Organic Chocolate "O"

Well, I spent this morning doing what everyone hopes to do on their birthday, which is waiting at the DMV to get my drivers liscence renewed. Actually it went relatively smoothly for the DMV.

Now I need some tasty birthday tea, plus it needed to be a black tea for the morning, so I reached for this one. Love this tea so much! Like a gongfu black tea with a bit of extra chocolate flavor, which is I think essentially what it is. Very subtle flavoring here.

I’ve spent the whole day drinking ‘grown up’ tea, & while we were taking a break from re-stringing another harp, and reading Indigo Bloom’s post, little Terri started begging for a chocolate tea. And this one is awesome! First of all, the tea base is real full leaf tea, not chopped up stuff, & it’s a nice malty robust base! Then the chocolate! It reminds me of melted chocolate chips, the semi sweet kind. It has a thick feeling to it. I added stevia & coconut creamer, & I’m drinking hot cocoa! YUMMM!!

I’m thinking that the tea spot and i are going to have to have a chat soon about putting some of their teas into my house. Terri was awesome enough to send me a bunch of their teas and I’m thoroughly enjoying a bunch of them. I’d take tea spot teas over tealux teas every day! (and no i have no idea why the two are comparable in my mind) I wanted a cup of this without any additions but i for sure can see how amaaazing this will be with a bit of sweetner and possibly milk added to it.

Without additions this is a cocoa chocolate malty delicious sort of tea. Kittenna better be careful or i’ll steal her samples that Terri sent along. :)

Edit: This resteeps really nicely too!

As anticipated, milk accentuates the subtle chocolate hiding behind the excellent black tea base. Chocolate fog. This is not the one you want if you crave fudge.

Our little creek bottoms were coated with deliciously wispy vanilla fog this morning. I wanted to drive 20 mph to absorb the scenery; unfortunately, the vehicles behind me did not have the same opinion. So I had to enjoy it far too quickly.

Thank you Bo from the Tea Spot for this generous Sample!

Morning Tea! It’s a beautiful morning on the Frontrange!

What is the Frontrange?
At 5000 ft. there is a point where the high plains meet the mountains running the length of Colorado. All along that point resides most of the population of the State. The views are stunning! I’ve seen antelope in the neighboring fields, fox and bald eagles.

Boulder where the Tea Spot is located, was voted the town with the happiest people in the United States. It might be because the people have been drinking this tea.
As tea lover, I’d stop in at the Tea Spot and pick up this tea to go, then stroll over to the Pearl Street Mall and walk until I found the perfect place to people watch in the shade. The Mall is open-air and closed to cars…filled with fountains, flowers, people walking their pooches and musicians from the Colorado Music Festival.
You can visit tea house after tea house, spice shops, boutiques and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. This is a tea friendly town!

Review:
I made a whole 32oz morning pot of “O” using 1TB leaves and steeped
3 minutes. The liquor was a medium honey brown.

First I took a sip without any additions and was relieved that there was no artificial chocolate flavor or sourness. Hooray!

You could easily enjoy this tea as it is without additions. I found so much more enjoyment with sweetening, cream or both added.

When I added a little sweetening the chocolate flavor began to wake up.
Um…“How about that”?! I wasn’t expecting such a change.

Then I added some cream.
“Well?!, Where have you been all my life my sweet sexy, smooth chocolate bonbon”?!
(I did say the “S” word which with the “O” makes “SO” as in “SO” good!)

The sweetened chocolate creaminess reminds me of Italian Chocolate Hazelnut Seashells that I used to eat at Christmas.
Marbled and precious…better than Nutella…way better. More chocolatey.

Ok Bo….this is a great tasting tea!

http://youtu.be/kccxXCGn9n8 A little Frontrange Slide Show….Come and visit….these scenes for you photographers, at Rocky Mt. National Park are about 1hr from me although the Mountains are right outside my door and just as grand.

I woke up this morning on auto-pilot and poked through my box of samples to see if I could find one for the morning. And I didn’t want any of them. And suddenly I didn’t want tea at all.

:( That’s the hazard when it comes to focusing on sipdowns and trying unopened samples.

So, I said FORGET IT, and drank this instead and am now happy with tea again. Maybe I’ll update my cupboard and get a better idea of what I have by looking at the physical weight of it all, instead of focusing on the number. :P

Right now, this is pretty darn good tea. I’m not sure I’d want more, but it’s so delicious after that piece of gluten free cheesecake – the one my BFF left in my fridge.

It’s sweet, malty, a little chocolatey. I wouldn’t have guessed it’s flavoured, though. There’s not enough chocolate there for that.

Thank you, Sil. I appreciate being able to try this one!

When I ordered this tea, I had no idea that I would enjoy it this much. It is AMAZING. Amazing doesn’t even do it justice.

What makes this chocolate tea so special is the base of the tea, it is a Hong MaoJian which gives it a rich, smooth taste. It has a malty tone and delicious caramel-y undertone that melds beautifully with the essence of chocolate.

Honestly, I think that the only thing that could make this even better is maybe some cacao shells to rev up the chocolate. It is very chocolate-y without them… but, more chocolate = more chocolate. (Simple equation for chocoholics everywhere) This may even be good enough to replace my Chocolate Rose Romance.

Sipdown! 938. Thanks again to Terri HarpLady for passing this along.

A nice, smooth chocolatey black, but if my memory serves, not as tasty as Laoshan Black. But I wouldn’t turn down a cup of this if offered, as it’s pretty good (and I’m sure it would be better when fresh, too). A nice evening cup, probably a better option than a couple other teas I have going on here…. poor tummy. Should have chosen lighter sipdowns.

Second tea of the morning…..

I will admit it. I have been ‘re-interviewing’ my flavored teas. I am at a point where I don’t have much left in the way of flavored teas because I rarely drink them, so maybe my review doesn’t apply to most as I am not much of a fan anymore of flavored tea. I know I had fond memories of this one and bought some last April. To tell how interested I have been until now….I just opened the package today.

Call me a bit disappointed. The initial smell of the leaf was a little medicinal and artificial. I am hoping it just needs to breathe a little. It has never been opened, so it should not have degraded much. I do smell artificial chocolate in the brewed tea, too, and I can taste it. I did not go with the stevia sweetener, because I wanted this to be as close as I remembered to having it last. It looks to have a similar base as the TeaSpot’s Qu Hao Silk. I remember quality black tea with cocoa notes on steriods. I got quality black tea with chocolate and a hint of medicine. :(