Given the drinks we are about to discuss, you might think we were still pregnant. But we're not.

You may already be familiar with Peet's Coffee's seasonal quencher, the "Jasmine Lime Cooler." Seasonal because its secret ingredient is none other than Odwalla's Summertime Lime drink. But, you know, it's hard to get the jasmine tea brewed just right, and then the right proportion of limeade to tea... we've tried.

The thing is, jasmine+lime=strange but not unfathomable.

How about jasmine+chocolate?

It was a very hot day, first of all. We feel like we need to make excuses for our behavior that first time we entered Bittersweet Cafe (the original Oakland location, though they've got a spot on Fillmore in S.F. now, too).

We looked over the extensive menu of hot and cold beverages, milk chocolate and dark chocolate concoctions. And somehow, chocolate Thai iced tea sounded... perfect!

We're not sure what makes it Thai. Isn't that usually the orange stuff with milk? Thai, Jasmine; you say Asian, we say well, I guess. At least the barrista warned us that it was in fact made with Jasmine tea when we ordered it.

The drink is cold, very cold. A brew thick with dark chocolate that must have been a bar, not a powder, before its liquification. Some white stuff drizzled around the inside of the glass (looks pretty, tastes sweet, we keep forgetting to ask). And then, there it is, unmistakably, perfume-y jasmine tea.

WTF?

The first sip was, unpleasant-tasting, but cold, and that was good. The second sip was like that guy that gets you to go out with him again even though you were pretty sure you wouldn't go there twice under the best of circumstances.

By the third sip, we were hooked. The glass wasn't tall enough.

And though we mean to order other drinks every time we go, we keep coming back to the non-Thai chocolate iced tea.

You might choose one of the other simpler flavors. Our friend ordered a "classic" hot cocoa, tried our drink, made a horrible face (how can anyone do that to chocolate?), and forced us to taste hers. "This is what chocolate should taste like."

Yes, well, errrr... Oh, you can have lots of other chocolate things there too. Cakes, brownies, bon bons, bars, mini cupcakes, a delicate little sandwich of paper-thin grahams, marshmallow, and more chocolate. It's all good.

But we dare you to try the tea.

Photo credit: bittersweetcafe.com