and since both grown ups have the day off work, we heading to Salem (MA) to be tourists. I anticipate it will be cold and raw near the ocean even though it’s another unseasonably warm day. I’ve been trying to finish up the 2nd samples in the B&B advent calendar. Since I sleepily boiled the kettle without thought, I had to choose this one.
Digestives aren’t typically found in New England markets but I have had them in the past from a British specialty shop. The tea reminds me chocolate graham crackers, which makes sense. I rather enjoy the scent- cookie, butter, chocolate. And those aromas carry through to the taste. There is a mild hint of spice to it that leaves a warm feeling in the back of my mouth. I don’t remember if I enjoyed this the first time around the advent calendar but after today’s mug, I’d definitely drink this again and purchase it too.

I wasn’t going to try this tonight after all the other chocolate teas, but curiosity got the best of me and I went for it. One more bag with caffeine at 8pm can’t backfire too badly, right? :)

There was a scent going on that I just couldn’t place. It seemed more like a caramel than a chocolate, but the taste didn’t seem like caramel to me. Having no point of reference for a digestive, it wasn’t like I could make a strong comparison. But after my partner (who, on smell and taste, also said caramel) was told the name of the tea, he suggested that it probably was more like a chocolate graham cracker.

It’s spot-on, honestly, and now I don’t even know how I was getting caramel. Weird how the power of suggestion works! And now I want a chocolate graham cracker, but I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to just enjoy the second bag of tea.

Bird & Blend Caffeine Advent, Day 2

2022 Spring Tea Swap – Day 5
From Emilie!

I’ve never had a Chocolate Digestives biscuit but I feel like I read once that they are a less-sweet version of a chocolate cookie. Is that right? The Publix near me has a very small section of British items/ingredients. I’ll have to check next time I get groceries to see if they have some of these there to try. Anyway, this tea is definitely chocolatey, but there is also this flavor that I can’t quite place. I’m guessing it’s the biscuit flavor? It’s almost like toast. Not bread and not cookie, but definitely something similar. The aroma is very rich, but there’s something about the tea after steeping that I don’t love. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s certainly not a bad cup of tea, but it’s not something I’d keep coming back to.

Brilliant tea, it really was like chocolate digestives in tea form. I wish “biscuit” was a flavour note option because it’s much more “biscuit” than “cookie”.

Bird & Blend Advent Calendar 2021: Day 19!

I didn’t get much chocolate flavor in Snowball yesterday, but I got a hint of it here. This one does remind me of digestive biscuits; there’s a breadiness to it that grounds the flavor for me. I think I prefer the creamy coconut aspect of Snowball, but this one is tasty too. I actually added a little oat milk on a hunch and really enjoyed it that way.