CACAO PODS
CH R IS RYAN
bean and rooibos, which help round it out and offer both complexity and harmony, along with a final twist of sweetness. It is
now one of our top-selling blends.
Chocolate, like tea, comes in many varietals and has many
different characteristics, both in taste and in the ways it complements other ingredients. Whether the dominant flavor of any
given chocolate is earthy, sweet, bitter or vegetal, the purpose of
a pairing is to either enhance or complement that flavor quality.
My primary goal in creating any blend is to achieve balance and
subtle nuances between all ingredients, allowing certain flavors
to be more prominent and others to settle in the background of
the palate. For Chocolate Pu-erh, mixing organic pu-erh tea and
cocoa powder made perfect sense due to their respective depth
and richness. But it still needed some complexity, so I added
vanilla bean and rooibos to give it familiar hints of sweetness
and then a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg to give it punch. All of
this, combined with the zest of orange peel, brought it together
into a divine cup of wonders. The taste is simple, but it has many
nuances of warmth, home and delight. That's what blending is
really all about.
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