Chocolate, Berries & Cream

From the swap with Tiffany :). Thank you very much!! I thought I would love this one and I DOOOOO. It’s as I imagined it would be. Chocolate and the right amount of tart. It’s kind of like the tartness of a dark chocolate, which is why dark chocolate is my favorite – it has that tang. The right amount of hibiscus here. I could probably wish for more berries… the description only mentions elderberries and currants. And supposedly there should be cream here, per the name, but cream would be a bit weird with hibiscus. Vanilla is also listed in the ingredients, but I’m not sure what type…not seeing any evidence of the tiny vanilla bean pieces in the mug that I love to see. That’s a supreme cup of tea when you see vanilla beans in a mug. I love the second murky steep. This one is a winner imo. I guess I like this the most according to existing Steepster ratings so far!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons // 50 minutes after boiling (oops) // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep

This is not at all what I expected…

There were quite a few chocolate chunks in the dry leaf, but it didn’t come out as murky and oily as I thought it would. And the flavor, hmm… I do get a little bit of dark chocolate, especially at the end of the sip. But mostly it’s elderberry and hibiscus tartness on a rather astringent black base. It’s not super tart, but it’s a strange combination…

It actually somewhat reminds me of this delicious chocolate blueberry jam that Courtney was sweet enough to send me. It’s like a crappy version of that, ha ha, and with hibiscus and astringency from the base tea. So the idea is there, but I think the hibiscus was a mistake. And there is definitely no cream?

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #196 overall / Tea #20 for May
Friday 5/14 - dessert by deb chocolate berries and cream 25g packet cold brew since sun 5/9, drained 5/11, finished 5/14. this is from Deb’s OG collection 1.5-2 years ago. (Her DbyD has been around 2 years but I don’t know if this is from the opening or I got this later) Like the idea, but it doesn’t really go together very well (I’ve tried hot & cold brew). I know I have at least one 25g sealed package if not more sealed, I’ll gift this to some tea friends or if a TTB makes it my way.
#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown

I was hoping to have more success with this blend than Sil or VariaTEA had but this wasn’t really the case. I don’t remember either of them mentioning this, but the dry leaf smell of this tea is really off to me – it’s chocolate-y, sure, but also it kind of smells like feet!?

Thankfully it doesn’t really taste like feet (well, maybe just a TINY bit). It also doesn’t taste that good either though – kind of not properly chocolate-y and not properly berry either, and definitely not creamy. I just think that chocolate and hibiscus really aren’t meant to go together and forcing them to coexist just makes for lesser versions of both flavours.

Sample from variaTEA. While I appreciate the share this one is not for me. I’d expect to get a creamy, chocolate berry tea…and instead this was an off putting weird berry thing. I don’t Mind hibby , but Something about how this one blends together just doesn’t work. Tons of chocolate chunks but no chocolate in the tea. Just sour berry tang. Blech.

This is a lot more “berry” than chocolate or cream, which is surprising since there are a lot of dark chocolate chunks in this blend. This is mostly hibiscus and a dark berry flavor. It’s fine but not what I was hoping for so I’m a little let down.