I closed my eyes and pointed and ended up with another Della Terra Teas blend. I gotta say, I’m getting really spoiled here. I also kind of feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record with my unbridled glee. Every time I feel like a blend couldn’t be better, couldn’t be more accurate, I get one that is. This is such a blend.
For the third time in two days, I wanted to eat the tea. It just smells so much like those chocolate oranges that it’s hard to resist the temptation. I haven’t had one of those chocolate oranges in years, either, which makes it even harder! But I resisted and patiently brewed my tea. The balance was way off in the blend’s fragrance, and this worried me: where the dry tea smelled just like a chocolate orange, the brew smelled mostly (maybe entirely, now that I think about it) like chocolate. I was worried that the orange would be absent from the flavour, as well.
My experience is that DT blends don’t re-steep well. At least, the past two black tea blends that I’ve tried to steep for a second time (Oatmeal Raisin Cookie1 and Dubbele Chocolade2) were both really weak, even after steeping for 10 minutes. My experience is also that the recommended 3-minute steep time really doesn’t pack the flavourful punch I expect. Therefore, I’ve decided to steep just once for about 5 minutes and call it a day.
The chocolate-orange balance was restored in the flavour (and actually appeared in the brew’s fragrance, too, after it’d cooled a bit). It’s quite good unsweetened (my sweet tooth prevents me from thinking any tea can be “amazing” unsweetened, but this is really pretty good), but it’s delicious after being sweetened a bit. I’m going to be thinking about it until tomorrow, when I can next have more caffeinated tea.
Tea amount: 1 level tsp/~4.75g
Water amount: 6oz/~175mL
Additives: ¾ tsp demerara sugar
Preparation
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haha so glad you reviewed this one. Was totally looking at picking up a sample of this one to try. I LOVE chocolate orange. I steal those ones first out of the boxes of pot of gold every christmas when work has them lol
I used to hate the flavour when I was little, but now I love it! And now I really want one of those chocolate oranges. I know what people on Steepster say about DT and 52T blends, but man, no beverage is ever going to replace a proper dessert for me. I guess that’s why my scale cries when it senses my approach. :D
Ooh, I have to try this! Chocolate oranges are the best thing about the holidays.
I hear ya Nik. Speaking of, I made some chocolate orange cookies last night ;0 We don’t have a scale… lol
lol, that’s the ticket, get rid of the scale! :D Mmm…chocolate orange cookies…
Hmm.. I’ll have to consider the steeping only once about DTT blends. I was thinking of resteeping the chocolate chai pu-erh from last night, but now I wonder if all the flavor is gone..
It doesn’t hurt to try. I just have so much tea that, well, it’s not that I’m rushing through them or intentionally wasting leaf, but I’m also not willing to try so hard to extract every bit of flavour. Two blends with a weak second steep are enough for me to not bother again, unless I hear otherwise. But y’know, both blends were black tea; you might have better luck with the pu-erh.
Unrelated: I now want a tea-shirt that says “Got leaf?”
Do you use a hotter temperature for your second steeps? If I remember right, I had the Dubbele the other day and the second steep was just as great as the first because I used just boiled water. With the first steep, I waited for it to cool a while before steeping. Using just boiled water on anything other than black teas might ruin the tea, but most of the time I have at least two cups of tea with the same leaves and try to get the water temp higher.
I used just-boiled water both times.
haha so glad you reviewed this one. Was totally looking at picking up a sample of this one to try. I LOVE chocolate orange. I steal those ones first out of the boxes of pot of gold every christmas when work has them lol
I used to hate the flavour when I was little, but now I love it! And now I really want one of those chocolate oranges. I know what people on Steepster say about DT and 52T blends, but man, no beverage is ever going to replace a proper dessert for me. I guess that’s why my scale cries when it senses my approach. :D
Ooh, I have to try this! Chocolate oranges are the best thing about the holidays.
I hear ya Nik. Speaking of, I made some chocolate orange cookies last night ;0 We don’t have a scale… lol
lol, that’s the ticket, get rid of the scale! :D Mmm…chocolate orange cookies…
Hmm.. I’ll have to consider the steeping only once about DTT blends. I was thinking of resteeping the chocolate chai pu-erh from last night, but now I wonder if all the flavor is gone..
It doesn’t hurt to try. I just have so much tea that, well, it’s not that I’m rushing through them or intentionally wasting leaf, but I’m also not willing to try so hard to extract every bit of flavour. Two blends with a weak second steep are enough for me to not bother again, unless I hear otherwise. But y’know, both blends were black tea; you might have better luck with the pu-erh.
Unrelated: I now want a tea-shirt that says “Got leaf?”
Do you use a hotter temperature for your second steeps? If I remember right, I had the Dubbele the other day and the second steep was just as great as the first because I used just boiled water. With the first steep, I waited for it to cool a while before steeping. Using just boiled water on anything other than black teas might ruin the tea, but most of the time I have at least two cups of tea with the same leaves and try to get the water temp higher.
I used just-boiled water both times.