Many thanks to cteresa for this one! She left a careful note saying to watch out how I brew this one because it’s difficult to get right, so I took every precaution to time this one on a stopwatch. (I don’t normally time at all- maybe I should make a habit of this?)
It smells incredible… Both the unsteeped leaves and the brew have a lovely, fragrant, vanilla-y malt smell, but without being perfumey or, on the other hand, too off-puttingly malty. It’s almost like the flavoured syrups you get in coffee at this time of year, strong and sweet, practically alcoholic.
And the taste… my first thought was “I’m drinking chocolate”! It’s more like a chocolate bar in taste than any chocolate tea I’ve tried so far! And I’m actually willing to overlook the Assam a little for something with such a smooth, strong kick to it as this.
I can’t decide if I want to buy some of this for myself- the caramel’s syrupy and strong, nearly too strong, but the chocolate taste is so, so tempting. Might try this with milk.
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Oh it got there safe and sound, good! Yours arrived yesterday! Thanks. So much fun to have new teas to sniff and try :)
And I was bit precious about this one :). But I think this one is sort of tricky to btw, maybe it is the Assam. Dunno. I don’t brew everything paying attention to time but some things won’t forgive you that and others will strangely enough nil rouge is also one of those where it is better to be careful with time and temperature – I used to be very lazy with rooibos but am reassessing how to make rooibos :)
@cteresa yes, I’ve been waiting to get into the packet! And I can see how it would be tricky to brew… normally I can’t stand Assam, and caramel flavours always seem a little tempramental in tea, so I’m pleased that it turned out well.
I’d like to see how you get on with rooibos since I’m not much of an expert on brewing times for that either!
Rooibos, I used to brew it with free boiling water and let it steep for ages, till cool enough to drink before straining. But I saw the instructions at the Mariage Freres site – do 95C water and only 5 minutes and it is better indeed. Particularly with Nil Rouge, I think the citrus and lemongrass can be a bit too much if you let it steep too long! so 5 minutes and not quite boiling water for all rooibos now and it seems to improve just about every single one.
I am not a big fan of chocolate teas but this one is really nice because the balance between chocolate & caramel is perfect to my palate. But I can’t steep it more than 2 minutes otherwise I hate it for its bitterness
Oh it got there safe and sound, good! Yours arrived yesterday! Thanks. So much fun to have new teas to sniff and try :)
And I was bit precious about this one :). But I think this one is sort of tricky to btw, maybe it is the Assam. Dunno. I don’t brew everything paying attention to time but some things won’t forgive you that and others will strangely enough nil rouge is also one of those where it is better to be careful with time and temperature – I used to be very lazy with rooibos but am reassessing how to make rooibos :)
@cteresa yes, I’ve been waiting to get into the packet! And I can see how it would be tricky to brew… normally I can’t stand Assam, and caramel flavours always seem a little tempramental in tea, so I’m pleased that it turned out well.
I’d like to see how you get on with rooibos since I’m not much of an expert on brewing times for that either!
Rooibos, I used to brew it with free boiling water and let it steep for ages, till cool enough to drink before straining. But I saw the instructions at the Mariage Freres site – do 95C water and only 5 minutes and it is better indeed. Particularly with Nil Rouge, I think the citrus and lemongrass can be a bit too much if you let it steep too long! so 5 minutes and not quite boiling water for all rooibos now and it seems to improve just about every single one.
I am not a big fan of chocolate teas but this one is really nice because the balance between chocolate & caramel is perfect to my palate. But I can’t steep it more than 2 minutes otherwise I hate it for its bitterness