This has been my mother’s favorite tea for a long time, so after looking through her cupboard today, I decided to finally give it a shot.
In the bag, it smells delicious. The caramel/chocolate-y aroma wafts up and reminds me of Girl Scout cookies or freshly baked chocolate cake. I was really impressed and excited to try it, so I steeped it for 3 minutes at just under boiling temp.
In the cup, the sweet deliciousness from the aroma somewhat disappears. The black tea base comes out pretty strongly, making the cup almost bitter, and adding milk only seemed to water it down rather than cut the bitterness (disappointing). I haven’t tried it with honey or sugar yet, but I hope a half teaspoon of rock sugar or brown sugar would help bring out the caramel and chocolate without ruining the nuances of the tea base itself (which I like tasting…but not in a “in your face!” sort of way).
The chocolate I can taste pretty easily. It’s the first thing that sweeps across my palate when I take a sip. However, the caramel needs a little more coaxing because I can hardly taste it right now. I think sugar would help that.
Overall, this is a tea that tries really hard to be lovely, and I think it has great potential to be a nice dessert tea without the added calories. However, it’s not quite there for me, personally.
