Yeah, I’m supposed to be job hunting, but I’m chillin’ on the balcony, colouring a page of purple irises, and watching the black clouds scudding by overhead. I wonder if a nice cuppa tea would inspire me to go and sit at the computer and write cover letters for a while. I’m willing to give it a try.
I’m going with this Korean tea from Teas Unique. The full name is “Korean Mt. Jiri Joongjak (Third Pluck) Hwang Cha (Lightly Oxidized) Organic Single Estate Whole Leaf Red Tea“. Wow! That’s a mouthful! And as a special treat, I’m pairing it with this tempting “Matchacolate: Roasted Green Tea White Chocolate“. If the tea doesn’t inspire me to get on that job search, maybe the chocolate will!
First I open the tea packet to find curly chocolate-brown twists that smell like toasted hay, chocolate, and malt. It’s a warm and inviting aroma. The tea is hand plucked and hand processed and was harvested in April, 2016.
Mt Jiri Hwang Cha in an elephant mug.
I steep a tsp of tea for about 90 seconds. The tea is a dark chocolate-brown and it smells like heaven!! The aroma is sweet like honey and figs, malt and Graham Crackers! Smells gooood!
The first sip is wonderful! It’s not as sweet as it smells, but it’s deep, rich, and velvety in texture, with a flavour of roasted paper, malt, and sort of a floral perfume – something big and luxurious like roses – only not rose. There is absolutely no bitterness, and almost no astringency… and a sweet malty aftertaste. This is lovely with layers of flavour – all delicious! It’s a perfect afternoon tea. It’s so luxurious, I almost don’t want the chocolate now!
I said ‘ALMOST’. Haha! Of course I want the chocolate. I pop it open and find…
dark brown chocolate! What?!?! I check the package again… yup, it says “White Chocolate”. I guess I was expecting white, or even green chocolate, so I’m a bit surprised at the chocolate coloured chocolate! It smells a bit weird – like matcha and crayons. I don’t know what to expect from this, but I like the name stamped into the top.
How can I describe this? It’s a little strange. At first, the flavour is definitely roasted and has almost a burnt taste, but as it dissolves in my mouth, I taste both matcha and chocolate. The flavour sort of changes with each bite. And the texture does too. At first, it seems waxy, but as it dissolves, it becomes more chalky – like matcha. The taste is a combination of burnt – and wax crayon… so it’s reminding me of chewing on a candle. Not that I regularly munch on candles… but I’m pretty sure they taste similar to this. But somehow, it’s not gross. It’s actually pretty matcha-y.
(Side Note** I just read the webpage and discovered that this is made from Hojicha – so now the roasted burnt flavour totally makes sense! Yes, it’s exactly like Hojicha!)
I decide to wash it down with some of the tea and the funny thing is… it makes the tea taste even BETTER! Now I am getting the full combination of sweet + chocolate + malt and it is totally delicious! I’m glad I put the chocolate with the roasted red tea instead of with green tea. I think it would have clashed with green tea, or completely overpowered it. With the red tea, there is a perfect balance of roasted malty sweetness.
So now it’s dinner time and I’m going to pack up the remains of the Matchacolate and the tea and put them together on another day. They really do belong together. And as for my experiment – I do not feel inspired at all to take up that job search. THAT will have to wait til another day too!
I must send a SUPER BIG THANK YOU to Teas Unique for providing this tea and chocolate! It’s been a surprising and delightful adventure!
teawithpolly 