Ultimate Chocolate Rooibos

Description

Countdown to Catching Up, Part 3 – Tea 6 (Counting Down from 10 to 1!)

This is a reblend of a Frank’s era tea (tisane?) – I think it was released in 2010 – but it might have been earlier. Not sure & since a lot of my records & recipes were lost due to the great computer crash of 2018, I’m not able to speak with 100% confidence that it was, in fact, 2010. However, many of the Steepster tasting notes for this tisane reflect an age of 15 years, so, I’m gonna go with 2010. If I’m wrong, I apologize.

I was asked to reblend this tea by a couple of people, so I decided to reblend it. I did tweak the original recipe a bit, mostly because I don’t have the original recipe due to the aforementioned computer crash. 

Also, this was blended back in Frank’s era & hasn’t been reblended since I took over. When I took over, I decided to go completely vegan & while Frank did do a lot to keep his teas vegan, there were a few that were not totally vegan . . . like this one, as most chocolate chips are not vegan & I don’t think Frank was using vegan milk chocolate for his chocolate tea recipes. Back then, it was even more difficult to source vegan milk chocolate. These days, it can be sourced, but, rather than do that, I decided to use vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips & vegan white chocolate chips – as well as cacao nibs & cacao shells. To make up for the lack of milk chocolate, I decided to also add some vanilla extract to lend some additional creaminess to the cup.

So, here it is: organic South African rooibos blended with cacao shells & nibs, vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips, vegan white chocolate chips plus a touch of vanilla extract – it’s a chocoholic’s delight!

ingredients: vegan white chocolate chips (cane sugar, palm kernel oil, brown rice syrup solids, sunflower lecithin & vanilla extract), vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (cane sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter) 

organic ingredients: rooibos, cacao nibs, cacao shells & natural flavors

to brew: shake the pouch well to ensure that ingredients are well-incorporated, use 3 ½ grams of tea to 12oz of very hot water (190°F) & steep for 10 minutes. Strain & enjoy!

serving suggestion: I like this one served hot, it tastes a lot like a hot chocolate to me. Not quite a hot chocolate, because hot chocolate tends to be a lot creamier (due to the addition of dairy) but this makes for a nice substitute if you want to go dairy free. I wouldn’t cold-brew this one because that will do nothing for the chocolate chips & the melted chocolate DOES add a nice texture to the sip. Instead, if I wanted to serve this cold, I’d probably just hot-brew it & then let it come to room temperature before I chilled it. For a wonderfully luxurious chocolate experience, try brewing this extra strong (use extra leaf) & serve it as a latte! YUM!