Chocolate Monkey

This reminds me of banana bread. I can’t say I’m getting much chocolate, nor am I tasting the peppercorn. I’m relieved that the banana isn’t stronger. The last banana tea I tried was over the top banana and it was really too much. This seems a much more natural banana flavor. I was hoping for more chocolate though. The rooibos is also not shy here. It’s a good support for the light flavors.

I can’t say I’ll want to drink this again, but it wasn’t bad.

Thank you Uniquity for the chance to try this tea. :)

I made a pot of this the other night and had a cup hot and then put the rest of the fridge. This was the last of my Art of Tea dessert sampler that I had to try. I must say I have loved every tea so far and this one was no exception!

This tea is all about the banana! It smells like BANANA and it tastes like it too, but I really enjoy banana and banana bread and banana runts and pretty much all banana flavored things, so that was a good thing for me. I am not really getting much chocolate but I am also not getting that “I am trying really hard to be chocolate but I’m just not” flavor that I get from most chocolate flavors. It also tastes a bit of roobios but I love roobios especially flavored roobios.

On another random note this tea tastes pink to me and yes I know colors don’t have flavors but if they did this tea is what pink would taste like. I think I might think that because it has this fruity sweet flavor that I associate with pink candy that I don’t know the flavor of, but its yummy!

This tea is great both hot and iced and while I don’t think I would drink it every day I am definitely looking forward to the rest of my hefty sample.

Oh yeah, I’m drinking dessert tea for breakfast and you can’t stop me!

The dry leaves smell intensely of bananas. I do detect the pink peppercorns as well, and somewhere in there is dark chocolate, but primarily I smell bananas.

Without sweetener, this tea tastes very mild to me – but don’t think that’s a critique, because I have such a sweet tooth that most things taste mild to me without sugar. This one tastes a little woody (the rooibos, I think), a little floral, and pleasantly spicy. It isn’t bad, but I rather think a dessert tea should be sweet.

With sugar, this chocolate monkey is a whole other animal. (I apologize.) The banana becomes rich, ripe, and rather in my face. This was initially a disappointment, since I bought the tea hoping for more chocolate, but after the first wave of banana, I do taste a light fruity chocolate flavor that my brain wants to call “Tainori” after a similar-tasting Valrhona chocolate bar. (If you’ve ever had snobby chocolate, you will know that certain types have many notes of yellow fruits. This tea tastes more or less like that sort of chocolate.) After the chocolate is a bit of spice that sits at the back of my throat.

Overall, I would identify this more as a banana tea than a chocolate tea, but it’s a complex banana with strong chocolate notes. I’m not disappointed anymore; my search for the perfect chocolate tea must continue, but this one is actually rather delicious, albeit not what I thought I was ordering.

There are pink pepper corns in this? really? Except for the fact that I can see them I would have had no idea what so ever.
This tea is faintly chocolate and faintly banana. Not a strong flavor at all… but it’s ok.
I can’t believe I don’t have more to say about this one. The rooibos is fine… the flavors make sense…
There you go?

I bought with my Dessert Tea Sampler pack from Art of Tea, and it’s my least favorite from the medley of other flavors they provided. By itself, it’s an interesting fruity rooibos with a hint of weight (chocolate + peppercorn + banana). However, I think the fruity notes and heavier ones get muddled and don’t come through with enough clarity. The brew is slightly cloudy with a lingering banana note.

It’s a balanced brew that doesn’t leave the mouth dry and doesn’t overwork your tastebuds, but doesn’t wow you either.

I’m not a fan of banana as a flavor, so this tea was a bit of a risk for me, but I’m very happy to have tried it since it’s an excellent desert tea! In fact this may be one of my favorite teas, after a few more cups we’ll see but it’s just so delicious! When my family goes camping we make sweet treats in the coals of our campfire, we start with a banana cut down the middle and add bits of chocolate and fruit, seal it in tinfoil then pop it into the fire. This tea tastes remarkably like that treat, it remind me of summer and campfires and laughing and all the good things from my childhood! So glad to have found this tea!