SLIMFUL CHOCOLATE DECADENCE OOLONG TEA-Teavana

Description

Drawing inspiration from a decadent warm Hawaiian chocolate cake, this oolong blend is a luxurious mix of robust cacao, creamy toasted coconut, and ginger spice that satisfies even the strongest sweet tooth. Pink rose petals add romantic icing to this guilt-free treat enticing you to reach for seconds. Have your tea and eat it too! CONTAINS NUTS

Dark chocolate with sweet toasted coconut

Another one that I grabbed on my recent venture. There is a slight coffee aroma with this one. Coconut is very apparent when you smell the dry leaf. Not so much the ginger, and I have not noticed rose in here. When it all comes together in the cup…it does taste a bit like chocolate cake…Hawaiian? I don’t know. I’ve never had Hawaiian chocolate cake. I like the cocoa flavor that comes through. Looking at the wet leaves in my strainer it looks like a combo of green and more oxidized oolong tea leaves. The tea base came through on this one and reminded me of the Shui-Hsien that I have tried overall a decent cup.

Origin: Anxi, Fujian, China

Ingredients: Jade colored leaves (hand made into small, rolled up)

Harvest time: Hand-picked in May, 2011

Taste: Delightfully fresh floral taste and aroma

Brew: 3-4 teaspoons for 8oz of water. Brew at 212 ºF (100 ºC) for 1 to 3 minutes (exact time depends on your taste – a longer time will give the tea a stronger taste and color)

Health Benefits: Tie Guan Yin tea is the premium form of Chinese Oolong teas. Being lightly fermented, these teas are high amino acids, vitamins, polyphenols and antioxidants. These combine into a tea that reduces cholesterol and helps reduce hardening of the arteries, and so can help reduce risks of heart attacks. The antioxidants it contains can also help guard against some forms of cancer, and also help fight the affects of aging and bacterial infections.

Another offering that I received from Teavivre. I have tried a few Ti Kuan Yin Oolongs and they all seem have different characters. Some more green. Others more oxidized. Some having a nutty or honey characteristic. There is a beauty in watching the Iron Goddess unfurl to present her glorious nectar. I do like how this is packaged, I can make a pot with one package. Opening up the dry leaves….whoa! Very floral. Very green. Smells like packaged summer. I know this is not a jasmine scented or flavored Oolong but it smells very similar. The leaves produce a pale yellow liquor. The smell and flavor remind me of that first part of June when you can really start to smell the Jasmine. Another great offering from Teavivre.

Toasted Nut Brulee-Teavana

Grabbed a cup of this while at the mall. My wife was getting her eyebrows done….so I treated myself to tea. A good call I think. This one is pretty good. The cinnamon just about knocks you over. I could also pick up the apple and caramel. However there was just a funky aftertaste that I had with this one. I think it was pretty good and think my mom would love this one for Christmas or her birthday. I think they should rename it cinnamon bun instead of toasted nut brulee.

Dr. Tea Matcha La Tea

So I have had this one a while and wanted get a week in of tasting it before my review. Trumpet fanfare….or not so much. This tea has very similar indgredients that the good Dr’s coffee tea has but with white chocolate instead of the vanilla. When brewed the matcha is not that noticable. It is a deep brown liquor(like the coffee tea) with oddly enough a green ring around the top of the mug. Not gonna lie that’s cool. The aroma is pleaseant a little roasty…a little sweet too. However I think that there is some sweetness in the aroma when you roast something. The sip. MMMM There is that roasted oolong and hojicha coming through…and the white chocolate. That’s the difference between the coffee tea, and BAM! KA-POW! WHAM! or my favorite KABONG! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os6ptSZFNOk&feature=related The Matcha. What the Matcha gives this is more texture. It’s almost like the consistency of hot cocoa. This is a fabulous tea. It’s definitely a great morning starter after a cup of JavaVana Mate. This adds to why more of my tea money goes to the Dr

Caramel la tea-Dr. Tea's Tea Garden

I stumbled upon Dr. Tea about a year ago by complete accident. When I was working at Starbucks I started to get into loose leaf tea. I was looking up all I could about Pu-Erh, and found Dr. Tea's podcasts. One of his tea offerings are the coffee teas. They are oolong tea that is roasted and blended to be a coffee substitute, and help coffee drinkers to drink more tea. I can tell you that I love my coffee but I started cutting back on how much coffee I drink and replacing it with tea and can feel the difference. Drinking maybe one cup of coffee or none a day, from drinking 6-8.
I do purchase a lot of my tea from here and have found some of my favorite teas here. This is a great one in the coffee tea collection from the Tea Garden. So I admit that caramel happens to be one of those sweet-tooth weaknesses that I have. The dry leaves have a nice roasted and sweet aroma. The liquor...well it looks a lot like muddy water. Cloudy but that doesn't deter from wanting to try this treat. Yeah! This is a good one. The smooth buttery caramel really comes through in this tea. It's exactly like the coffee tea, but add that caramel and it really makes for a treat. It's also good with a splash of almond milk. This tea is going great listening to Nikka Costa's-Pebble to a Pearl album on Rhapsody.