Sweet Indulgence: Read my Lips

Ingredients: Chinese black tea, peppermint,dark chocolate, red lip sprinkles,
pink peppercorns, natural/artificial flavoring

It's time to Read my Lips!

Since it's a 1.25 tsp per cup tea, I used .75 tablespoons for my 4 cup pot. Then, per directions, steeped it for 5 minutes. The kettle was just below screaming, still whistled a little, so about the 98C I was supposed to use.

Because it's a black tea, I tasted it with milk, milk and sugar, and just sugar. As I always try to do with black teas.

With milk, well, maybe I'm super taste deficient, but I just tasted black tea that had a chocolate scent. I literally could just taste the black tea, and smelled dark chocolate. Like, oppressively strong smell.
With milk and sugar it tasted chocolatey-ish. Not enough for me to be saying "Oh, that's totally chocolate flavor". More of a "It tastes kinda like chocolate a little bit in the back ground."
With just sugar I tasted some dark chocolate, still mainly just tasted black tea, but sweeter.
When it was black I tasted mostly black tea, a little chocolate flavor, very oppressive chocolate scent.

I am not getting any more of the tea once my sample runs out. I really wasn't swept off my feet. The smell of dark chocolate didn't match the taste, there is supposed to be peppermint in this tea, but I tasted none of it.
I was looking forward to a tea that almost tasted like a piece of peppermint-chocolate (if you've had some you know what I'm talking about. And it's orgasmic.). At least even a little. It didn't even smell like peppermint-chocolate.

If you love this tea and can taste amazing things from it, then carry on, if not, you are not alone.

But DavidsTea said it would be better than dessert, and more reliable than sex. For me, It was neither.

Over and out,

-L

Sweet Indulgence: Organic Cream of Earl Grey

Cream of Earl Grey

So today I decided to start doing my Sweet Indulgence collection.

Apple Tarte Tatin

The idea came to me when my mum and I were making our Apple Tarte Tatin in a cast iron skillet [found in this cookbook***]. I wanted a tea that would be really nice with a dessert, that I hadn't reviewed yet, and that wouldn't conflict with the Tarte Tatin.
So I picked the Organic Cream of Earl Grey.

Keep in mind I only have the sampler pack. LUCKILY it is enough for two pots of tea (at least for Cream of EG)! So I put 1 tbsp to a 4 cup pot, and steeped for about 5 minutes. It's medium caffeine, so not bedtime safe!




I tried it black, with milk, with sugar, and then with milk and sugar.  I like it either black or with milk and sugar.
Just milk, and just sugar brought out a little bitterness in the tea. It was still good, just not as.
With milk AND sugar, it did kinda kill the bergamot flavor (you could still taste it, just not as strong). Now, you must be wondering why I liked it this way as well as black! I liked it because it was sweet and creamy and reminded me of drinking tea as a child. It tasted like an Earl Grey you'd give to a kid who wanted to try it.

Black it tasted like you mixed DavidsTea's Pure Vanilla and Early Grey together. AKA, delicious. And, as I suspected, it doesn't fight with the Tarte!
You get all the notes of a regular Earl Grey, just a little more mellow, along with some creamy notes of vanilla. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every cup.

I'm not 100% sure I'd buy it though. I have Pure Vanilla and I have regular Earl Grey...I'm going to try mixing them, to see if I get a similar flavor. If I do, then I won't buy it.

If you have neither Pure Vanilla and/or regular Earl Grey, then it's worth it to get this. Same if you have no intent of using Pure Vanilla as a stand alone tea, or mixed with others. Weight your options, and weight your pocketbooks. Tea can be very expensive.

It's a nice tea and any Earl Grey lover will enjoy.


Skål and happy creating!

-Laura


IF YOU HAVE ANY TEA YOU WOULD LIKE REVIEWED, LEAVE A COMMENT AND WE WILL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO.

***I really don't recommend this cookbook. It can be very vague. The Tarte Tatin came out to taste DELICIOUS but, it doesn't look great once you flip it.